EXCLUSIVE RECORDING: American Library Association President Emily Drabinski says "Libraries need to a site of socialist organizing"

Undercover at the Socialism 2023 Conference

From September 1-3, I went undercover at the largest socialist conference in the country, Socialism 2023. In this series, I’ll show you what the real Marxist left talks about when they think we aren’t listening.

The Socialism Conference cost me about $3,000 to cover (and, if I’m honest, more than a bit of stress). My work is funded entirely by you.

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American Library Association President Emily Drabinski was initially scheduled to be a speaker at the Socialism 2023, but after a media firestorm over her Marxist leanings that led to several state library associations parting ways with the national organization, her session was quietly canceled.

But Emily still went to the Socialism Conference and still attended sessions.

I know because I ran into her.

It happened on September 2 in a session called Freedom to Learn: Black And Asian American Solidarity Against Attacks on Antiracist Education.

“The recent history of anti-Blackness in education is inextricably linked to racialization of Asian Americans as either a “model minority” or a “yellow peril”-- from the attacks on affirmative action to the banning of Black history in Florida. This presentation discusses the histories of Black and Asian American education, their interconnectedness, and the need to support Black and Asian American solidarity in liberatory education.“

After the presenters held a rousing discussion, including discussing how to smuggle socialist ideas like Critical Race Theory into the classroom even when the law outlaws it (they call that fugitive pedagogy), there was an opportunity for attendees to comment.

Emily got in line at the microphone.

She was called “comrade” just like the others in line.

And when it was her turn, she said this:

I’m Emily and I'm a librarian.

(There’s a large round of applause - the crowd knew who Emily was)

I just want to say thank you for bringing up libraries, and classroom libraries, but also school libraries of all kind, public libraries and higher education library who have been under attack in similar ways

I think your point that public education needs to be a site of socialist organizing, I think libraries really do too.

I haven't seen that, working in libraries, but I think there’s a real opportunity here to both connect with what’s happening in public education, what’s happening in libraries, but also we need some help with libraries.

We need to be on the agenda of socialist organizing.

After that, she was thanked by the presenters for sticking her neck out like she did.

Listen for yourself.

This is the first in a series of pieces I’ll be doing showing you what the far left says when they think we’re not listening.

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