Compare Constellations

In contrast to its brief period of political unity the Caribbean region has produced pressure groups of a more enduring nature. The Caribbean Conference of Churches is an ecumenical body founded in 1971 and concerned with problems of human rights and poverty in the region, whilst the Caribbean Youth Conference was an organisation bringing together national youth organisations for educational and exchange purposes. This collection holds a small quantity of materials from the 1980s dealing with these groups and their aims.

Malawi, formerly Nyasaland, became independent in 1964 under the government of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) led by Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Banda was to rule the country for the next thirty years, presiding over the transition to republic status in 1966 and appointing himself president for life in 1971. Violent protests against the governing party in 1992 following a severe drought led to a referendum the following year which paved the way for the end of one-party rule, and Banda lost the 1994 election to Bakili Muluzi.

The major political parties in Jamaica grew out of the trade union movement, so it is as a consequence unsurprising that the trade union federations remained politicised, affiliated either to the Jamaica Labour Party (the Bustamente Industrial Trade Union) or the People's National Party (the National Workers Union). The process by which union-employer negotiations were conducted is represented here, along with statements on collective bargaining agreements produced by both sides of industry.

The Bermuda Islands are a British overseas territory with internal self-government, universal suffrage having been introduced in 1968. Prior to 1998 power resided with the United Bermuda Party (UBP), traditionally the more conservative of the two main parties and therefore the one more likely to attract white support. Although the Progressive Labour Party now in government had been enthusiastically pro-independence there has been no referendum since 1995, when the idea was rejected. The relationship with Britain and arguments between the parties over economic competence in these generally prosperous islands are the main subjects discussed here.

This small and disparate collections of material reflects more on the absence of powerful pressure groups from the Barbadian political scene than on the importance of the issues, such as the value of the work ethic, which are being espoused.

The materials held here reflect the growth in New Zealand in the 1970s and 1980s of pressure and interest groups, for whom the major issues were the rights of women and the Maori people, apartheid and nuclear weapons. These last two constitute the majority of the materials in this collection, with the anti-apartheid movement coalescing (to form HART : The New Zealand anti-apartheid movement) over the issue of South African sporting links and producing country-wide demonstrations and disorder during the 1981 Springbok tour. The strength of anti-nuclear feeling led to the nuclear weapon-free-zone movement in which various areas (soon constituting a majority of the country) declared themselves to be such zones, and contributed strongly to New Zealand's de facto expulsion from the ANZUS alliance in 1985 after the refusal by the Labour government to allow entry to the USS Buchanan when the United States refused to confirm that the vessel was free of nuclear weapons. Other less prominent groups include those representing the interests of farmers and civil rights organisations protesting against the alleged erosion of those rights under the Muldoon National government (1975-1984).

As the Union of South Africa (1910-1961) and subsequently as a republic the country's history between independence from British rule and the 1994 elections has been dominated by the issue of relations between its different racial groups. Following the ascension to power of the Boer-dominated National Party in 1948 racial discrimination became increasingly entrenched in law as part of the 'apartheid' policy. Resistance and repression increased together, with groups representing the demands of the non-white population (notably the PAC and the ANC) being banned and subsequently conducting an armed struggle from various bases in sympathetic neighbouring countries. Legislation such as the pass laws and the ruling requiring all pupils to learn Afrikaans led to protests and subsequent massacres, in the former case at Sharpeville in 1960 and in the latter in Soweto in 1976. Domestic events were played out against a backdrop of increasing foreign condemnation of the apartheid regime and its consciousness of the vulnerability of its position as an important factor in Cold War strategy. These issues, as well as the disputes between different factions in the liberation and apartheid movements, are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials held here. In addition, newer materials deal with the political scene after the transition to majority rule and the problems such as endemic poverty and AIDS which have tempered the initial optimism of the post-apartheid era.

Christmas Island came under British rule in 1888 following the discovery of phosphate, and was administered as part of the Colony of Singapore until 1958, when it was first made a seperate colony and then transferred to Australian sovereignty. Throughout this period and thereafter phosphate mining dominated the island, and the Union Of Christmas Island Workers was created in 1975 to protect the interests of those working in the industry. The materials here document the birth of the union as well as its grievances with the Australian government, most notably with regard to wage policies which the UCIW saw as discriminating against non-European workers.

Part of the British Windward Islands Federation until 1958, Grenada then joined the West Indies (Federation) and when that dissolved in 1962 was made part of a further federation comprising Great Britain's remaining East Caribbean dependencies. After achieving "associated statehood" in 1967 it finally became independent in 1974, with Eric Gairy of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The emergence in the 1970s of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) posed a challenge to Gairy that was met by an increasingly authoritarian approach. The NJM took power in a 1979 coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG) with Maurice Bishop at its head, but differences between Bishop and the more radical wing of the government led by Bernard Coard led to the death of the revolutionary leader in an armed fracas and the subsequent invasion of the island by the United States. Elections following the invasion saw the return of the New National Party (NNP), and this party or offshoots of it have governed the country ever since. The materials held here concentrate almost exclusively on the invasion of Grenada by the United States in 1983 and the situation of those convicted in relation to the death of People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) leader Maurice Bishop just prior to this. Foremost amongst the defendants at this trial was Bishop's former deputy prime minister Bernard Coard and his wife and fellow ex-Central Committee member Phyllis Coard.

After a ten year political campaign by the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) the Gold Coast became independent Ghana on the 6th March 1957, the first of Britain's African colonies to make this transition. Its first Prime Minister and dominant political figure Dr. Kwame Nkrumah led it through independence to become a republic and a one-party state, and was also a prime mover in the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAS). His removal in a 1966 coup ushered in a period of characterised by military interventions in government, which may have ended with the election of John Kufuor in 2000. He was the first elected president to succed another elected president. The material here dates from the independence movement onwards, and is of particular interest with regard to Nkrumah's socialism, his pan-Africanist orientation and the arguments over his legacy following his death in 1972.

Sabah, previously British North Borneo, joined with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

From the 1950s political power in the Bahamas had been contested between the white dominated United Bahamian Party and the Progressive Liberal Party, which represented the interests of the emerging black middle class. The latter gained control of government in 1967 and guided the country to independence by 1973. Critics alleged that the transfer of political power had made little difference to the lives of ordinary Bahamians, and that governments continued to prioritise foreign capital investment and the promotion of the Bahamas as a tax haven to the detriment of spending on social welfare or any attempt at wealth redistribution. Furthermore, by the time long-term PLP leader Lynden O. Pindling was defeated at the polls in 1992 he was facing charges of corruption and of supporting drug trafficking. The items here deal with all these inter-related issues, with the bulk of the material devoted to the pre-independence elections of the 1960s during which the transition to black-led governments occurred.

Although democracy in India soon brought forth a huge range of political parties Western-style pressure groups were slower to emerge. Those groups featured here are concerned with the predominant issues of the 1970s: the growth of communalism, India's foreign policy and the social and political crisis which culminated in the 1975 state of emergency.

The materials held here date from the early 1960s, before and after the demise of the short-lived West Indies Federation. The paucity of pan-Caribbean organisations may be considered a reflection of the strength of national unions in the area, which in many cases (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica) formed the background of successful post-colonial governing parties.

The pressure and interest group materials assembled here date predominantly from the 1970s and 1980s and their content has almost certainly been influenced by the research interests of those collecting them as well as by the prevailing issues of the time. Thus whilst the lobbying efforts of the business community are not represented in this collection a variety of women's groups and pro-labour organisations are, along with several movements concerned with human rights in general. In addition there is a wide selection of materials from different Québécois groups, dealing both with the province's constitutional status around the time of the 1980 referendum and with other domestic issues.

