The Lucas Plan
00:00 - Introduction by Phil Asquith, former member of the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee
01:41 - Ben reading a brief section from an 1980 issue of 'Combine News, Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Committee' (from the May Day Rooms Archive)
Colenzo Jarret-Thorpe, Unite national officer for health, speaking about lack of PPE on Sky News on 18th April 2020
Steve Turner, Unite Assistant General Secretary, speaking about lack of a coordinated plan to manufacture PPE on BBC News 3rd April 2020
04:02 - The music of the future from: '90s Kids Predict The Future From 1999'
A few seconds from tracks on the Spotify playlist ‘Fake music from fake artists’ (Music for dying. Contemporary new age pulp by non existent artists. Collected by Musicbusinessworldwide.com). Created by Laurens Verhagen
Played in sequence
Artists played: Amity Cadet, Gabriel Parker, Charlie Key, Ana Olgica, Lo Mimieux, Mbo Mentho, Benny Treskow, Jeff Bright Jr., Mayhem, Enno Aare, Otto Wahl, Piotr Miteska, Leon Noel, Giuseppe Galvetti, Caro Utobarto, Risto Certo, Hultana, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Milo Stavos, Allysa Nelson.
Final excerpt taken from:
Kids Describe the Future to an illustrator
05:54 - Ilya aged 4
07:10 - Micheál (Me-haul) O'Connell's 1 minute tutorial which involves alternative, mistaken or misuse of technology e.g. supermarket self-checkout machines
08:03 - Ilya aged 4
08:21 - Nathaniel Louis Bonney aged 9
09:17 - George, Millie and Phoebe aged 11, 9 and 4.
20:07 - Ira aged 6
22:19 - 'the internet has fun with the BBC theme'
~
What's the (Lucas) Plan now?
Facing factory closures and looming unemployment in 1976, The Lucas Aerospace Combine Committee published an Alternative Plan to produce “socially useful products” to meet community needs. Many of these products, dismissed by management at the time, are now considered mainstream sustainability technologies. Watch the short documentary on YouTube here for more info.
Take a look at the Lucas Plan archive (digitised) at MayDay Rooms, to see what they designed and discussed as an alternative to mass unemployment.
On Wednesday 6th May, we hosted a listening session (via Zoom) to listen to and discuss any audio clips we had collected that related to 'the plan', then, now and in the future imaginings.
Under lockdown during a global pandemic, we are prompted to think about socially useful and 'essential' products, work and employment.
Contributions and discussion was inspired by the resourcefulness, imagination and hope that inspired the Lucas Plan members to develop their proposal back in 1977.
