Overnight on 24 January 1986, 5,500 production workers were dismissed as News International owner Rupert Murdoch began moving his print facility out of Fleet Street to Wapping.

It was a move that broke the back of the Fleet Street union, as well as the start of the end for the previously all-powerful unions across the nation.

On Tuesday night, Unite officials, NUJ and TUC representatives and local MPs joined veterans of the dispute at St Bride's Institute to remember the event.

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke, who will be a speaker at the event, said: "We, put the dispute into context, from the decision of Murdoch to de-unionise, the implications for industrial relations, the anti-union laws, the use of the state to try to defeat well-organised workers, the rise of Sky and Fox, the political ramifications and News Corporation's domination of the media today.

"This will be the first of a number of events, including the main event of an exhibition and rally on May Day, where we hope to have the speakers who were at the front line of the dispute present."