By 1963 the British administration, struggling to maintain its grip on the port of Aden and the surrounding territories, had created a Federation in the hope that this would satisfy growing nationalist sentiment in the region. The ATUC pamphlet here rejects this development and instead calls for free elections which it anticipates will produce representatives committed to uniting the colony with the Yemen Arab Republic.

Pakistan gained its independence in 1947 and its political system has since been characterised by instability and frequent reversions to military rule (from 1958-1970, 1977-1988 and 1999 onwards). The political parties covered here include the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), which provided the country's early leaders and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of Zulfikar Ali and Benazir Bhutto. The failure of the latter party to form a coalition government with the Awami League of East Pakistan after the 1970 elections led to civil war and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, but also to the resignation of the military's Yahya Khan and the promotion of Zulfikar Ali to president, the country's first non-military chielf martial law administrator, but following the 1977 elections he was deposed by General Zia and executed. In the 1990s both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif (of the PML) were removed from the prime ministership, though they did not face the same draconian fate. The majority of the materials held here orgininate from the 1950s and 1960s, during the first period of democratic government and reflecting the protests against the imposition of military rule, but there are also items dating from before partition and later materials concerned with the dispute with India over Kashmir.

The majority of materials in the collection here date from the period between the founding of the first pan-Kenyan nationalist movement in 1944 and the the granting of independence in 1963 following the election victory of Jomo Kenyatta's Kenya African National Union (KANU). Both the major African and colonialist parties are represented, with the issues covered including the proposed East African Federation, the border dispute with Somalia and of course the Mau Mau uprising of 1952-1960. Of particular interest is the debate concerning the future constitution of the country as it became clear that the days of rule from Britain were numbered. The predominantly white parties hoped to secure the representation of minorities in government, while the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) promoted a federal structure in the hope that this would prevent the strongly Kikuyu KANU from using their likely control of central government to dominate other tribal groupings. A smaller number of items also cover Kenya's consolidation as a pro-Western one-party state after 1963 and the opposition first to Kenyetta and later to his successor Daniel Arap Moi.

Although trades unions had functioned in The Gambia from the 1920s, it was not until the 1950s that the first political parties emerged. Disputes between these parties, which included the Gambia Muslim Congress, the United Party and the Protectorate People's Party (later to become the Peoples' Progressive Party), delayed agreement on the transition to independence until 1965, when Dawda Kairaba Jawara of the PPP became the country's first Prime Minister. Though Gambia had a multi-party electoral system Jawara and the PPP remained in power until the 1994 coup, during which time the country became a republic (1970), experienced its first coup (1981) and formed a confederation with Senegal (Senegambia, 1982-1989). The leader of the second coup, Yahya Jammeh, has since won two presidential elections under a new constitution with his Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (Gambia), although several opposition parties were either banned from or boycotted the polls. The materials here cover the entire period from the end of colonial rule to the Jammeh era.

The late 1960s and early 1970s in Australia saw the burgeoning of new movements which sought to influence the political process, often on single issues and from outside the established parties which were the conventional channels of political expression. The most popular of these included the anti-war movement, the anti-uranium movement, the land rights movement, the women's movement and the conservation movement, although as the list above indicates there was no shortage of other issues prompting the formation of new pressure groups. Some of these movements coalesced into mainstream political organisations, in the case of the Green Party with significant electoral success, whilst others remain on the margins or have been co-opted by the very forces and institutions they set out to challenge - an example of this being the deradicalizing of the agendas of many feminist groups. The materials held here reflect first-hand both the concerns and the struggles of these movements.

Dominica passed between French and British hands several times in its colonial history and this, coupled with the early emergence of land-owning ex-slaves meant the island developed along different political lines to the big sugar colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica. By 1961 a Democratic Labour Party government had been elected, and it was this party which led Dominica first to associated statehood in 1967 and then to full independence eleven years later. 1980 saw the election of the Caribbean's first female prime minister, Eugenia Charles (Dominica Freedom Party), and although she had to survive coup attempts during her fifteen-year premiership subsequent peaceful transfers of power appeared to indicate that Dominica's political system was still functioning.

Though Antigua and Barbuda had to wait until 1981 for full independence within the Commonwealth there had been a multi-party political system since the islands were given associated statehood status in 1967. Prior to this politics had been dominated by the Antigua Trades and Labour Union and its political offspring, the Antigua Labour Party, but a multi-party system now emerged with groups such as the Antigua People's Party and the Progressive Labour Movement splitting off from the ALP. Despite this the latter has only once been out of power, and with Lester Bird succeeding his father Vere Cornwall as prime minister there has also been a dynastic element to Antigua's governance. The effect that these two factors have had on Antigua's democracy and the various attempts to create a viable alternative party are the major themes of the materials in this collection.

The majority of the material held here relates to the first two elections held under full adult suffrage in Lesotho. In 1965 the Basotho National Party (BNP) under the leadership of Leabua Jonathan won the first of these amidst accusations of interference on its behalf by the Catholic Church and the South African government. Independence followed in 1966, but when the opposition Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) appeared to have won the elections in 1970 Jonathan annulled them and suspended parliamentary government, remaining in power until deposed by the first of a series of military coups in 1986.

Formerly a Dutch colony, the Netherlands Antilles became a self-governing country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1954. With reference to the Netherlands Antilles, 'Windward Islands' (Bovenwindse Eilanden) means the north-eastern islands of Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius, as opposed to the south-western islands of Aruba (which seceded from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986), Bonaire and Curaçao. Note that, confusingly, the Dutch 'Windward Islands' are considered to be part of the Leeward Island group, not the Windward Island group, in British English usage.

The collection held here stretches back to the 1940s and includes accounts of industrial disputes from that period from the likes of the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union and the N.Z. Carpenters' and Related Trades' Union. Many of the later items originate from the Public Service Association, a white-collar union, and the umbrella organisation the New Zealand Federation of Labour, often consisting of critiques of government economic policy that reflect the increasing difficult circumstances the unions found themselves in in the late 1970s and early 1980s. As well as these materials and those of other unions representing specific industries there are also productions issued by the Labour Women's Council concentrating on the issues facing female union members.

Having become an autonomous British dependency in 1959 Singapore joined the new independent federation of Malaysia in 1963, only to leave it two years later to declare itself the Reublic of Singapore. The country has been ruled since 1959 by the People's Action Party (PAP) whose long-standing leader Lee Kwan Yew was Prime Minister until 1990. The majority of the materials here are concerned with the two fundamental features of Singapore since independence, its strong record of economic growth and its political authoritarianism. Unsurprisingly the PAP holdings stress the former, and prior to the 1990s this was coupled with frequent references to the need for stability against the threat of communism. Opposition parties such as the Barisan Sosialis, which split from the PAP in the early 1960s and for which there are substantial holdings, have been more concerned with the perceived unfairness of the democratic system and with human rights abuses. Additionally many of the earlier materials deal with Singapore's position within the federation of Malaysia and the administration of the federation itself, seen by some left-wing parties as being a means by which British colonial interests could continue to be served behind a veneer of independence.

