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Back to topFREE ONSITE WORKSHOP: Discover the lives of Radical Women in Clerkenwell
PLEASE USE THE LINK BELOW TO BOOK IN ADVANCE AS PLACES ARE LIMITED
Join us for an engaging introduction to the lives of Clerkenwell’s radical women. Delivered in partnership with Islington Heritage Service as part of our Reds on the Green programme, this session shines a light on women who shaped political movements, challenged injustice, and organised for change.
Email: info@marx-memorial-library.org.uk
Through short introductory talks, we’ll explore figures such as Eleanor Marx, Noreen Branson and Nadezhda Krupskaya, alongside other inspiring women connected to the area’s rich radical history.
The session also includes an interactive archive workshop, offering a hands-on opportunity to explore original materials and discover how these women’s stories are preserved in our collections.
As places are limited, please BOOK HERE
Soviet Policy and the Spanish Civil War
Jim Jump discusses the USSR's military assistance & diplomatic efforts in support of the Spanish Republic in 1936-39. NB: Talk takes place at SCRSS premises in Brixton.
IN-PERSON TALK AT THE SCRSS IN BRIXTON, LONDON SW9 6AB. Please note: this talk is not online and will not be recorded. Book in advance here to reserve a seat or tickets available on the door from 13.30 on the day.
'The Cause of All Progressive and Advanced Mankind': Soviet Policy and the Spanish Civil War
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War, a defining event in the build-up to the Second World War. Though called a civil war, it was in fact a highly internationalised conflict, in which the Soviet Union gave military assistance to the Spanish Republic, and Hitler and Mussolini supported the rebel forces led by General Franco. While the Comintern helped organise the International Brigades, the USSR made considerable diplomatic efforts to persuade Britain and France to abandon appeasement and support Spain's cause. Soviet policy towards the Spanish Civil War is to this day often misunderstood and distorted, being viewed through a Cold War prism rather than as a genuine attempt to counter the threat of European Fascism.
Jim Jump is the Chair of the International Brigade Memorial Trust and the author and editor of several books on the Spanish Civil War. These include 'Antifascistas: British and Irish Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War' (2010, with Richard Baxell and Angela Jackson), 'Poems from Spain: British and Irish International Brigaders on the Spanish Civil War' (2006), 'Looking Back at the Spanish Civil War' (2010) and 'A Spanish Civil War Scrapbook' (2015). His father, James R Jump, was a British International Brigader and his mother, Cayetana Lozano Díaz, was a refugee from Franco. In 2021 Jim Jump edited his father's posthumous memoir of the war, 'The Fighter Fell in Love', which was published in Spain ('El brigadista que se enamoró') in 2024.
This talk is a joint SCRSS - Marx Memorial Library event.
MML BOOK SALE
Book sale of second hand books and pamphlets. Including rare books, Marxist classics, trade union and labour movement history and much more!
11am to 3pm
Email: info@marx-memorial-library.org.uk
ONSITE & ONLINE EVENT: Marxism vs. Western Marxism & Postmodernism: A Dual Book Launch
Aymeric Monville and Gabriel Rockhill, in dialogue with Jennifer Ponce de León, Requiem for French Theory: Transatlantic Funeral Dirge in a Marxist Key (Monthly Review Press, 2026)
Gabriel Rockhill, Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism? (Monthly Review Press, 2025)
Email: info@marx-memorial-library.org.uk
Monville, Rockhill, and Ponce de León will present the books and engage in a discussion regarding the effects of imperialism on the production and dissemination of knowledge. Far from simply engaging in a critique of the faux radicalism of the prominent discourses within the imperial theory industry, the discussion will be grounded in a reasoned defense of the vibrant international tradition of anti-imperialist Marxism. Topics to be discussed include the imperial promotion of Western Marxism and postmodern French Theory, the international war of ideas, the failed efforts to discredit anti-imperialist Marxism, culturalism and identity politics vs. a materialist analysis of the colonial question, fascism past and present, the dialectics of actually existing socialism, and the current state of global class struggle in theory and practice.
Books will be available for sale, and the event will be followed by a book signing for those interested.