The Papers included in this film are from the office of Burt Wells, presently Secretary-Treasurer of the AWPPW, having held the same office with the RFMDA. They date almost exclusively from the early period of the Rank and File Movement for Democratic Action, 1961-1962. However, the film also contains some materials predating and postdating the movement, as well as a limited quantity of correspondence and other materials relating to reform attempts in the UPP.
The files, as received by the Society, were found to overlap considerably. Some attempt has been made to minimise this overlapping by consolidating various “general” and “miscellaneous” correspondence files into a single chronological file. However, substantial overlapping--both as to subject matter and as to individual correspondents--will still be found among almost all of the correspondence folders. In some instances a letter and its reply may even be found in separate folders (such cases as were noted were corrected). In other cases duplicate copies of letters (either typed or photocopies) may occur in more than one folder. (The various leaders in the reform movement evidently provided each other with numerous copies of relevant segments of their own correspondence. As much duplication as possible was eliminated in the preparation of the material for filming.)
A complete listing of folders, in order as they appear on the film, follows below. Folders are numbered consecutively to facilitate location on the film. The number of a given folder will appear with each item within that folder as it is filmed. Items within folders are arranged chronologically by days where possible, except that letters that were stapled with enclosures or replies were not separated.