The union scene on the islands was dominated in the post war period by the Antigua Trades and Labour Union, formed in 1940 and led by Vere Cornwall Bird. Its political arm, the Antigua Labour Party, subsequently became the vehicle by which many erstwhile union leaders transformed themselves into politicians. The materials here mainly originate from union conferences of the 1950s and 1960s, but also include items concerning agreements struck with the oil company Esso and detailing the progress of an unfair dismissal case.

Zanzibar was a British protectorate from the end of World War One to 1963, when it briefly became independent. The revolution of 1964 was followed by a merger with Tanganyika later that year to form first the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and later Tanzania. The Zanzibar-based Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) was the junior partner in government with Julius Nyerere's Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) until 1977, when the two parties merged to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Revolutionary Party, CCM). As well as ASP materials there are also holdings for other parties dating back to the period of British control over Zanzibar.

The post-war period in Guyana saw the emergence of the parties and characters that were to dominate its political scene both before and after independence in 1966. Cheddi Jagan formed the People's Progressive Party (PPP) in 1950 and was joined in this new entity by Forbes Burnham. The two were the emerging leaders of the Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese repectively, and as such gave the PPP a formidable electoral base which translated into their 1953 election victory. Despite the dismissal of this government after less than six months by the British and the Burnham's departure to form the People's National Congress (PNC) the PPP continued to hold majorities after the 1957 and 1961 polls. Further labour unrest in 1964 led to the amendment of the constitution under British auspices to allow for the introduction of proportional representation, and under this new system the PNC and conservative United Force (UF) were able to form a government after elections the same year. Burnham was to remain Prime Minister until his death in 1985, overseeing the transition to independence and governing increasingly autocratically in the face of accusations from the PPP and the emergent Working People's Alliance (WPA) of election-rigging and human rights abuses.

The materials held here mainly originate from groups opposed to the regime of Idi Amin, based both in Uganda and abroad. They include the National Resistance Movement (NRA), which later went on to take power in 1986 following the failure of Obote's Uganda People's Congress (UPC) to improve the economic and human rights situation in the country.

Niue has been a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand since 1974.

Following the end of the First World War, the formerly German portion of Samoa was administered by New Zealand until it became independent as Western Samoa in 1962. In July 1997, the word Western was officially dropped from the country's name and it is now known as Samoa. The eastern portion of the Samoan islands, known as American Samoa, remains an unincorporated territory of the USA.

The gradual extension of the franchise in the decades prior to independence led to the marginalisation in the House of Assembly of parties such as the Progressive Conservatives, which represented the interests of the planter class (although they maintained their dominance in the Legislative Council), while at the same time the contest for dominance in the democratic arena polarised into a struggle between Grantley Adams' Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and the more radical Democratic Labour Party (DLP) led by Errol Barrow, who was eventually to become Barbados's first post-independence Prime Minister. There was also a vigorous debate over the role and value of the short-lived West Indies Federation (1958-1962) which was strongly supported by Adams. The materials held here deal with these issues in detail as well as covering the electoral struggle between the two main parties after 1966.

The political history of the Seychelles since achieving independence from Britain in 1976 has been dominated by two men: the country's first President, Charles Mancham of the Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP) and France Albert René of the Seychelles People's United Party (SPUP), later the Seychelles People's Progressive Front (SPPF). The latter overthrew Mancham in a 1977 coup, and between 1979 and 1991 ruled a one-party state. Despite the return of Mancham and the Democratic Party and the institution of multi-party elections in 1991 the SPPF and their leader are still in power today. Materials from these parties in their different incarnations are held, and there is also a small quantity of trade union material.

The political history of Gibraltar in the period covered by these materials has been defined by the three-way relationship between Britain, Spain and the actual inhabitants of the Rock. While Spain has continued to claim sovereignty over Gibraltar (closing the land frontier between 1969 and 1985 and continuing to refuse to recognise the colony as part of the European Union) a more ambiguous position has been taken by successive British governments. The 1967 referendum saw 95% of Gibraltarians opt to remain under British rule, and led to the 1969 constitution which guaranteed Gibraltar would not be handed to another state against the wishes of its inhabitants. Yet the British military presence has gradually been reduced, with concomitant economic consequences, and the mother country has been seen to be reluctant to confront Spain on behalf of the colony. Thus while the discourses in the materials held here are resolutely anti-Spanish, they reveal autonomist as well as pro-British leanings.

Fiji became independent in October 1970, adopting a constitution which in practice involved a compromise between the principles of parliamentary democracy and the racial divisions within the country. This constitution (which guaranteed the minority Fijian population a majority of seats) kept the Alliance Party in power for seventeen years, until the Indian-dominated National Federation Party joined in coalition with the new Labour Party and won the 1987 elections. An army coup followed which restored control to the leaders of the indigenous population and set the tone for politics up to the present day, with the native Fijians attempting through constitutional changes and further coups to prevent the assertion of majority rule. The material in this collection deals mainly with the electoral struggles prior to 1987, the main issues being race, the constitution and the labour movement.

All the materials held here were produced by the Ghana Trades Union Congress, and are concerned both with internal administrative matters and with the union reaction first to one-party rule and then to government by the military.

The majority of the materials held here relate to the 1974 coup in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish military intervention. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriot expatriate groups are represented, and there is also older material arguing for an independent Cyprus.

Part of the British Windward Islands Federation until 1958, Grenada then joined the West Indies (Federation) and when that dissolved in 1962 was made part of a further federation comprising Great Britain's remaining East Caribbean dependencies. After achieving "associated statehood" in 1967 it finally became independent in 1974, with Eric Gairy of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The emergence in the 1970s of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) posed a challenge to Gairy that was met by an increasingly authoritarian approach. The NJM took power in a 1979 coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG) with Maurice Bishop at its head, but differences between Bishop and the more radical wing of the government led by Bernard Coard led to the death of the revolutionary leader in an armed fracas and the subsequent invasion of the island by the United States. Elections following the invasion saw the return of the New National Party (NNP), and this party or offshoots of it have governed the country ever since. The materials held here all date from the period prior to independence and include constitutions produced in the 1950s during a period of expansion for the Grenadian trade union movement as well as later bulletins produced by both blue and white collar unions. Interestingly these latter publications concentrate on the industrial rather than the political sphere, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that by this time Eric Gairy's union-based GULP party was in office.

The trade union movement in India inevitably became bound up with the independence movement, with the foundation of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)in 1920 reflecting the increase in political and national consciousness following the First World War. An indication of the degree to which the economic struggle was subsumed in favour of the fight for independence can be found in the split which followed independence, with the Indian National Congress forming the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) in response to communist domination of the AITUC. The struggles of these umbrella organisations to work inside and outside the system throughout a period marked by increasing socio-economic and political crisis (encompassing the curtailing of trade union freedoms during the emergency and the wave of strikes under the Janata Party administration) are reflected in the materials here, as are the more generalised protests against the erosion of civil rights in this period by the likes of the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies was founded in 1949 to promote advanced study of the Commonwealth. The Institute offers opportunities for graduate study, houses several research projects and offers a full conference and seminar programme.

The sole materials currently held here originate from the United Workers' Party (UWP), which was in power in Saint Lucia for most of the period between 1964 and 1997 including the transition to independence in 1979.

The pressure group materials held here vary from labour market analyses produced by the Caribbean Employers' Federation to broad critiques of Trinidad and Tobago's political and economic system from a variety of groups, including the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) and the New Beginning Movement (NBM). The majority of the materials date from the 1970s and 1980s, the period in which the ruling People's National Movement increasingly lost credibility with civil society.

The majority of the materials held here originate from the United National Independence Party (UNIP), founded by Kenneth Kaunda who became Zambia's first Prime Minister following its independence in 1964. This preponderance can be explained by the fact that UNIP was in office continously until 1991, and that from 1972 to 1990 opposition parties were banned. Following the repeal of this law the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) of Frederick Chiluba were able to win the 1991 elections and unseat Kaunda. Many of the items are speeches or articles written by Kaunda himself, and chart Zambia's attempts to free itself of Western control, economically as well as politically. There are also small quantities of trades union and pressure group material.

Part of the British Windward Islands Federation until 1958, Grenada then joined the West Indies (Federation) and when that dissolved in 1962 was made part of a further federation comprising Great Britain's remaining East Caribbean dependencies. After achieving "associated statehood" in 1967 it finally became independent in 1974, with Eric Gairy of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The emergence in the 1970s of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) posed a challenge to Gairy that was met by an increasingly authoritarian approach. The NJM took power in a 1979 coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG) with Maurice Bishop at its head, but differences between Bishop and the more radical wing of the government led by Bernard Coard led to the death of the revolutionary leader in an armed fracas and the subsequent invasion of the island by the United States. Elections following the invasion saw the return of the New National Party (NNP), and this party or offshoots of it have governed the country ever since.

The British Virgin Islands were granted a limited form of self-government in 1967, and following the extension of these rights with the introduction of a new constitution in 1977 the British-appointed governor is now responsible for little more than security and the administration of the courts. Its political history has generally been short of controversy, with the two main parties (the United Party and the Virgin Islands Party) alternating in power with the support of a variety of independent candidates until the emergence of the National Democratic Party which eventually took power in 2003. The material here mainly dates from the 1986 election and reflects the significant role of the independent candidates and the genteel electioneering atmosphere.

The materials held here extend from the period of the emergence of nationalist political parties in Botswana (then the British administered Bechuanaland Protectorate) in the late 1950s, through the domination of the Botswana Democratic Party following the achievement of self-government and then republic status (in 1965 and 1966 respectively) to the most recent elections. Although the role of Botswana in the struggle for majority rule in the rest of Southern Africa is covered the majority of the materials relate to electoral struggles in one of Africa's more successful and prosperous democracies.

The majority of the materials held here are concerned with the ethnic strife between Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority. The latter considered itself discriminated against by language and university admisson policies introduced in the 1950s and 1970s respectively, as well as by the encouragement of Sinhalese settlement in the traditionally Tamil northern and eastern areas of the island, and in response a number of militant Tamil groups emerged, most notably the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Folowing the communal riots of 1981 and 1983 support for these groups increased, as the country degenerated into a state of civil war. Despite peace initiatives and intervention by India the situation continues to remain unstable, hence the continued issuance of material by the groups represented here, notably the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.

Trades unions in Barbados were closely linked to the evolution of the party system in the years before independence, with leaders of the Barbados Workers' Union (BWU) sitting in the House of Assembly and on the Executive Council as well as being members of the Barbados Labour Party. The subsequent switch of BWU support to the Democratic Labour Party was important in securing the latter's 1961 election victory. As well as alluding to domestic politics, the Caribbean Labour Congress materials here also indicate the support of the union movement for some form of federation within the West Indies.

Since the independence of the Bahamas in 1973 the Turks and Caicos Islands have been a separate colony of the United Kingdom, with a 1976 constitution providing for democratic elections. These elections have seen the islands' two main parties, the People's Democratic Movement (PDM) and the Progressive National Party (PNP) alternate in power.

Following the events of 1974 the de facto administration of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus unilaterally declared itself first the "Turkish Federated State of Cyprus" in 1975 and then in 1983 the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", although only Turkey officially recognised the new state. Throughout this period (in which negotiations with the Greek Cypriots continued intermittently) it was led by Rauf Denktas of the resolutely seperatist and anti-communist National Unity Party, from which the majority of the materials held here originate.

Sri Lanka had been traditionally highly unionised, particularly in the state sector, and the majority of the materials held here date from the period in the 1970s when the influence of organised labour was at its highest. Most of the items originate from umbrella organisations like the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC), whose relative militancy prior to 1977 and subsequent support for the United National Party government that came to power that year epitomises the ebbing of union power in the 1980s. Some of the material found here relates to the struggle for worker's rights in the most turbulent sector of the island's economy, tea production.

The Royal Commonwealth Society was founded in 1868 as the Colonial Society. It was renamed the Royal Colonial Institute in 1870 and the Royal Empire Society in 1928. It adopted its current name in 1958. It is a pan-Commonwealth Non-Governmental Organisation, supported by a world-wide membership, working to inform and educate about the Commonwealth.The RCS Library contains about 300,000 printed items and over 70,000 photographs. At the beginning of the 1990's, it appeared that the Society would be forced to break up and sell the collection. A £3 million appeal launched in 1992, saved the Library for the nation and enabled it to be moved to Cambridge University Library, where it remains on permanent deposit. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, was founded in 1949 to promote advanced study of the Commonwealth.

The Industrial Conciliation Bill of 1923 which followed the 1922 miner's strike was the first step in a process that led to the trade union movement becoming split into two distinct sections. Firstly there were unions based mainly on white labour (but also including a minority of skilled 'coloured' and Indian workers) which, if at all, only permitted African membership of separate 'parallel' organisations. The second group of unions consisted of those initially based on African workers, later open to all, who were largely excluded from the industrial conciliation system. Both groups are represented in the materials here, which deal amongst other issues with the arguments concerning the degree to which unions should or could be 'non-political' under the apartheid system, and the extent to which members of the 'recognised' unions benefitted as a consequence of the limited access of the non-white worker to wage increases and better paid jobs. Concerns limited to particular trades and industries are also dealt with. of how the outlawing of various political parties left a greater space for other organisations to contest these issues.

Namibia (South West Africa) was administered by South Africa under a League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1946, but as the apartheid regime consolidated itself so the idea of the mandate as something to be eventually relinquished faded, with South Africa refusing to convert the mandate into a UN trusteeship arrangement. The history of Namibia until 1990 was therefore characterised by increasing international disapproval of South African occupation (as shown by the withdrawal of the mandate in 1966 and the International Court of Justice ruling in 1971 that the South African presence was illegal), attempts by the Pretoria regime to give this occupation some legitimacy and the growth of organisations opposed to it. The largest of these were the South West Africa National Union (SWANU) and the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). The recognition of the latter by the UN in 1976 as the sole representative of the will of the Namibian people demonstrated how international events affected organisations resisting the occupation as well as those enforcing it. After the 1978 elections the South-African backed Democratic Turnhalle Alliance formed the territory's government in defiance of UN Resolution 435 and was boycotted by SWAPO among others. Bound as ever to political developments in its more powerful neighbour, Namibia achieved its independence in 1990 following a transitional period overseen by the UN, and has been governed by SWAPO ever since.

The pamphlets here both date from 1964 and represent the views of the Cairo-based Committee affiliated with both the Peoples' Socialist Party and the Aden TUC. In the period prior to the end of British administration these views are anti-colonialist and broadly socialist, with much space devoted to declarations of support for and by like-minded groups in other countries.

Despite attempts to reconstitute the administration of the colony and its surrounding protectorate as the Federation of South Arabia, direct British control required an increasingly large army presence in the face of national armed movements and in 1967 Aden was abandoned to the forces of the National Liberation Front. The materials here date from the mid-1960s and relate the trade union-based PSP's conflicts with the British authorities and contacts with left-leaning supporters in Britain itself.

