A triumph of form over content
“EVERY PAST is worth condemning” wrote Nietzsche. And in some respects the 100 Years History feature in the last issue of The Journalist stays close to this dispiriting standpoint.
It is permissible to dislike the communist politics of Allen Hutt (Journalist editor 1948 to 1972) but to suggest that — during the Cold War — it was these alone that were divisive is to betray a toxic residue of anti-communism.
It is permissible to deplore Hutt’s loyalty to traditional trade union values but to do so is more characteristic of petit bourgeois individualism than the principles of collective responsibility in a union leadership.
The dismissal of Allen Hutt’s status as an authority on typography can be read as ignorance or simply as a profound contempt for the disciplines and delights of production journalism and newspaper design. Hutt was the leading authority in the field of newspaper design before the digital age. Working within the powerful constraints of the available typesetting and printing technology his work was noted for its elegance, harmony and popular appeal.
Fashions change but Hutt’s underlying principles — derived as much from the English tradition in design and craftwork as from his working class politics — remain a guide today. The respect that Hutt earned enabled him to remain among our union’s leaders for more than two decades and culminated in his election as NUJ president. It demonstrates a collegiate spirit that might serve as an example today.
But he was more than this. His Post War History of the Working Class was the key text for generations of trade unionists. As chief sub editor of the Daily Worker he established a regime that has trained generations of young journalists and won for that cash-strapped and persecuted paper a series of design awards.
Incidentally, the new design of the Journalist is very good. A triumph of form over content.
Nick Wright
Faversham, Kent