Guide to the Records of National Council for Civil Liberties (as filmed by the AJCP), 1911-1973

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Summary

Collection number:

M2657-M2661

Creator:

National Council for Civil Liberties

Extent:

53 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Not for loan

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

Correspondence, cuttings, printed material, memoranda and notes relating to civil rights in Australia, New Zealand, Malaya and Singapore; and relations with Australian Council for Civil Liberties, New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties, Democratic Rights Council, Queensland Civil Liberties League and other organisations. Main correspondents are Brian Fitzpatrick, S.J. Dempsey, Harold Rich, Charles Duguid and Gordon Jackson.

Biographical / Historical:

The National Council for Civil Liberties was founded in London in 1934. Ronald Kidd, a London bookseller, had suggested that a group of writers, journalists, lawyers and politicians should be formed to act as observers during mass gatherings, such as hunger marches, so that complaints of police harassment could be corroborated. The idea gradually evolved of a permanent watchdog, which would operate through Parliament, public meetings, publications, the press and the courts. E.M. Forster was elected as the first president of the Council and Kidd was the secretary until his death in 1942. Founder members included A.P. Herbert, Kingsley Martin, Harold Laski, Vera Brittain, Rebecca West and Edith Summerskill.

In its early years the Council was particularly concerned with threats to individuals, particularly the Jewish community in the East End, posed by gatherings and marches of the British Union of Fascists. It also sought to secure amendments to proposed legislation, such as the 1934 Incitement to Disaffection Bill and the 1936 Public Order Bill, as well as the repeal of certain laws, such as the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. During World War II it opposed excessive censorship of the press, radio and publications, defended the rights of conscientious objectors and foreigners who had been interned, and courts martial. The Council's interests extended to the British colonies, particularly labour conditions, while at home it drew attention to racial discrimination in employment and housing and the treatment of immigrants in the post-war years. It also campaigned for the reform of the mental health system and was involved in several cases of apparent miscarriage of justice.

From 1937 onwards the Council published a journal, Civil Liberty. In 1989 The Council changed its name to Liberty. From 1974 to 1983 the general secretary of the Council was the Australian expatriate Patricia Hewitt.

Reference: Mark Lilly. The National Council for Civil Liberties: the first fifty years, London, 1984.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.