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On August 5th, 2019 Harland and Wolff went into administration after almost 160 years of continuous operations in Belfast. Many column inches were subsequently filled with regurgitated pap about the building of The Titanic, the iconic yellow cranes that dominate the Belfast skyline and a generally sanitised history of the shipyard. For their part, the workers and the trade unions rightly called for the nationalisation of the company - a call that will almost certainly be ignored by a Thatcher-channeling Boris Johnson. In the month since the closure it has been reported that the administrators are considering a number of offers for the company. These offers appears to relate to the possible future manufacturing of wind turbines and other renewable energy technology, which has been the core business of Harland and Wolff for the best part of the last decade. The fate of the once mighty shipyard, and the valuable lands upon which it stands, will soon be decided by the stroke of an accountant’s pen. Wind turbines, not ships, have been the core business of Harland and Wolff for a number of years. Wind turbines, not ships, have been the core business of Harland and Wolff for a number of years. Regardless of what that final decision will be, the placing of Harland and Wolff into administration has huge symbolic importance in the context of the slow gradual death of unionism as a political force in Ireland - a process which cannot be understood or judged in the timescale of months, years or even decades. Instead it must be measured in quarter, half and full centuries. The roots of today’s unionism lie in the brutal plantation of Ulster, which began in. . . full at: http://eirigi.org/latestnews/2019/8/26/harland-amp-wolff-a-potential-symbol-of-unionism-in-terminal-decline _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
