The demand for a separate State or Region by the peoples of the Benin and Delta Provinces of Western Nigeria, the Edo, Urhobo, Isioko, Itsekiri, Western Ibo, Ishan and Afenmai dates back to 1938. After World War Two the demand began to gain momentum. The matter was discussed at the 1957 Conference on the Nigerian Constitution, and the British Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox Boyd [later Lord Boyd of Merton] appointed a Commission of Inquiry, under Sir Henry Willink to ascertain the facts about the fears of minorities in Nigeria and to propose means of allaying those fears, and to make recommendations on the creation of new states.
Soweto (originally an acronym for South West Townships) started with a competition organized by the Johannesburg City Council in 1931 for the design of new black townships for 80,000 residents south west of Johannesburg. Orlando ( named after the Mayor of Johannesburg between 1925-1926 Councilor Edwin Orlando Leake), was the first of its kind in South Africa and was to form the core around which other townships were to develop and eventually become Soweto. There was an increasing influx of Africans coming to Johannesburg in search of work, due to factors such as natural disasters in the country and exclusion from farm land.
The South African Institute of Race Relations was established in 1929.
St Kitts-Nevis comprises the islands of St Kitts or St Christopher, in 1623 the first West Indian island to be settled by the British, and Nevis which was colonised in 1628. The two islands, together with Anguilla were united in 1882, and became an independent state in association with the United Kingdom in 1967. There were objections by Anguilla to the administration, which it considered to be dominated by St Kitts, and independence was declared by Anguilla later that year. Negotiations to resolve the dispute failed, and after being placed directly under British control in 1971, Anguilla was granted its own constitution in 1975 and union with St Kitts and Nevis formally severed in 1980.
There was a Constitutional Conference in London in 1982 to discuss the independence of St Kitts and Nevis. Despite disagreements over special provisions for Nevis in the proposed constitution, the independence process continued and was formally achieved on 19 September 1983. The objections came principally from the Labour Opposition, which until recently had dominated the administration and was still the largest party. Since 1980, however, the Government had consisted of a coalition of the People's Action Movement and Nevis's Reform Party, which held the balance of power and which the Opposition felt was instrumental in achieving Nevis's strong position in the new constitution.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, significant numbers of Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe, Russia and elsewhere, to South Africa. The numbers from Russia, escaping extreme persecution, were particularly high. Many were attracted by the potential wealth from the gold mines, but success was not guaranteed and a struggle to become established was experienced by most settlers. However, in due course strong Jewish communities emerged in Johannesburg, Pretoria and elsewhere, and some found considerable financial success. Matters were interrupted by the South African War of 1899-1902, during which many Jews were forced to leave, but the influx resumed when peace was restored. In 1903 the Jewish Board of Deputies was established to provide for the welfare of new immigrants.
The records collected together here are a small sample of source material for the history of these events, and include a list of Jews resident in Johannesburg in c1915-1917, compiled by the Board of Deputies' War Relief Committee for the purpose of raising funds for East European Jewish immigrants; copies of memoirs and biographical accounts of a small number of Jewish immigrants from the period; and copies of articles on the history of Jews in South Africa.
Dr Clare Taylor was a member of the Department of History of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and specialised in colonial history and the history of the West Indies, publishing widely on these subjects. Amongst her publications are Wales and the American Civil War, 1972; Samuel Roberts and his circle: migration from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire, to America, 1790-1890, 1974; and British and American abolitionists: an episode in transatlantic understanding, 1974.
The pamphlets here both date from 1964 and represent the views of the Cairo-based Committee affiliated with both the Peoples' Socialist Party and the Aden TUC. In the period prior to the end of British administration these views are anti-colonialist and broadly socialist, with much space devoted to declarations of support for and by like-minded groups in other countries.
The material here is the product of a local anti-apartheid group.
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.
This small and disparate collections of material reflects more on the absence of powerful pressure groups from the Barbadian political scene than on the importance of the issues, such as the value of the work ethic, which are being espoused.
The 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.
