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Russell, William Alison, and others (commissioners) : Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Disturbances in the Copperbelt, Northern Rhodesia, together with The Governor's Despatch to the Secretary of State on the Report

(Lusaka: Government of Northern Rhodesia, 1935)

8vo; cloth-backed printed paper over boards; pp. (ii) + 65; folding plan at end. Small crease to bottom fore-corner of some leaves. Very good condition. Regarded by some as an important milestone in the history of African trade unionism and resistance to colonial authority, the 1935 Copperbelt strike was, in essence, a reaction to poorly implemented poll tax increases. At Roan Antelope Mine, six protestors were shot dead by police, after which the strike was called off. The Commission established that the strike could have been avoided had new taxation been introduced with greater discretion, but muddied the waters considerably by failing to distinguish between agitators of indigenous Watch Tower movements and Jehovah's Witnesses. John V. Taylor and Dorothea A. Lehmann observe in 'Christians in the Copperbelt': "The Commission of Enquiry ... accepted many serious allegations on very slender evidence, [and] on the strength of its report the literature of Jehovah's Witnesses was banned. In a few districts, chiefs carried out a vigorous campaign of suppression, burning down the Watchtower meeting enclosures."

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