News

Unionists who were active during the Wapping Dispute 25 years ago joined other supporters at the opening of the multimedia exhibition at Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwall Green,London EC1R ODU

Speakers included former leaders of the Unions involved in the dispute Tony Dubbins General Secretary of the NGA (pictured above) and Brenda Dean General Secretary of SOGAT (these 2 unions later merged to form the GPMU).

25 years ago the Wapping dispute was unleashed with the overnight move of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group to a new non-union printworks and the sacking of over 5,000 workers.

Murdoch’s vast resources and the support of the Tory government with its anti-union laws enabled the company to build and staff the Docklands works and dismiss the existing workforce. A year-long strike failed to win justice for them, as the new plant was staffed by strikebreaking labour recruited by another union in one of the greatest betrayals in labour movement history.

The High Court ordered the sequestration of the largest union’s funds and assets following distribution workers in London refusing to handle Murdoch’s papers. Other unions were fined for contempt or ordered to refrain from solidarity action.

Demonstrations and picketing resulted in many arrests and injuries to strikers and supporters. Complaints against the police for brutality and unwarranted arrests led to investigations and inquiries.

The News International dispute occurred during a period of unrelenting attacks on UK workers, unions and communities throughout the 1980s. Jobs, conditions and union organisation were being undermined in newspapers, along with intensifying concentration of press and media ownership.

Anniversary events are being organised by the unions involved to commemorate the determined resistance of the sacked print workers, the refuseniks and their many thousands of supporters in the UK and abroad. And just as important, they will relate the experience and issues of the time to the politics and circumstances of today.

Dramatic images and accounts of the dispute and the challenges for print and media workers. Pictures, leaflets, posters and memorabilia will be on display, with some items available for sale as well as selections from the work of the late Tony Hall and his Strike Graphics archive of cartoons, posters and drawings.

Organised by Unite’s Graphical, Paper & Media Sector, NUJ and CPBF