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.
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.
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.
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.
Niue has been a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand since 1974.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 Classical Studies was founded in 1953 by the Senate of the University of London as a partnership between the University and the Hellenic and Roman Societies. The Portrait Collection has been built up over many years, and is constantly updated.
The United Kingdom Alliance was founded in 1853 in Manchester to work for prohibition of alcohol in the UK. This occurred in a context of support for the type of law passed by General Neal Dow in Maine, USA, in 1846, prohibiting the sale of intoxicants.
It was initiated by Nathaniel Card (1805-1856), an Irish cotton manufacturer and member of the Society of Friends. He had also been a member of the Manchester and Salford Temperance Society since 1852, and was interested in what was coming to be known as the Maine Law. At a private meeting at Card's house on 20 July 1852, the National League for the Total and Legal Suppression of Intemperance was formed. Other members included Alderman William Hervey of Salford and Joseph Brotherton MP (Salford). At the third meeting of the League a Provisional Committee was formed, based in Manchester.
Their objectives were openly political, to form and enlighten public opinion nationally, believing that the self-denying and benevolent efforts of temperance societies would never be able to end the liquor trade while legalised temptation to drink and get drunk was permitted. They aimed for total and immediate legislative suppression of traffic in intoxicating beverages.
The name of the League was changed on 14 Feb 1853, to the UK Alliance for the Suppression of the Traffic in all Intoxicating Liquors, and Sir Walter C Trevelyan, became the first president in June the same year, with a General Council holding its first meeting on October.
A weekly newspaper Alliance News was begun in 1854, a journal of moral and social reform, and sold for one penny. Since 1980 it has been published as a bi-monthly magazine.
They were not a total abstinence society, and membership was open to teetotallers and drinkers alike, by 1858 membership had risen to 4500, and £3000 was raised by subscription for their work. Their chief public spokesman was Sir Wilfrid Lawson, MP (1829-1906).
In 1862, the London Union of Alliance members changed to the London Auxiliary of the Alliance, and appointed it's the first London agent, Rev John Hanson. The Alliance had occupied premised in Victoria St, London, until the decision was made to build a new headquarters. A site in Caxton St was purchased in 1937, the new building - Alliance House - being opened in 1938, at a cost of £75,000.
In 1942, the Alliance became a limited company, the UK Temperance Alliance Ltd. By the 1970s the main role of the Alliance was educational work and its interest had broadened to other areas of addiction besides alcohol (much of which is undertaken by the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS), a trading arm of the Alliance. In 2003, the UK Temperance Alliance was renamed the Alliance House Foundation.
National Temperance Federation (NTF) was reconstituted at its annual meeting in 1936, and declared its policy as the representation of every section of the temperance movement of approximately three million members of temperance organisations throughout the country.
National Commercial Temperance League (NCTL) was formed in the 1890s to appeal to the business and professional community in the economic and ethical field of thought. In 1953, it approached the UKA with a view to amalgamation.
National United Temperance Council (NUTC) was founded in July 1896 at a National Conference of County United Temperance Councils. The aim of both County and National UTCS was to consolidate support amongst various temperance organisations for temperance legislation and to promote the temperance movement in general.
Parliamentary Temperance Committee, consisting of members of parliament supporting temperance legislation was formed around 1906.
The Band of Hope was founded in 1847, with the aim of instructing boys and girls as to the properties of alcohol and the consequences of its consumption. Generally involving midweek meetings with music, slides, competitions and addresses on the importance of total abstinence. By 1855, there were so many local bands that a London Union was formed and in 1864, this was expanded to become the UK Band of Hope Union. By 1901 there were more than 28,000 societies with a total membership of more than 3.5 million children.
International Order of Good Templars (IOGT) was formed around 1852 in the United States of America, it spread to England around 1869, to Scotland and Ireland about 1970, and Wales 1871. Its object was to secure personal abstinence from the use of all intoxicating drinks as a beverage and the prohibition of the manufacture, importation and sale of intoxicating drink. Membership was achieved by signing a lifelong pledge of abstinence.
Working records of the Library were produced in the conduct of business. Gate signing-in books were created at a rate of about 1 per month from 1975 to 1998.
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Secretary and Librarian undertook the administration of the Institute under the direction of the Committee of Management and was also responsible for building up the library. The position was held by K Howard Drake from 1947 until his death in 1967. He was succeeded by W A F P Steiner. In 1971 the functions were separated, with Steiner continuing as IALS Librarian while administrative duties passed to a new Secretary, J A Boxhall.
