First posted at mereiszakkoli.wordpress.com. 

We stand with the Archive. Do you?

On 24 May 2018 the last research associate of the Georg Lukács Archives of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was banned from the Archives after twenty-eight years of employment. Despite local and international protest, the Academy, with the assistance of its own library, closed the archives of the only world-renowned Hungarian philosopher, which has existed since 1972. The Archives ceased to exist as a resource for international researchers, by replacing the locks on its doors.

The Lukács Archives International Foundation (LANA) is working to preserve the philosopher’s legacy. We who have had the opportunity to work at the Archive, and/or who have enjoyed the support and help of the Archive in our research, and for whom access to the Archive’s holdings is essential to our future work, stand with them.

We therefore call on the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and its library to reverse this decision, which will have a destructive impact on our work, and on the work of countless other researchers in many academic disciplines.

Please share this petition with as many pertinent organizations and/or concerned individuals as possible, as this invaluable archive is under threat of total closure, and this may be our last chance to save it.

To add your name to the petition, send an e-mail with your name and institutional affiliation to muvesz.felelos.szolidaris@gmail.com.

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Some background: On January 25th 2017, the Budapest City Council decided to remove the statue of Georg Lukács from a park in the city’s 13th district. Here, Hungarian marxist and philosopher G. M. Tamás comments on the significance of the gesture.