Lt Col Ferdinand Otto Miksche, 11 Apr 1904-23 Dec 1992, was a soldier and a diplomat, an expert in central European politics, a military strategist, and a prolific writer on military affairs. Miksche's reputation as a military theorist flourished with the publication of Blitzkrieg (Faber and Faber, London, 1941) and Is bombing decisive? (Allen and Unwin, London, 1943). In London, he was a staff officer with Gen Charles André Joseph Marie De Gaulle's Free French forces and a regular military commentator for the London Times. His book Is bombing decisive?, or Contra Seversky as it was known in the United States, attracted attention in Britain and the United States due to its condemnation of the air power theories of Russian-American author Maj Alexander Prokofiev Seversky.
Intensive care developed rapidly in the 1960s and an increasing number of hospitals established units to care for patients requiring more detailed observation and treatment than in standard wards, with a high ratio of medical staff to patients. Anaesthetists emerged as the dominant specialty among consultants in charge of intensive care units (ICUs) in the UK, given their skills in the care of acutely ill patients, in life support and patient comfort, and in caring for other physicians' patients. The Intensive Care Society was founded in 1970 on the initiative of Alan Gilston, Consultative Anaesthetist to the National Heart Hospital, London, having a multi-disciplinary membership. The Intensive Care Society is an organisation of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom, membership of which is open to those with an interest in Intensive Care Medicine. There were over 2,000 members in 2002, largely but not exclusively anaesthetists. Through its Council (which meets six times a year) the Society provides advice to the Department of Health and NHS Executive on aspects of intensive care and to the Royal Colleges on provision of intensive care, staffing and training. Its educational activities include organising national and local meetings. It also produces guidelines on relevant topics and other publications including its Journal.
During the retreat and withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from France in May 1940, approximately 100 soldiers from 2 Bn, Royal Norfolk Regt, were taken prisoner when the house in which they were surrounded was overrun by troops of the SS Totenkopf Div. The collection consists of German Army memoranda and witness statements relating to the shooting.
The inaugural meeting of the committee was held on 14 October 1943. Its object was to advise Government on the interests of insurance companies in post-war settlements. The committee considered all classes of business dealt with by the companies: accident, fire and life insurance. Lloyd's of London had its own War Settlement Committee.
The Conference of University Teachers of German (CUTG) was founded in 1932, with the aim of of meeting annually 'to discuss matters pertaining to the study of German in all its branches, to promote the study thereof, to encourage research, and generally to foster high standards of competence among university teachers of German'. Membership is open to any person who holds a full-time or part-time teaching or research appointment within the field of or including German Studies at a university in Great Britain or Ireland, or at a college within such a university.
Since 1967 the CUTG has published an annual survey of Research in Germanic Studies. In 1986 the Conference established a fund for Postgraduate Travelling Scholarships; further initiatives in recent years include the CUTG website (1996), the CUTG-sponsored e-mail discussion list german-studies (1998), a series of annual publications of proceedings from the meetings of the Conference, and further funds to support Publication Scholarships and an annual Essay Prize.
The Camberwell Register was set up in 1964 by the Medical Research Council Social Psychiatry Unit led by Dr Lorna Wing, based at the Institute of Psychiatry, now part of King's College London. It began operation in January 1965. Its purpose was to provide an in-depth and cumulative source of data on the users of psychiatric services in a defined geographical area to test various hypotheses concerning the influence of social factors on the onset, course and outcome of psychiatric disorders. Camberwell was chosen as a testing ground because of the vicinity of the Maudsley and Bethlem Royal Hospitals, and it constituted one of a number of such registers to be compiled at this time in the United Kingdom and internationally, most notably at Aberdeen, Cardiff, Worcester, Nottingham and Northampton. It measured contact and monitored changes in the uptake of services and collected social and clinical information on sufferers and included both in-patients and out-patients. Data was initially only accumulated in hard-copy but was later also transferred to temporary electronic storage based at the University of London Computer Centre. Analysis programs were written to provide year by year statistics on the progress of the project. The register evaluated the effectiveness of competing community-based and hospital-based rehabilitation, the value of specialised psychotherapy and long term support, and provided invaluable statistics on the demography, socio-economic breakdown and distribution of the mentally ill, their support and care. The project ended in 1984 but follow-up data has accrued since then.
