National Review intern Duncan Currie has a good roundup of the American Library Association's sellout of intellectual freedom in Cuba. As noted here before, ALA has declined to defend a Freedom to Read for oppressed Cubans, thereby exposing a deep, deep hypocrisy. Again, shame.
Has the American Library Association (ALA) become Fidel Castro's latest "useful idiot"? On the surface, it seems implausible: Any organization dedicated to the uncensored dissemination of books, journals, and ideas would naturally be critical of a dictator who suppresses liberty with an iron fist. After all, a champion of open expression can't be indifferent to Castro's persecution of free thinkers, right?Posted by Alan at July 28, 2003 08:42 PMWell, according to several top members of the ALA, maybe not. A dispute at the association's annual conference in Toronto last month revealed a troubling obtuseness about the status of human rights in Cuba.
The "controversial" issue at hand was whether the ALA should formally respond to Havana's jailing of 14 independent librarians earlier this year. Two competing resolutions were debated. The first, introduced by a group called Friends of Cuban Libraries, condemned the arrests and demanded the prisoners' release. The second, a somewhat toothless proposal drafted by the association itself, merely noted that the librarians had been imprisoned and asked that the Castro government protect freedom of expression and access to information. Ultimately, the ALA chose to postpone any resolution on Cuba until January, claiming that it didn't yet have sufficient evidence to make a judgment.
Interestingly enough, the association's stance on Cuba has been almost the complete opposite of its stance on South Africa during the late 1980s. Back then, it supported a book boycott as part of its anti-apartheid efforts. At its 1987 convention, for example, the ALA voted down a resolution that would have opposed library restrictions that were making it nearly impossible for American publishers to sell books to South Africa.
Why the double standard when it comes to information access in Cuba?