In & Against the State: Organising for Power in the Public Sector

Join the South Island Workers Culture and Education League for a short documentary screening on the Lucas Plan, followed by a discussion on its successes and limitations, and a workshop to think through how the actions of rank-and-file workers fifty years ago can inspire and inform our organizing for a better world.

In 1976, facing immense layoffs, the tumult of the economic crises of British de-industrialization, and the stirrings of monstrous neoliberalism approaching on the horizon, the workers of Lucas Aerospace tried something different. Shop stewards from every union at every Lucas factory met and began shaping a new plan for the company. Together, shop floor workers and their Shop Stewards Combine Committee took it upon themselves to design new products and propose radically changed workplace relations in order to redirect Lucas Aerospace out of the arms industry and into the manufacturing of socially useful products. No more missiles and tanks, instead they would produce electric vehicles and buses, wind turbines and medical equipment. No more private ownership of community needs, the products would be designed for community control.

Sadly, the Lucas Plan was defeated and the Thatcherite revolution swept Britain. Socially and environmentally destructive industry continues apace, and we are ever more conscious of the need to overthrow capitalism and radically transform our political structures. It’s time to remember the Lucas Plan and ask some serious questions. How might the Lucas Plan have pushed back against capitalist production? What were the limitations and opportunities it created? And how can we take from the experience at Lucas Aerospace and build power for the working class’s fight today?

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher South Island Workers Culture & Education League