ABSTRACT
The first issue of Leeds Other Paper I ever saw was number 20, back in September 1975. It was typical of the alternative local press of the period: 18 A4 pages produced on electric typewriters and Letraset with a few post-hippy graphics thrown in, printed on a second-hand offset litho machine, collated and folded by hand, and distributed personally to those newsagents who could be persuaded to stock it. If the style was rough and ready, the content was a revelation to anyone sceptical about a commercial press that called itself a watchdog while acting more like a lapdog. Take the front page, which juxtaposed two stories: the destruction of local working-class communities in the path of motorway construction, and the disruption of an international cricket test match by protesters who dug up part of the wicket. The fact that a park had been bulldozed to make way for the self-styled ‘motorway city of the 1970s’, and that the park had included a cricket pitch, prompted the headline ‘£10 million damage to Holbeck wicket … Headingley also hit (damage £5)’. The stories were covered in two detailed double-page spreads inside that certainly took an alternative approach to the laws of defamation and contempt of court. Room was also found for a critique of the ‘hysterical’ way mainstream media covered the story of the campaigners against an alleged miscarriage of justice who had damaged the Headingley cricket pitch. Inside there were also articles about a children’s play-scheme, staff cuts at the city’s
swimming pools, a woman’s battle with her local Social Security office, a police raid on a nightclub, the censorship of library books on political or moral grounds (complete with a leaked copy of the ‘restricted list’) and several community campaigns against commercial developments. Accompanying the alternative news were features such as book reviews, a legal advice column, readers’ letters, a recipe for brewing your own beer and one or two rudimentary listings of other alternative organisations. From the radical message of its front page to the free listing of campaigns, clinics and co-ops, Leeds Other Paper (LOP to its friends) served a readership that was alienated from
mainstream media. And its readership need not remain passive, as a statement on page two invited a more active stance:
We publish Leeds Other Paper because we hope people will find it useful and interesting and because we enjoy doing it. We are not aligned to any particular political party but try to support groups and individuals struggling to take control over their own lives – whether it’s in the factory, the housing estate, or the home … If you like the paper and want to make it better or help us get it out to more people, we’d be pleased to hear from you … We have weekly meetings every Monday evening, and new people are always welcome.
