The Right to Useful Work

High Technologists at Lucas Aerospace, and factory workers at Vickers seek to find out what can be produced instead of war materials, in this classic study.'This book seeks to braid together a number of threads. First, we take the thread of unemployment. Second there is the thread of democracy: never more threatened than at a time of social stress, democratic ideals are nonetheless reasserting themselves. Thirdly, we follow the thread of unmet social need: as men and women collectively gain ever greater insight...It becomes plainer each day that vast achievements are now possible in the fields of welfare, education and health. Fourthly, we have the related thread of environmental concern. Considered separately, each of these four threads is a thin filament of moral concern, abstracted in all honesty from an intolerable political and economic muddle. The problems which need to be faced have often already been identified. But they can only be resolved if these threads can be jointly seized, by large numbers of people, so that all their distinct concerns may begin to melt together, each reinforcing the other.' - Ken Coates.Contributors to this book include: Mike Cooley, Michael Barratt Brown, Steven Bodington,and Pete Thomas.