The Daily Worker, (now the Morning Star) was the organ of the Communist Party, The first edition was produced on 1 January 1930 from the offices of the newspaper at 41 Tabernacle Street, London. In January 1934 The Daily Worker's offices move to Cayton Street off the City Road. On 1 October 1935, the first eight page Daily Worker was produced.
The Daily Worker offices at Cayton Street were totally destroyed by fire during German bombing on Wednesday 16 April 1941. The Daily Worker moved temporarily in 1942 to the former Caledonian Press offices in Swinton Street (from where the old Communist Party Sunday Worker had been printed until 1929). In 1945 new offices were acquired at a former brush makers warehouse at 75 Farringdon Road, London EC1 for the sum of £48,000 (picture left). A Scottish edition of the Daily Worker was produced from its plant in Glasgow starting on 11 November 1940.
31st October 1948 was acclaimed by the Communist Party's General Secretary, Harry Pollitt, as the 'greatest and proudest day' in the Daily Worker's history; for a revamped Daily Worker came off the new Goss press in the new building in Farringdon Road. A torchlight procession of 20,000 demonstrators stopped all traffic as crowds surged round Bill Rust and carried him shoulder-high to Clerkenwell Green, where he auctioned the first two copies for the staggering sum of £45 each (perhaps £1,500 to £2,000 today!). Next day, he received a telegram from George Loveless, a descendant of the 1834 Tolpuddle Martyrs: 'Today is a proud day for us all. This is what our ancestors fought for. Long live the people's paper.'
Since September 1945 the paper has been owned and published by a readers' Co-operative, the People's Press printing Society, which operates on a one-vote-per-shareholder basis. The last edition of the Daily Worker came out on Saturday 23 April 1966, being re-launched as the Morning Star, the first edition of which appeared the following Monday, 25 April 1966.
The Daily Worker's last editorial stated
"On Monday this newspaper takes its greatest step forward for many years. It will be larger, it will be better and it will have a new name.......During its 36 years of life our paper has stood for all that is best in British working-class and Socialist journalism. It has established a reputation for honesty, courage and integrity. It has defended trade unionists, tenants, pensioners. It has consistently stood for peace. It has always shown the need for Socialism. Let all Britain see the Morning Star, the inheritor of a great tradition and the herald of a greater future".
Daily Worker Editors
Ben Benfield 2009-
John Haylett 1995-2009
Tony Chater 1974-1995
George Mathews 1959-1974
J.R. Campbell 1949-1959
William Rust 1930-194
9(William Rust picture right)
William "Bill" Rust
born 24th April 1903
Camberwell, South London
Editor Daily Worker 1930-1949
died 3 February 1949
William Rust was the son of Frederick George Rust and Elizabeth Rust
