Decolonisation and the Library: Primary Sources

While the library's collections are both wide-ranging and focused, the Modern Records Centre, the University archive, also holds a large number of unique collections of primary source materials. It is the main British repository for the national archives of trade unions and employers' organisations, and also has strong collections related to pressure groups, fringe political parties, and transport. 

The archive's holdings on activist groups and organisations include:

• Anti-Nazi league, 1978-1982. 
• Leamington Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Committee, 1971-81. 
• Minority Arts Archive (Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations), 1974-1995. 
• One World Action, 1979-2016. 
• Pressure Group Publications, 1964-85. 
• Poverty Publications, 1995-2009. 
• World University Service, 1955-2007. 

The Centre's holdings on political organisations include:

• Anarchist and alternative publications, 1937-2004. 
• Communist and other left-wing publications, 1923-2006. 
• Conservative Party press cuttings, 1931-1970. 
• Dr Gurharpal Singh Archive: Communist movement in the Punjab, 1927-1989. 
• Socialist Party of Great Britain, 1940-2022. 

The Centre holds a significant collection that was linked to the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations (CRER) called the Minority Arts Archive (1974-1995). It includes material relating to the Minority Arts Advisory Service; directories and registers, Arts journals, publications on television, film, or video, literary arts, and photographs, among much more. 

Research Guides 

The Centre has produced research guides to some of its materials based on topic. Its guide to materials for the study of South Asia can be found here. These fascinating materials are housed across several different groups of collections. From the Employers' and Trade relations material, there are collections of materials from the Confederation of British Industry, the India, Pakistan and Burma Association, and the Joint Committee on India, among others. The Archive holds subject files from the Trades Union Congress collection on the subjects of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Burma (Myanmar), from the 1920s-1980s. Union files also include the International Transport Workers Federation (which includes reports and correspondance from the 1920s-70s on topics including trade union organisation in India and Pakistan) and the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (which includes both a general file on India, subject files on the India tinplate trade and contemporary British material on the Amritsar massacre). From the Interest and Pressure Groups material, there are collections on Amnesty International, which includes publications regarding all countries in South Asia, and the Young Women's Christian Association. From the collections of papers on or by individuals, collections include the papers of Jimmy Deane, a Trotskyist, active from 1930s-60s, and includes documents produced by far-left groups in South Asia during the period, and the papers of Maurice Edelman MP, among many more. 

The Centre's research guide for materials for the study of Latin America can be found here. The incredible materials related to the topic are similarly organised into larger groups of collections. General collections on the topic include the papers of the Central America Women's Network, which worked in partnership with women's organisations in Central America to support them in defending their rights, the papers of the Federation of British Industries, and the Leamington Spa Latin America Support Group. There is large amount of material on the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uraguay, and Venezuela. This material comes from collections including the Eric Hobsbawm papers, Amnesty International, and others. 

The Archive has a number of digitised collections, which can be accessed here. These include files digitised for modules including Gandhi and Indian Nationalism, Racism and Xenophobia, and Feminism, Politics, and Social Change in Modern Britain. 

Access the MRC Catalogue here, and find information about visiting the centre here. 

Searching the Special Collections

Most of the material in these collections is in the Library catalogue, and can be found via Library Search. 

To limit your search to the Ethnicity and Migration collection (or to the Library's Special Collections more generally), utilise the limiters on the left-hand side of the Library Search page, or select the relevant advanced search options: