Mediaboss Marketing

Left to Right: Authors George M. Johnson, Jacqueline Woodson, Ellen Hopkins, Lauren Groff, in conversation with teacher Renee OConnor.

Jodi Picoult was surprised to find herself in the middle of a surge in book banning last year when 20 of her books were pulled from shelves in Martin County, Florida. She had not seen anything like it in 30-plus years as an author.

In the ensuing months, the bestselling author gave up keeping track of how many times her books have been banned across the country. (PEN America counted 45 instances in the 2022-2023 school year.)

Still, in an opening conversation for The New Republics Right to Read Celebration in Florida, Picoult said she found reason for optimism, despite seeing numbers that make an author want to crawl under the covers and not come out.

Whats really important to remember is that there is hope and there is change. We have seen states that have already passed laws to make sure that book bans dont happen in those states. Weve seen other states where book bans are happening that have begun to revoke those parental rights laws that allowed for book bans to exist, she said. And we also know that the vast majority of Americans do not want books banned in this country. The problem is theres a really small group of people with very loud voices, but there are so many more of us. We just have to be a little louder.

The event organized by The New Republic and presented in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers, Alfred A. Knopf, the American Library Association, the Books & Books Literary Foundation, Macmillan Publishers, and PEN America featured writers whose books were banned, including Lauren Groff, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ellen Hopkins, George M. Johnson, Ashley Hope Perez, and Jacqueline Woodson, along with teachers, librarians, and students who have been directly impacted by the bans that are sweeping the country (4,240 unique titles were challenged last year, an increase of almost 65% over 2022).

Four-time Newbery Award-winning authorWoodson, the former National Ambassador for Young Peoples Literature, was awarded the Toni Morrison Courage Award. Woodson recounted reading Morrisons frequently banned book The Bluest Eye in the fifth grade and then again in college, and understood a completely different story.

I swore for about five years that Toni Morrison had written two versions of this book. She had written a kids version and she had written an adult version, she said. The thing about young people is, they compartmentalize. You take in what you can understand from where youre at, and the rest you put away, and hopefully revisit the narrative and take it in later and understand a little bit more.

From left to right: Crystal Etienne (Democratic Public Education Caucus of Florida), Esther Jimenez (Cuban-American Women Supporting Democracy), Pastor Laurie Hafner (Coral Gables Congregational United Church of Christ), Mitchell Kaplan (Books and Books Literary Foundation), Stephanie Pacheco for Dr. Marvin Dunn (Miami Center for Racial Justice), Katie Blankenship (PEN-Miami), Ana Sofia Palaez (Miami Freedom Project), Vanessa Brito (Moms4Libros), Lissette Fernandez (Moms4Libros), Maxx Fanning (PRISM), and Hedieh Sepehri (FABB).

Katie Blankenship, senior director of PEN America Florida, presented another Toni Morrison Courage Award to the South Florida Freadom Coalition. Other recipients of the award were Texas history teacher Daniel Santos, Texas booksellers Valerie Koehler and Charley Rejsek, and Broward County Library Director Allison Grubbs.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones presented Woodsons award via video and praised the educators and librarians being honored, saying public school teachers and librarians saved my life.

A society that begins to ban books, that begins to censor books, is not healthy. Thats a society thats gearing towards authoritarianism, she said. These are difficult times, and you shouldnt have to be courageous to be a teacher. You shouldnt have to be courageous to be a librarian. But thats what these times require. So I just hope that you know, as the profession has been under attack, as the freedom to read and freedom to teach and freedom to learn has been under attack, that you understand how valuable you are, how important you are, that the work that you do matters, and that there are people all across the country who not only need you, but have your backs.

See the rest here:
Celebrating the Right to Read: Bestselling Authors Stand Up to Censorship - PEN America

Last September, I received a letter from the UK publisher of Tiananmen Square, asking if I would consider blurbing the novel. I was busy finishing work on my own book,The Book of Secrets, which was just a few months from publication. I intended to take a quick look at Lai Wens novel, but I was instantly pulled in and couldnt put it down.

Article continues below

Lai Wen (a pseudonym) comes from my hometown, Beijing, which is also the setting of her novel, though we came of age in different political times: I was born in late 1950s; Lai and her main character were born in 1970s. My childhood was ruined by The Cultural Revolution, whereas their youth was shaped by the storm of China opening to the West. I wanted to get to know to this womanso her editor introduced us and we started chatting about the different Chinas in which we lived. We got on so well that it made me wish wed known each other our whole lives.

*

Xinran: China is now a very different country from the one we left, especially with its acceleration since the 1980s. What do you think is the biggest change from your China and the China today?

Lai Wen: I think one of the major positive changes is in the status of women. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the practice of foot-binding was still commonplace and women were seen primarily in terms of the practical value they held in cementing property relations through arranged marriage and providing men with children. The practice of child brides was commonplace especially in the countryside.

With the rise of the communists there was a little more hope, at first. Both men and women were taken into the Peoples Liberation Army, and they wore similar uniforms to denote a new epoch of equality. Child-marriage and arranged marriages were prohibited.

But in reality many of the old practices continued. The concubinage which existed under the old imperial bureaucracy was recreated by having many young, idealist revolutionary women supplied to important military men or local Party bosses for sexual purposes under the guise of getting a revolutionary education. Many young communist women were married off to important army officials with little say in the matter. Some of the accounts from this time are truly horrific.

I think about your wonderful novelMiss Chopsticks, which is based on the prejudiced idea that men are described as roof beams, strong and hold up the house and the community, but women are chopsticks, fragile and pretty tools to be used and ultimately discarded. In that novel you describe three sisters who relocate from their village to the big city and in so doing they carve out their own independent identities and lives.

I was moved by your novel because it describes something very real. In the 1980s, a more market-centred economy unleashed great waves of immigration from the countryside to the city. I think this was integral in loosening the shackles that bound women to the domestic sphere and many of the patriarchal standards that came with it.

XR: I cant agree with you about it enough! Chinese culture and society have always involved a lot of restriction. Even when the feudal system came to an end, the reverence that the Chinese people held for their emperors transferred to their political leaders.

The information ordinary Chinese people could obtain from the public media (radio, television, and newspapers) has long been under the control of the state. For people who have lived all their lives in China without the opportunity to travel, it is impossible to imagine the freedom to read, watch, and listen to whatever they like, and to communicate with the rest of the world.

LW: I hope you wont mind me saying that you were a pioneer with regards to this, through the very brave radio show you hosted in the 1980s and 1990s that allowed Chinese women from all walks of life to phone in and talk about their experiences.

When I grew up in the 1970s, even girls like myself who had access to education were really taught very little about our bodies and sex. But because the lives of Chinese women are much more visible now, sex education and changing gender roles are more common.

We saw this recently with the Chinese #MeToo movement. Chinese women circumvented state censorship on social media by using the rice bunny hashtag or emoji (rice bunny is pronounced mi-tou in Mandarin) and were able to share their stories of sexual harassment and assault. I think finding their voice gives women more power, which is part of a tradition I feel you helped establish.

XR:I moved to the UK in 1997 after forty years of life in China. My four years of English Studies in China couldnt help me order a meal or ask for directions in the street. In London, English sounds so different with Indian, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, French, Italian accentseven Chinglish!What do you find are the biggest differences in everyday life between the UK and China?

LW: The thing that was most striking to me when I first moved to England was the distance between generations.When I first met my partner, his own parents were both still alive and well.But they were expats living in Spain.Those were the days before Skype and instant messaging systems, so communication between our worlds was infrequent to say the least.It might consist of a score of expensive phone calls in a given year, perhaps a single visit to Spain if we were lucky.

This was completely different to my life growing up in China.There, all the generations often lived together in the same apartment or house; grandparents, parents, and children all merrily bumping up against one another. A more communal life has both its advantages and disadvantages.On the one hand, everyone was living in each others pocket, which leads to a boisterous, clattering, argumentative, messy, and volatile family life with little privacy.

But it was also one in which you were aware of the moodsthe emotional weatherof those around you and you could better support each other for that reason.It was more difficult to slip into loneliness, to have that feeling of isolation so many of us have today.

