You report that the Women's Library has a new home (10 March), but its removal from London Metropolitan University to the London School of Economics takes place during an intense period of softening up of higher education in readiness for privatisation.
The LSE was the sole bidder for this unique historic collection, one of the largest in Europe, and, from the outset, The LSE declared that it would remove the collection from its purpose-built home in Aldgate. Why? The LSE is part of the global elite, it makes vast surpluses year on year and could easily have set aside a relatively small sum to maintain the Women's Library at Aldgate. More than £1bn of surplus funds are accumulated in the sector annually.
The move will inevitably mean parts of the collection being integrated into LSE collections, leaving it with fewer independent objective characteristics. As a non-STEM uni, the LSE may also use it as a corporate brand to secure dwindling public research funds. Less privileged post-1992 polys may have to give way.
The Women's Library is not just a collection of books and artefacts of suffragette history, it is a mechanism through which sexism and oppression can be meaningfully fought in the interests of everyone. It has a long-standing historical link to London's East End, a fact ignored by your article. Women of the East End were instrumental participants in the class struggles of the early 20th century and most were Irish immigrant labourers ejected from the main suffragette body because their working-class heritage meant they were considered too radical.
The move from Aldgate to Aldwych has removed the collection from its working-class base; I hope it also doesn't fracture it into class-based narratives, joining it with largely middle-class and conformist strains of feminist thought. Or will the Women's Library be imprisoned in its new "home" as a housewife confined to her house?
*Paul Whitehouse*
Unison steward, London School of Economics Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 hours ago.
The LSE was the sole bidder for this unique historic collection, one of the largest in Europe, and, from the outset, The LSE declared that it would remove the collection from its purpose-built home in Aldgate. Why? The LSE is part of the global elite, it makes vast surpluses year on year and could easily have set aside a relatively small sum to maintain the Women's Library at Aldgate. More than £1bn of surplus funds are accumulated in the sector annually.
The move will inevitably mean parts of the collection being integrated into LSE collections, leaving it with fewer independent objective characteristics. As a non-STEM uni, the LSE may also use it as a corporate brand to secure dwindling public research funds. Less privileged post-1992 polys may have to give way.
The Women's Library is not just a collection of books and artefacts of suffragette history, it is a mechanism through which sexism and oppression can be meaningfully fought in the interests of everyone. It has a long-standing historical link to London's East End, a fact ignored by your article. Women of the East End were instrumental participants in the class struggles of the early 20th century and most were Irish immigrant labourers ejected from the main suffragette body because their working-class heritage meant they were considered too radical.
The move from Aldgate to Aldwych has removed the collection from its working-class base; I hope it also doesn't fracture it into class-based narratives, joining it with largely middle-class and conformist strains of feminist thought. Or will the Women's Library be imprisoned in its new "home" as a housewife confined to her house?
*Paul Whitehouse*
Unison steward, London School of Economics Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 hours ago.