Until 29 February, our Library will be home to the News International: Wapping - 25 Years On exhibition, showing images and accounts of the Wapping dispute.

Rupert Murdoch’s empire currently stands accused of debasing the British media, with revelations of phone hacking at the News of the World and corruption in the police force and national politics.

A crucial episode in Murdoch's newspaper empire was the year-long Wapping dispute.  It started on 24 January 1986 when approximately 6,000 newspaper workers went on strike after protracted negotiation with News International, owned by Murdoch.  When negotiations broke down, Murdoch shifted production of the papers overnight to a new, non-union printworks, sacking the existing production and administration workforce.

For the first time since the dispute ended in early 1987, the story is being told from the point of view of the sacked workers and their trade unions. This exhibition offers accounts of the sacked printworkers and the “refusenik” journalists who joined them.

View the exhibition flyer here:

• Wapping - 25 Years On flyer.pdf