One of the good things about a more communal household is that everybody looks after everybody else, but this can sometimes allow the state to shirk certain responsibilities. In fact, I suspect it made it easier for the Chinese government to carry out a mass privatization of the health service in the 1980s.

When an elderly person gets sick, the duty of care primarily falls on the family.With certain conditions this is manageable but with something like dementiasomething I talk about in my novel, an awful but complex diseasemost families are ill-equipped.

When I first came to England, the NHS was a revelation to me.I remember those early days, and a little later, with the birth of my first childthe support and peace of mind the NHS provided during that terrifying, exhilarating time. I think the NHS is more than simply an organization.

For me it came to represent a certain type of Britishness: progressive, orderly, sensible, but fundamentally kind.It is a real tragedy that successive governments have stripped it down through privatization. I feel they have not just stolen an economic component of the nation, but also a spiritual one.

XR: What excites you about the literary scene in China today?

LW: I think Chinese science fiction is particularly good.Its something that often sucks in the fundamental social conflicts and contradictions of a given time and remodels them through these incredibly creative and vast fantasy worlds. The earliest Chinese science fiction novels werent all that great, to be frank, but they still told you a lot about Chinese society, our way of life, our fears and our hopes.

Lu Shies New China, published at the beginning of the twentieth century was one of the first examples of homegrown Chinese sci-fi/fantasy. The memory of the Opium Warsthe defeat by foreign powers and the vast numbers of the population who remained addicted to the drugwas still raw.

In his novel, one of the central characters is a genius doctor who invents medical techniques that can pull the population out of an opium-induced stupefaction and supercharge their minds. China then goes on to experience a period of intense rejuvenation, emerging as an economic and cultural superpower where peace and prosperity reign. The novel itself is somewhere between wish-fulfillment and prophecy, as many of the novels from that period were.

I think that the creative and original wave of science fiction coming out of China can be understood in the context of our history. Throughout the twentieth century, change was occurring at a frenetic, world-shattering pace. The final Manchu/Qing dynasty ended in 1911 and then power was dispersed amongst hundreds of local war lords jockeying for position; then Kuomintang was able to unite China under a modern nationalization program.

There was the Second World War, the civil war, Maos communists, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, until, eventually, the country was opened up under Deng Xiaoping. Today, China has emerged as a dominant global power.

So many Chinese people born in the last hundred years have lived through successive social systems and different economic models compressed into a handful of decades.Chinese science fiction reflects this. During the period of Communist dictatorship, the genre tended to be more sterile, reduced to the level of propaganda for the Party, but in the 1980s and 1990s science fiction went through something of a revival under Dengs administration.

While censorship was still robust, science fiction and dystopic fantasy enabled cutting political and social commentaries to fly under the radar. Nineteen Eighty-Fourmade it past the censors, for instance, and many of the classics of Western science fiction were accessible to people during this time, along with Hollywood films such as E.T.

I dont think its a coincidence that the most famous Chinese science-fiction writers lived through this periodwriters such as Han Song and, most famously of all, Liu Cixin, whose most successful novel, The Three-Body Problem, has been made into a Netflix series.

XR: I really admire your knowledge of Chinese science-fiction. I have hardly read any of those books. I just realized that my own reading list of Chinese literature, from fifty-five years of reading, contains mostly nonfiction or historical fiction. I think Im mostly drawn to these genres because theyre part of a healing process, a way to process the pain and suffering of my childhood during the Cultural Revolution. These books have helped me understand my roots, my country, and my people. What does it mean to you to be a Chinese author?

LW: Of course, I am very proud of the richness and the heritage of my own culture. But I also dont wish to be defined entirely by it. A lot people talk a lot about cultural appropriation, and the discussion comes from a good placeit is difficult for certain groups to have a voice in the literary arena and this movement is an attempt to remedy this, to reserve a space for marginalized writers and not have others speak on their behalf.

While I think it is vital to lift up the literary work produced by those who have been sidelined due to race, gender, class, or nationality, I also think strong works of literature should have a universal tenor. As a reader I hope to be able to understand and empathize with a novel about the experiences of an upper class white male artist living in Los Angeles, even though I am not in any way part of that demographic.