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies premises at 25 Russell Square were opened on 11 June 1948. The Institute later expanded into 26 Russell Square, and in 1956 took over additional premises at 1 Woburn Square. A new filing system (see A.IALS 5) was instituted for building, works and maintenance files covering the new building at Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, from December 1975.
The Institute moved into the new building at Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, in December 1975; it was officially opened on 1 April 1976.
These estimates were compiled by the Secretary, primarily J A Boxhall.
The files listed below comprise primarily the files of J A Boxhall, Secretary from 1971-1986, when he retired due to ill-health. He was replaced temporarily by H F Patterson. In 1987 a new Administrative Secretary, D E Phillips, was appointed.
Directors of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 1947-1988, have been Sir David Hughes Parry MA, LLD, 1947-1959; Sir Norman D Anderson OBE, MA, LLD, 1960-1976; Professor A L Diamond LLM, 1976-1986; Sir Jack Jacob QC, LLD, Dr Juris, 1986-1988. The Director's functions are as follows: to lay down policy directions for IALS; to give academic leadership; to ensure efficient management; to represent IALS within the University and outside; and to participate on behalf of IALS in the direction and management of the School of Advanced Study.
Miss Muriel Anderson has been Assistant Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies since 1981.
The materials held here cover a wide variety of popular movements and issues in recent Latin American history from both internal (in the form of publications by local pressure groups, oppositional parties and governments) and external perspectives (through the reports and bulletins of NGOs, international conferences and foreign political parties). Inevitably (given the military governments, revolutionary movements and increasingly dominant neo-liberal economic policies which have marked this era in the continent's history) major topics include human rights, poverty, economic sovereignty and the condition of indigenous peoples, whilst the role of the United States in the hemisphere is also considered. Another aspect unique to Latin America is the large amount of material originating from Christian groups, many seeking to "exercise an option in favour of the poor" as promulgated by the II Vatican Council (1962-1965).
Throughout the period covered by the materials held here Mexico was governed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI) although the relatively small number of party political documents in the collection may be seen as testimony to the limited party political challenges to its hegemony. However, increasing concern with the maintenance of internal order in the 1960s was both cause and consequence of the rise in opposition by other organisations to de facto one-party rule, as evinced in these materials by the publications of revolutionary movements, human rights organisations and groups expressing solidarity with the students massacred at Tlatelolco in 1968. Subsequently, the economic crisis which gradually enveloped Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s (as a consequence of high government expenditure and an increasing reliance on falling oil revenues) is reflected in the workers and peasants' movements represented here which prefigure the Zapatista uprising of 1994.
The civil wars, guerilla movements, human rights abuses and economic problems afflicting Central America in the 1970s and 1980s are the chief topics discussed in these documents, primarily authored by non-governmental organisations.
The collection currently consists of materials dating from the three decades that followed the 1959 revolution. Many of the items are official publications originating from either the Communist Party of Cuba or from various government ministries, though in practice the distinction between party and state became increasing blurred. There are also a large number of pamphlets featuring speeches by Fidel Castro. Given Cuba's situation during this period as it faced the antagonism of the United States, sought to maintain a degree of independence within the Soviet orbit and championed the non-aligned movement it is unsurpising that many of these speeches are concerned with foreign policy and foreign affairs (including the wars in Vietnam and Angola and the problems of debt that increasingly faced the whole of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s). Other materials deal with the transistion of Cuba to a state-controlled planned economy and the problems of reconciling this with civil and human rights, though it must be noted that the majority of the items held here (whether produced internally or externally) are broadly in sympathy with the Castro regime.
Following the assassination of Trujillo in 1961 the Dominican Republic endured a series of shortlived governments punctuated by coups prior to the United States military intervention in 1965. This sought to lessen potential communist influence on the island by denying the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) power, and led to the 1966 election victory of Joaquín Balaguer Ricardo. Balaguer ruled until 1978, when American pressure forced him to accept the election victory of the PRD's Antonio Guzmán. Guzmán and his successor Salvador Jorge Blanco checked the role of the military in politics, and attenpted to implement reforms, but the PRD still lost the 1986 elections and Balaguer returned to power. Economically, this period saw the Dominican Republic prosper with a rise in sugar prices, but when these began to fall, US import quotas were cut and oil prices rose. The result was an economic crisis which saw IMF intervention and food riots by 1985. The materials held here reflect these political and economic developments, with the predominant perspectives being those of Christian organisations working with the peasantry and of the main union federation, the Central General de Trabajadores (CGT).
The majority of the materials held here date from the years of Duvalier rule over Haiti, with first François (Papa Doc', 1957-1971) and then his son Jean-Claude (Baby Doc', 1971-1986) controlling the country through a mixture of fraudulent elections, populist gestures and the backing of the military. The elder Duvalier in particular took steps early in his regime to purge the army of officers considered potentially disloyal and to augment it with a loyal rural militia known as the tonton makouts. Under this dictatorship Haitians suffered both human rights abuses and increasing hardship as government corruption ensured that little foreign aid reached the population in general. The issues of aid, health, refugees fleeing the regime and human rights consequently predominate in this collection, which originates in the main from overseas NGOs and Christian charities as well as United States government bodies.
Puerto Rico has been dominated by the United States since its seizure from Spain in 1898. Its ambiguous status, resolved first by making it an unincorporated territory of the United States in 1917 and then by according it Commonwealth status in 1952, persists to this day. Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States, serve in its armed forces and yet cannot vote in Presidential elections. Unsurprisingly constitutional issues feature prominently in the materials held here, with both pro-independence groups on the island and in the United States represented as well as the United Nations Commission on De-Colonization. However, there is a lack of material from those parties which have successfully won referenda to maintain the island's current status, as well as from those who campaign for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state, and probably a disproportionate quantity from the anti-American left.
Following the CIA-backed military coup which removed the reformist government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 Guatemala endured thirty years of military rule, characterised by a tragic spiral of human rights abuses and the growth of guerilla insurgencies, both reinforcing the other. By 1982 the revolutionary groups had merged into the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and it was with this organisation that the civilian government elected in 1984 began negotiations in 1987. Despite various peace agreements and elections violence, abuse and poverty have remained endemic in Guatemala, with army leaders such as General Efrain Rios Montt still not having been brought to face trial. The majority of the materials held here date from the era of military rule and reflect the concerns of NGOs and local groups regarding human rights, poverty, the indigenous peoples, and the need for development. In addition there are materials from guerilla organisations and from Church groups, though the amount of actual party political material is limited.
Most of the materials held here date from the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period in which the tensions that had plagued El Salvador since the 1930s finally erupted into civil war. The war with Honduras in 1969 had exacerbated economic problems and the demand for land reform, whilst the rigging of the 1972 election against the Christian Democratic Party (PDC)'s Jos Napoeon Duarte diminished people's belief in the likelihood of effecting peaceful change. Authoritarian rule and human rights abuses on top of the above led to the formation of a plethora of leftist political and guerrilla groups and an alliance was formed between the Frente Democratico Revolucionario (FDR) and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). Despite elections and new constitutional guarantees the continued operation of paramilitary death squads with the support of the army meant the FDR-FMLN fought on until the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992. The roles of the United States (which continued to supply aid to the country throughout the 1980s) and the Catholic Church (including that of Archbishop Oscar Romero, murdered in 1980) in the civil war are covered by the materials here, as are the problems of refugees and the terrible human rights abuses and state violence that occurred. The materials originate from NGOs, Church groups, revolutionary organisations, trade unions and political parties, as well as from the United States government.
From 1963 to 1978 Honduras endured a series of military coups and disputed elections as well as the 1969 war with El Salvador and the devastation caused by Hurricane Fifi which killed an estimated 10,000 in 1974. Though the country moved towards an ostensibly civilian form of government from 1978, culminating three years later in an election win for the Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH), the growing insurgencies in neighbouring El Salvador and Nicaragua during this period led to an upsurge in regional tensions, and a growing influx of refugees. As Honduras became drawn into the US-backed Contras' struggle against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua the army used the opportunity to crack down on dissent at home, and reports of human rights abuses began to increase. When the Sandinistas lost the 1990 Nicaraguan election the significance of Honduras to the United States largely disappeared, as did the aid that had formerly been liberally provided, leaving the country facing the same economic concerns as in the 1970s. The materials held here date primarily from the late 70s to the end of the main Central American guerrilla struggle, and deal with both the country's economic situation and with the war and its human rights consequences. The material comes from trades unions and political groups, though not from the major parties, as well as from external human rights organisations and NGOs.