The political history of the country that achieved independence in 1948 as the Dominion of Ceylon, became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972 and then the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in 1978 has to a certain degree been that of the oscillation of power between two parties. The Ekshat Jathika Pakshaya (United National Party, UNP) ruled the country in 1948-1956, 1959-1960, 1965-1970, 1977-1994 and from 2001-2004, while its rival, the Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya (Sri Lanka Freedom Party SLFP), has been in government for the remainder of the period. Traditionally, the SLFP has been the more left-wing of the two, as indicated by the United Front it formed in 1970 with the Communist Party of Sri Lanka and the trotskyite Lanka Sama Samaja Party, but its strong pro-Sinhalese rhetoric and legislation (most particularly the 1972 constitution favouring Buddhism and relegating the Tamil language to a secondary status) served to antagonise the country's large Tamil minority as well as driving the UNP to take up a similar position. The Tamil community increasingly turned to their own political organisations, represented here by the likes of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, and following the communalist riots of 1981 and 1983 there began the conflict between the Sri Lankan authorities and the rebel Tamil Tigers which has dogged the island ever since.

In 1946 Papua and New Guinea were combined to form the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, administered by Australia under the aegis of the United Nations. The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of political parties such as the All People's Party (APP) and gradual moves towards increasing self-government, a trend hastened in 1972 by the election of the pro-independence Michael Somare of the Papua New Guinea United Party (Pangu). He presided over independence in 1975 and won the first elections after this in 1977.

Located in northwestern Borneo, Sarawak, which had been under British protection since the 19th century, became a British colony in July 1946. It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963.

Previously known as British Honduras, Belize finally became independent in 1981, the process having been delayed more by the unresolved sovereignty dispute with Guatemala (which did not recognise the new state until 1992) than by instransigence on the behalf of London. The colony had enjoyed universal suffrage from 1954 and was granted full internal self-government from 1964, with George Price's People's United Party (PUP) and its anti-colonial stance initially dominating the domestic political scene. From the formation of the economically more liberal United Democratic Party (UDP) in 1973 a genuine two-party system emerged, with ethnic difference threatening more recently to replace political ideology as the main distinction between the two. The views of the PUP and UDP, as well as those of more minor parties, on the developments described above are represented in the materilas held here.

The period of military rule in the 1970s is the primary focus of the small amount of material held here, with groups attempting to pressurize the government into accepting the need for a return to civilian rule.

Between 1953 and 1963 Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland formed a nominally self-governing Federation, which was eventually terminated prior to the independence of the latter two territories as Zambia and Malawi. Given the restrictions on African electoral participation the government of the Federation was effectively dominated by white parties, with the United Federal Party under first Godfrey Huggins and later Roy Welensky in power throughout this period.

The Solomon Islands became independent in July 1978.

In the course of the 1960s three major guerrilla organisations emerged in opposition to Portuguese rule over Angola. The MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) had its headquarters in Zambia and was Marxist in outlook whilst the FNLA (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola) was based in the Congo. The other group, founded in 1966 under the leadership of Jonas Savimbi, was UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola). Materials from all of these parties are held here, relating primarily to their roles in the liberation struggle (before the 1974 coup in Portugal hastened its departure from its colonies), but also dealing with their part in the civil wars and repeated foreign interventions which have subsequently dogged Angola.

Dominica passed between French and British hands several times in its colonial history and this, coupled with the early emergence of land-owning ex-slaves meant the island developed along different political lines to the big sugar colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica. By 1961 a Democratic Labour Party government had been elected, and it was this party which led Dominica first to associated statehood in 1967 and then to full independence eleven years later. 1980 saw the election of the Caribbean's first female prime minister, Eugenia Charles (Dominica Freedom Party), and although she had to survive coup attempts during her fifteen-year premiership subsequent peaceful transfers of power appeared to indicate that Dominica's political system was still functioning. The two disparate groups whose materials are held here constitute on the one-hand an old-fashioned organisation representing producers' interests (the Dominica Peasant Proprietors' Union) and on the other a classic pressure group seeking to prevent a miscarraige of justice in the case of Desmond Trotter, a black political activist accused of the murder of an American tourist. This latter group produced materials both in Dominica and in London in their successful efforts to overturn the death sentence passed on Trotter.

The former French colony of Martinique became an Overseas Department of the French Republic in 1946. Political parties tend to be departmental counterparts to those of metropolitan France. The only party represented here is the Parti communiste martiniquais.

Though some of the material here does date back to the latter period of British rule, the majority is from the 1950s-1980s and is concerned with the India that emerged from independence and partition . The ramifications of the circumstances in which the new republic was born are present in much of the party literature here, in terms of the relationship with Pakistan, the struggle between secular and non-secular ideas of the state and the attempt to maintain a position of non-alignment during the Cold War. Other recurring themes are the issues of the dominant role of the Congress Party (with all the subsequent implications for Indian democracy that this entailed), and the seemingly intractable problem of widespread poverty. Also of interest are the materials dealing with the communist parties, with much early debate centring on the contradictions of theoretically anti-parliamentary organisations operating in the democratic sphere - brought to the fore in Kerala with the formation of the first elected communist ministry in the world in 1959 - and later arguments dealing with the repositioning of these still powerful parties given the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.

Post-war materials predominate in this collection, with the majority of the items dating from the 1960s-1980s. Both main electoral parties (the New Zealand Labour Party and the New Zealand National Party) feature significantly, with the most notable of the issues contested being the economy, especially from the 1970s as world events began to intrude upon New Zealand's previous policy of protectionism, and foreign affairs. The latter provided the largest gap between Labour and the Nationals, the latter continuing to orient policy towards America and the West whilst the former withdrew troops from Vietnam, forced the cancellation of the 1973 Springboks tour and displayed persistent opposition to French nuclear testing in the Pacific. That nuclear technology and other environmental issues were becoming significant political factors in New Zealand in the 1970s is shown by the rise of the Values Party. Although brief this represented the first instance worldwide of a 'green party' commanding significant mass support. Also represented here is the Social Credit Party and its precursor, the Social Credit Political League, adhering to the C.H. Douglas doctrine of cheap money and constituting New Zealand's third party from the 1950s onwards. Outside the realm of electoral politics there are a variety of items produced by right-wing parties of various seriousness, including the National Front and the Imperial British Conservative Party, and a large collection of materials produced by various incarnations of the New Zealand Communist Party. The decision of the latter to take China's side in its dispute with the Soviet Union led to the formation of the Socialist Unity Party in 1966, and another splinter group, the pro-Chinese New Zealand Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) emerged after the mother party transferred its allegiance to Hoxha's Albania after the death of Mao in 1976. All of these labyrinthine quarrels are reproduced here.

The legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism dominated Jamaican politics throughout the period that the materials held here cover, and as a consequence all the items are connected in some way with Jamaican independence, whether reflecting upon the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, warning against the INF agreements of 1977-1978 or discussing the merits of a republican constitution.

Both the major political parties in Guyana had ties to the trades union movement, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) being affiliated to the People's National Congress (PNC) and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) having close links to the People's Progressive Party (PPP). In addition PPP governments were twice suspended in the pre-independence period as a consequence of labour unrest, first in 1953 when the Guiana Industrial Workers' Union struck in favour of a piece of industrial legislation, and then in 1964 when the pro-opposition TUC organised a general strike which led to British intervention and the introduction of proportional representation. The 1964 General Strike is defended in the materials held here, which also include details of sugar trade labour-management agreements and congress reports from the 1970s and 1980s when the unions were involved in supoporting Forbes Burnham's programme of nationalisation.