The American and British novels that the character Lai reads in Tiananmen Square were influential in shaping who I am. And when I write in English, I find cultural appropriation to be a necessary part of the work. In the novel I sometimes use Americanisms or British slang because I felt that the Chinese equivalents in direct translation werent always as colorful and vivid and wouldnt have the same resonance.

And so, I hope to appropriate as much as I can from other cultures and languages. I see them as streams flowing into world literature, enriching and replenishing it.

Can Xue recently said in an interview that major influences in her work were Western writerssuch as Kafka, Tolstoy and Shakespearebut that she digs them up in order to replant [them] in Chinas deep soil. Ideally, that is what I am aiming for too.

XR: What do you hope readers take from your book?

LW: The students of Tiananmen were defeated in the most horrific ways, but all these years later I still dont feel despair.I hold the memories of those we lost close and I marvel at their courage, which was so much greater than my own.I still feel frightened and to this day I remain a timid, shy individual.

But I know what bravery is because I witnessed it firsthandthe most incredible, wonderful, death-defying bravery born from love and hope, the exuberance of youth, and the struggle for change. So despite the novels occasionally grim subject matter, I hope the reader will also take away a feeling of hope and optimism for the future.

The nature of the Chinese state apparatus today is quite chillingan authoritarian power with vast financial and technological means, locked into the oppression of ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs. The state also allows the sweatshop-like conditions endured by millions of industrial workers to persist.

In China, there is no democratic system by which these abuses can be challenged.I believe that the force that can end these abuses and change the political system is the Chinese population itself.That is why it is so important to return to the events of Tiananmen Square, so that people can understand not only how powerful the student movement was but also its limits.

So, we can learn what can be done better during the fire next timeto borrow the phrase from James Baldwin. I hope my novel helps emphasize the power of popular protest today.

XR: Are you going to write another book? If so, what is it about?

LW: I have been trying to write a novel loosely based onAlice in Wonderland, set in a fantasy-dystopia with a feminist slant. But its still in its early stages.

______________________________

Tiananmen Squareby Lai Wen is available via Spiegel & Grau.

Continued here:
Escaping the Censors' Gaze: Lai Wen on Sci-Fi and the Need for Chinese Protest Literature Today - Literary Hub

During a passionate gathering at the 2024 Right to Read Celebration, held in Miamis premier art museum along the Biscayne Bay, the battle against censorship and book bans took center stage. As Florida contends with a staggering number of banned books, the June 8 event aimed to rally supporters and honor those fighting against the suppression of literature.

Thank you all for being reasonable, literate, book-loving Americans on the right side of this historic battle against censorship, said MSNBCs Katie Phang, setting the tone for the evening that was organized by The New Republic.

Phang emphasized the alarming trend of book bans sweeping across America with 4,240 unique titles banned last year across the U.S., an increase of almost 65% since 2022. According to data from the American Library Associations Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and BIPOC made up 47% of those targeted in censorship attempts. Phang drew parallels to past eras of censorship, invoking literary giants like Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison, whose works continue to face suppression.

The event honored booksellers, teachers, librarians, writers, and organizations working tirelessly to make books available in places where they are being challenged and banned with the Toni Morrison Awards for Courage, named after the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author known for her advocacy of free speech.

Its important to amplify how prevalent and destructive these book bans are, said National Book Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson. From the East Coast to the West Coast, from north to south, we are finding bans and challenges in every state in the U.S. This is devastating for our young people whose choices about what they can read become more limited with every ban. And it is devastating for all people because its an attempt at erasure. Of our stories. Of our histories. Of truth.

Woodson was one of the 15 recipients of the award, in addition to Texas booksellers Valerie Koehler and Charley Rejsek, organizations including Miami Freedom Project, Moms for Libros, and PRISM FL, among others.

The event also featured panels discussing the state of the nation from the perspective of teachers and librarians and with writers whose books are regularly challenged. In one panel, Katie Blankenship of PEN America highlighted the gravity of the situation in Florida, where discriminatory legislation has targeted marginalized communities and eroded academic freedom. Despite the challenges, she expressed optimism in the resilience of Floridians fighting against censorship.

