A "regrounding" roundtable discussion by AC members of what was and is their interest in SRRT and the AC was on the agenda for the Zoom meeting just conclude, but we did not get to it, unfortunately. Here, however is my response....
I first joined Action Council decades ago because SRRT represented the conscience of ALA-a place where library workers could organize collectively around social responsibility, antiwar commitments, anti-racism, and democratic practice within the Association itself. My long association with SRRT has always been about keeping alive the idea that librarianship is inseparable from broader struggles for justice, and that SRRT was a space to insist on that connection.
I have also long been active in SRRT's International Responsibilities Task Force, which has consistently stood for justice and human rights around the world, even when that stance has been unpopular or contested within the Association. IRTF's ongoing advocacy against imperialism, war, and oppression-including its principled insistence on justice for Palestine-reflects the same commitment to moral clarity and social responsibility that drew me to SRRT and Action Council in the first place. Defending this work, and ensuring that SRRT continues to support courageous, principled international advocacy, is central to why I remain engaged.
I remain on Action Council because I want to defend that legacy, even as I've become deeply troubled by SRRT's accommodation to the de-democratization of ALA. By that I mean the shrinking and weakening of Council, the transfer of power to the Executive Board and executive staff, the sidelining of member initiatives, and the growing corporate, top-down culture that has replaced the Association's tradition of debate and member governance. Too often recently SRRT has responded to this erosion with silence or acquiescence. I joined Action Council not to preside over that erosion, but to resist it-and SRRT must reclaim its voice as the conscience-and the opposition-within ALA.
Mark Rosenzweig
SRRTAC member,I
IRTF co-coordinator
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Mark Rosenzweig
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