Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie was a German conglomerate of companies formed in 1925 - many produced dyes, but soon later turning to advanced chemistry. IG Farben was founded as a reaction to Germany's defeat in World War One and held a monopoly on chemical production. During the National Socialist regime, it manufactured Zyklon B, a poison used for delousing, and later used as the lethal agent in the gas chambers of the death camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek. The company was a major user of slave labour and as a result 13 directors of IG Farben were sentenced to prison terms between one and eight years before a US military tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials, following the IG Farben Trial (1947-1948). As a result, in 1951, the company was split up into the original constituent companies.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sabah, previously British North Borneo, joined with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.