Independent Working Class Association
{{redirect|IWCA}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox political party
| country = the United Kingdom
| name = Independent Working Class Association
| logo = File:Independent Working Class Association 2.png
| colorcode = {{party color|Independent Working Class Association}}
| slogan = Working-class rule for working-class areas
| leader = None
| foundation = 1995
| ideology = Workerism
| split = Red Action
Anti-Fascist Action
| international =
| headquarters =
| colours = Blue
| website = [http://www.iwca.info/ http://www.iwca.info/]
}}
The Independent Working Class Association (IWCA) is a minor political party in the United Kingdom that aims to promote the political and economic interests of the working class, regardless of the consequences to existing political and economic structures.[https://www.iwca.info/about.htm Independent Working Class Association – national website] It has been most successful in the Blackbird Leys and Wood Farm estates of Oxford and had a councillor on Oxford City Council until 2012, but was ultimately deregistered with the Electoral Commission in November 2020.
Founding
The IWCA was formed in 1995 by several organisations but primarily Red Action and Anti-Fascist Action.[http://www.redactionarchive.org/2012/03/declaration-of-independence.html A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE], Red Action Initial sponsors included Communist Action Group, Colin Roach Centre, Open Polemic, Partisan, Red Action, the Revolutionary Communist Group and Socialist Parent.[https://afaarchive.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the-icwa.pdf IWCA leaflet, 1995]{{cite book|last=Barberis|first=Peter|author2=John McHugh |author3=Mike Tyldesley |title=Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|year=2005 |isbn=0-8264-5814-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qps14mSlghcC&pg=PA150}} The founding groups argued that the likely election of a New Labour government would entrench the legacy of Thatcherism and further diminish the political influence of the working class.[https://libcom.org/history/1985-2001-anti-fascist-action-afa 1985–2001: Anti-Fascist Action (AFA)], libcom.org The IWCA describes its ideology as stemming from the trade union collectivism of the 1970s. It has received support from some anarchists,{{cite book|last=Franks|first=Benjamin|title=Rebel alliances: the means and ends of contemporary British anarchisms|publisher=AK|year=2006|isbn=1-904859-40-2}}{{cite journal|date=Winter 1997–1998|title=Organising for change within the Community|journal=Organise!|publisher=Anarchist Federation|volume=47|url=http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue47/communit.html|access-date=28 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726054909/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue47/communit.html|archive-date=26 July 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} but it criticises the contemporary socialist movement, describing it as "hopelessly middle class – and obsessed with Identity Politics".Introduction to Beating the Fascists 2010, by Sean Birchall. Freedom Publishers
{{quotebox|align=right|width=25%|quote="We don't really recognise the term left anymore, because looking around I don't see any of the people that profess to be left or socialist as actually pro-working class."|source=Stuart Craft}}
From 1998, the IWCA formed groups in Birmingham, Oxford, Glasgow, the London boroughs of Islington and Hackney, and a few other areas. In 2003, it launched as a national organisation.[http://www.iwca.info/news/news0003.htm IWCA National Launch] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041229171149/http://www.iwca.info/news/news0003.htm |date=29 December 2004 }}
The IWCA slogan is "working class rule in working class areas",{{cite web |url=http://www.iwca.info/?p=10239 |title=The working class as the ruling class |last=O'Shea |first=Gary |date=28 October 2014 |website=Independent Working Class Association|access-date=2 March 2017}} and its policies are based on door-to-door surveying of people and asking them what are the problems where they live, then trying to work out ways of resolving them. In Birmingham and Oxford this meant working with local people on issues of anti-social behaviour, and in Hackney around, for example, school closures.
