Vol. 71/No. 29      August 6, 2007

About a dozen people, mainly members of the local coalition No War on Cuba, held an informational picket line outside the conference opening June 23. They were responding to a picket of equal size by an outfit calling itself “Friends of Cuban Libraries,” which was handing out flyers falsely accusing the Cuban government of persecution of independent librarians in Cuba and banning, seizing, and burning of library collections.

The “Friends of Cuban Libraries” has received money from the U.S.-financed Freedom House. None of the “independent librarians” the group purports to defend are librarians. They are all members of small political groups on the island that oppose the revolution and depend on U.S. government funding.

New York librarian Robert Kent, organizer of “Friends of Cuban Libraries,” has a long record of activity against the Cuban Revolution. His attempts to the get the ALA and the International Federation of Library Associations to back his smear campaign have failed over the years. The right-wing group has recently been protesting the inclusion of two documentaries about Cuba at the Princeton Human Rights Film Festival at the Princeton Public Library in May: ¡Salud!, and The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. Leslie Burger, the library’s director, is the current ALA president.

“I’ve followed the Friends of Cuban Libraries since 1999, when they started asking for ALA resolutions protesting the treatment of independent librarians in Cuba,” said Anne Sparanese, a librarian at the conference who joined the counter-picket. “The problem goes back to the Helms-Burton bill that mandated support to anti-government organizations in Cuba… This isn’t about libraries or librarians or intellectual freedom.”

The counter-picket got a good reception from many librarians and other passersby. Participants passed out flyers explaining that before the triumph of the revolution in 1959, there were only 32 libraries in the entire country. Today there are more than 400 public libraries and 6,000 school libraries. The flyer also explained how a massive literacy campaign mobilizing hundreds of thousands of Cuban youth and others eradicated illiteracy in the country in one year.

Michael Kodjo, a taxi driver originally from Ghana who passed by the counter-picket, said he was glad someone was telling Cuba’s side. “Many Cuban doctors serve in my country, and all over Africa,” he said. He asked for extra flyers to give to his friends.

“I knew Cuba was probably doing something right if the U.S. government hated it so much,” said Adwoa Mazosi, who came to help get out the truth about Cuba. “I’ve been learning more about Cuba. I’ve heard how with limited resources Cubans have improved their economic situation and revolutionized people’s thinking on all levels,” she said.
 
 
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