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Peoples Press Printing Society 2009 |
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PEOPLE’S PRESS PRINTING SOCIETY
The 80th birthday of the Daily Worker/Morning Star, on 1 January 2010, was marked by a mass of greetings adverts from labour and progressive movement organisations (Newcastle TUC included) in the paper on the preceding day and by a special commemorative issue on the following Saturday, January 8.
In its first 12 years of its existence, the paper faced a ban by wholesalers, requiring activists all over Britain to get up at the crack of dawn to collect bundles of newspapers off trains and distribute them to newsagents and readers. In January 1941 it was banned by war-time Home Secretary Herbert Morrison – a ban which was only lifted in August 1942 as a result of a mass campaign of protest. This mass support was reflected in the decision by the Communist Party, after the war, to transfer ownership of the paper to a co-operative, the People’s Press Printing Society, in which individuals and labour movement organisations could buy shares. Currently, trade union organisations with a £20,000 share are entitled to a seat on the PPPS Management Committee.
The 80 years of the paper have been years of struggle, no less today than in the past. It exists to fight for the interests of working people, to make them aware that other options exist than the dreary capitalism loved by the Tories and adopted with enthusiasm by New Labour. It gives the lie to the distortions and half-truths pumped out endlessly by the tame titles of the capitalist media moguls.
As in the past, notable events within the region in 2009 were the distribution of 2000 free copies of the paper at the Durham Miners’ Gala (courtesy of the NUM) and the Northern Regional Morning Star Conference, “Fighting Back against the Crisis” at Gateshead Civic Centre on Saturday 28 November. Speakers at the latter were Mary Ferguson (PCS, Regional Chair), Shirley Ford (Green Party), Vicki Gilbert (Keep Metro Public), Bill Greenshields (Communist Party of Britain), Veronica Killen (Labour Representation Committee), Martin Mayer (Chair, United Left), Peter Pinkney (RMT Regional Chair) and Professor Nazir Tabassum (South Asian Peoples Forum UK).
MARTIN LEVY
(UCU Northumbria University)
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Welcome 
PPPS 2009 
