Lucas Plan: an idea whose time must come

50 years ago, workers at the Lucas Aerospace arms company launched their pioneering Alternative Workers Plan. Faced with threats to their jobs, workers at Lucas Aerospace responded with a visionary, positive plan that challenged economic orthodoxy.

They proposed 150 detailed ideas for socially useful products the company could make, such as heat pumps, wind turbines and kidney machines, instead of fighter jet parts.

The Lucas Plan became famous worldwide, sparking other groups of workers to propose their own plans. In Italy today, workers occupying the former GKN auto plant are putting those ideas into practice.

The Lucas Plan was a political high point of the C20th UK workers' movement. Even though it was killed by state inertia and owner-management opposition, it remains an inspiration for everyone who understands why ecological and useful production under worker-community control is the basis for wider social change.

This free event is organised by the New Lucas Plan group and you can register here.