Another panel, featuring teacher Renee OConnor and authors Ellen Hopkins, George M. Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson, delved into their personal experiences and the impact of their works on readers across the nation.

What used to be in the dark is now in the light, said Johnson, an award-winning Black nonbinary writer. And so I feel like this is just part of my duty to shine a light on these people who existed and never got to live their lives in which I get to do right now.

Johnson, whose memoir All Boys Arent Blue has garnered acclaim and controversy, discussed the importance of representation and visibility in literature, particularly for marginalized communities. His upcoming project, Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish Id Known, aims to shine a light on the often overlooked contributions of LGBTQIA+ individuals throughout history.

I was always trying to find bits and pieces of myself in heterosexual characters, and now I get to put these queer characters back into the world, said Johnson. They try to act like were some new phenomena when, realistically, were just more public now.

Woodson, acclaimed for her award-winning childrens books, shared the inspiration behind her acclaimed work The Day You Begin. Rooted in personal experiences, the book delicately navigates themes of diversity and acceptance, providing young readers with a poignant exploration of identity and belonging.

I got braver with what stories I wanted to tell, Woodson said. And I think I got braver in the world of understanding that story isnt just narrative on the page. It is the way we nurture other writers of the global community. Its the way we put ourselves out there to fight what we think is wrong in the world.

Just days after the event on June 10, a group of parents filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis administration after one of the parents wasnt allowed to defend a book that was removed from the shelves in their school district. Meanwhile, in Texas, an appeals court ordered Llano County to return 17 books back to their shelves, including books that deal with racism and transgender issues, following a lawsuit by library patrons.

This ban isnt just about the books, but its about the war on womens bodies, its about the war on Black folks, you know, all of this is connected, Woodson said. We need to speak up. And our characters can do that for us.

Read the original:
Authors and advocates rally against book bans in Miami - Prism

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) are standing a slate of candidates for elections to the student parliament (StuPa) at Berlins Humboldt University (HU) to take place June 18-19, 2024. Come to our next event June 17, at 7 p.m.: The false accusation of antisemitism and the trivialisation of Nazi crimes at HU, (Audimax II at Campus Nord of HU, Philippstrasse 13, 10117 Berlin).

Since the brutal police operations against peaceful student protests at the Free University and against the student occupation of the Institute of Social Sciences at Berlins Humboldt University (HU) in April and May, the attacks on opponents of the war and critics of the genocide in Gaza have become ever more severe. The IYSSE is calling on students and university staff to protest against the massive restrictions on freedom of expression and academic freedom.

The scenes of aggressive police violence that took place at HU in May set a shocking precedent. As in a dictatorial regime, police officers beat up and arrested peaceful students who were protesting against the pro-war policy. A journalist from the Berliner Zeitung, who clearly identified himself as a member of the press, was also brutally beaten.

During the eviction of the student protest at the Institute of Social Sciences (ISW) on the orders of the Berlin Senate (state executive), lawyer Benjamin Dsberg was also arrested, although he made himself recognisable as a lawyer. Criminal charges were brought against him and over 20 other people involved on suspicion of breach of the peace. The actions of the Berlin police have taken on a new quality, Dsberg told Tagesspiegel.

Indeed. The violent eviction of the ISW is now being used as a starting point to enforce an authoritarian police regime at the university. University management has filed criminal charges against the students involved for trespass and damage to property, as announced in a letter to HU staff and students on June 11.

The police are also investigating seven members of the RefRat/Asta (Student Union) of the HU for serious trespass. Those affected have applied to the student parliament for financial support for their legal fees. As they explain, it is the task of the student representatives to be present at events such as the ISW occupation: We deeply condemn the fact that representatives are now to be prosecuted for having fulfilled their role as student representatives.

The criminalisation of students and their representatives in the RefRat is intended to spread a climate of intimidation and fear. Anyone who protests peacefully or expresses criticism of the massacre in Gaza and the complicity of the German government is to be persecuted and silenced.

The attack on basic democratic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly is not only directed against students, but also against lecturers and professors. The latest revelations by broadcaster NDR show how aggressively the federal coalition government of the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberal Democrats (FDP) is trying to suppress any form of dissent from its political line. Internal emails show that Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (Free Democratic Party, FDP) wanted to take far-reaching authoritarian measures against academics in May.

After police officersstormed the Free Universityin April and used force to break up a peaceful Gaza protest camp organised by students, almost 400 professors and lecturers signed an open letter defending the students. The first signatories were joined by over 1,000 other lecturers. The Minister of Education then asked her departments to examine whether she could cancel funding already granted to the academics. She also looked for potentially criminally relevant statements in the open letter in order to use them against the lecturers.

This scandalous attack on academic freedom is a further step towards a right-wing dictatorship. HU doctoral student and political scientist Ilyas Saliba, who is researching authoritarian regimes in the Arab world, toldtaz: Checking whether it is possible to take action against disagreeable academics under criminal, service and funding law is an authoritarian practice. We know this from the Middle East, North Africa or Hungary, where critical scholars are denied a future perspective in science.

Naika Foroutan, professor of Social Sciences at HU, who co-signed the open letter and is therefore herself in the crosshairs of the federal government, emphasised totazthat research was primarily financed by third-party funding, which often comes from the Ministry of Education. Im now wondering whether projects submitted by my institute or by colleagues who signed the letter will be assessed differently or rejected outright.

The education ministers attempt to introduce a censorship regime through the back door initially failed because her staff expressed concerns about her authority to take such measures. But no one should delude themselves that the federal government will not continue to look for ways to suppress critical academics.

Anyone who does not submit to the governments pro-war policy and accept the authoritarian methods of the police state will have the funding tap turned off and be threatened with criminal charges. Most recently, thesmear campaignby the media and politicians against the president of Berlins Technical University, Geraldine Rauch, showed that even harmless likes for posts critical of Israel are not acceptable.

On campus, university management is systematically cracking down on student opposition to the genocide. An IYSSE event on the topic wasbanned for months. That is why we, together with other student groups, held apowerful rallyin front of the main building in December. Only a fortnight ago, two IYSSE events were authorisedalbeit under strict conditions. Only members of the university are allowed to attend, and all bags must be checked at the entrances, including for weapons including pocket knives, batons or objects that can be used as suchas if there had ever been any form of violence at IYSSE events.

These authoritarian restrictions are an act of political censorship and are aimed at intimidating and deterring participants. The IYSSE immediately protested against this in writing and called on the university administration to lift the restrictions. We explained: As a university group, we want to hold a public event in which all interested parties can participate. The requirement would represent a serious restriction of the university as a public place.

However, without addressing the content, the HU administration reiterated the requirement in another email and enforced it at the first IYSSE event. HU security staff carried out ID and bag checks at the entrance. Police officers were even posted in front of the entrance to the Audimax hall, where the event took place. The threatening backdrop and censorship are reminiscent of conditions in dictatorships. Students and lecturers are placed under general suspicion, their bags checked for weapons as if they were potential serious criminals.

People who are not members of a Berlin university were only able to follow the event because the IYSSE had organised a live broadcast in a public square. For more than 10 years, we have been organising events on political and historical topics at the HU and inviting all interested parties to join the discussionstudents and university employees as well as young people and workers.

The title of the last event, which was recorded on video, posed the question: What next in the fight against police violence and genocide? The speakers explained that the genocide in Gaza can only be stopped by an international movement of the working class, which is directed against all wars and their root cause, capitalism.

It is this perspectivean orientation and extension of the student protests to the working classthat the university management and all parties in the Berlin Senate (state assembly) and federal government fear the most. That is why they want to keep the working class off campus with censorship and police measures.

Other student groups at HU are also affected. The student group Decolonise Charit had already invited students to an event on May 31 entitled Being a doctor where there are no more hospitals at the North Campus, which also includes the Charit Berlin University Medical Centre. Two doctors reported on the dramatic effects of the Israeli war on healthcare in the Gaza Strip.

But here, too, a security guard stood at the entrance on behalf of the university management and prohibited external participants from entering. Even an entire school class with its teacher was turned away by security. According to the organisers, 270 people attended the event. According to the groups spokesperson, a new code for working groups at the Charit campus is also to be introduced, under which only working groups with a medical connection would be permitted.

These measures all have one goal: the truth about the war crimes in Gaza should not be heard, further resistance among students should be contained and a political discussion about the necessary conclusions from the protests should be prevented.

Against this backdrop, it is sheer mockery when the university management now declares in a letter dated June 11 that it wants to return to peaceful and respectful discourse. In the letter, university management calls for, among other things, a study of definitions of antisemitism as well as a critical examination of social science theories to which an affinity for antisemitic patterns is attributed. In plain language, this means that lecturers who deal critically with Zionism and the genocide of the Palestinians in their courses or writing are to be defamed as antisemites and subjected to attacks.

In its letter, the university management uses clichs such as an in-depth academic debate on the Middle East and multi-perspective analyses. However, its authoritarian approach to opponents of the war and dissenting opinions on the Gaza genocide proves that it wants to bring the HU ideologically into line with the government and enforce full support for Israel and its war policy in the Gaza Strip.

While anyone who speaks out against the Israeli genocide is defamed as an antisemite, right-wing extremist professors such as Jrg Baberowski have been politically and financially supported for years. The HU history professor not only trivialises the Holocaust, but also legitimises authoritarian methods of rule.

In 2018, he wanted to set up a radicalright-wing think tank for dictatorship researchat the HU to investigate dictatorships as alternative [social] orders. Only the protests of the IYSSE and other students were able to stop the establishment of this dictatorship centre. Despite this, Baberowski has received plenty of research funding and political backing from the Ministry of Education. His ideas of an authoritarian state are now being put into practice.

In February 2020, Baberowski even tore down IYSSE election posters with his own hands and hit one of our StuPa representatives when he caught him doing so. University management then fully backed Baberowski and did not even decide on a complaint to the supervisory board. This effectively gave right-wing forces on campus a free pass to tear down IYSSE posters and attack its members. Last year, Ukrainian nationalistssabotagedour StuPa election campaign with the full backing of the university.

This year, the IYSSEs election campaign is being attacked and censored again. Our posters were systematically and extensively torn down and destroyed by political opponents and university employees. Members of the IYSSE have documented this in the last few days and found several perpetrators tearing down the posters. The IYSSE called on the HU management in writing to condemn these anti-democratic interventions in the election campaign and to take measures to stop them. However, the university administration remains silent and thus backs the attacks.

The sabotage and censorship on campus is not an expression of the strength of the university administration and the federal government, but of their fear of growing resistance among students and workers. The European elections have once again shown how much hatred there is in the population for the parties of the coalition government and their policies of escalating war and social cuts.

The IYSSE are running in the StuPa elections on June 18-19 to fight among students for a socialist and international movement against war and capitalism. We will not allow socialists and opponents of war to be suppressed and will not be intimidated by the measures taken by the university.

We therefore call on all students: Protest against the authoritarian police regime at Humboldt University! Defend freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and academic freedom! Come to ournext eventin large numbers and elect the IYSSE (List 2) to the student parliament!

Join the fight for socialism

Link:
Stop the censorship of war opponents and attacks on freedom of expression at Humboldt University Berlin! - WSWS

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

View All posts by Kelly Jensen

Several states nationwide have floated legislation to curtail book bans this year. Some of those bills, like the one proposed in Utah, were not only voted down but were superseded with bills that actually further fuel book bans. Other anti-book ban bills, however, made their way successfully through to law.

Lets take a look at the states that have addressed the right to read and access materials at the library by law. This is as comprehensive as possible, with the acknowledgment that other bills may be pending as of writing or maybe in the works for the next legislative session. It does not include bills that address other library-related issues.

Passed in 2023, the first-in-the-nation anti-book ban bill in Illinois ties funding to intellectual freedom policies in public and public school libraries. Basically, if a library wants access to a pot of state money for their institution, they need to have in their collection policies the American Library Associations Library Bill of Rights and/or a comparable statement upholding the rights of everyone to access materials in the collection. Books and other items in the library cannot be removed for partisan or discriminatory reasons.

