The Marx Memorial Library in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 holds more than 43,000 books, pamphlets and newspapers on Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

, Scientific Socialism

Scientific Socialism

Scientific socialism is the term used by Friedrich Engels to describe the social-political-economic theory first pioneered by Karl Marx. The purported reason why this socialism is "scientific socialism" is because its theories are held to an empirical standard, observations are essential to its...

 and Working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

 history. The library also features the fresco The worker of the future upsetting the economic chaos of the present by Jack Hastings

Jack Hastings

John "Jack" Hastings was an Irish international footballer who played club football for Ulster and Knock as a centre half.Hastings earned a total of seven caps for Ireland between 1882 and 1886.-External links:*...

, painted in 1935. It is one of the few examples of the art form in the UK. The Library's chair is Fred Williams.

It opened in 1933 at 37a Clerkenwell Green, formerly home to many radical organisations, and locale of an important publishing operation. Lenin used an office there when exiled in London in 1902-3. The office has been preserved.

The Marx Memorial Library now also houses "The Printers Collection" consisting of the archives of the printing and papermaking unions of the UK and Ireland. The collection includes union documents, magazines, photographs, badges and memorabilia. The archive was opened in March 2009 by Derek Simpson

Derek Simpson (trade unionist)

Derek Simpson is the former Joint General Secretary of the UK's biggest private-sector trade union, Unite from 2007 until 2010. He was General Secretary of the Amicus trade union from 2002 until its merger with the Transport and General Workers' Union to form Unite in 2007.-Early life:Derek...

 Joint General Secretary of Unite

Unite the Union

Unite – the Union, known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union, formed on 1 May 2007, by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union...

and Tony Burke, Assistant General Secretary of Unite.