In contrast to its brief period of political unity the Caribbean region has produced pressure groups of a more enduring nature. The Caribbean Conference of Churches is an ecumenical body founded in 1971 and concerned with problems of human rights and poverty in the region, whilst the Caribbean Youth Conference was an organisation bringing together national youth organisations for educational and exchange purposes. This collection holds a small quantity of materials from the 1980s dealing with these groups and their aims.
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.
The majority of the materials held here relate to the 1974 coup in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish military intervention. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriot expatriate groups are represented, and there is also older material arguing for an independent Cyprus.
Dominica passed between French and British hands several times in its colonial history and this, coupled with the early emergence of land-owning ex-slaves meant the island developed along different political lines to the big sugar colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica. By 1961 a Democratic Labour Party government had been elected, and it was this party which led Dominica first to associated statehood in 1967 and then to full independence eleven years later. 1980 saw the election of the Caribbean's first female prime minister, Eugenia Charles (Dominica Freedom Party), and although she had to survive coup attempts during her fifteen-year premiership subsequent peaceful transfers of power appeared to indicate that Dominica's political system was still functioning. The two disparate groups whose materials are held here constitute on the one-hand an old-fashioned organisation representing producers' interests (the Dominica Peasant Proprietors' Union) and on the other a classic pressure group seeking to prevent a miscarraige of justice in the case of Desmond Trotter, a black political activist accused of the murder of an American tourist. This latter group produced materials both in Dominica and in London in their successful efforts to overturn the death sentence passed on Trotter.
Part of the British Windward Islands Federation until 1958, Grenada then joined the West Indies (Federation) and when that dissolved in 1962 was made part of a further federation comprising Great Britain's remaining East Caribbean dependencies. After achieving "associated statehood" in 1967 it finally became independent in 1974, with Eric Gairy of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) becoming the country's first Prime Minister. The emergence in the 1970s of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) posed a challenge to Gairy that was met by an increasingly authoritarian approach. The NJM took power in a 1979 coup and established a people's revolutionary government (PRG) with Maurice Bishop at its head, but differences between Bishop and the more radical wing of the government led by Bernard Coard led to the death of the revolutionary leader in an armed fracas and the subsequent invasion of the island by the United States. Elections following the invasion saw the return of the New National Party (NNP), and this party or offshoots of it have governed the country ever since. The materials held here concentrate almost exclusively on the invasion of Grenada by the United States in 1983 and the situation of those convicted in relation to the death of People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) leader Maurice Bishop just prior to this. Foremost amongst the defendants at this trial was Bishop's former deputy prime minister Bernard Coard and his wife and fellow ex-Central Committee member Phyllis Coard.
The period of military rule in the 1970s is the primary focus of the small amount of material held here, with groups attempting to pressurize the government into accepting the need for a return to civilian rule.
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).
Although democracy in India soon brought forth a huge range of political parties Western-style pressure groups were slower to emerge. Those groups featured here are concerned with the predominant issues of the 1970s: the growth of communalism, India's foreign policy and the social and political crisis which culminated in the 1975 state of emergency.
The 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 materials held here reflect the growth in New Zealand in the 1970s and 1980s of pressure and interest groups, for whom the major issues were the rights of women and the Maori people, apartheid and nuclear weapons. These last two constitute the majority of the materials in this collection, with the anti-apartheid movement coalescing (to form HART : The New Zealand anti-apartheid movement) over the issue of South African sporting links and producing country-wide demonstrations and disorder during the 1981 Springbok tour. The strength of anti-nuclear feeling led to the nuclear weapon-free-zone movement in which various areas (soon constituting a majority of the country) declared themselves to be such zones, and contributed strongly to New Zealand's de facto expulsion from the ANZUS alliance in 1985 after the refusal by the Labour government to allow entry to the USS Buchanan when the United States refused to confirm that the vessel was free of nuclear weapons. Other less prominent groups include those representing the interests of farmers and civil rights organisations protesting against the alleged erosion of those rights under the Muldoon National government (1975-1984).
