TUC general secretary PAUL NOWAK speaks to the Morning Star’s Berny Torre about the increasing frustration the trade union movement feels at a government that promised change, but has been too slow to bring it about

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.

From hunting rare pamphlets at book sales to online panels and courses on trade unionism and class politics, the MML continues connecting archive treasures with the movements fighting for a better world, writes director MEIRIAN JUMP

The time is now to start reimagining a bigger future for the library, writes MEIRIAN JUMP

