TUCKED away on Clerkenwell Green in central London, we at the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School have been a centre for working-class education, international solidarity and the study of Marxism for nearly a century.

Founded in 1933, we house extraordinary archives — from Spanish civil war volunteers’ papers to rare socialist publications — and run a year-round programme of classes and events. This autumn, as crises and contradictions deepen and the need for clear, collective analysis grows sharper, we are once again opening our doors with a programme — both online and onsite — designed to link history and theory to the struggles for a better world today.

We begin the season on September 13 with an open day as part of the Open House festival. Visitors will be able to explore the Lenin Room, the striking 1935 fresco in our main hall, and our Radical Clerkenwell exhibition, all free of charge. Just a few days later, on September 17, our tutors will host a free online taster session introducing Marx and Marxism.

This short event gives prospective students the chance to sample our teaching and consider joining one of the three online courses running later in the term. These courses cover women, work and trade unionism; trade unions, class and power; and our core Introduction to Marxism.

We deliberately price them affordably, with concessions available, as part of our commitment to ensuring trade unionists and activists have accessible opportunities to deepen their understanding of the Marxist tradition and apply it to the present.

A highlight of the autumn will be our collaboration with the Workers’ Music Association and the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies on September 20, marking the 125th anniversary of the birth of Alan Bush.

Bush, a radical composer, devoted his life to combining political conviction with musical innovation. The day-long event will bring together discussion of his works, an archival display, and a rare chance to hear the 1950 radio production The Sugar Reapers.

Collaboration is also at the heart of another early-season event, when we partner with Bart’s Fair and the London Museum for a hands-on workshop on the evening of September 19. This free drop-in session, Learning from the Past to Change the Future, will invite participants to draw on stories in our archives to inspire placard design for struggles today.

From there, our programme moves into the pressing political issues of our time. On October 9, Marxist economist Michael Roberts returns to deliver a hybrid lecture on the world economy in the 2020s. With financial instability, war and ecological breakdown looming ever larger, Roberts’s analysis will be a chance to cut through the mainstream noise and situate the crisis of British capitalism in its global context.

A week later, on October 16, an online panel will explore how trade unions and trades councils can mobilise class politics within communities. In an era where division is sown to undermine solidarity, this promises to be a timely and urgent conversation.

No programme of ours would be complete without the chance to build knowledge from the ground up. On October 18, we will host our twice-yearly book sale. For many of our supporters, these are unmissable events — not only an opportunity to uncover rare pamphlets and bargain-priced socialist literature, but also to support us directly.

Local working-class history also finds its place in the form of our popular Reds on the Green series, developed with Islington Heritage. On October 23, Professor Ruth Kinna will speak on William Morris, exploring the relationship between politics and art, while on November 20 Dr Vic Clarke will turn to Chartism in Clerkenwell. Both talks root wider socialist traditions in the history of the very streets where we now stand.

In November, we will also host a panel discussion on imperialism, chaired by Alex Gordon with Radhika Desai and others, accompanied by an archival display drawn from our rich collections. At a time when questions of empire, neocolonialism and global inequality are at the centre of world politics, this promises to be one of the season’s most compelling events.

We are also deepening our work with partner institutions, including the General Federation of Trade Unions and the Working Class Movement Library, continuing to co-host monthly online sessions on working-class history, this time with a focus on women’s history.

This year, our Engels Memorial Lecture will take place on November 29, chaired by Professor Mary Davis and delivered by international guest speaker Manfred Sohn from the Marx Engels Foundation.

This autumn will also see our Reading Room once again open to researchers three days a week, alongside the continued expansion of school and student workshops. A particularly exciting new initiative is a pilot teacher training session in collaboration with the OCR exam board, focused on the theme of the anti-apartheid movement in Britain.

Our work with Royal Holloway University and the AQA exam board on their Inclusive Histories project to embed working-class history into GCSE teaching will continue as we host postgraduate researchers and support associated community research opportunities.

We will also be working with the City Bridge Trust and the charity Waythrough to run a series of Conservation for Wellbeing workshops, and with Brunel University to produce short films on the General Strike based on our unique archives. Meanwhile, our annual Introduction to Trade Unionism course for RMT will bring young workers to Clerkenwell to explore the history of the movement and its relevance today.

Together, our autumn programme underlines the unique role of the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School in the movement. We are a place where history is made accessible and where political education is taken seriously. For trade unionists, activists and all those fighting for a better world, we offer not only a chance to learn but also to connect with the traditions that sustain struggle.

Full details of the programme, including booking information, can be found at www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk.