This is Brian
Salisbury, one of the brilliant minds behind the Lucas Plan of 1979. You are
unlikely to have heard of him or the Lucas Plan, because within it are the
seeds of a radically different society. Until recently it seemed the powerful
had successfully written him, his colleagues and the alternative their plan
represented, out of the history books.
Yesterday, we
travelled to his home where he graciously welcomed us and allowed me to
interview him for our forthcoming documentary on the British arms trade. In
the 1970s arms manufacturer Lucas Aerospace despite receiving millions of
pounds in government subsidies was cutting jobs at a fast rate. This led Brian
and his colleagues to appeal to Tony Benn for help in November 1974. They
agreed on the idea of presenting Lucas Aerospace with a list of 150 socially
useful products they could use their expertise and the advanced technology at
their finger tips to create, rather than machines that kill people. This list
included products that rely on renewable energy such as wind turbines, products
that are now in common use like hybrid engines and also life saving products
like dialysis machines, a shortage of which was leading to needless deaths
across the country. He recounted their struggle to gain support for the plan
and his meetings with academics like Stuart Hall.
This plan
represented a missed opportunity for industrial democracy as Lucas Aerospace
arrogantly rejected the plan. Worse than that, was the betrayal Brian and his
cohorts faced from the Wilson government which not only subsidised Lucas
Aerospace further and supported its cuts but dismissed the plan outright. The
revolving door between arms companies and the M.O.D. was made apparent when the
general manager of Lucas Aerospace Sir James Blythe went was appointed head of
sales at the Ministry of Defence in 1981.
While the
Lucas Plan has gone largely forgotten in corporate media dominated public
sphere, we have constantly heard it brought up while making this documentary.
In fact, we showed Brian footage of an interview we did with Lloyd Russell
Moyle, in which he asserts that Labours Defence Diversification project for
government is largely inspired by the Lucas Plan. Moyle said the adoption of
something similar to the Lucas Plan was in fact an inevitability. I asked Brian
if there was some poetic justice in the fact that Lucas Aerospace and its parent
company no longer exist, but the plan which he and his comrades agonised over
is alive and kicking. He smiled and said there was. I asked how we could hold
their feet to the fire to ensure the betrayal did not repeat itself, he said
clearly by building a movement from the bottom up which applies constant
pressure.
The above statement was
made by Lowkey the internationally famous Rapper and Activist following his
interview of Brian Salisbury in January 2019.
The interview is approximately one hour long, split into five parts. To see
Part 1 here
Part 2 here
Part 3. here
Part 4. here
Part 5. here
