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Welcome to the Freedom Archives' Digital Search Engine.The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings which date from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings. Our collection includes weekly news, poetry, music programs; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; numerous voices from behind prison walls; diverse activists; and pamphlets, journals and other materials from many radical organizations and movements.

International Liberation Struggles

This collection includes numerous materials from revolutionary struggles across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East that arose during the post-WWII period of decolonization and later during the Cold War. With the formation of the UN in 1945 came a pledge to support and develop self-government for oppressed (colonized) peoples. Self-determination defined many of the political struggles throughout the Cold War, whether against entrenched European colonial powers, or oppressive neo-colonial regimes backed by the West.This collection contains a large array of materials from national liberation movements across the African continent, as well as from political struggles in Iran, Oman,Yemen, Ireland, China, Portugal, Italy, and the Philippines.

Subcollections

  • African Liberation Movements
    African Liberation Movements
    African liberation movements arose from a growing nationalism among previously divided communities, the unfulfilled promise of self-determination following the end of World War II and the weakened economic and political capacities of Western Europe.
  • Asian Liberation Struggles
    Asian Liberation Struggles
    This collection contains materials related to China, South Asia, South Korea, and the Philippines. The bulk of materials concern the national liberation movement of the Philippines.
  • International Liberation Struggles - General
    International Liberation Struggles - General
    This collection contains articles, periodicals, and ephemera reflecting a variety of international perspectives on third world liberation struggles around the globe.
  • Middle Eastern Liberation Movements
    Middle Eastern Liberation Movements
    Materials related to the analysis of Egyptian, Tunisian, Kurdish, Yemeni, Iranian, and Syrian political ideologies and histories.

Documents

Amilcar Cabral Amilcar Cabral
Format: mp3Collection: African Liberation Movements
Amilcar Cabral, leader of the liberation Movement of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands, assassinated by the Portuguese and the CIA. He talks informally in New York in October 1972 with representatives of African-American organizations. This talk is the basis for his book Return to the Source.
Global Resistance - South Africa Global Resistance - South Africa
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesCollection: African Liberation Movements
Amandla!; Winnie Mandela talks about the role of Black mothers in South Africa, Afrikaaners, the necessity to destroy apartheid.; People Shall Govern from Radio Free South Africa; Winnie Mandela about the grassroots struggle, the Black Womens Federation, prison and political education; Winnie Mandela on the creation of the Freedom Charter by the ANC, hope for the freedom of South Africa; Toi Toi song
Global Resistance Africa to Palestine from Roots of Resistance Global Resistance Africa to Palestine from Roots of Resistance
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesProgram: Roots of ResistanceCollection: African Liberation Movements
Amilcar Cabral, leader of the liberation movement of Guinea-Bissau and the cape Verde Islands, talks about the basis for his book, Return to the Source; Winnie Mandela, one of the leaders of the African National Congress, speaks on the internalized oppression of Africans in racist South Africa; Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, speaking on the day of his release from prison, where he had been held for over 20 years; Chris Hani, a leader of the anti-apartheid movement, interviewed by Barbara Lubinski and Heber Dreher during a visit to San Francisco; Speech by a spokeswomen for Arab Students, with chants in solidarity with Palestine during a Bay Area demonstration in the late 1970s; Poet June Jordan reciting one of her poems about Palestine at a solidarity event held in 1990.
The Historic Statement of the Revolutionary Command Council on Peaceful Democratic Solution of the Kurdish Issue The Historic Statement of the Revolutionary Command Council on Peaceful Democratic Solution of the Kurdish Issue
Publisher: Ministry of Culture and Information Directorate General of InformationDate: 2/11/1970Format: StatementCollection: Middle Eastern Liberation Movements
Statement on relations between the Kurds and the rest of the Iraqi population and Kurds and the Iraqi government.
South Yemen: Hitched to a Red Star - A report from the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen South Yemen: Hitched to a Red Star - A report from the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
Author: Eric RouleauPublisher: Middle East Research and Information ProjectYear: 1972Format: ReportCollection: Middle Eastern Liberation Movements
This report originally appeared as two articles in the English edition of Le Monde.
Lebanon - The Price of Blood Lebanon - The Price of Blood
Publisher: Committee for a Free PalestineFormat: MonographCollection: Middle Eastern Liberation Movements
A history of colonialism and imperialism in Lebanon.
Questions & Answers - On the Armed Intervention of US Troops in the Philippines Questions & Answers - On the Armed Intervention of US Troops in the Philippines
Publisher: Philippine Information Network ServicesDate: 3/2002Call Number: Format: PamphletCollection: Asian Liberation Struggles
Provides detailed information about the nature of U.S. military intervention in the Philippines, particularly in regard to the Balikatan, a series of joint military exercises conducted by the U.S. and the Philippines.
Primer on Filipino "Comfort Women": Questions and Answers Primer on Filipino "Comfort Women": Questions and Answers
Author: Task Force on Filipina Victims of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan SecretariatPublisher: Asian Women’s Human Rights Council (AWHRC) - Philippines and BAYAN - Women’s DeskYear: 1992Format: PamphletCollection: Asian Liberation Struggles
Basic description of WWII "comfort women"; outline of demands to Japanese government on behalf of Filipina victims.
Babaye: A Primer about Women and for Women Babaye: A Primer about Women and for Women
Publisher: GABRIELA-Mindanao and Womens Studies and Research Center (Philippines)Year: 1986Format: MonographCollection: Asian Liberation Struggles
Produced by organizers in the Filipino Women's Movement, this monograph explores gender in the pre-colonial Philippines, where women took on prominent leadership roles and held important positions in communities throughout the islands. Addressing the destruction of established ways of living with Spanish colonization and later, U.S. imperialism, the monograph provides a historical context for the continued oppression of women in the Philippines from the 16th through 20th Century.
People's War in the Philippines People's War in the Philippines
Publisher: Union of Democratic FilipinosDate: 8/1974Call Number: Format: BookletCollection: Asian Liberation Struggles
Provides an overview of the oppression of the Filipino people under the U.S. backed dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, including the imposition of martial law in 1972. Details the formation of revolutionary organizations such as the National Democratic Front (NDF) and the New People's Army (NPA), and explains the goals of their struggle. Also includes an interview with a member of the NPA.