The Institute of Psychiatry was opened in 1923 as the medical school of the Maudsley Hospital, which was established in 1914 to treat the mentally ill. It was recognised by the University of London and changed its name to the Institute of Psychiatry in 1948, before becoming a school of King's College London in 1997. The Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) were developed under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) and its International Classification of Diseases as a common set of standards to assess, measure and classify psychiatric disorders. The prototype was devised in 1980 and subsequent components such as training manuals, schedules, results of field trials and glossary were published up until 1998. SCAN is used as a classification and reference tool by psychiatrists and comprises a structured interview, encoding and computer programme to produce a standard diagnostic presentation.
CUTLASS was an Institute of Psychiatry research study, conducted 1999-2000. Funded by the National Health Service, the study aimed to establish whether the financial cost of new atypical medications for schizophrenia were offset by an increased quality of life for the patient.
The Maudsley Hospital Medical School was opened in 1923 as. It was associated to the Maudsley Hospital, which was established in 1914 to treat the mentally ill. It was officially recognised by the University of London in [1933]. In 1948 it became a founder member of the newly formed British Postgraduate Medical Federation and changed its name to the Institute of Psychiatry. Maudsley Hospital amalgamated with the Bethlem Royal Hospital to form a joint teaching hospital in 1948. The Institute of Psychiatry became a school of King's College London in 1997.
The Finance and General Purposes Committee's functions were to advise on financial matters, scrutinise the strategic plan, and assume responsibility for risk assessment. When the Institute became a school of King's College London in Oct 1997 its functions were reduced, it was henceforth known as the Finance Committee.
The Maudsley Hospital Medical School was opened in 1923 as. It was associated to the Maudsley Hospital, which was established in 1914 to treat the mentally ill. It was officially recognised by the University of London in [1933]. In 1948 it became a founder member of the newly formed British Postgraduate Medical Federation and changed its name to the Institute of Psychiatry. Maudsley Hospital amalgamated with the Bethlem Royal Hospital to form a joint teaching hospital in 1948. The Institute of Psychiatry became a school of King's College London in 1997.
The Academic Board was responsible for the academic policy of the Institute. In Oct 1997, when the Institute became a school of King's College London, the Academic Board was renamed the Institute Board.
Photographs displayed on the walls in a corridor at the Institute of Psychiatry. They were taken down when the Neurology Building in Windsor Walk was opened in 1980.
In 1936 Eliot Slater obtained a Medical Recearch Council grant to set up a twin register. In 1948 that led to a system at the Maudsley Hospital by which every patient was asked if they were born a twin and if they were, their names went on a register. The resulting Maudsley Twin Register formed the basis of much high quality research. This included a key monograph on the genetics of schizophrenia by Irving Gottesman and James (Jerry) Shields as members of the Psychiatric Genetics Unit. They argued the probabilistic rather than deterministic role of gender and were the first to apply a genetic - environmental multifactorial threshold model in modern psychiatry. In 1969 Slater retired and the Psychiatric Genetics Unit closed but research continued under Shields. Following his death in 1978 a section on psychiatric genetics was established within the Department of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, based at the Maudsley, under the leadership of Professor Robin Murray. Successive studies of adult and child twins, drawing on the Twins Register, have and continue to shed light on the epidemiology and genetic and environmental causes of or impact on schizophrenia and other personality disorders.
The Institute of Meat was formed in 1946 as a membership company which provided the organization and management of the UK meat industry training. It was based at 19-20 Holborn Viaduct, 1946-73, 91-3 Charterhouse Street, 1973-85, 56-60 St John Street, and Butchers' Hall, 1985-94, but also held meetings at other venues. Its training and educational roles were taken over in 1993 by the newly-formed Meat Training Council. The Institute continued as an independent body, changing its name at some point after 1995 to the Worshipful Company of Butchers' Guild to reflect its close association with the livery company.
In 1953 the Vintners' Company and the Wine and Spirit Association founded the qualification 'Master of Wine', awarded to those who passed a rigorous exam. The aim was to improve the standard of the British wine trade and promote professional excellence. The Institute was founded in 1955 by those who passed the first exam. It is now an independent body which runs the education programme and administers the Master of Wine exams.
The Institute of London Underwriters (ILU) was established in 1884 as the trade association for insurance companies transacting marine, aviation, and transport business in the London market. Although comparable in some respects to other representative market bodies, it differed from many of these in that it was concerned with the day-to-day business of the market as well as matters of policy. The governing body of the Institute was the Committee of fifteen, elected from among the nominated representatives of its member companies. The Committee in turn elected a Chairman and Deputy Chairman, both normally serving for two years.
