East End News

I wanted the job at the East End News so desperately that I was very nervous all the way to the interview. The offices were in a rather grand looking but decrepit old house behind the Bethnal Green Museum, and next to the Centre for Communty Studies which had produced "Family and Kinship in the East End". I waited anxiously for the big black door to open. When it did, there tood a man I immediately recognised as Charlie Goodman, a veteran of the Cable Street battle to stop the Moseley fascists from marching through the East end in the thirties. his welcome was warm and my nervousness vanished as we sat happily swapping news of mutual political acquaintances. He was just teling me of the work he did as a local volunteer giving support to the paper, when Mike Jemson, the Secretary of East End News Co-operative, came to escort me to the interview room.
With his thick black moustache, full beard and wild shock of hair, Mike looked fierce. It was not until we were seated round the table with the other panel members that I noticed his eyes were smiley and encouraging. I began to feel more comfortable and long before the interview ended I sensed the job was mine.
The East End News was run as a cosumers' and workers' co-operative, independent of any political control, and it aimed to provide a focus for the progressive forces in the East End. As such it gained the backing of the TUC and a number of trade unions gave financial help. Progressives throughout Britain welcomed the initiative. They bought shares and gave generous donations. They were keen to support an "alternative" newspaper, one that would not have anti-working class, sexist and racist bias of other papers. The paper had grown out of the previous effort locally to keep the "East Ender" which had been taken over by the company that ran the East End Advertiser, which promptly shut it down.
I started work there in january 1981 as the administrator, and the first issue of the paper was launched in March. Right up to the eve of the launch there had been a team of top=notch journalists and local activists working on the first issue. It was vital to get it right. They had worked into the night for weeks, discussing, planning, arguing the finer points and preparing layouts. There was an air of excitement that kept the adrenalin flowing. Throughout this period none worked harder than Aidan White and Mike Jempson. They made a good team. Aidan had the greater experience as a journalist whilst Mike, newer to the profession, had a deeper knowledge of and long involvement in local community action. Together they put the first issue to bed and it was presumed that Aidan would then become editor. What a shock we had when he said he couldn't give so much time to the East End News in the future because of his job at the Guardian. So Mike was thrown in at the deep end and became editor.
In that first issue we proudly printed our policy: to provide a local news service excluding discriminatory material; to campaign for better services and living standards in the area; an to provide a right to reply to those unfairly treated by the paper. It was these policies that had gained the support of many local organisations from the start. My first task was to set up the financial and administrative systems ad then, far more enjoyable, to organise and co-ordinate the work of the volunteers as well as corresond with the members and donors. We set up training sessions and the volunteers worked in every sphere of the paper's production and distribution. The few paid workers took only £75 a week from the coffers at first but later their salary was raised to £100. Every worker and volunteer did whatever job was needed at any time, and after I set up the required organisational systems I was asked to change my job and become the features editor.
The atmosphere in the office was highly charged. We all felt we wre i at the start of something great. The paid worker were few but the volunteers were many and the newsroom was always crowded with people. You would find yourself tripping over volunteers like Vicky and Viv, sitting on the floor looking over their notes and giggling over their experiences. Both of them were exerienced journalists, having worked on reputable newspapers in Johannesburg, their home town. Fiercely anti-apartheid and undestanding of the need for real press freedom after their experiences in South Africa, Vicky and Viv were eager to put their talent to good use at the East End News.
Everything was done on a shoestring. We had little furniture and far too few typewriters. They were snapped up eagerly whenever anyone left them ungurded for a moment. There was never enough to go round and being very old models they clattered noisily. I fet at home in that atmosphere as I was used to the chaos of left-wing offices. In fact I thrived on it.
Some of Fleet Street's finest journalists gave us their support. they mucked in with the subbing, the reporting and feature writing, and even taught their craft to local people who were eager to play their part in making the East End News a success. Beulah, who had previously been a local nurse, started to write a health column for us. Her ambition was to become a journalist and she worked hard to achieve that goal, studying at the North London Polytechnic. Her husband Pat, a local teacher, was very supportive of her, and they both played a role in the development of the paper. We were all delighted when she obtained her degree and went on to do a PhD at the London School of Economics. She then went on to play a significant role on the NUJ's Black Members Committee. Many other local people throughout the East End wrote on wild life, local history and on tenants' issues. The newsroom was always buzzing with conversation and Mike's patience was often sorely tried, but he buzzed with the best of us. The area we covered in our columns was large, ranging fro hackney, through Tower hamlets to Stratford and beyond Just as a would-be taxi driver goes on the "knowledge", so I walked to every corner of our constituency, getting to know the community groups and local characters. There were many new community organisations springing up, but so were fascist groups. Our columns were filled with reports of racist attacks on housing estates where police turned a blind eye. We tried always to give good coverage to the many issues raised by black community groups.
There was also a flourishing cultural life in the area, with the Half Moon Theatre, the Theatre Royal Stratford and all the alternative comedians and theatre groups performing in the local pubs and clubs. There were poetry societies, film and photography workshops, pub music of every kind and the Rio Cinema, as well as Urban Farms and nature walks. a rich life to savour. We publicised it all and involved many local people in reviewing events.
Spirits were high at the paper. Everyone was committed, but commitment was not enough. As our financial difficulties increased, splits and factions became obvious at the Co-op shareholders meetings. When you consider that East End News was launched with only £26,000 capital, you will understand the enormous task we had taken on.
[At this point, the aforementioned Pat, who had been asked by Zelda to read these memoirs, goes into quite a lengthy diatribe about what went wrong at EEN, how it lost its organiic connection to its readership and their everyday concerns by being too politically correct, not supporting things like wedding announcements and beauty queen competitions, and being generally too censorious. No doubt this points to one of the splits and factions that Zelda talks about]
We had to fight every inch of the way for readers and advertising. There was fierce competition from other long-stading traditional local papers. They were shored up by huge financial resources, whilst the East End News suffered chronic cash flow problems. That was partly due to our advertisers not paying their bills within the month as agreed. We considered every possiblity including becoing a free sheet, but finally we had to shed staff and with a very heavy heart I left the paper in November. The paper continued to be published for a short time, run entirely by volunteers, before it finally folded. It could never be thought of as a failure, despite its short life. [Another note from Pat utterly disagreeing with this statement].
Through the paper's columns, funds were raised to buy a good second-hand taxi for the Tower Hamlets Out and About group of people with disabilities, and when we handed it over there was great rejoicing and straightwaway two of the group's members were able to spend an enjoyable vening at a concert transported by their very own taxi from door to door.
We produced two local history calendars, a book of cartoons by local artists, and helped promote cultural and sporting events. The paper even formed its own football team.
We who worked on the paper gained greatly from the experience and some of the people we trained went on to become respected professionals. It is good to see George Alagiah, once a young East End News volunteer reporter studying journalism, is now a TV correspondent reporting from all the hotspots of the world. Another of our volunteers was Val McCalla, who is proprietor of The Voice newspaper. [Well known Black newspaper in the 1980s].
Yes, the East End News made an impact and even today people speak of it with admiration. They remember it as a brave experiment.