As a consequence of the policies of the South African government nearly all pressure groups, whatever their particular issues, found themselves having to focus on apartheid. Thus the material here largely falls into two categories, being either concerned directly with the struggle to overthrow the system (and in a few cases with the struggle to maintain it) or with an area on which apartheid most directly impacted. The entrenchment of inequality in education provoked the emergence of numerous groups representing both students and teachers, and similarly there is much evidence here of opposition to the policy of forced removals. The sheer number of groups represented here is both an indication of extensive radicalisation within society and a reflection of how the outlawing of various political parties left a greater space for other organisations to contest these issues.
The bulk of this collection dates from the period in the history of Namibia (formerly South West Africa) after 1977 when the UN, the Western Contact Group (including France, West Germany, Canda, the United States and Great Britain) and the front-line states increasingly sought to bring about a resolution to the ongoing struggle between SWAPO and apartheid South Africa's armed forces in the country. Thus the materials can be roughly divided into those emanating from groups representing the German-speaking minority, such as the Interessengemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger Südwester (IG), and those campaigning on behalf of organisations opposed to South African rule, like the Namibia Support Committee and the SWAPO Women's Solidarity Campaign. Both sought to interpret and influence the discussions as they progressed. Some of the items are particularly interesting for the connections drawn between uranium mining in Namibia and the 1984 miners' strike in Great Britain.
The pressure group materials held here vary from labour market analyses produced by the Caribbean Employers' Federation to broad critiques of Trinidad and Tobago's political and economic system from a variety of groups, including the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) and the New Beginning Movement (NBM). The majority of the materials date from the 1970s and 1980s, the period in which the ruling People's National Movement increasingly lost credibility with civil society.
The materials held here mainly originate from groups opposed to the regime of Idi Amin, based both in Uganda and abroad. They include the National Resistance Movement (NRA), which later went on to take power in 1986 following the failure of Obote's Uganda People's Congress (UPC) to improve the economic and human rights situation in the country.
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.
Despite attempts to reconstitute the administration of the colony and its surrounding protectorate as the Federation of South Arabia, direct British control required an increasingly large army presence in the face of national armed movements and in 1967 Aden was abandoned to the forces of the National Liberation Front. The materials here date from the mid-1960s and relate the trade union-based PSP's conflicts with the British authorities and contacts with left-leaning supporters in Britain itself.
In the course of the 1960s three major guerrilla organisations emerged in opposition to Portuguese rule over Angola. The MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) had its headquarters in Zambia and was Marxist in outlook whilst the FNLA (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola) was based in the Congo. The other group, founded in 1966 under the leadership of Jonas Savimbi, was UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola). Materials from all of these parties are held here, relating primarily to their roles in the liberation struggle (before the 1974 coup in Portugal hastened its departure from its colonies), but also dealing with their part in the civil wars and repeated foreign interventions which have subsequently dogged Angola.
Though Antigua and Barbuda had to wait until 1981 for full independence within the Commonwealth there had been a multi-party political system since the islands were given associated statehood status in 1967. Prior to this politics had been dominated by the Antigua Trades and Labour Union and its political offspring, the Antigua Labour Party, but a multi-party system now emerged with groups such as the Antigua People's Party and the Progressive Labour Movement splitting off from the ALP. Despite this the latter has only once been out of power, and with Lester Bird succeeding his father Vere Cornwall as prime minister there has also been a dynastic element to Antigua's governance. The effect that these two factors have had on Antigua's democracy and the various attempts to create a viable alternative party are the major themes of the materials in this collection.
In 1901 the previously self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania came together to form the Commonwealth of Australia, and the struggle for authority between these states (and the later admitted Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory) and the federal centre has remained an issue ever since. Other issues that have dominated the post-war political scene include debates over republicanism, the perennial emergence of third party forces to challenge the hegemony of the ALP and the Liberal-National Party coalition and the fear of the other, most often evoked by immigration but also by the perceived threat of communism pre-1989. Possibly the most controversial episode of the recent political past was the 1975 Whitlam dismissal crisis, which provoked still unresolved arguments over the constitution and the relationship between the House of Representatives and the Senate. All of these issues are raised, referred to and discussed within the materials here held.
