PARTISAN!

Sylvia Ruhl reports on recent attempts by State Library Victoria to limit the political expression of library staff and guest writers.

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In March 2024, the State Library of Victoria (SLV) deferred a free annual writing bootcamp for teenagers the Library was due to hold. Four of the six writers contracted by the library to host the workshop have been publicly active in promoting Palestinian solidarity, and this has been recognised as the impetus for their termination by staff at the Library. More than 100 State Library staff signed a letter to SLV chief executive Paul Duldig protesting the bureaucrats’ censorship whilst stating that management’s heel-turn had damaged the reputation of the library. The Sydney Morning Herald claims to have been informed by an SLV staff member who was personally informed by Duldig that one writer’s social media posts on Gaza were the impetus for postponement. The library maintains that the cancellation of the event was not due to the political views of the authors, but rather due to a reassessment of “child and cultural safety” protocols. A rather disingenuous line to hold, as later investigations would prove.

Internal emails later received via a Freedom of Information request showed that the SLV had in fact surveyed the guest writers’ social media for content related to the Gaza Genocide before cancelling their programs and contracts. The initial investigation that appeared to cause the library to reconsider the participation of its other guests was that of award-winning Lebanese-Turkish poet and novelist Omar Sakr.

Released records have shown that an SLV staff member described Sakr as being “of Muslim heritage” and therefore “might need some additional risk management”. Sakr has long spoken out in solidarity with Palestine; however, it has not yet been confirmed what exactly he said or wrote that caused the library to cancel his participation. Library board member and former Labor MP Maxine McKew had even singled out Sakr in a request for a “clear read” of all his social media posts following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on the 7th of October 2023.

Following this, this month it has emerged that SLV has prohibited wearing items that indicate “support or promote a particular political viewpoint.” This specifically included items containing the Palestinian flag or watermelon. However, the library later clarified that this does not include the Aboriginal flag and the LGBTQ+ flag. The inconsistency in not allowing for a show of solidarity for a specific oppressed nation whilst allowing it for other groups is completely inconsistent and cannot therefore be in any way considered an ‘apolitical’ act.

Furthermore, as a repository of knowledge, it is completely disingenuous for the SLV to achieve its stated task of being an “apolitical” institution. Naturally, as a location focussed on writing and information storage, radical political discussion will occur in and in spaces surrounding libraries. To suppress this is nothing short of the bureaucrat bosses perpetuating their own views, whilst futilely attempting to snuffle that of the staff and writers that make up those institutions.