Wapping: The Workers Nobody is Rupert Murdoch’s friend today. But when, 25 years ago, his workers and their unions fought back against attitudes and practices that are now condemned on all sides, they were roundly condemned. The victims were blamed and the aggressor praised as a visionary. Never has there been a better time for those workers to tell that story from their point of view. And they are doing just that with their exhibition and booklet “The Workers’ Story”. Ann Field explains. RUPERT MURDOCH did not “save” the newspaper industry. He wrecked it and the jobs and journalism that went with it. That much is clear today.
ANDREW WIARD
But in February 1987, when the Wapping dispute ended, the media was crowing about the fate of printworkers and the unions. Now, for the first time since the end of the dispute, its complete story and the lessons to be learned from it are being told from the point of view of the sacked workers and their trade unions in “The Workers Story”, an exhibition and booklet. Unions were condemned at the time for the crime of achieving the best terms and conditions for workers. The aim of Murdoch and his supporters inside and outside successive governments was to remove trade unions, and not just print unions, from the scene altogether. Ever since that decade of terrorizing trade unionists, every employer seeking first to get rid of unions and then to roll back the pay and conditions of their workers has been egged on by governments and the Murdoch press. “The Workers’ Story” tells how the
News International conspired with government and the rogue EETPU union to get rid of an entire workforce with the support of the law and, in the face of rebellion on the streets of Wapping and elsewhere, the police. The aim of Murdoch’s “dash for freedom” was to enable him to pursue world-wide political influence at the highest level, as well as to make money. Using the lucrative Sun and News of the World to fund USA ventures and service debts, Fox News, 20th Century Fox films and subsequently Sky News and Sky Sport, along with the strings of newspaper groups around the globe have provided that power and influence. The exhibit i o n p rov i d e s some answers as to why and how a trade unionorganised workforce was sacrificed to achieve those aims. It tells a story in words and pictures that should be seen by anyone who is interested in understanding the origins of an organisation that could hack into people’s private phone messages and seek to corrupt police and politicians with apparent impunity for many years.
Sacked worker Marie Alvarado cuts the ribbon at the formal opening of the exhibition at the Marx Memorial Library, May Day 2011
WHERE TO SEE THE EXHIBITION LIVERPOOL 19–30 September: Unite regional office LONDON 3–14 October: Goldsmiths College; public meeting 4 October MANCHESTER 18 October–18 November:
Peoples History Museum BRIGHTON 28 Nov–1 December: Unite national sector conferences LONDON 5–16 December: Unite regional sector conferences, Green Lanes
LONDON 9–31 January 2012: Bishopsgate Institute ??For more information see www.cpbf.org.uk www.unitetheunion.org www.nuj.org.uk
Wapping Post 25th anniversary special 6