Hilary Wainwright

Hilary Wainwright

Thu, 01/12/16

Add new comment

What if the workers were in control?

Hilary Wainwright reflects on an attempt by British workers to produce a democratically determined alternative plan for their industry.

Back in the 1970s, with unemployment rising and British industry contracting, workers at the arms company Lucas Aerospace came up with a pioneering plan to retain jobs by proposing alternative, socially-useful applications of the company’s technology and their own skills. The ‘Lucas Plan’ remains one of the most radical and forward thinking attempts ever made by workers to take the steering wheel and directly drive the direction of change. read more »

Geographical:

United Kingdom

Era:

1960-2000: Workers' Control against Capitalist Restructuring

Topic:

Socially Useful Production

Get involved!

Help us expand the Workers Control Archive!
If you think you have some interesting text or content is missing:
Get in contact ›››

The leading Greek newspaper that is run by its workers

Emma Graham-Harrison

At the 'Journalists’ Newspaper', set up after 'Eleftherotypia' went bankrupt, all 150 media workers are paid the same, the editor works for free and circulation is soaring.

Who is opposed to self-management and why?

Kostas Charitakis

This controversy illustrates the difference between the defeated world of ideology and the vibrant and outward-looking world of action that strives to disengage from the dominant relations.

The Causes of Alienation

Ernest Mandel

Human alienation will disappear through the withering away of commodity production and social division of labour, through the disappearance of private ownership of the means of production.

Cooperatives and workers’ control in 20th century Greece

A historical overview of the rise and decline of the farmers' cooperative movement in Greece, as well as some early examples of worker-occupied businesses before the turn of the century.

Occupation, worker co-operatives and the struggle for power: Britain in the 1970s

Alan Tuckman

Britain in the 1970s was a period of crisis and polarisation. Workplace closure led to resistance by workers, which defined the relations between capital and labour for subsequent decades.