Socialist Outlook

Socialist Viewpoint, International, Socialist Outlook and their supplements, 1984–2002

Rostock - the port they made redundant

Socialist Outlook no. 27, September 12 1992 · 238 words

west. Britain's Cunard Ellerman. other vessels queued for a berth. ROSTOCK LOST much of the reason for its existence the day Germany reunited.

Alongside the nearby Polish cities of Szczecin, Gdynia and Gdansk, it functioned as an integral part of an international port and shipbuilding complex servicing the entire eastern bloc, with standards equalling those in the Local shipping line DSR played in the international big league, operating joint services with Massive shipyards, developed in the fifties to just 5,000. meet Moscow's demand for vessels as part of war reparations, provided work for 55,000. Some 30 ships a day called at the port while On October 3, 1990, the house of cards came down overnight. Real unemployment is now around 50%; in some of the surrounding agricultural villages, the figure soars to 80% The western ports of Hamburg and Bremen briefly slashed prices just long enough to ruin Rostock's port. DSR is now a junior partner with the west's Senator Linie. Kvaerner, the Norwegian shipbuilding multinational that now owns Glasgow Govan, has suspended its bid to buy worldclass facilities at the Warnow shipyard, in an attempt to screw the price down further. The shipbuilding industry now employs Meanwhile, Germany's finance minister Theo Waigel is calling for cuts in unemployment benefit and training and job-creation schemes. Small wonder the fascists they're taking our jobs' rhetoric is winning a response in Rostock's grey concrete tower blocks.

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