Saint Kitts and Nevis: Political Parties and Trades Union Material

Manifestos, platforms, press releases, papers and miscellaneous election material from 1975 onwards issued by the Nevis Reformation Party, the People's Action Movement (Saint Kitts and Nevis), the People's Progressive Party (Anguilla), the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party and the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades and Labour Union. The materials here date from the period around the split with Anguilla and the subsequent move to independence and are concerned both with these issues and with the desire of Nevis for more local autonomy.

Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla became a separate British dependency in 1962 following the dissolution of the British West Indies federation, and an associated state in 1967. In 1980 Anguilla, which had long proclaimed its independence from the other two islands, was legally reconstituted as a dependency in its own right and in 1983 Saint Kitts and Nevis as it was then known became independent.

Alphabetically by group, 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 political parties throughout 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 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.