The Institute was at first simply an association of underwriters working in the London market. It stemmed from informal meetings of London underwriters to discuss mutual problems. The underwriters recognised that more formal association would be helpful in many ways, such as providing an official channel for talks with governments, shipowners or even other insurers. From the earliest days, the Institute took a dominant role in trying to improve a variety of clauses in general use. Until the Second World War, the Institute remained a small secretariat concerned with promoting its members' interests in general rather than providing services to help process their business. However, the shortage of civilian labour during the Second World War led to the formation of a central Policy Department in October 1942, and the Institute's role began to grow substantially. During 1946, the Institute's Articles of Association were extended to comprise vessels, aircraft, cargoes, freight or other objects of marine, aviation and transit insurance. Lloyd's underwriters were included in membership in the early years, but Lloyd's Underwriters' Association was founded as a separate body in 1909. Nevertheless, the Institute continued to provide a secretariat to deal with questions of interest to the market as a whole. This led to a system of joint ILU/Lloyd'scommittees to monitor topics of interest in particular fields. The Joint Hull Committee was formed in 1910 to discuss all matters connected with hull insurance.
The Technical and Clauses Committee (formed 1925) drew its members from company and Lloyd's underwriters and claim adjusters, to act on mandates from the main committees to revise existing clauses or introduce new ones. The War Risks Rating Committee (formed 1935) monitored situations which might affect the insurance of war risks for cargoes. The Joint Cargo Committee (formed 1942) dealt with insurance of cargo by air as well as by sea.
The Institute was situated at 4 Royal Exchange Buildings (1884-7); 1 St. Michael's House, Cornhill (1887-1930); 37/39 Lime Street (1930-56); 40 Lime Street (1956-86); and 49 Leadenhall Street (1986-98). In 1965 a subsidiary office was opened in Folkestone, to house the Policy Department and accounting centre. In December 1998 the ILU merged with the London International Insurance and Reinsurance Market Association (LIIRMA) to form the International Underwriting Association of London.
In May 1960 Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped in Argentina by Israeli agents and handed over to the police authorities in Israel. The police investigation was put into the hands of a special unit (Bureau 6) which took 9 months to complete its task. The resulting indictment comprised 15 counts of crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership of a hostile organisation.
The trial commenced on 10 April 1961 and Eichmann pleaded not guilty on all counts. Supported by more than 100 witnesses and 1600 documents the prosecution presented its case. The defence made no attempt to challenge the facts of the Holocaust or the authenticity of the documents that were evidence of it. The defence played down Eichmann's involvement and stressed the need to obey orders. The court found Eichmann guilty on all counts and sentenced him to death on 15 December 1961. Eichmann's lawyers lodged an appeal against the verdict and on 29 May 1962 the Israel Supreme Court rejected the appeal. Eichmann was executed on 31 May 1962.
The Institute of Jewish Affairs was founded in New York under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress in 1941, aiming to conduct an investigation of Jewish life over the preceding 25 years, to establish the facts of the position of the Jews during World War Two and determine their causes, and to suggest how Jewish rights might be claimed in a post-war settlement. It conducted research and collected documentation and information on various issues including anti-Semitism. The Insitute moved to London in 1965, maintaining its programme of research and publications into contemporary issues affecting Jewish communities, its regular publications including its report on anti-Semitism. The Institute was renamed the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in 1997.
The Exile Archive was established at the Institute in the academic year 1996-97. The Institute already holds the papers of several individuals such as Rudolf Majut, Herbert Thoma and Berthold Auerbach, who were exiled from Germany and Austria during the 1930s as a result of persecution under the National Socialist regime. However, since the setting up of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, the Institute has attracted archival donations from several emigrés, and the Collection now has material relating to both individuals and organisations.
The Institute of Germanic Studies was founded in 1950. The Institute is primarily a research institute, serving the needs of postgraduate students and scholars from the United Kingdom and abroad. The Institute has a wide-ranging publishing programme, including monographs, volumes of essays, conference proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies. Its programme of activities comprises lectures by guest speakers, symposia on particular authors and/or topics, readings by visiting writers, reading workshops, and colloquia for postgraduate students. The Institute also hosts the intercollegiate course leading to the MA degree in German of the University of London.
