by Bethany Rielly
CAMPAIGNERS have been left “gobsmacked” by Tory peer Norman Tebbit’s admission that he received regular briefs from special branch on the activities of trade unionists while he was a minister.
The former employment secretary, a senior figure in Margaret Thatcher’s government, said the information was so detailed that he knew where trade unionists had gone on holiday.
He was speaking during a parliamentary Zoom meeting on Tuesday, hosted by Labour MP Richard Burgon to discuss the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry.
JOHN LANG recalls how Murdoch used scabbing electricians and even devised a fake newspaper to force a confrontation with printers – then sacked them all
Forty years on, TONY DUBBINS revisits the Wapping dispute to argue that Murdoch’s real aim was union-busting – enabled by Thatcherite laws, police violence, compliant unions and a complicit media
BEN CHACKO reports on the struggles against sexism, racism and the brutish British state that featured at Matchwomen’s Festival this year


