No. 98, May 5, 1986.
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International Viewpoint 9 February 1987
BRITAIN
One year of the print strike IT IS NOW ONE YEAR since the 5,500 News International printworkers voted for strike action against Rupert Murdoch's attempts to destroy union organization. Following the vote, Murdoch sacked all the strikers. (See box.)
On January 24, the anniversary of the strike, 25,000 printworkers and their supporters held a mass picket of the Wapping plant where Murdoch moved his four newspapers, produced by scab workers. Police moved in against the demonstrators, injuring over 100 and making 67 arrests.
The strikers have now been out for as long as the miners in their autumn, which included a £56 million redundancy offer, plus the old News International building "for a labour movement newspaper"! This was rejected by an even bigger margin by the strikers than the last "final offer" in May 1986. But Murdoch followed this up with proposals for redundancy settlements to individual strikers, going outside the union machinery. This had a limited success, undoubtedly due to economic hard. ship among the strikers, which has also led some of them to take other jobs.
But none of this is surprising given the length of the dispute, and the fact that barely 2,000 of the 4,500 strikers are getting strike pay, which has now been cut from £12 to £6 a week. The main print union involved, SOGAT, balloted its members in early January this year for a 58 pence a week levy. This would have brought in over £2 million pounds a week, but it was narrowly lost, with onlv 56 per cent of the 200.000 historic 1984-85 strike, and they seemingly overwhelming odds. HILARY ELEANOR
Rupert Murdoch's high-technology plant alongside the Thames is justifi. ably known as "Fortress Wapping." The scabs who work inside have to be bussed in from mainline railway stations, and when they have crossed the picket lines outside they wisely stay inside for the rest of the day, "protected" from the striking printworkers outside by police, razor wire, steel fencing, are lights and monitor cameras.
Nevertheless, the journalists and technical staff are rewarded for their unpleasant surroundings by the highest wages in the newspaper industry. The production staff were recruited by Murdoch to work at Wapping with the help of the right-wing leaders of the electrician's union, the EEPTU, even before the strike had begun. (1) The whole Wapping operation was planned by Murdoch to break the power of the unions in Fleet Street (the traditional national centre of the newspaper publishing industry).
To some extent he has succeeded, but only with the help of the "new realist" leaders of the trade-union movement. "New realism" is the latest vogue of the right wing, replacing the "moderate" trade unionism of the past. It is the bureaucrats' answer to Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government's onslaught on the labour movement in the form of mass unemployment, attacks on welfare and living standards and anti-trade 6 are continuing to fight in spite of union laws.
There is nothing "new" about "new realism". For "new realism" read class collaboration, putting the national (i.e. ruling class's) interest first and capitulation to the bosses.
Murdoch's attacks on the printworkers, and the sorry failure of the trade-union leaderships to confront them, have led other press barons to follow his lead. Over 10,000 jobs were lost in Fleet Street in 1986. In the latest assault, management at the Daily Telegraph have imposed a no. strike deal on wages, jobs and conditions. Frightened of losing members if they led a fightback, the union Lad ships greed and the co 1,200 leaderships agreed, and the company workers. Slaughter of jobs and trade-union rights In the midst of the carnage of jobs and trade-union rights, the striking News International printworkers have provided a beacon of courage and determination. But they have been fighting against all the odds, and have had to take on not just Murdoch and his supporters in the Tory Party, but their own union leaders. (2)
Murdoch made his "absolutely final" ultimatum to the strikers last only 56 per cent of the 200,000 members voting.
This result is an indictment of the national SOGAT leadership, in particular because the national union desperately needs funds, having spent over £2.5 million in the course of the dispute on court cases and compensation - a necessary punishment meted out to any trade union these days that dares to back strike action, however halfheartedly. This attempt to bankrupt the unions is just one of the results of the Tories' trade-union laws. (3)
The lack of confidence of SOGAT members in their union leaders to lead the strike to victory is a consequence of twelve months of back. tracking, and even outright sabotage of the strike, by national secretary Brenda Dean and her team. even before ahe strike had begui, Dete one of the dispute, was trying desperately to stitch up a deal with Murdoch. And ever since, the union leaders have resorted to secret ballots, opposing mass action and democratic control of the strike by the strikers. They have had to be pushed every inch of the way.
Leaderships of the other unions involved in the dispute have done little better. These include another prnt union, the NGA, the journalists' union, the NUJ and electricians in the AEU. Years of disunity in the newspaper industry has led to
1. See International Viewpoint No. 97, April 21, 1986, for background articles on the dispute.
See "Crucial stage for print strike" by Hilary Eleanor and Patrick Field, 'IV' No. 106, October 13, 1986.
"Thatcher's new assault on unions" by Steve Roberts, 'IV" No. 47, February 27, 1984.
International Viewpoint 9 February 1987
members of one union crossing another's picket line, with the unions "poaching" members from one another as traditional demarcation lines are blown apart by the introduction of new technology.
At the level of the national trade-union federation, the TUC, "new realism" has predominated, leaving the strikers isolated. But at September's TUC conference, delegates overturned the General Council's report for their refusal to stop BEPTU scabs from working at Wapping. Union's secret deals with Murdoch
Revelations since then have proved once and for all that the EEPTU's leaders were up to their necks in secret deals with Murdoch as early as 1984 to recruit his scab workforce. Anger at the TUC's refusal to deal with the EEPTU, and its general inactivity in support of the strike, has led to demands in the labour movement for a recall TUC conference.
