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The Lucas Plan (from Arms Production to Socially Useful Production)

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The Lucas Plan (from Arms Production to Socially Useful Production)[edit]

In January 1976 [1] [2] the shop stewards at Lucas Aerospace published an Alternative Plan for the future of their company [3]. The plan was in response to the company’s announcement that thousands of jobs were to be cut to enable industrial restructuring in the face of technological change and international competition. [4] Instead of being made redundant the workforce argued for their right to develop socially useful products. [5]

The workers argued that state support would be better used developing of socially useful products and production then supplying military contracts.[6] " Mike Cooley, a Lucas engineer and member of the Combine, summed up the mood of the time: “It was an insult to our skill and intelligence that we could produce a Concorde but not enough paraffin heaters for all those old-age pensioners who die in the cold.” [7]

To draw up the Plan, shop stewards consulted their members and built the Plan from the knowledge, skills and experience of the workforce. The resulting plan included over 150 designs for alternative products.[8] Market analyses, economic arguments and training programmes were included in the Plan [9]. The Plan also included outlines to re-organise the workforce into teams combining the workers shop floor tacit knowledge with theoretical engineering from the designers. [10] The plan was met with considerable hostility from the Lucas Aerospace management [11]

Mike Cooley was sacked from Lucas Aerospace and in 1981 won the Right Livelihood Award for designing and promoting the theory and practice of human-centred, socially useful production. [12]

John McDonnell MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington spoke recently about the importance of the Lucas Plan at "The Lucas Plan and the New Economics" meeting organise by The World Transformed (a 4-day politics, arts and music festival running alongside the Labour Party Conference).[13]

The Lucas Plan Combine archive can be found on the "New Lucas Plan" website.[14]

“The Plan” a Film about the Lucas Plan[edit]

Steve Sprung’s film “The Plan” was launched at the BFI London Film Festival 2018 on Sunday 14th October, Cinema 1, 11:30am [15]. The film revisits the Lucas Plan [16] with many of the originators of the plan being interviewed. [17] The film explores the relevance of the plan today in the context of climate change [18] and worldwide unemployment [19]

Publications related to the Lucas Plan[edit]

File:Lucas Plan, A New Trade Unionism in the Making.png
Lucas Plan, A New Trade Unionism in the Making

The list of publications below cover the history of the Lucas Plan, explore Socially Useful Production and explore the possibility of introducing more widely the concepts developed in the Plan.

  • The Lucas Plan and Socially Useful Production, Spokesman Books.
  • Hilary Wainwright & Dave Elliott, The Lucas Plan - A New Trade Unionism in the Making? Spokesman Books.
  • Mike Cooley, Architect or Bee? The Human Price of Technology, Foreword by Frances O'Grady, Spokesman Books (2016) ISBN: 978 0 85124 8493 [20]
  • Löw-Beer, Peter: Industrie und Glück. Der Alternativplan von Lucas Aerospace. Mit e. Vorwort v. Mike Cooley u. e. Beitrag v. Alfred Sohn-Rethel: Produktionslogik gegen Aneignungslogik. Published by Berlin, Wagenbach, (1981).

References[edit]

  1. "The Lucas Plan: How Greens and trade unionists can unite in common cause".
  2. https://rtuc.wordpress.com/2018/03/24/looking-back-on-the-lucas-workers-plan-against-militarisation-of-the-economy/ | Looking Back on the Lucas Workers’ Plan against Militarisation of the Economy
  3. http://50years.tni.org/story/1976-the-lucas-plan/ | 1976 – The Lucas Plan
  4. "Conference at the 40th anniversary of the Lucas Plan". 2016-10-18.
  5. "Britain: The Lucas Aerospace workers' plan -- A real Green New Deal | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal".
  6. "Britain: The Lucas Aerospace workers' plan -- A real Green New Deal | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal".
  7. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/14/lucas-aerospace-1970s-plan-documentary-eco-pioneers | Eco-pioneers in the 1970s: how aerospace workers tried to save their jobs – and the planet
  8. https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/jan/22/remembering-the-lucas-plan-what-can-it-tell-us-about-democratising-technology-today, "The Lucas Plan: What can it tell us about democratising technology today?"
  9. Paper: the Lucas Plan and socially useful production | https://steps-centre.org/blog/new-paper-lucas-plan-socially-useful-production/
  10. "When workers planned production: The Lucas Aerospace plan".
  11. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rTTswrb4YRMC&pg=PA446&lpg=PA446&dq=michael+cooley+lucas&source=bl&ots=UKPOkH6Di1&sig=sVlYsgubcohbCM43OcxZTcsCBYw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm7pGc47HeAhWrC8AKHXRWCkc4ChDoATAMegQIAxAB#v=onepage&q=michael%20cooley%20lucas&f=false
  12. https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/laureates/mike-cooley-de/
  13. https://theworldtransformed.org/sessions/workers-control-in-economic-planning | "The Lucas Plan and the New Economics"
  14. "Lucas Aerospace Combine/Archive – the Lucas Plan".
  15. https://www.ica.art/on/films/plan-came-bottom | ICA: The plan that came for the bottom
  16. https://www.techworld.com/tech-innovation/plan-when-engineers-proposed-socially-useful-goods-over-weapons-3685280/ | The Plan: when engineers proposed socially useful goods over weapons
  17. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/14/lucas-aerospace-1970s-plan-documentary-eco-pioneers | Eco-pioneers in the 1970s: how aerospace workers tried to save their jobs – and the planet
  18. https://theecologist.org/2016/nov/02/lucas-plan-how-greens-and-trade-unionists-can-unite-common-cause | The Lucas Plan: how Greens and trade unionists can unite in common cause
  19. https://notesfrombelow.org/article/bringing-back-the-lucas-plan | Bringing Back The Lucas Plan by Felix Holtwell in Technology and The Worker
  20. http://greentulondon.blogspot.com/2016/04/architect-or-bee_7.html | ARCHITECT OR BEE?: Launch at TUC Congress House of the new edition of Mike Cooley's pioneering book, ARCHITECT OR BEE?, on Wednesday 6 April 2016


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