"Eine Kur, die den Tod bringt"

Name of traveller

Wilfried Kratz

Reason for travel

• foreign correspondent in the UK for the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit

Date of travel

1980

Auch im Hauptquartier der Waliser Bergarbeitergewerkschaft in Pontypridd bei Cardiff hat man kein gutes Wort für die Regierung. „Die Tories“, sagt Vorstandsmitglied des [sic] Dutfield verächtlich, „haben nie etwas für Wales getan.“ Die politische Landkarte des industrialisierten Südens, wo die große Mehrheit der Waliser wohnt, ist tief rot. Dutfield zieht daraus den Schluß: „Hier haben die Konservativen keine Chance, und das lassen sie uns spüren.“ (Kratz 22)

Content

• industry:
  • report about strikes in the steel industry in south Wales, especially in the steel factory in Llanwern
  • complex nature of steel industry: state-owned British Steel Corporation wants to counteract bankruptcy by closure of factories
  • lower quality of products in Wales
  • benefit of knowledge exchange with factories in Germany to improve quality
• people:
  • focus on peaceful strategies of striking workers to raise public awareness for their protest about raising wages
  • interview with union leaders Brian Connolly (Newport: steel workers) and Dutfield (Pontypridd: coal miners) about living wages, import/export, previous clashes during pickets, de-industrialisation
• politics:
  • points out employment regulations that lead to empoyment shortages in some areas and unnecessary surplus in others -- lower productivity in comparison with continental Europe, especially Germany
  • overview over political dimension of industrial action and government reaction
• compare with the author's later report from the CAT near Machynlleth
• click here to read the full account

Nationality of traveller

German

Language of publication

German

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

report

Citation

Kratz, Wilfried. "Eine Kur, die den Tod bringt." Die Zeit 6 (1 Feb. 1980): 22. Print.