The Marx Memorial Library was founded as a library for and of the Labour Movement. It is not surprising, then, that we hold a range of printed and archival sources which give an overview of the struggle for workers' rights through trade union organisation from early formations in 19th century to the present day. They show how improved conditions have been won and engender an understanding of how working conditions have changed over time. 

Our James Klugmann Collection is a unique library and archive specialising in chartism and the early trade union movement. It includes early trade union histories, copies of speeches given at early trade union meetings, studies of working conditions and accounts of civil unrest and rebellion. 

Our contemporary newspapers and printed material on the arrest and trial of the Tolpuddle Martyrs in the 1830s shed light on the persecution of workers attempting to organise and how solidarity action across the movement secured their return and release.

Pamphlets and serials in our library testify to continuing efforts of workers to collectively campaign for improved rights and political change. These include trade union newspapers and campaign leaflets on working hours, health and safety, equality and more; MML also holds a collection of newspaper cuttings and other ephemera relating to the 1926 General Strike.

Moreover, our extensive archive of Wal Hannington, leader of the National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM) documents the plight of the unemployed in the 1930s and collective efforts to allieviate their hardship and campaign for political change. 

Hannington's 1932 NUWM pamphlet, "Crimes Against the Unemployed" attacks the TUC for their lack of support for unemployed workers:

The MML also holds material relating to the hunger marches organised by unemployed workers in the 1930s, such as the famous Jarrow March. This 1933 "Manifesto of National Hunger March and Congress" sets out the reasons why such drastic action was necessary:  

The Printers collection documents the history of workers' struggle in the print industry from their earliest years to the Briant Colour Printer Work In (1973) and the Wapping Dispute in the mid-1980s, and includes the papers of individual activists in addition to a phenomenal collection of banners. It also contains photographs from several print workers' disputes, which can be viewed in our online gallery. 

Transport workers and their unions are also represented in our pamphlet collection; this 1911 issue of the Industrial Syndicalist Monthly, for instance, concerns the Railwaymen and the Transport Workers' Federation.

We also hold copies of the Busman's Punch, the official paper of the London Busmen's Rank and File Movement from the 1930s.

The famous Clyde shipbuilders of Glasgow are also represented. This 1918  pamphlet reports on the trial of trade unionist John MacLean for sedition, including the speech he made in court against capitalism: "I AM NOT HERE, THEN, AS THE ACCUSED: I AM HERE AS THE ACCUSER OF CAPITALISM DRIPPING WITH BLOOD FROM HEAD TO FOOT.” Read the whole pamphlet here: Condemned from the Dock

The 1984-85 Miners' Strike also features in our collections, of course, and not only in the form of printed material. Our ceramics collection, for example, includes over 100 pieces of commemorative china from the strike. We also hold an extensive collection of newspapers on the strike in the collection of Paul Galloway.

We have large collections of photographs that document workers' struggles throughout the twentieth century, such as these scenes of male Ford car workers protesting for better wages  in the 1970s: 

MML holds a wide range of periodicals relating to international workers' rights and unemployment, a few of which are listed below: 

The Australian Worker    
The British Worker (May 1926)        
Building Workers' Charter
The Country Standard
Country Worker
Daily Worker 1930 - 1966    
Dockers' Charter
The landworker
Maritime workers' journal    
Media worker
Metal worker
National Union of Agricultural Workers
The Negro Worker
New propellor
The paperworker
Picket
The seaman and The seamen's chronicle
Solidarity: the organ of the Shop Steward and Workers' Committee Movement
St. Pancras Worker
Textile labor
Unempolyed struggles    
The United Bushworker
United Mine Workers journal
United rubber worker
Wandsworth shop steward
Wapping post

Other specialist collections on this subject can be found at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, and the TUC Library at London Metropolitan University.