[HacktionLab] film THE PLAN crowdfunding

[Michael Reinsborough]

People might be interested in this.  The ICTs that resulted in the internet and net culture also had a prehistory in their early application to industry organisation.  Here’s how workers/engineers responded to this computer driven consolidation of their jobs.
film THE PLAN crowdfunding

˜Less than 10 days left on this crowd funding drive<https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-plan-community/#/> to finish film The Plan which documents a unique labour tactic (write your own alternative corporate plan!) in late 70s during the economic struggle brought about by automation, industry consolidation, and information and communication technologies (ICTs).  This film is part of three parallel projects resulting in 1) this forthcoming new film<http://www.theplandocumentary.com/> 2) new historical archives<http://maydayrooms.org/archives/lucas-plan/> and newly available documentation<http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatalog/The_Lucas_Plan.html>, 3) a 40th Anniversary conference<http://lucasplan.org.uk/40th-anniversary-conference/> which launched an on-going UK wide organizing network<http://lucasplan.org.uk/> connecting green bottom-up technology and community/workplace plans, green jobs, just transition and demilitarization.  The film director’s previous work ‘Year of the Beaver<https://en.labournet.tv/video/6528/year-beaver>’ is also a careful exposition of early labour resistance to technology driven modernisation during the 1977 Grunwick Strike.  We’re also looking for people who want to set up a showing at their local cinema.  Feel free to forward on this email to your own contacts…
Support at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-plan-community/#/

Subject: [lucasplan-announce] Please support THE PLAN crowdfunding

Hi,

Crowdfunding for THE PLAN has surpassed our first goal, €2,350 for the grading of the picture and we're now aiming for our second, a further €3,200 for the mixing of the sound.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-plan-community/#/

There's a huge amount of interest and anticipation for the film. This week we've received support from Labour's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell MP  "The story of the Lucas Plan is a truly inspirational one reminding us all how workers are the real experts. I had the great pleasure of working with Mike Cooley (one of the Lucas Aerospace shop stewards) at the Greater London Council, including on the London Industrial Strategy, after he was sacked by Lucas. At a time when there has never been greater need for workers to be involved in the transition to a sustainable economy, the challenge for all of us in the labour movement is to learn from and build on the experiences of the Lucas Plan."

The film aims to capture that experience and the experience of a whole host of Alternative Plans that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The link below features a clip from THE PLAN of Hilary Wainwright, who worked for the radical Labour Greater London Council's Popular Planning Unit and local residents creating a People's Plan for London's Royal Docks:

https://vimeo.com/278461650

One of the things we learnt while researching the film was how one progressive act can lead to another. The Lucas Aerospace workers inspired alternative plans in a whole raft of industries and progressive local authorities. We hear in the film how Coventry car workers were trying to get Chrysler UK to develop more sustainable forms of transport; how trade unionists were trying to get ICI to investigate the detrimental effects of their production processes; how workers at C&A Parsons created a plan for combined heating and energy power stations for local communities; how Sheffield Labour Party supported these kind of initiatives in their local election manifesto; and last but not least Jeremy Corbyn tells us how he was involved, as a young Transport & General Workers Union research officer, organising meetings of shop stewards all over the country to formulate Alternative Plans for socially useful products, after Nationalised car giant British Leyland collapsed.

It's this spirit of workers pushing for real and sustainable progress in the 1970s THE PLAN seeks to celebrate and foster. We can say no better than Ken Loach "We can be inspired by the Lucas workers, by their foresight and imagination. Please support this film, see it, promote it and discuss it. If we want to transform society, this is a good place to start."

Many thanks

Steve Sprung, Director of THE PLAN

www.theplandocumentary.com<http://www.theplandocumentary.com>

https://www.facebook.com/THEPLANdocumentary/

crowdfunding: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-plan-community/#/





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