LSE won't protect Women's Library

I am a union member at the London School of Economics and I support the reinstatement of the three trade union members at London Met - Jawad, Max, and Steve.

However, I do not share Ms Raw's optimism regarding the "rescue" of the Women's Library by the LSE.

The university was the sole bidder for this unique historic collection, one of the largest in Europe, certainly in Britain.

One has to question whether the bidding process was fair?

From the outset, LSE also declared its intention to remove the collection from its current purpose-built home in Aldgate. Why?

The LSE is part of the global elite, it makes vast surpluses year on year and could easily set aside a relatively small sum to maintain the Women's Library at Aldgate.

The move to LSE will inevitably mean that the collection and its remaining staff will be split up and integrated into LSE collections and departments, thus removing the Women's Library's independent objective character.

The Women's Library at LSE is effectively to be made a corporate brand, to be used by LSE for furthering its own ends of securing an ever dwindling supply of research funds.

The Women's Library is not just a collection of books, documents and artefacts, it is a mechanism through which sexism and oppression can be meaningfully fought in the interests of everyone.

It was founded in 1926 and has a longstanding historical link to London's East End, a fact glossed over by the LSE's corporate greedy bid.

Name and address withheld