THE Covid-19 pandemic necessitates our closure at 37a Clerkenwell Green. But in the coming weeks and months the Marx Memorial Library (MML) will use digital platforms to facilitate both access to our unique archives on socialist history and engagement with our Marxist education work.

The coronavirus crisis has already resulted in tectonic shifts in our political, economic and social landscape, with, no doubt, more to come. In this period of flux, we hope that our work interpreting past struggles and examining today’s world with a Marxist perspective will have an important role to play — particularly when the time comes to regroup.

Libraries, museums and archives across Britain are closed to the public. Books, manuscripts and journals are locked away in boxes, while events have been cancelled or postponed without an end in sight.