The Wapping dispute happened 40 years ago in London. It was an industrial battle between 6,000 striking print workers and their supporters after Mudoch proposed to move his printing operation for The Sun and The Times and his other papers from Fleet Street to Wapping in East London. Wapping had brand new printing presses which could be run by 90% less workers; 690 instead of the 6,000 who had worked at the older printing presses. 

The Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT) was the most significant print union and was fairly tightly organised. SOGAT members went on strike and were all immediately sacked. They responded by blockading the new Wapping site to prevent the papers getting out. Vans with scabs went in and lorries with newspapers went out. Strikers tried to stop the lorries, smashing windows  There were pitched battles with police in riot gear as they truncheoned through workers picket lines. The strike lasted 54 weeks, over a year, longer than the miners strike in 1984-5. The supporters who flocked to Wapping included many who had been radicalised on the picket lines during the miner’s strike where the print workers had themselves played an important role especially in London.

Footage from Wapping picket line:

The play shows the internal battles with SOGAT and Murdoch’s ruthless strategy for trying to beat the union – as well as the battle between the unions. I am sure most revolutionaries will think it was a bit soft on Dean who did ultimately call off the dispute behind her members back.

But nevertheless it really showed the perspective of the printers and why they fought. It also excoriates the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EEPTU, the electrixians union, who accepted contracts to work at Wapping to screw over SOGAT on behalf of Murdoch. 

The play is clear that Wapping was a turning point towards the world that the bosses wanted, cheaper labour, less skilled, less leverage, more information, digital, controlling even more of the media. The thing that Murdoch hated was the print workers union “had too much power”.

They would sometimes ‘interfere’ with what was printed and Murdochs saw this a gross violation of his rights to spread racist right wing anti working class propaganda in his papers. The most famous example was during the miners strike when The Sun front cover featured Arthur Scargill with his arm outstretched and the headline Mine Fuhrer. The print workers refused to print it – a moment referenced in the play

At the end, beaten and bankrupted, Dean asks Murdoch “What will you do now you’ve won?”
“Make a better world” he says triumphantly.

Cut to black. And what a world the people like Murdoch have created.

I saw the play ar the Kings Head in Islington but its short run finishes on 3 May, Keep an eye out to see if it is revived somewhere else – if so its certainly worth trying to see it.