THE Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School (MML) set out its vision for its centenary at a special session after the business of its annual general meeting on Saturday April 27.

Following the successful completion of a National Lottery Heritage Funded project Marx Memorial Library at 90: Enduring and Engaging, which incorporated research on MML’s audience, building, collection and financial sustainability last month, the MML has agreed to an ambitious new strategic plan taking the library to a critical half-way point to its centenary in 2033.

The all-woman panel set the following vision in context: “The MML envisions arriving at its centenary year, 2033, in a redeveloped, accessible building with a drop-in reception and exhibition space and a wide-reaching outreach and education programme engaging broad audiences in Marxism and socialist history embodied in its collections, supported by robust governance, commercial, fundraising, digital and communication strategies.”
 
The panel, chaired by RMT president and chair of the MML Alex Gordon, opened with a presentation from Katie McAndrew, historic building consultant for Hutton and Rostron. McAndrew reported on her work in 2023 pulling together the history of 37a Clerkenwell Green — home of the MML since its foundation in 1933.
 
Her findings underlined two things. Firstly, the grade II listed building constructed in 1738 has low architectural interest. Tracing plans through archives across the country — including the 1933 Serge Chermayeff drawings held at the Modern Records Centre in Warwick — she has been able to conclude that very little of the MML’s building today is original.
 
Instead, its value lies in the building’s historic and social significance — its ties to the international and British working-class movement, the 1935 fresco on the MML’s first floor by artist Jack Hastings and last but by no means least, the intimate relationship with Lenin, founder of the USSR, who worked at 37a Clerkenwell Green for 13 months in 1902-3.
 
McAndrew and her team’s works have equipped the MML with in-depth knowledge of the building elaborated in a timeline and phasing plans, which will be a critical tool for the MML as it looks to obtain permissions and set out redevelopment work in the coming period.
 
A report on the redevelopment of Clerkenwell Green from Clerkenwell councillor and MML trustee Ruth Hayes followed. The open space on the MML’s doorstep has a fascinating radical history dating back to the 1381 peasants’ revolt. Indeed, plans are progressing for the erection of the Sylvia Pankhurst statue in the newly pedestrianised square.
 
And yet, Hayes explained that research showed that local residents often had very little knowledge of the Green, with some even unsure whether or not they had ever visited the area. She set this in the context of gentrification in the area and underlined councillors’ keenness to ensure that the Green be a space of and for the people of Islington.
 
Hayes gave special mention to the important work the MML has initiated by working with local partners including the London Metropolitan Archives, Islington Museum, local schools and Voluntary Action Islington to this end.

Her presentation evidenced the opportunity to grow local audiences through engagement with a thematic approach to the archives to make the history of the working-class movement more accessible. Hayes cited the example of the social security records held by the MML dating back to the 1920s and how they might be used to engage with activists confronting similar challenges today.
 
The MML was delighted to welcome PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote as the penultimate speaker. She opened by underlining the important work of the MML promulgating Marx’s ideas and an understanding of our movement’s history “at this pivotal moment for our class,” after 14 years of austerity.

Heathcote painted a bleak picture, referencing a recent survey which showed that 40,000 civil servants — those employed by the government — were using foodbanks and 30,000 were skipping meals.

She then paid tribute to the union’s membership and the successes of recent gains through strike action and went on to condemn Minimum Service Level legislation which restricts the right to strike as “one of the gravest threats our movement has ever faced.”
 
Fran showed the importance of knowing our history, looking back to attacks on trade union freedoms some 40 years ago at GCHQ and lessons learnt from the fightback.

She summed up by commenting on the vital work of the MML in the movement, underlining that “political education is not just for education’s sake. It inspires us and plays a vital role in shaping the way that we resist, organise and ultimately win.”
 
As the MML’s director, I concluded, pulling these strands together with a presentation announcing the launch of the new strategic plan.

I underlined the MML’s unique position explaining that there is no-one else offering Marxist education, there is nowhere else with the collections that we hold in this historical building with these ties to the radical movements in the country.

The centenary, nine years from now, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the MML. There will be opportunities across the board thanks to the MML’s international reach and its deepening roots in the local area. Given the challenges facing the labour movement, our founding mission remains as important now as it ever has been.
 
A critical component of the centenary vision would be for MML’s building to be truly accessible with a drop-in exhibition and reception area. This would make us a shopfront on Marxism and labour movement history in central London where people with all levels of understanding can pop in and find out more.

Underpinning the redevelopment of the building and the broadening of the education and engagement work will be a robust business model with a finance and commercial strategy.
 
I paid tribute to the MML’s lifeblood — the members and affiliates who will necessarily play a critical role in the library’s future development — and I appealed for attendees to speak to comrades, friends, and colleagues and spread the word about our ambitious plans.

To visit the MML on its annual May Day open day on International Workers’ Day, Wednesday May 1, 10.30am to 3.00pm, head to the library itself at 37a Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0D.

To find out more visit www.marx-memorial-library.org.uk.