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Institute for the Study of the Americas

Cuba: Political Pamphlets

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 3032 EC 320 PAM

Held at: Institute for the Study of the Americas

Title: Cuba: Political Pamphlets

Date(s): 1960-1986

Level of description: Collection (Fonds)

Extent: 3 boxes

Name of creator(s): Institute for the Study of the Americas

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

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.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Pamphlets, reports, statements, journals, speeches and bulletins issued by American Foundation for Resistance International, Asóciación Cubana de las Naciones Unidas, Caribbean Labour Solidarity, Fidel Castro, Coalition of Committees for the Rights of Man in Cuba, Comisión de Orientación Revolucionaria de la Dirección Nacional del PURSC, Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba, Cuba Resource Center, Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil, Ernesto Guevara, Instituto Cubano del Libro, Latin American Federation of Journalists, Ministerio de Industrias (Cuba), Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Cuba), Organización Continental Latinoamericana de Estudiantes, Partido Comunista de Cuba, Reunión del Comité Internacional Preparatorio.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: Spanish and English

System of arrangement:

Randomly within boxes (at present)

Conditions governing access:

Open for reference purposes to all researchers and postgraduate students.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Further accruals are expected, some in electronic form.

Archival history:

The majority of the materials held in the political archives of the Library Institute of Latin American Studies originate from the Contemporary Archive on Latin America (CALA), a documentation and research centre on Latin America which donated its holdings upon its closure in 1981. This core collection has continued to be supplemented by further donations and by materials acquired through the visits of Institute staff and their contacts to the relevant countries.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Institute for the Study of the Americas

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

See also Political Pamphlet material for the rest of Latin America, as well as related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held in the ILAS library.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas.