30 YEARS AGO TODAY


IT WAS


… when Murdoch took those jobs away. Paul Routledge remembers the Wapping dispute


I


t was the year that ended the rule of two dictators abroad – Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and “Baby Doc” Duvalier In Haiti – and brought to power one at home: Rupert Murdoch.


With the help of the police, the courts, the Thatcher government and renegade sections of the trade union movement, the Australian (as he then was) media magnate became absolute ruler of Wapping.


Who was who


Most workers at News International belonged to two print unions : the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades, representing white collar, production and managerial grades, led by Brenda (now Lady) Dean; and the typesetters and machine managers in the National Graphical Association, led by Tony Dubbins. There were also much


smaller numbers in the engineering union, AEEU (now, like the printers, part of Unite), who joined


the dispute and the electricians’ union, EETPU (also part of Unite), who defied their union leaders to support the printers. Fleet Street management


had largely ceded control of newspaper production to the print unions in the 1950s, while the titled proprietors fought each other and the government of the day. The unions provided


manpower, acting as “labour exchanges”. The industry was a closed shop, which meant membership


was compulsory – a power that was sometimes exploited with more vigour than wisdom. The NUJ had about 700


members across all four titles – The Sun, the News of the World, The Sunday Times and The Times. Unlike the print unions, the NUJ did not have a closed shop, but the voluntary membership ratio was very high at up to 90 per cent. In the bitter aftermath


of the dispute, there were calls for members who went into Wapping to be expelled. Wiser counsel prevailed, but it was years before I could speak civilly


In the spring of 1986, Murdoch reigned supreme as the boss of News International, publishers of The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and the News of the World, employing several hundred journalists in his east London fortress. But no unionised printworkers. They had all been sacked in their thousands a year before, in a military-style operation that Marcos and Baby Doc would have envied. Murdoch bought the old docklands site close to Tower Bridge in 1978, ostensibly to move printing from outdated premises off Fleet Street. Over the years, one lie succeeded another – he said he was going to print a new 24-hour newspaper, then a paper called the London Post. His real aim was to move all the national titles there and break the power of the print unions. The NUJ was a sideshow.


to those who went in. Pat Healy still does not read The Times. Multi-billionaire Rupert


Murdoch is not a self-made tycoon. He inherited an Australian newspaper business from his father Sir Keith Murdoch. He went on to achieve international prominence after buying the NoW then the old broadsheet Sun, previously published as the Labour- supporting Daily Herald. Known as the “Dirty


Digger”, he turned the Sun into a “racy” tabloid, the best-selling title on the newsstands, creating vast profits for his


business expansion into the USA where he took American citizenship. His family company owns Fox News, 20th Century Fox and the Wall Street Journal. It’s the biggest media conglomeration in the world. Many of the journalists


who were sacked or walked out of Wapping during the dispute joined the fledgling Independent, then no more than a paper dream. Its print version closed within weeks of the 30th anniversary of the dispute. That’s newspapers for


you. Sometimes hard going, but never boring.


14 | theJournalist


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