The Institute's Library holds over 87,000 volumes (nearly 500 current periodicals). It is widely recognised as the principal research collection for German in the University of London, and is the largest of its kind not only in the United Kingdom, but indeed anywhere outside the German-speaking countries. The reference collection covers the language and literature of all periods, with outstanding holdings of journals, reference works, and contemporary writing. Its book collection starts with the printed works of the late fifteenth century and comes right up to the present, whilst its extensive manuscript and archive holdings (many of which remain unknown and unpublished) range from the mid-ninth century to contemporary poetry.
The Research Centre for German Exile Studies was established at the IGS in 1995, when the Institute offered a home to this new organisation, which combined the former London Research Group for German Exile Studies and the Research Centre for Germans and Austrians in Great Britain, previously at the University of Aberdeen. The work of the Centre focuses on the history of those German-speaking emigrés who found refuge in Great Britain, on their personal recollections and experiences, their reception in British society, and their enrichment of the life of their new country of residence in such varied spheres as the professions, industry and commerce, literature, art and culture, politics, publishing, the media, and the world of entertainment and leisure.
The Institute was founded in 1902 as the London Day Training College. Financed and controlled by the London County Council and with the academic support of the University of London, it was initially a college for training elementary school teachers to work in the capital. In 1909 it became a School of the University of London, losing this status when, in 1932, it was transferred wholly to the control of the University. At this date it also changed its name to the Institute of Education, University of London. During the years it had gradually expanded its role, starting to train secondary school teachers and to offer higher degrees and research. Particularly important were its work in training teachers for colonial service and the establishment of the Child Development Department.
In 1942 the McNair Committee was established by the Board of Education, 'To investigate the present sources of supply and the methods of recruitment and training of teachers and youth leaders and to report what principles should guide the Board in these matters in the future.' It published its report in 1944. It was divided over the best method of reorganising teacher training, and it was four years before, in 1949, a new scheme for London was instituted. An 'Area Training Organisation' (ATO) for the London area was created. Confusingly, this took the name University of London Institute of Education and comprised around thirty affiliated individual colleges and education departments, including the 'old' Institute of Education. A new governing body (Council), and committee structure was created for the scheme to look after syllabuses, examinations, etc for all the constituent colleges which retained their own local governing bodies and administraive structures for local matters. The separate identity of the old Institute, sometimes now termed 'central activity' or 'Central Institute' was ensured by the establishment of a separate governing body (Committee of Management) and committee structure. However, both 'Central' and 'Wider' Institutes were administered from the 'Central Institute' building and shared one single administrative structure (registry, accounts office and examinations department). This arrangement was dissolved in 1975 and in 1987 the Institute once again became a School of the University of London, incorporated by Royal Charter. As a graduate college of the federal University it now offers a wide range of courses including initial teacher education, further professional development and research degree programmes and is a major centre for educational research.
In May 1989, the Institute of Contemporary British History commenced a broad ranging oral history project relating to the education and careers of high-ranking members of the Civil Service, 1947-1982. The interviews were conducted primarily by Dr W Scott Lucas from the University of Birmingham and Professor Anthony Gorst of the University of Westminster, under the auspices of an Institute for Contemporary British History archive project. The interviews were eventually coalesced into the Institute for Contemporary British History Suez Oral History Project, which concerned British political, diplomatic, and military involvement in the Suez Crisis, 1956.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Sabah, previously British North Borneo, joined with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 Trinidad and Tobago labour movement was particularly significant in the 1960s and 1970s, the period from which most of the materials in this collection originate. Particularly well represented are the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), an organisation whose significance mirrored the importance of oil to the country's economy, and the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factories Workers Trade Union (ATSE/FWTU), who represented the largely East Indian sugar cane workers. Though Trinidad and Tobago was unusual in the Caribbean area in that unions tended not to affiliate to political parties, this is not to say that they did not involve themselves in politics - as shown here by the polemics issued by OWTU leader George Weekes against the ruling People's National Movement (PNM), accused of selling out the workers. Also represented here are union federations, of which the most prominent were the Trinidad and Tobago Labour Congress and the Council of Progressive Trade Unions, and many smaller organisations. Following the economic downturn of the 1980s and the opening up of the previously state-dominated economy, union membership and influence declined, but a significant proportion of the workforce continues to be unionised and materials continue to be collected.
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 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 material here is the product of a local anti-apartheid group.