The gradual extension of the franchise in the decades prior to independence led to the marginalisation in the House of Assembly of parties such as the Progressive Conservatives, which represented the interests of the planter class (although they maintained their dominance in the Legislative Council), while at the same time the contest for dominance in the democratic arena polarised into a struggle between Grantley Adams' Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and the more radical Democratic Labour Party (DLP) led by Errol Barrow, who was eventually to become Barbados's first post-independence Prime Minister. There was also a vigorous debate over the role and value of the short-lived West Indies Federation (1958-1962) which was strongly supported by Adams. The materials held here deal with these issues in detail as well as covering the electoral struggle between the two main parties after 1966.
The Solomon Islands became independent in July 1978.
From the 1950s political power in the Bahamas had been contested between the white dominated United Bahamian Party and the Progressive Liberal Party, which represented the interests of the emerging black middle class. The latter gained control of government in 1967 and guided the country to independence by 1973. Critics alleged that the transfer of political power had made little difference to the lives of ordinary Bahamians, and that governments continued to prioritise foreign capital investment and the promotion of the Bahamas as a tax haven to the detriment of spending on social welfare or any attempt at wealth redistribution. Furthermore, by the time long-term PLP leader Lynden O. Pindling was defeated at the polls in 1992 he was facing charges of corruption and of supporting drug trafficking. The items here deal with all these inter-related issues, with the bulk of the material devoted to the pre-independence elections of the 1960s during which the transition to black-led governments occurred.
Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, became independent in 1971. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Mujib) and his pro-independence Awami League party held power until 1975, when he was assassinated following his declaration of a one-party state. Coup and counter-coup followed with the League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of General Ziaur Rahman (assassinated 1981) alternating in government through the 1980s and 1990s. The materials here, all originating from this turbulent period, are either the product of the ruling party of the time or of the brief moments in which multi-party democracy was tolerated.
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.
The Bermuda Islands are a British overseas territory with internal self-government, universal suffrage having been introduced in 1968. Prior to 1998 power resided with the United Bermuda Party (UBP), traditionally the more conservative of the two main parties and therefore the one more likely to attract white support. Although the Progressive Labour Party now in government had been enthusiastically pro-independence there has been no referendum since 1995, when the idea was rejected. The relationship with Britain and arguments between the parties over economic competence in these generally prosperous islands are the main subjects discussed here.
The materials held here extend from the period of the emergence of nationalist political parties in Botswana (then the British administered Bechuanaland Protectorate) in the late 1950s, through the domination of the Botswana Democratic Party following the achievement of self-government and then republic status (in 1965 and 1966 respectively) to the most recent elections. Although the role of Botswana in the struggle for majority rule in the rest of Southern Africa is covered the majority of the materials relate to electoral struggles in one of Africa's more successful and prosperous democracies.
The political history of the country that achieved independence in 1948 as the Dominion of Ceylon, became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972 and then the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in 1978 has to a certain degree been that of the oscillation of power between two parties. The Ekshat Jathika Pakshaya (United National Party, UNP) ruled the country in 1948-1956, 1959-1960, 1965-1970, 1977-1994 and from 2001-2004, while its rival, the Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya (Sri Lanka Freedom Party SLFP), has been in government for the remainder of the period. Traditionally, the SLFP has been the more left-wing of the two, as indicated by the United Front it formed in 1970 with the Communist Party of Sri Lanka and the trotskyite Lanka Sama Samaja Party, but its strong pro-Sinhalese rhetoric and legislation (most particularly the 1972 constitution favouring Buddhism and relegating the Tamil language to a secondary status) served to antagonise the country's large Tamil minority as well as driving the UNP to take up a similar position. The Tamil community increasingly turned to their own political organisations, represented here by the likes of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, and following the communalist riots of 1981 and 1983 there began the conflict between the Sri Lankan authorities and the rebel Tamil Tigers which has dogged the island ever since.
