The Wapping Dispute was a year-long industrial battle between Rupert Murdoch’s News International and London’s powerful print unions. It’s an influential and well-documented strike which proved the effectiveness of Margret Thatcher’s government’s sweeping new employment laws, which severely restricted union powers. The dispute remains a pivotal moment in British industrial relations and is often approached from a legal or political framework. Very little attention has been given to the strike literature produced during the year-long dispute, namely The Wapping Post and Picket. These publications represent some of the last major literary efforts of printworkers in dispute, and emerge from a long and rich heritage of workers’ strike literature. Using interviews with printworkers and union staff, this chapter examines the role these papers played in the wider dispute.

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Making the News and The Wapping Dispute

  • Sam Kemp,
  • Amil Mohanan

摘要

The Wapping Dispute was a year-long industrial battle between Rupert Murdoch’s News International and London’s powerful print unions. It’s an influential and well-documented strike which proved the effectiveness of Margret Thatcher’s government’s sweeping new employment laws, which severely restricted union powers. The dispute remains a pivotal moment in British industrial relations and is often approached from a legal or political framework. Very little attention has been given to the strike literature produced during the year-long dispute, namely The Wapping Post and Picket. These publications represent some of the last major literary efforts of printworkers in dispute, and emerge from a long and rich heritage of workers’ strike literature. Using interviews with printworkers and union staff, this chapter examines the role these papers played in the wider dispute.