Tristram Hunt

Tristram Hunt (born 31 May 1974) is a British historian, broadcast journalist and former politician who has been Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2017. He served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent Central from 2010 to 2017, and Shadow Secretary of State for Education from 2013 to 2015.

"Marx, Engels and the Making of Marxism"

In February 2014, Hunt crossed an authorised University and College Union picket line at Queen Mary University of London to teach his students about "Marx, Engels and the Making of Marxism", defending himself on the grounds that although he was not a member of the union, he supported the right to strike and picket by those who had been ballotted. He was strongly criticised by West Bromwich East MP Tom Watson, who described Hunt's behaviour as "preposterous".

"Marxism in China"

New Communist Party of Britain leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar with other communists, academics and labour movement leaders at the Chinese embassy in London last week, held to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai in 1921.

Around the theme of Marxism in China, the participants discussed the historic links between the British and Chinese people and the role of the Communist Party of China in liberating the country and leading the people’s republic into the 21st century.

Ambassador Liu Xiaoming opened the seminar with a keynote speech in which he said “Marxism became the choice of the Chinese people following a painstaking journey of exploration and perseverance since the second half of the 19th century,” in an opening that swept across the struggle of the Chinese communist movement over the decades to achieve liberation and practice and develop Marxism following the establishment of the people’s government in 1949.

“In 1921 the CPC started with 50 members,” he said. “Today, 90 years after its birth the CPC has become the world's largest ruling party with over 80 million members. Over the same period, China has been utterly transformed. In 1921 China was a poor, weak and underdeveloped country. Today, 90 years on, China is the second largest global economy. The Chinese people, once on the verge of crisis, are well on the path toward a great rejuvenation.”

Ambassador Liu was followed by openings from a panel that included historian and Labour MP Tristram Hunt, John Callow from the Marx Memorial Library, Graham Stevenson, who is president of the European Transport Workers’ Federation, Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths and Keith Bennett from the 48 Group Club, established in the early 1950s by progressive British businessmen to promote trade with the People’s Republic.