[D66] Plan C

[A.O.]

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On 13-03-17 14:19, A.O. wrote:
>
> http://www.weareplanc.org/about/
> http://www.weareplanc.org/blog/
>
> Where did Plan C come from?
>
> Good question! Some of our members in Leeds were interviewed by the
> Interventionist Left – a radical organisation in Germany – in 2012 about
> Plan C’s origins and practice. Whilst not all of it is up to date and
> the politics of Plan C are always evolving it does provide a useful
> overview of the origins of our organisation. To find out more about our
> current activity you can see our events page, blog or get in touch with us.
>
> 1. Plan C is quite an unusual name for a leftist organisation. What does
> it stand for?
>
> The ‘C’ is deliberately ambiguous. The assumption tends to be that it
> stands for ‘Commons’ or ‘Communism’. Either of these is acceptable but
> people should feel free to interpret it differently if they wish. It
> also has the advantage of sounding a little like the title of a 1950s
> American ‘red scare’ thriller. More importantly, it’s a play on the
> flurry of discourse around ‘Plan A’ and ‘Plan B’ that emerged in the UK
> once the crisis had dug its heels in after 2007.
>
> At the end of 2009, in a now-classic statement, the prime minister’s
> spokesperson told us “It is quite normal for government officials to be
> thinking about alternative scenarios [but] ministers haven’t asked for
> advice on ‘plan B’ because they are very clear that the plan we have is
> the right plan.” This plan, Plan A, is the plan that involves massive
> cuts to public spending, tripling of university fees, the ‘remodeling’
> of labour and environmental policy, and tax breaks for the wealthy. In
> short, a neo-liberal plan focused on making Britain more
> ‘business-friendly’. Of course, just because ministers hadn’t gone
> looking for a plan B doesn’t mean no one else did.
>
> There are numerous Plan B’s. Some better than others, but all of them
> hovering in the vicinity of some form or other of neokeynesianism. We
> don’t want to unhelpfully dismiss these plan Bs out of hand. We think
> it’s exciting so many people seem to be questioning the ‘present state
> of things’ and thinking about alternatives. However, it is crucially
> important to note the absence of the same social and material conditions
> that ushered in the golden age of social democracy in the past. In the
> light of this, the Plan B(s), being called for by everyone from
> pragmatic capitalist economists to left revolutionary parties, seem
> little more than pie in the sky. So, we suggest a new plan, Plan C
> (perhaps centred on commons). We have no desire to present this plan as
> a prognosis; one of the problems with plan B after all is its inability
> to meet the dynamism and flux of everyday life under capitalism. We need
> plans that can change, rapidly if need be. We do however, see this plan
> as being centred on how we organise our social reproduction. The focus
> on the question of organisation that this necessarily engenders is
> another aspect of the name. We want to go beyond the plans A and B of
> political organizing.
>
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