The role of the national Labour Party headed up by Neil Kinnock has been similar to the one it played during the 1984-85 miners' strike -keeping its head down in fear of an anti-union, anti-Labour backlash. But the brutality and violence of the police on the January 24 demonstration led even the usually quiescent opposition to call for a public inquiry into the police attack.
Labour Party leaders, however, will not stick their necks out when at any time now Thatcher could go to the country and call an early general election. It is hardly surprising that the Tories are doing well at the moment in the opinion polls, with an opposition that tries desperately to appeal to the status quo, to moderation and
### PRINTSTRIKE CHRONOLOGY
1985 September: News International (NI) boss Rupert Murdoch recruits scab labour in Southampton and concludes a deal with the right-wing electricians' union, the EEPTU, to provide scabs to run his new newspaper plant in Wapping in East London. December: NI proposes drait work agreement, allegedly on a new London evening newspaper. This includes no negotiating rights for union branches. Murdoch announces on December 29 that Wapping is in fact to be used to print NTs existing titles, The Times, Sunday Times, News of the World and the Sun. 1986 January: Sections of the Sunday Times printed at Wapping. Strike begins on January 24 officially supported by print unions SOGAT and the NGA, the NUJ (journalists) and the AEU (electricians). Soon followed by sacking of the 5,500 NI workers. February: First mass pickets begin. Law courts seize SOGAT's funds for organizing boycotts of NI newspapers and "secondary action". March: 6,000-strong women's demonstration at Wapping on International Women's Day. Redundancies announced at the Daily Express and Manchester Evening News. Robert Maxwell, another press baron, announces that he will follow Murdoch's example. April: 30,000 attend national demonstration in support of strikers on April 6. During negotiations, Murdoch offers the unions a settlement including the old Grays Inn plant as premises for a labour movement newspaper! SOGAT leadership say they are considering it. May: 10,000-strong mass picket on May 3, led by SOGAT members who have marched from Scotland. It is viciously attacked by the police, with over 100 demonstrators injured. Strikers produce the first issue of their own newspaper, The Wapping Post. Mass meeting on May 19 overwhelmingly rejects Murdoch's offer, but SOGAT leader Brenda Dean announces that a secret ballot will be held. June: Ballot result announced on June 12. Strikers vote to reject the offer. SOGAT conference votes to back the strikers, and the union executive takes control of the dispute. Mass meetings of strikers vote to step up the struggle and demand a national levy for strike pay. August: The Observer newspaper announces the transfer of production to sites outside of London. September: The national trade-union federation, the TUC, votes to overturn the General Council's proposal not to take action against the EEPTU, whose members are still crossing picket lines to work in Wapping. Murdoch makes a new "final offer" to the strikers, which is rejected at a mass meeting on September 25. Daily Telegraph newspaper workers are offered a Murdoch-style agreement including binding arbitration, job cuts, wage reductions and a no-strike clause. October: Strikers also reject Murdoch's "final offer" in a ballot by a larger majority than last time. TUC General Council fails to take action against the EEPTU. November: TUC General Council votes by 23 votes to 21 not to reopen the file on the EEPTU on November 27. December: A recently-elected member of the SOGAT executive, Mike Hicks, is jailed for 12 months after being arrested outside Wapping. Inter-union meeting calls national demonstration for January 24, and also for a recall TUC congress. Mass picketing continues, with the biggest-ever Saturday night turn-out since the summer.
to "law and order": to out-Tory the Tories. Why should people vote for a pale imitation when they can have the real thing?
In spite of all these obstacles and problems, the printworkers are still fighting and they have wide support at the base of the labour movement, and from some left Labour Members of Parliament and trade-union leaders.
Following the examples of organization during the miners' strike, printworkers' support committees mave been organized all over the mountry to build support and collect noney for the strikers. Many local labour Party and trade-union branches have organized speaking tours for the strikers, and done a great odeal of work in broadening support, looth moral and material.
An important development last October was the formation of WAM - Women Against Murdoch. This was set up by women strikers, relatives and friends of the printworkers, and it has been a key factor in keeping the momentum of the strike going and organizing support, particularly among women, in London. WAM has also developed links with Women Against Pit Closures, which has continued to organize locally and nationally since the end of the miners' strike.
It is estimated that something in the region of 2,000 people have been arrested at the Wapping pickets. In December, a leader of the strikers and member of the SOGAT's national executive, Mike Hicks, was jailed for
12 months. This draconian sentence provoked an escalation in support for the strikers, witnessed by the massive turnout for the anniversary demonstration. Many other picketers are facing serious charges and threatened with prison sentences.
But the mass pickets and boycotts of Murdoch's newspaper alone cannot win this dispute. What the strikers desperately need is real support from the rest of the trade-union and labour movement, most crucially in the form of solidarity strike action from their comrades in the newspaper industry.
Without a boost like that, and a victorious end to this hard-fought battle, the British labour movement will have little to look forward to in 1987.
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International Viewpoint 9 February 1987
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