For the Many Group Magazine. | Page 24

Saudi to cease its anti-Iran policies . The USA is angry about the possibility of Saudi selling its oil for Yuan . The Saudis know that Saddam and Gaddafi were overthrown for accepting currencies other than dollars for their oil . Could the purchase of military equipment from Russia and China be in anticipation of having to defend itself from US ? How strong is Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ’ s leadership ? Could there be another palace coup ? Could the Kingdom disintegrate into civil war ?
The UK ’ s arms industry is very successful and provides much needed well paid employment , but it is evil and should be condemned . Since the end of WW2 Britain has always spent more on defence than any other country in Europe . The cream of university Engineering and Science graduates has been siphoned off into the armaments industry , leaving limited opportunities to work in peaceful engineering products and development .
PEACEFUL ENGINEERING
Japan , Germany , S Korea and Sweden have spent relatively little on armaments over the same period but are now the world ’ s engineering “ giants ”. The engineering workers of this country should be given the opportunity to work on peaceful energy conservation / green energy projects which could benefit the country , instead of causing world-wide death and destruction . In the summer of 1972 the Lucas factory in Burnley went on strike .
Nobel Peace Prize NOMINATION
The resulting radicalisation of the shop stewards caused both the unions and Lucas Shop Stewards nationally to work towards a socially useful manufacturing base , and away from weapon production . In January 1976 they published “ The Alternative Plan ”, which was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 . Mick Cooney , a Fitter from Burnley said : “ The Lucas combine Shop Stewards wanted to know what machine tools we had .
To do the Corporate Plan we had to think as if we were planning . It really made the shop stewards sit up .” The Plan proposed 150 product ideas in 6 categories : medical equipment , transport vehicles , improved braking systems , energy conservation , oceanics and telechiric machines . The Plan was supported by prominent Labour figures of the time including Tony Benn , Stuart Holland , Mary Kaldor and Hilary Wainwright .
In the 1970s , Danny Conroy a , shop - 24 -