This is a great first step, though certainly, it hasnt ended book bans in Illinois over the course of its first year as a law because it is fairly limited in scope (it was easy for a school board to ban an entire book reading program, for example). It also does not apply to prison libraries. But the signal this bill sends to libraries that the state is paying attention cannot be downplayed.

Literary Activism Newsletter

News you can use plus tips and tools for the fight against censorship and other bookish activism!

Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

Also passed in 2023, the California anti-book ban bill applies to school boards specifically. They are unable to censor or ban books, curricula, textbooks, or other learning materials from the districts they oversee. The bill does not apply to public libraries or prison libraries. It also has not stopped school boards from censorship since implementation (not to mention that its public libraries bearing the brunt of censorship right now), but, like the bill in Illinois, it is at least an acknowledgment of an ongoing reality, even in a blue state like California.

There is a bill still alive in the state (AB 1825) crossed over from the Assembly to the Senate in the past weeks that would ban book bans more akin to how Illinois has.

Passed in early June 2024, Colorado has implemented new laws requiring every public library to have a collection policy and, if they allow for books to be challenged, requiring policies governing the process. One thing this particular bill does that is noteworthy is it requires keeping track of the outcomes of every official book challenge in public libraries. It also makes the names of those seeking to remove books public. Both of these add a crucial layer of transparency to the process. The bill does not, however, codify that books cannot be removed for discriminatory reasons (though that was in the original draft).

Minnesotas governor signed off on Senate File 3567 as part of a robust education bill. The portion related to libraries relates to both public and public school libraries, as well as public colleges and universities. All of these institutions are now required to have collection policies, as well as guidelines for the selection and reconsideration of material. This is similar to that passed in Colorado, though Minnesotas bill makes it clear books cannot be removed on the basis of viewpoint or opinion alone.

Also passed this year is Marylands Freedom to Read Act. In both public libraries and school libraries, the bill protects access to books and other library items by stating they cannot be removed or prohibited from collections because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. Collections seek to serve the research and recreational needs of all, and materials cannot be excluded based on the origin, background, or views of their creator. Both school and public libraries would need to have collection development policies in place, and if a book were to be challenged, the title would remain on shelves and available for use through the reconsideration process.

One of the more robust bills passed in 2024 is Vermonts Protecting Libraries and the Freedom to Read Bill. Among the provisions are requiring libraries to have policies that align with the First Amendment and anti-discrimination laws. Legal protections for libraries and library workers throughout the state have been strengthened as well as more robust opportunities for education around libraries and their role in community and civic life would be created for library workers and trustees.

What makes Vermonts legislation stand out, aside from its clear commitment to upholding and championing libraries, is that its emergence came following a report put together by library workers to give the legislature a real picture of the current state of the states institutions. You can read the full working group report here.

An anti-book banning measure for public schools passed in the state of Washington. HB 2331 is similar to the California bill in that it bars school boards from banning books, curriculum, textbooks, and other materials from use for discriminatory reasons. By the 2025-2026 school year, boards need to have in place policies related to supplemental materials (i.e., library and classroom materials) and how those are reviewed and evaluated were they to be challenged.

These wins matter. Even when the bills initially presented look significantly different by the end, like the one in Colorado, they send an important message. Use these wins to continue fueling your own anti-censorship work and remember, the most important things you can do to fight book bans in 2024 is to vote, show up to board meetings, and get into the ears of those who represent you.

Its worth noting here that several anti-book ban bills are still on the docket in other states. New Jerseys Freedom to Read Act moved forward in the legislature just last week, taking it one step closer to passage. Massachusetts, one of the first states to introduce anti-book ban legislation in 2024, pushed its hearings on the measures to June. The concurrent House and Senate proposals are currently in committee.

You can dive into the states that have attempted successfully or not to criminalize librarians this year, as well as the states which have made it or tried to make it against the law for library workers to join or engage with the American Library Association.

Read more:
States That Have Banned Book Bans: Book Censorship News, June 14, 2024 - Book Riot