A group of fellow librarians and library staff from Madrid contacted Ian Anstice asking him to publicise their campaign to stop the privatisation of Madrid's Public Libraries, here is their message;
Dear collegues,
I write you in the name of some librarians from Madrid.
We work in the Madrid City Libraries System, which include 28 public libraries, 1 Newspaper Library (The most important in Spanish Language in the World) , 1 Library specialized in Music and and other one Historical (founded in the XIX century) and the Archive of the Ville.
We are threatened by the shadow of privatization from the new major, Ana Botella, is in charge of Madrid City Council. We have stoped the privatization of 2 new libraries but we are suffering attacks from every where. Not just librarians, but the rest of Public Services (Museums... etc) (they are reducing our salaries and our rights). I send you some of our protest, just in case you can support us or we can do something for you as well, to let everybody know that this is happening in a lot of places in Europe.
Every friday we stand up in our libraries main door, wearing in black and informing people, and the 24th of May we will walk around the main streets of Madrid wearing in black and carrying banners.
I send you a photo just in case you want to published.
Thanks a lot, you have our support and we would love to have yours as well.
