radical press history Left: John Walker itics


sold under the Tories’ right to buy legislation. The Voice article showed that the houses most likely to be sold off were the better-quality, higher-value ones, leaving the council with a smaller stock of lower-quality dwellings.” The Metro News in Bury had an astonishing run of stories


picked up by the national media. One was a scandal caused by skin-whitening soap produced by a local factory. Co-editor Sue Ashby said: “Women working in the factory were having miscarriages caused by mercury poisoning.” The News was alerted by a community medicine group that they were in contact with. The story was picked up by Newsnight and the factory was eventually closed down. Famously, the Rochdale Alternative Paper exposed Cyril Smith many years before the rest of Fleet Street (and the political establishment) caught up. The Cardiff People’s Paper got a huge city-centre redevelopment stopped. Other successes were more idiosyncratic. Oxford’s Kevin


Eady said: “The Bugle’s greatest coup was to get the now- renowned graphic novelist Alan Moore to contribute. He turned up one Saturday morning with the first edition of St Pancras Panda, loosely inspired by Paddington Bear, which became an irregular comic strip in the paper.” Many of the papers were especially keen to tackle racism and promote feminism. There was also a general suspicion of the state being secretive. The ABC trial*, the activities of the


“ ”


The alternative press was one influence that led to the mainstream media taking marginal issues much more seriously


Special Branch and preparations for nuclear war were all covered, generating interest by the state in return. There were suspicions of phone tapping and that union members in the Post Office would refuse to do that sort of work. Alex Bird from Cardiff said: “The phone would go tinkle tinkle and then it would go dead. Most of the Post Office union members refused to work on particular telephones so we always had the same engineer come to fix it.” Radical publications have been around since the


advent of printing and have flourished at different times. Publications such as Oz and Private Eye and


their US counterparts showed what could be achieved. Other national title included Spare Rib, The Leveller and numerous music zines.


Then, around the end of the Cold War, most of the regional radical press folded. Some morphed into other publications or, eventually, migrated online. Julie Thorpe from Leeds Other Paper says: “I’m not sure it


was exhaustion – people just found other ways of doing things.” John Walker from the Rochdale Alternative Press says there


is much to celebrate from that period: “The alternative press was one of the many influences that have led to pressures on the mainstream media to take marginal issues much more seriously – gay rights, feminism, antiracism.” Since then, a lot of activity has moved online with


hyperlocal journalism making a return. It appears that new generations have had to relearn the lessons of those who worked in the 1970s and 1980s. Perhaps it is time for a rediscovery.


*In the ABC Trial in 1977-78 the Labour Government employed the Official Secrets Act to try to stop the press investigating the State’s surveillance activities.’


theJournalist | 15


STEVE POOLE


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28