End of the Street

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The Story of Rupert Murdoch’s Coup Against the British Press

The End of the Street tells the inside story of the most historic upheaval in the British press and trade union movement for over a century – the true story of Rupert Murdoch, his coup against the unions and the Fleet Street revolution. In the course of a single year, the war for Fleet Street was fought and won. With military-style planning and precision, Rupert Murdoch and his lieutenants out manoeuvred the unions, annihilated practices and traditions that had for decades been the pride of the unions and the bane of the proprietors, and sacked thousands of workers who had believed themselves indispensable and invulnerable.

Linda Melvern’s second book, “The End of the Street”, was published in London, in 1986, (Methuen) and it exposed the secret planning by Rupert Murdoch to destroy the strangle-hold of the British print unions. The book was given prime time television advertising and was the subject of a major serialization in The Times. But this book is more than the mere record of industrial relations in chaos; it is a gripping story of drama, tragedy, conspiracy and even fame.