Zimbabwe: Pressure Groups Material

Zimbabwe: Pressure Groups Material, 1953 onwards, including press statements, letters, membership cards, statements of accounts, newsletters, pamphlets, constitutions, reports, minutes and miscellaneous materials issued by the African Peoples Association, the Christian Action Group, the Catholic Bishops of Rhodesia, the Conservative Association of Rhodesia, the Christian Council of Rhodesia, the Cold Comfort Farm Society, the Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, the Committee to Organise Support for a Settlement (COSS), the Interracial Association of Southern Rhodesia, the Legal Aid Organisation (Rhodesia), the Masase Residents' Association, Moral Re-Armament, the Movement for Democracy in Rhodesia, the Rhodesia Christian Group, the Ruskin Students' Action Committee on Rhodesia, the Salisbury Committee for Prison Education, the Save Rhodesia Campaign, the Settlement Council (Rhodesia), Silveira House, Women for Rhodesia, the Zimbabwe Information Group, the Zimbabwe Solidarity Action Committee and Zimbabweans in Great Britain.

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.

Alphabetically according to organisation and then in rough chronological order.

Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Institute of Commonwealth Studies.

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT).

Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institutes of Commonwealth and Latin American Studies.

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The Commonwealth Political Parties Materials collection was begun in 1960-61, with special emphasis being placed then, as now, on 'primary material such as party constitutions, policy statements, convention reports and election manifestos.' (ICS, Twelfth Annual Report 1960-1961). Since then, the main method of gathering material has been to appeal directly to pressure groupsthroughout the Commonwealth, though contributions from Institute members and staff following visits to relevant countries have been significant.

Further accruals are expected, some in electronic form.

See also Zimbabwe: Political Parties Material (PP.ZW), Zimbabwe: Trades Unions Material (TU.ZW) and Rhodesia and Nyasaland: Political Parties Material (PP.RH) as well as Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held at the ICS.