Swaziland held its first legislative council elections in 1964 and became independent in 1968.

The politics of the areas now known as Malaysia have been dominated since independence by ethnic divisions which have permeated the economic as well as the cultural and political spheres. While the Malays form a majority of the population under the British they were largely excluded from urban roles and economic ownership in favour of the large Chinese minority, while the Indian community largely worked in serflike conditions on the peninsula's rubber plantations. The Federation of Malaya was created in 1952, and the aforementioned differences were initially resolved by the formation of the Alliance Party comprising the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the Malayan - later Malaysian - Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malayan - later Malaysian - Indian Congress (MIC). This multi-racial umbrella organisation presided over independence in 1957 and the merger with Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah which created the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 (Singapore left in 1965). Yet subsuming potentially antagonistic groups inside the Alliance almost guaranteed that the challenge to one-party rule would draw on the dissatisfaction of ethnic groups which no longer felt the original parties were representing their interests, and so new parties emerged in opposition, most notably the largely Malay Parti Islam-Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the predominantly Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP). The advances of the latter in the 1969 elections led to communal rioting and the two-year suspension of parliament, which was dominated upon its recall by a new coalition, the Barisan Nasional, based upon the Alliance but with a greater Malay dominance. This party has remained in power since, presiding over the impressive Malaysian growth of the New Economic Policy period of the 1970s and 1980s but also over a democratic process which looked increasingly unlikely to offer any possibility of a change of government.

Prior to UDI in 1965 only all-white unions and African unions formed after 1959 were legally recognised in what was then Southern Rhodesia, and in addition these unions had to be skill-based rather than general. After 1965, repressive labour policies forced many unionists, including the leadership of the African Trades Union Congress (ATUC), into exile. Given government antipathy and splits within the labour movement, with some unionists advocating a less political stance and association with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) while others left to support the guerrilla war (1966-1980), trade unions remained weak until independence. Subsequently the ZANU-PF regime sought to control the workforce through the creation of a new confederation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), designed to be compliant with government labour policy. The majority of the materials held here date from before 1980, and originate from both blue and white-collar and African and European unions.

The majority of the materials currently held in this collection originate from the Singapore National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), a union federation loyal to the state and geared more towards guaranteeing productivity than fighting for worker's rights. A large part of their output here comprises reports on tripartite meetings with government and employers, as well as pamphlets designed to inform their membership of relevant legislation or of changes in economic policy.

The vast majority of the materials held in this collection date from the period between UDI in 1965 and Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, and include items issued by organisations both supporting and opposing majority rule. Many of the former were based abroad, and they also include in their number several Christian groups. Materials published by the pioneering multi-racial project the Cold Comfort Farm Society are also held here.

Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, became independent in 1971. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Mujib) and his pro-independence Awami League party held power until 1975, when he was assassinated following his declaration of a one-party state. Coup and counter-coup followed with the League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of General Ziaur Rahman (assassinated 1981) alternating in government through the 1980s and 1990s. The materials here, all originating from this turbulent period, are either the product of the ruling party of the time or of the brief moments in which multi-party democracy was tolerated.

Trinidad and Tobago gained independence following the dissolution of the British West Indies federation in 1962 with Eric Williams of the People's National Movement (PNM) becoming Prime Minister. He retained this position until his death in 1981, and it was only in 1986 that the PNM were finally removed from power. The first-past-the-post electoral system combined with a polarisation of political support along racial grounds (the majority of PNM support came from those of African descent, whilst Indians tended to support first the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and from 1976 the United Labour Front (ULF)) is cited in these materials as explaining the PNM's longevity in power. Williams survived the austerity of the 1960s and the surge in support for Black Power ideas around the time of the declaration of a state of emergency in 1970 (represented in print here by the Tapia House Movement), but his government subsequently benefitted from the revenues accrued from the post-1974 rise in oil prices. The overwhelming defeat suffered by the PNM in the 1986 elections followed the formation of an umbrella opposition group. the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), which garnered votes from both main racial constituencies. The NAR was made up of the Organisation of National Reconstruction (ONR), the Democratic Action Congress (DAC), United Labour Force (ULF), and Tapia (the political party which evolved from the Tapia House Movement), subsequently splitting into the United National Congress (UNC) and a rump party which retained the NAR name. Materials from all of the groups referred to here are held in the collection.

A significant number of the materials held here are British in origin, and include both the publications of human rights pressure groups campaigning for the release of political prisoners during the presidency of Daniel Arap Moi, and the Voice of Kenya newsletter which presented the viewpoint of the European population of Kenya at the time of the Mau Mau freedom movement in the 1950s. Organisations concerned with the pre-independence constitutional debates and with the demand for increased democracy in the 1980s are also represented, and there is also a constitution originating from the main Kenyan trade union federation.

The materials predating independence from Portugal in 1975 include reports detailing the progress of the conflict, appeals for international solidarity and letters and statements relating to the intercine disputes within the movement. Later items include reports from party congresses and legislative documents issued jointly by party and state. Also contained here are materials critical of FRELIMO issued by other Mozambican anti-colonialist movements.

Uganda achieved its independence in 1962 with Milton Obote of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) as chief minister. The UPC had formed an alliance with Kabaka Yekka, the monarchist party of the Buganda region, in order to defeat the mainly Catholic Democratic Party. Materials from all these groups are held here, many originating from the 1962 elections which were the last to be held in Uganda until 1980. During this period the influence of the military in the country steadily increased, following an army mutiny in 1964 and the Kabaka's deposition in 1966, and culminating in the 1971 coup d'etat that brought Ida Amin to power. The war with Tanzania in 1978-1979 was the catalyst for the removal of Amin's dictatorial regime, but though Obote and the UPC were returned to power in the 1980 election, further human rights abuses eventually led to the installation of a so-called no-party democracy under Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1986. The events of these traumatic years are documented here and in the Ugandan Pressure Groups Materials.

As the Burnham administration moved to consolidate its power in the years following independence in 1966 groups like the Civil Liberties Action Council emerged challenging the erosion of rights in Guyana and disputing the fairness of various national and local elections. This criticism provoked further repressive measures which in turn stimulated the formation of the likes of the Guyana Human Rights Association and groups affiliated to the major political parties such as the Women's Progressive Organisation (linked to the PPP) and the Women's Revolutionary Socialist Movement (linked to the PNC).

Modern trade unionism can be said to have begun in Dominica in 1945 with the formation of the Dominica Trade Union. The Dominica Amalgamated Workers' Union (DAWU), whose history is to be found here, grew out of this original organisation. In contrast, the Civil Service Association (CSA) was formed independently of the general unions like DAWU and, in the advertisement preserved here is seen to be concerning itself with the political issues facing the country, particularly the question of sovereignty.

The 1950s and 1960s saw an expansion in union power and membership as the high demand for labour in a growing economy strengthened its representatives' bargaining power. At the same time the merger of the Canadian Congress of Labour and the Trades and Labor Congress, which formed the Canadian Labor Congress, both allowed labour to present a more united front and facilitated the setting up in 1961 of the New Democratic Party, a political party intended at least in part to represent union interests. Yet by the 1970s and 1980s the movement found itself on the back foot, as the Trudeau wage controls and later demands for a more flexible workforce and the loss of manufacturing jobs contributed to the erosion of hard-won rights. The materials here, mainly from union confederations, deal with their internal and external responses to the changing conditions described above.

