Politics documents Needham's wide-ranging and active involvement in politics of the Left. Pre-war material includes documentation of the Labour Party in Cambridge in the mid-1930s, including Dorothy Needham's campaigns as a Labour candidate for Cambridge City Council in 1935 and 1936, and the Cambridge Scientists Anti-War Group. There are also comprehensive records of fund-raising for the Cornford-Maclaurin Memorial Committee, and notes of the discussions which took place among Cambridge Communists and sympathisers on the outbreak of the Second World War as to whether they should support the British war effort. Post-war documentation suggests Needham played a less active role in British political life. Most of this material relates to his support of peace and disarmament campaigns. Needham's international outlook, naturally focused on China, is well-represented in the papers. After the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949 Needham was keen to strengthen links between the Peking government and the UK. Both the Britain-China Friendship Association and its successor organisation the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding are documented, especially the response of these organisations to the border dispute between India and China, the ideological conflict between China and the USSR and the Cultural Revolution. There is also material relating to the 1952 International Scientific Commission investigating the alleged US use of bacteriological weapons in North Korea and China, opposition to the Vietnam war, and to Needham's concern about human rights abuses worldwide, reflected in papers of organisations such as Amnesty International. The section also includes material relating to Needham's interest in civil liberties, academic freedom and the role of the scientist as political activist. Represented are organisations such as the Association of Scientific Workers, the National Council for Civil Liberties, the Society for Freedom in Science and the World Federation of Scientific Workers. There is also a little material on environmental causes, most notably the Anti Concorde Project 1967-1975.