THE Marx Memorial Library – with its treasure trove of labour movement archives and proud tradition of working-class education – is the leading centre for research and education on Marxism and socialist history.

We look forward to our centenary in 2033 with ambitious plans incorporating the redevelopment of our grade II listed building and the creation of a new exhibition space and information centre. 

Supported by increased capacity and investment in digital technologies, our education and engagement programme will extend its reach within our movement, our schools and our communities.

Our Expression of Interest to the National Lottery Heritage Fund was submitted this week with the project title The Marx Memorial Library at 100: People & Ideas for a Better World – The point is to change it.

Learning from the past to meet contemporary challenges

We know we have to understand our past to shape our future. Responding to challenges, including the current appeal of the far right, and opportunities – like the recent strike wave – requires an interrogation of our history.

How do we effectively organise and bridge division in our communities? How do we sustain morale in the face of defeat, or interest in the wake of short-term victory? If not answers, then lessons can be found in the pages of history.

The voices you can find in our 60,000-volume library and archive are from our own movement. There you’ll find the experiences of workers in their own words – from the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War, to the picket lines of the News International (the Wapping) dispute.

Our education and events programme draw upon these, and reflect on lessons today.

Learning from the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike

This year the MML marked 40 years since the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike with two sessions. The first – convened by Ann Field, with Lord John Hendy KC and Heather Wood from Women Against Pit Closures – explored themes of state repression, solidarity and civil defence.

Heather highlighted the importance of women; their role in uniting communities and the strike as a catalyst for their own political education. 

She concluded her contribution calling for hope and unity: “we stuck it out, we fought and we are still fighting…the left needs to get over itself – agree to disagree and move on from there.”

Lord Hendy KC lamented that we have been paying the price of the defeat of the miners ever since the Thatcherite onslaught, describing the destruction of collective bargaining, the decimation of public services and the stagnation of wages. 

But he summed up with an appeal for a popular front, combining trade unions, trades councils, community, environment and peace campaigns to “confront capitalism and uphold dignity and rights of all.”

The second session focused on the documentary heritage of the strike with the title: Mining the Archives, bringing together Keith Gildart, professor of labour history at Wolverhampton University, Liz Wood, a project archivist from the NUM archives at the Modern Records Centre and Matt Dunne, MML archivist.

Wood outlined the eye-watering scale of her vital task cataloguing and preserving the NUM’s own archives, an unrivalled resource on mining and social history, estimating that her spreadsheet will comprise over 12,000 records at the end of an initial audit. 

Dunne alluded to MML’s own history of collecting. He cited a letter from then MML secretary Max Egelnick sent to all NUM areas in October 1984. It described the MML as “the most outstanding library of the British labour movement in the country if not internationally.”

Egelnick recognised, even then, the “historic” nature of the miners’ struggle, asking for material — “leaflets, papers, articles, documents” — to be sent to MML so future generations could understand this important chapter in working-class history.

Dunne drew attention to a second document — this time from the Printworkers’ Collection — the core of which donated to the MML by Unite the Union in 2009.

He cited correspondence between a striking miners’ family and a member of the National Graphical Association (NGA), who was later sacked in the Wapping dispute.

Thanks were offered for donations of toys for the children at Christmas. The children themselves soon became firm friends and pen pals, meeting in London months later. Solidarity was passed down to new generations.

Online developments

These sessions — a resource for our movement — and dozens of others on the peace movement, on the recent strike wave and much more — can now be accessed on the MML’s website, on our Spotify and YouTube channels.

MML does not just host onsite meetings and discussions like the panels mentioned.

A key innovation in recent years has been the flourishing of an online course offer. Each year we welcome hundreds of students on our online courses – nationally and internationally. A new website and prospectus are now available.

The next such course commences on September 3 for eight weeks – Trade Unions, Class & Power. Students learn how Marxist concepts can help us to understand key practical issues for unions and union activists and shed light on the history of the trade union movement for contemporary study.

Modules include Turning Points in the Trade Union Movement and How the Ruling Class fought back.

Join the MML, support our work, and find out more about our collections, programme and course offer on website marx-memorial-library.org.uk

Meirian Jump is director of the  Marx Memorial Library