LIBRARY
Archives and Special Collections
Political Archive, Trade Union, and Pressure Group materials:
Regional guide
Africa | Asia | Canada | Caribbean | Mediterranean | Pacific
Southern Africa is particularly well covered in the Collection, owing to the success of the Southern African Materials Project (1973-76). More than 5,000 items are held from at least 200 South African organisations, as varied as the African National Congress, the Herstigte Nasionale Party, the Pan-Africanist Congress, the End Conscription Campaign and the National Union of South African Students. There is also material from other Southern African organisations like the Botswana National Front, the Lesotho Congress Party and the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress.
The main political parties of each country in Central Africa are well-represented, but there is also material from many smaller political parties, trade unions and pressure groups. In the case of Zimbabwe, there are sizeable collections of both material issued by ‘white’ parties in the pre- and immediately post-UDI period and of material published in exile. The Van Velsen collection in the archives includes much material from the 1930s to the 1960s and a microfilm of earlier material from the 1890s to the 1920s is also held.
Items are held from 70 organisations in East Africa, as varied as the Democratic Party of Uganda, the National Resistance Movement, Mwakenya, the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya and Chama Cha Mapinduzi.
Items are held from about 75 political parties, trade unions and pressure groups in West Africa, like the Convention People’s Party (Ghana), the National Convention Party (The Gambia), the Dynamic Party of Nigeria, the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party of Nigeria.
The South Asian section contains more than 1,000 items from over fifty organisations. The most significant holdings are those of the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party of India and the Civil Rights Movement of Sri Lanka. The collections contain only material in English. More than twenty-five organisations are represented in the collection of materials from Southeast Asia.
Items are held from more than 100 political parties, pressure groups and trade unions. The largest collections are those of the Liberal, Progressive Conservative and New Democrat parties, but other organisations represented in the collection are as varied as the Reform Party, the Bloc Quebecois, the Parti Rhinoceros, the Committee of Anglophones for Sovereignty Association, the Canadian League of Rights and the Parti Quebecois. There are materials from some of the provincial organisations of some parties and from some parties which only operate in particular provinces.
Over 2,000 items are held from a myriad of organisations, as varied as the PNP, PNC and WPA in Guyana, the Oilfield Workers Trade Union in Trinidad and the Jamaica Council for Human Rights.
The Cypriot collection covers organisations as varied as the Edek Socialist Party; AKEL, the Cypriot Communist Party; and the National Unity Party of Northern Cyprus. Maltese material comes from both the Labour and Nationalist parties, but also includes a fascinating selection from Miss Mabel Strickland’s Progressive Constitutional Party. Several Gibraltarian parties are represented, including the current governing party.
More than 2,000 items are held from more than 100 Australian organisations as varied as the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Women’s Electoral Lobby, the Seventh State Movement, the Australian Republican Movement and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
The collection contains items from a wide range of New Zealand parties and pressure groups, reflecting all shades of political opinion. The largest collections are those of the main political parties, but other organisations represented in the collection include the Values Party, the Social Credit Party, the Communist Party of Aotearoa, the Imperial British Conservative Party, the Progressive Greens, ACT, the Christian Coalition, the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties, the South Island Movement, the Coalition for Open Government and the McGillicuddy Serious Party.
The collection of political materials from the rest of the Pacific, although not as extensive as some of the other regions, includes materials from the Pangu Pati (Papua New Guinea) and the Alliance and National Federation parties in Fiji.A guide outlining the history, scope and content, and arrangement of the collection is also available.
Page last updated February 1, 2008
