Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

New research shows public libararies at threat under GATS

Stuart Hodkinson | 25.04.2005 14:23 | Education | Globalisation

Publicly-owned, publicly-accountable libraries in the UK could be under serious threat unless citizens wake up to the planned liberalisation and expansion of international trade in services being negotiated behind closed doors in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), according to a new book by respected British academic and information expert, Ruth Rikowski.

Globalisation, Information and Libraries examines the implications for the world's state-funded libraries of the WTO's most infamous treaties - GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) and TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights). GATS is a set of trade rules whereby WTO member countries must open up their service sectors to the global market.

Rikowski provides compelling evidence that assurances made by the UK government, the European Commission and the WTO at various times that all public services such as health, education, water, housing, and libraries are exempt from GATS are in fact bogus. The steady process of commercialisation and private sector involvement in public services in the last decade means that the public sector will inevitably come under GATS rules.

Consequently, state-funded libraries in the UK and across the world could be forced, in time, to turn into profit-making enterprises that will open the door to long-term privatisation. Although the UK (under the EU) has not so far committed its Library Service to the GATS, this could easily change in future negotiations with other advanced industrial countries, particularly as private companies search for ripe opportunities.

TRIPS, meanwhile, is about the trading of various intellectual property rights, including copyright, trade marks, geographical indications, patents, industrial
designs and trade secrets. Rikowski shows that TRIPS is not concerned with moral and humane issues in regard to intellectual property rights but instead allows corporations to appropriate, patent and then profit from the traditional knowledge of indigenous populations in the poorest developing countries without giving due recompense.

In essence, Rikowski argues that through GATS and TRIPS, services and intellectual property rights are being transformed into international tradable commodities, which are then sold in the market-place for profit. Library and
information professionals, therefore, urgently need to become more aware of how GATS and TRIPS threaten their professional ethics and principles, and impact on
issues of copyright (such as the balance in copyright), and the public good.

Speaking in advance of her forthcoming book launch, Ruth Rikowski said: "In Britain today we already have examples of private companies running public library services (e.g. in the London Borough of Haringey), and many examples of public-private partnerships building new libraries. Coupled with the growing pressures on libraries to generate income and operate more like private companies rather than public good providers, the 'commercialisation by stealth' of
British libraries and information is an everyday reality. When a country signs up its Library Service to GATS it means that foreign corporations must be allowed the
right to compete with local authorities and domestic firms for the provision of public library services. This will open up the way for privatisation which could, in
the future, threaten the British public library free at the point of use."

"Capitalism is based on aims and drives such as making profits for companies,creating markets, buying and exchanging commodities and money. Our public services, including our public libraries are based on a completely different set of principles: community, sharing, the public service ethos, the notion of libraries being a 'public good' and human self expression", said Rikowski.

Notes

1. Ruth Rikowski is a well-known author and academic with 25 years experience as an information professional. Ruth is an Observer on the EBLIDA (European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Association) WTO Working
Group. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer at London South Bank University and the University of Greenwich. She is also the Commissioning Editor for the Chandos Series for Information Professionals and co-editor of the ejournal
Information for Social Change, available at  http://libr.org/ISC.

2. Her new book is entitled: Globalisation, Information and Libraries: the Implications of the World Trade Organisation's GATS and TRIPS Agreements (Chandos)

3. There will be a book launch for the book at London South Bank University on Tuesday, 26th April 2005. This will be introduced by Professor Deian Hopkin, the Vice-Chancellor there, who amongst his many achievements has published widely on Labour and press history. In addition to Ruth, other speakers will include: George Bell, Tom Lines, Helena Kotkowska, Dave Black, Dr Lee Rose, Matti Kohonen, Professor Dave Hill, Linda Kaucher and Dr Glenn Rikowski.

Martha Spiess from the States, who has worked with Indymedia Maine, is coming over to video the book launch, primarily for the purpose of sharing the information and ideas with concerned citizens and campaigners in the US and
Canada.

Stuart Hodkinson
- e-mail: stuart@redpepper.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.redpepper.org.uk

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech