Ecuador: Political Pamphlets

Pamphlets, reports, manifestos, programmes, seminar papers and conference reports issued by Central Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Clasistas (CEDOC), Confederacin Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres, Confederation of British Industry, Cotacachi (Ecuador), Frente de Defensa de Comerciantes Minoristas de Guayaquil (FREDECOMI), Fundacin Ecuatoriana de Desarrollo Social, Instituto de Investigaciones Econmicas y Polticas (Universidad de Guayaquil (ILEP)), Instituto Latinoamericano de Investigaciones Sociales (ILDIS), Ministerio de Recursos Naturales y Energticos (Ecuador), Movimiento Revolucionario de los Trabajadores(MRT), Unin Regional de Organizaciones Campesinas del Litoral (Ecuador), Universidad Central del Ecuador Instituto de Investigaciones Econmicas.

The majority of the materials held in this collection date from the country's last period of military dictatorship (1972-1979) and its subsequent return to democracy following the introduction of a new constitution in 1979. The dictatorship had overseen the growth of the country's external debt to record levels, which exacerbated the effects of the economic crisis of the 1980s, when global recession coupled with a fall in petroleum prices forced Ecuador to adopt stringent austerity measures in order to meet debt-rescheduling requirements. It is these economic conditions and the continuing inequality of Equadorian society which dominate the materials held here, which originate mainly from univerisities and institutes, trade unions (notably the Central Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Clasistas (CEDOC)) and peasant and indigenous organisations rather than from the established political parties. Their concerns range from rural conditions and the need for agricultural reform, across the struggles of the trade union movement, to the situation of the Indian population of Ecuador.

Randomly within boxes (at present)

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

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

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The majority of the materials held in the political archives of the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA) originate from the Contemporary Archive on Latin America (CALA), a documentation and research centre on Latin America which donated its holdings to the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) upon its closure in 1981. In 2004 ILAS merged with the Institute of United States Studies (IUSS) to form ISA, which inherited the political archives. The core collection has continued since 1981 to be supplemented by further donations and by materials acquired through the visits of Institute staff and their contacts to the relevant countries.

Further accruals are expected

See also Political Pamphlet material for other countries in the region, as well as related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held in the ISA library.