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.
Cyprus was ruled by Britain between 1878 and 1960, first under 'lease' from the Ottoman Empire and then as a colony after 1914. A growing desire amongst the Greek Cypriot majority for 'enosis' or union with Greece culminated in an armed uprising between 1955 and 1959. The Turkish Cypriot minority naturally opposed enosis and instead favoured partition, a solution unacceptable to the majority. Agreement on independence made Cyprus a republic with minority rights protected by the constitution, these accords being guaranteed by Greece and Turkey as well as Britain. Continuing intercommunal violence and military posturing by the two 'mother' countries culminated in the 1974 Athens-inspired coup and subsequent Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus. Most of the materials held here deal with the events of 1974 and arguments over how to resolve the division of the island, although the significant collections of EDEK and AKEL materials show the complicated position of the Greek Cypriot left, who were hostile to the Greek military junta and also suspicious of Cyprus being used as a pawn by NATO due to its strategic importance.
Following the events of 1974 the de facto administration of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus unilaterally declared itself first the "Turkish Federated State of Cyprus" in 1975 and then in 1983 the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", although only Turkey officially recognised the new state. Throughout this period (in which negotiations with the Greek Cypriots continued intermittently) it was led by Rauf Denktas of the resolutely seperatist and anti-communist National Unity Party, from which the majority of the materials held here originate.
Dominica passed between French and British hands several times in its colonial history and this, coupled with the early emergence of land-owning ex-slaves meant the island developed along different political lines to the big sugar colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica. By 1961 a Democratic Labour Party government had been elected, and it was this party which led Dominica first to associated statehood in 1967 and then to full independence eleven years later. 1980 saw the election of the Caribbean's first female prime minister, Eugenia Charles (Dominica Freedom Party), and although she had to survive coup attempts during her fifteen-year premiership subsequent peaceful transfers of power appeared to indicate that Dominica's political system was still functioning.
Fiji became independent in October 1970, adopting a constitution which in practice involved a compromise between the principles of parliamentary democracy and the racial divisions within the country. This constitution (which guaranteed the minority Fijian population a majority of seats) kept the Alliance Party in power for seventeen years, until the Indian-dominated National Federation Party joined in coalition with the new Labour Party and won the 1987 elections. An army coup followed which restored control to the leaders of the indigenous population and set the tone for politics up to the present day, with the native Fijians attempting through constitutional changes and further coups to prevent the assertion of majority rule. The material in this collection deals mainly with the electoral struggles prior to 1987, the main issues being race, the constitution and the labour movement.
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.
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.
After a ten year political campaign by the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) the Gold Coast became independent Ghana on the 6th March 1957, the first of Britain's African colonies to make this transition. Its first Prime Minister and dominant political figure Dr. Kwame Nkrumah led it through independence to become a republic and a one-party state, and was also a prime mover in the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAS). His removal in a 1966 coup ushered in a period of characterised by military interventions in government, which may have ended with the election of John Kufuor in 2000. He was the first elected president to succed another elected president. The material here dates from the independence movement onwards, and is of particular interest with regard to Nkrumah's socialism, his pan-Africanist orientation and the arguments over his legacy following his death in 1972.
The political history of Gibraltar in the period covered by these materials has been defined by the three-way relationship between Britain, Spain and the actual inhabitants of the Rock. While Spain has continued to claim sovereignty over Gibraltar (closing the land frontier between 1969 and 1985 and continuing to refuse to recognise the colony as part of the European Union) a more ambiguous position has been taken by successive British governments. The 1967 referendum saw 95% of Gibraltarians opt to remain under British rule, and led to the 1969 constitution which guaranteed Gibraltar would not be handed to another state against the wishes of its inhabitants. Yet the British military presence has gradually been reduced, with concomitant economic consequences, and the mother country has been seen to be reluctant to confront Spain on behalf of the colony. Thus while the discourses in the materials held here are resolutely anti-Spanish, they reveal autonomist as well as pro-British leanings.