The materials held here all date from the period between the official acceptance in 1990 of the Hong Kong Basic Law as the constitution after handover and the last elections under the British in 1994. The major issue for the parties and groups represented here is the prospect of Chinese rule and its implications for democracy and human rights in the Special Administrative Region. As Hong Kong is no longer part of the Commonwealth this collection is now considered closed.

Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla became a separate British dependency in 1962 following the dissolution of the British West Indies federation, and an associated state in 1967. In 1980 Anguilla, which had long proclaimed its independence from the other two islands, was legally reconstituted as a dependency in its own right and in 1983 Saint Kitts and Nevis as it was then known became independent.

Cyprus was ruled by Britain between 1878 and 1960, first under 'lease' from the Ottoman Empire and then as a colony after 1914. A growing desire amongst the Greek Cypriot majority for 'enosis' or union with Greece culminated in an armed uprising between 1955 and 1959. The Turkish Cypriot minority naturally opposed enosis and instead favoured partition, a solution unacceptable to the majority. Agreement on independence made Cyprus a republic with minority rights protected by the constitution, these accords being guaranteed by Greece and Turkey as well as Britain. Continuing intercommunal violence and military posturing by the two 'mother' countries culminated in the 1974 Athens-inspired coup and subsequent Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus. Most of the materials held here deal with the events of 1974 and arguments over how to resolve the division of the island, although the significant collections of EDEK and AKEL materials show the complicated position of the Greek Cypriot left, who were hostile to the Greek military junta and also suspicious of Cyprus being used as a pawn by NATO due to its strategic importance.

Canada emerged from World War Two with the power and jurisdiction of its federal government greatly enhanced by the necessity of wartime controls and centralization, and the post-war period has borne witness to a complex debate between the provinces and Ottawa as to the extent to which this power should be limited or even relinquished. Complicating the issue has been the presence within the confederation of predominantly francophone Quebec, where the desire for special status or even independence has in turn impacted upon the demands made by the other provinces and territories. This has also had an effect on the political party system, with perhaps only the Liberals (and until recently the Progressive Conservatives) consistently being able to lay claim to being a truly national party whilst other essentially regionalist parties (Social Credit, Bloc Quebecois, the Reform Party and arguably the New Democratic Party) sent representatives to the national parliament. External relations have also been a focus for debate, with concern centring on the United States and its economic and cultural influence, as well as the consequences for Canadian foreign policy of following the lead of its powerful neighbour. These issues and others are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials held here.

Since achieving independence in 1960 Nigeria has oscillated between periods of civilian and military rule. From the start the fact that that the three main parties (the Northern People's Congress (NPC), the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and the Action Group (AG)) largely represented particular ethnic and linguistic groups made for a volatile political environment. Two coups in 1966 led to a suspension of electoral politics until 1979, when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Alhaji Shehu Usman Shagari took power following victory in the elections of that year. The result was repeated four years later, but against a background of vote-rigging allegations the military overthrew the government. Despite changes of leader, limited tolerance of political parties and aborted elections it was not until the 1999 polls that under Olusegun Obasanjo of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) the country returned to civilian administration. The vast majority of the holdings date from the periods when party politics was tolerated, and include regional and seperatist materials occasioned by the religious, tribal and linguistic divisions that have dogged Nigeria since independence. Another recurring theme is that of economic crisis and foreign exploitation, relected particularly in items originating from left-wing and nationalist political parties and in the small amount of trade union material. Besides items produced in Nigeria itself there are also a significant number of newsletters and pamphlets originating from the United Kingdom branches of parties and organisations, most of them dating from the periods of military rule.

The two main issues arising in the pressure groups' materials held here are those of discrimination against scheduled castes and of inter-community violence and human rights abuses reported in the early 1990s.

Although the Falkland Islands are now most famous for the 1982 war the materials held here do not deal directly with that conflict. However there are indications of early islander opposition to the prospect of Argentinian sovereignty in descriptions of the 1968 visit by Lord Chalfont which sought to faciliate the transfer of the islands, and of British efforts throughout the 1970s to tie economic investment to closer political co-operation with the Argentines. The items from the 1989 election are also interesting in this respect, showing that the war, whilst still an issue, is less significant than the need to ensure continuing economic stability. The shortage of political party materials can to an extent be ascribed to the Falklands' tradition of non-partisan candidates standing in elections.

By the late nineteenth century trade union membership density in Australia was among the highest in the world and as a consequence attracted international interest from labour historians, most notably from Sidney and Beatrice Webb. By the mid 1970s over half of the workforce was unionised, a figure significantly greater than that for Britain, wherein many of Australia's principles had originated. The recognition by the union movement of the need for political represention had led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party, a British-style union-based organisation as distinct from the social democrat parties more prevalent in Europe. The relationship between the ALP and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is one of the major threads running through Australian union history, and significant material is held in this collection dealing with the Prices and Incomes Accord - the 1983 pact between the Labor Government of Bob Hawke and the unions. Other items are concerned with individual unions and particular labour disputes, including the wildcat strikes by Sydney Opera House construction workers in the late 1970s, and there are items indicating the stance of unions on single issues such as uranium mining, as well as posters and publicity material relecting on the movement itself and its history.

Previously known as British Honduras, Belize finally became independent in 1981, the process having been delayed more by the unresolved sovereignty dispute with Guatemala (which did not recognise the new state until 1992) than by instransigence on the behalf of London. The colony had enjoyed universal suffrage from 1954 and was granted full internal self-government from 1964, with George Price's People's United Party (PUP) and its anti-colonial stance initially dominating the domestic political scene. From the formation of the economically more liberal United Democratic Party (UDP) in 1973 a genuine two-party system emerged, with ethnic difference threatening more recently to replace political ideology as the main distinction between the two. The views of the PUP and UDP, as well as those of more minor parties, on the developments described above are represented in the materials held here.

Saint Helena is still a British Dependent Territory administered by a governor, with the legislative council representing the islanders having a limited voice in the actual running of their affairs.

Jamaican politics, like those of many nations in the region emerging from British rule, has been dominated by parties with close trade union links. The founder of the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) gave his name to its main affiliated union, the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), while its leading rival, the People's National Party (PNP), is supported by the National Workers' Union (NWU). The JLP won the first elections conducted under full universal adult suffrage in 1944 and later the 1962 elections to determine which party would lead Jamaica to independence (following four years in which the country was part of the Federation of the West Indies). In 1972 the PNP's Michael Manley (son of the party's founder Norman Manley) was elected on a programme of social reform whose attempted implementation led to conflict with vested interests on the island (now increasingly represented by the JLP and Edward Seaga) and with the United States. The PLP won the following elections but were defeated at the polls in 1980, both campaigns being marked by violence between the supporters of the two parties. Following a decade of JLP rule Manley and the PLP, having essentially abandoned their previous political stance, returned to power in 1989 and have remained the governing party since.

In 1901 the previously self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania came together to form the Commonwealth of Australia, and the struggle for authority between these states (and the later admitted Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory) and the federal centre has remained an issue ever since. Other issues that have dominated the post-war political scene include debates over republicanism, the perennial emergence of third party forces to challenge the hegemony of the ALP and the Liberal-National Party coalition and the fear of the other, most often evoked by immigration but also by the perceived threat of communism pre-1989. Possibly the most controversial episode of the recent political past was the 1975 Whitlam dismissal crisis, which provoked still unresolved arguments over the constitution and the relationship between the House of Representatives and the Senate. All of these issues are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials here held.

