Catalogue Number
NMLH.1991.14.3
Object Name
Badge
Title
HELP THE TORIES POLICE BEAT YOURSELF UP
Place
Wapping
Events
Wapping dispute
Description
Round black badge with a cartoon of a pig in a riot mask, inside a stylised police badge. Text around the edge reads "Help the Tories Police - Beat Yourself Up" in white.
The badge was used during the Wapping Dispute, in support of printworkers, who had gone on strike in response to the management of Rupert Murdoch's News International refusing to negotiate terms for the movement of the printworks of the newspapers to a new factory in Wapping with worse terms of employment, in 1986. Following the declaration of the strike, known as the Wapping dispute, striking members of staff were fired. Mass pickets and a boycott movement soon followed, but the 54-week strike was ultimately unsuccessful.
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