A-Infos (en) UK, ACG, Jackdaw 26 - The Lucas Plan: 50 years on (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

50 years ago the workers at Lucas Aerospace produced an Alternative Plan 
as a response to threatened job losses and restructuring. The plan was 
developed by the Joint Shop Stewards Combine, representing staff and 
manual worker unions on all the fifteen sites throughout the U.K. The 
Combine had been established to help great an effective united movement 
which could resist management's efforts to use divide and rule tactics. 
---- From: https://lucasplan.co.uk/ ---- "Around half of Lucas Aerospace 
output supplied military contracts. Since this depended upon public 
funding, as did many of the civilian contracts, the Combine argued that 
state support would be better put to developing products that society 
needed, rather than the state supporting workers through paying 
redundancy money when they were put out of work.
Initially the Combine approached outside organisations for suggested 
products. After receiving only three replies from 180 outside bodies, 
the Combine circulated questionnaires to the workforce requesting 
product suggestions which answered a social need and could be produced 
using the workforces existing skills and plant technology. Emphasis was 
also to be put on the way the products were to be made, making sure that 
workers were not to be deskilled in the process of producing them.
150 product ideas were put forward by the workforce. From them, products 
were selected to fall into six categories: medical equipment, transport 
vehicles, improved braking systems, energy conservation, oceanics, and 
telechiric (robotics) machines. Specific proposals included, in the 
medical sector, an expansion of 40% in the production of kidney dialysis 
machines, which at that time were being manufactured on one of the L.A. 
sites. The Combine 'regarded it was scandalous that people could be 
dying for the want of a kidney machine when those who could be producing 
them are facing the prospect of redundancy'. In the energy sector, 
proposals included the development of heat pumps, solar cell technology, 
wind turbines and fuel cell technology. In transport, a new hybrid power 
pack for motor vehicles and road-rail vehicles. Later, the Combine 
produced a road-rail bus, which toured the country."
The plan was rejected. The company refused to change from their 
aerospace focus and the government did nothing to put pressure on this 
public-funded company. Meanwhile Lucas Aerospace, as a company in its 
own right, no longer exists, parts of it having been sold off, while 
other parts no longer exist. It is clear then, as now, that profits come 
before any strategy to produce products that are actually useful, and 
cause no harm.
The current situation, with war fever and a climate emergency, shows 
that the vision of the Lucas Aerospace workers is needed more than ever. 
The anti-war and environmental movements are largely separate from 
workplace organising. However, the movement for the necessary 
revolutionary change must be a united one, based firmly in the working 
class and willing to not only make demands of government but to 
challenge capitalism directly. Those at the point of production, who 
have the power to bring everything to a halt, have a critical role. 
Imagine port workers refusing to let imported Brazilian soya into the 
country. Imagine the fossil fuel workers refusing to work anymore and 
demanding full pay until they get alternative jobs.
Unfortunately, many in the current trade union movement, in particular 
Sharon Graham of Unite, fully support any industry as long as it creates 
jobs. She supports the Third Runway at Heathrow and argues for a 
rearmament programme. This shows that she is firmly behind capitalism 
where workers can continue to be exploited producing products that cause 
misery and destruction for both people and planet.
This is why we need to revitalise the interest in alternative plans, 
under direct control of the workers, and which incorporate at least a 
vision of a different society.
Workers at the Belfast shipyards, threatened with closure, have plans 
for producing infrastructure for renewable energy. In Italy, workers at 
a closed car factory are putting proposals forward for an alternative 
green production plan. 
(https://labourhub.org.uk/2023/12/22/italian-car-workers-fight-for-alternative-green-production-plan/). 
 We can draw on these examples and take them to other workplaces.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/jackdaw_low-res.pdf
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en