Guadeloupe changed hands been France and Britain many times before settling as a French colony in 1815. Since 1946 it has been an overseas département of France.

The British colonies in the Caribbean were united in the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962; most of the members sought independence separately after the union collapsed.

Having been a self-governing colony since 1923 ruled by a white minority Southern Rhodesia became part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953 along with Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi). The tensions between the white settlers of Southern Rhodesia who dominated the federal government, and the northern territories, where the cause of African nationalism was more advanced, led to the breakup of the Federation in 1963 and the independence of Zambia and Malawi. Southern Rhodesia, governed since 1962 by the right-wing Rhodesian Front (RF), remained under British rule as a consequence of the policy of NIBMAR (No Independence Before Majority African Rule). This was rejected by the RF which in 1963 had banned the two main African political parties, the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) led by Joshua Nkomo and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) of Ndabaningi Sithole. Instead, folowing their clean sweep of the European legislative assembly seats in 1965 the RF and their new leader Ian Smith issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), resulting in largely ineffective Commonwealth and later UN sanctions. British attempts to resolve the crisis continued, but the 1971 Anglo-Rhodesian Settlement Proposals were reported to have been rejected by 97% of the Africans polled by the Pearce Commission sent the following year to examine their acceptability, and in fact served only to mobilise and energise African resistance. The African National Council (ANC) led by Bishop Muzorewa became a permanent political party, while guerrilla activities by ZANU and ZAPU intensified. Political and military strategies for the achievement of majority rule continued to be pursued by various African nationalist leaders throughtout the 1970s. A split in ZANU led to the emergence of Robert Mugabe as its leader in place of Sithole, assisted by Mugabe's control of the ZANU's military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Meanwhile the independence of Angola and Mozambique shifted the balance of power in southern Africa as a whole as well as that of the Zimbabwean armed struggle, with the new Mozambiquen government providing support for ZANU and ZANLA whilst Zambia provided a base for ZAPU. On the domestic front a series of shifting alliances developed, with Mugabe and Nkomo placing their organisations under the umbrella of Muzorewa's ANC, only to withdraw in 1975-1976 and announce the formation of the Patriotic Front (PF) comprising just ZANU and ZAPU. Following this split the ANC became the United African National Council, whilst Sithole, who had also briefly joined Muzorewa in the ANC left in 1977 to form the ANC (Sithole). The key distinction was that Muzorewa was prepared to make concessions in negotiations with Smith and the RF that Nkomo and Mugabe were not, and the OAU and the international community tended to see the Patriotic Front as more representative of African opinion than the UANC. Thus though the latter won the elections of 1979 and Muzorewa became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, the failure of the PF to participate forced all parties to return to the table, and following the Lancaster House talks new elections were held in 1980 under a constitution more amenable to Nkomo and Mugabe. ZANU and ZAPU contested the election seperately, and Mugabe's party's convincing win led to his becoming the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, the leadership of which country he has held ever since. The majority of the materials held here date from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and cover all of the main African and European parties, and all of the major issues alluded to here. A smaller proportion of the collection predates this period, and there are also a number of items from post-independence Zimbabawe.

Montserrat is a self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom, having previously been a member of the West Indies Federation from 1958-1962.

Mauritius was a British colony from its capture from the French 1810 until its independence in 1968, but it maintained both its Napoleonic institutions and its Franco-Mauritian business elite. Other ethnic groups on the island include a Creole population descended from the French plantation owners and their slaves and both Muslim and Hindu Indo-Mauritians who arrived as indentured labourers from 1835 after the abolition of slavery. Since the country's first elections in 1947 Hindu-led parties have monopolised power, with the Parti travailliste (Mauritius) ruling the country until 1982 before being supplanted by an alliance of the Mouvement militant mauricien (MMM) and the Mouvement socialiste mauricien (MSM).

Tanganiyika became independent in 1961, with Julius K. Nyerere as first its Prime Minister and then its President. In 1964 it merged with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, soon renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. Nyerere dominated Tanzanian politics until stepping down in 1985, turning the country first into a two-party state (led by his Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the Afro-Shirazi Party of Zanzibar) and in 1977 into a one-party one through the combination of these two to form Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM).

The material here is the product of a local anti-apartheid group.

During the period covered by these holdings the islands now known as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines passed from being part of the Windward Islands colonial group (up to 1958) through membership of the British West Indies federation (1958-1962) to being first a separate dependency (1962), then an associated state (1969) and finally independent in 1979.

A large proportion of the material held here dates from the 1950s and 1960s, encompassing the build-up to and eventual realisation of Malta's independence in 1964. Amongst the significant debates of this period were the question of the consequences for Malta's economy of any reduction in the British military presence on the island and the merits of the various options of integration, interdependence and independence. The collection also covers the post-independence electoral struggle between the two main parties, the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party, led for a long time by Dom Mintoff, whose writings and speeches feature prominently here. The antipathy of the Catholic Church to Mintoff's Labour Party led to the formation of alternatives, such as the Christian Workers Party, and there are holdings for these alongside those of other minority parties, trades unions and pressure groups.

As a consequence of the policies of the South African government nearly all pressure groups, whatever their particular issues, found themselves having to focus on apartheid. Thus the material here largely falls into two categories, being either concerned directly with the struggle to overthrow the system (and in a few cases with the struggle to maintain it) or with an area on which apartheid most directly impacted. The entrenchment of inequality in education provoked the emergence of numerous groups representing both students and teachers, and similarly there is much evidence here of opposition to the policy of forced removals. The sheer number of groups represented here is both an indication of extensive radicalisation within society and a reflection of how the outlawing of various political parties left a greater space for other organisations to contest these issues.

The bulk of this collection dates from the period in the history of Namibia (formerly South West Africa) after 1977 when the UN, the Western Contact Group (including France, West Germany, Canda, the United States and Great Britain) and the front-line states increasingly sought to bring about a resolution to the ongoing struggle between SWAPO and apartheid South Africa's armed forces in the country. Thus the materials can be roughly divided into those emanating from groups representing the German-speaking minority, such as the Interessengemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger Südwester (IG), and those campaigning on behalf of organisations opposed to South African rule, like the Namibia Support Committee and the SWAPO Women's Solidarity Campaign. Both sought to interpret and influence the discussions as they progressed. Some of the items are particularly interesting for the connections drawn between uranium mining in Namibia and the 1984 miners' strike in Great Britain.

Sierra Leone's 1951 constitution inaugurated a process of increasing self-government culminating in independence in 1961. Its first post-independence elections were won by the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in 1962, but after an unsuccessful attempt to establish a one-party state the SLPP was defeated at the polls in 1967 by the All People's Congress (APC) of Siaka Stevens. This prompted a series of coups and counter-coups until eventually Stevens assumed the prime ministership of the country in 1968. Having himself successfully enacted a one-party state in 1978 he and his successor Joseph Saidu Momoh ruled Sierra Leone until 1992, when the combination of an armed rebellion from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and a coup overthrowing Momoh and installing a National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) plunged the country into a civil war from which it is only now tentatively emerging. The majority of the materials held here date from the period between the granting of the first constitution and the 1992 coup, and originate from both the governing party and opposition groups objecting to failures of democracy and perceived economic mismanagement. There are also a significant quantity of items produced by the country's Electoral Commission for the instruction of voters at the crucial 1967 election.