Electoral performance
IWCA got some of the best results ever in UK politics of independent radical candidates,{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} and several elected in Oxford. In the 2002 Oxford City Council elections the IWCA achieved the election of a local councillor, Stuart Craft, with more than 40% of the vote in Northfield Brook ward.[http://www.redactionarchive.org/2012/03/news-may-2002.html IWCA election results, May 2002]"[http://archive.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/2006/1/5/90385.html Leaflet slur costs £15,000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210232212/http://archive.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/2006/1/5/90385.html |date=10 February 2007 }}", thisisoxfordshire, 5 January 2006 Three more candidates received over 20% of the vote in the local elections in London, in Heaton and Gooshays wards in Havering, Clerkenwell ward in Islington and Haggerston ward in Hackney.{{cite news|url=http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=90510|title=Chasing votes: two wrong approaches|date=30 January 2003|work=Weekly Worker|publisher=CPGB|access-date=28 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608062208/http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=90510|archive-date=8 June 2011|df=dmy-all}} They won 22% in Bunhill ward in London in a by-election in 2003.[http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article635.html A class act in Oxford]", Red Pepper{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/jan/24/thefarright.uk|title=BNP victory overshadows council polls|publisher=guardian.co.uk|access-date=4 August 2011|location=London|date=24 January 2003}}
The IWCA was able to raise the £20,000 required for participation in the 2004 London mayoral election and nominated Lorna Reid,[http://www.iwca.info/news/news0022.htm In The Footsteps of Heroes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060818040745/http://www.iwca.info/news/news0022.htm |date=18 August 2006 }} a resident and advice worker on the Highbury council estate. Her campaign focused on opposing anti-social behaviour by funding youth facilities and cleaning up estates, establish community restorative justice schemes, local drugs detox centres and progressive local taxation.[http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gla/page/0,,850659,00.html London mayoral candidates 2004], Guardian Unlimited Reid came ninth with 9,542 (0.5%) of the first preference votes and 39,678 (2.1%) of the second preferences.[http://www.kingston.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/elections/results/gla_mayoral.htm GLA Mayoral Results] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051101210705/http://www.kingston.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/elections/results/gla_mayoral.htm |date=1 November 2005 }}, Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames
In the local elections that took place on the same day, the IWCA picked up two more seats on Oxford City Council.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/3794261.stm Labour loses Oxford City Council], BBC News, 11 June 2004 Maurice Leen contested the seat of Oxford East for the IWCA in the 2005 UK general election,{{cite web|url=http://www.iwca-oxford.org.uk/news/news0004.htm|title=We live here too!|date=20 January 2005|work=Oxford Independent Working Class Association|access-date=28 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612075557/http://www.iwca-oxford.org.uk/news/news0004.htm|archive-date=12 June 2011|df=dmy-all}} receiving 892 votes (2.1%).{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/constituency/1211/oxford-east|title=Constituency profile: Oxford East|work=The Guardian|access-date=28 April 2010|location=London}}
At the 2006 local elections, they stood six candidates{{cite news|url=http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2006/4/26/94140.html|title=Oxford City Council candidates|date=26 April 2006|work=Oxford Times|access-date=28 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612190431/http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2006/4/26/94140.html|archive-date=12 June 2010|df=dmy-all}} and gained a further seat from Labour, taking their total to four.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4975112.stm Labour suffers Oxfordshire losses], BBC News, 5 May 2006 However, they lost two of their Oxford council seats to Labour in May 2008.{{Cite web | url=http://www.iwca.info/?p=10108 |title = The threat of a good example « IWCA national website}}{{cite news|url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2242099.election_full_picture_in_oxford/|title=Election: Full picture in Oxford|last=Horne|first=David|date=2 May 2008|work=Oxford Mail|access-date=28 April 2010}} One of their councillors, Jane Lacey, stood down in 2010 to continue as a community campaigner, saying that she was disillusioned by the politics of the council.{{cite news|url=https://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/8120610.LOCAL_ELECTIONS__Parties_battle_to_take_control_of_city_council/|title=LOCAL ELECTIONS: Parties battle to take control of city council|date=26 April 2010|work=Oxford Mail|access-date=28 April 2010}}
In 2008, the Thurrock branch of the IWCA contested the seat of Stanford East and Corringham Town ward and came last with 98 votes, down from last with 144 votes in 2007 and behind the BNP's 344 votes.[http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/democracy/content.php?page=wrd Thurrock council election results] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220100800/http://thurrock.gov.uk/democracy/content.php?page=wrd |date=20 February 2009 }}
In March 2012 Stuart Craft, the last remaining IWCA local councillor in Oxford, announced to the Oxford Mail that he would not stand again in the May elections, after ten years as an IWCA councillor. He said, "I couldn't stand on people's doorsteps any more, telling them we were going to change things when that wasn't going to happen."{{cite news|last=Pope|first=Rhianne|title='Class hero' councillor to quit|url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/archive/2012/02/10/Oxford+news+%28om_oxfordnews%29/9523106.___Class_hero____councillor_to_quit/|access-date=3 March 2013|newspaper=Oxford Mail|date=10 February 2012}}
The party was deregistered with the Electoral Commission in November 2020.{{Cite web|url=http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/English/Registrations/PP204|title=View registration - the Electoral Commission}}
History
In summer 2004, the Hackney branch of the IWCA split away to form Hackney Independent.[https://www.workersliberty.org/node/4100 'Hackney Independent' in Hoxton by-election], Workers Liberty
In 2006, the Oxford branch of the party won a libel action against Bill Baker, Deputy Leader of Oxford City Council, who had posted defamatory material alleging the IWCA had links to violent extremists and Irish Republican groups to homes in Donnington Brook in the run-up to the 2005 local elections. The IWCA, represented in their suit by Carter-Ruck, said it would use the £15,000 it collected in damages to fund their 2006 campaign.
In 2009 the two IWCA Oxford councillors missed a meeting at which an above-inflation rise in council tax of 4.5% was decided, due to work and family commitments. A tied vote was decided by the casting vote of the Labour Lord Mayor.{{cite news|url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/4142979._We_put_family_and_work_ahead_of_city_budget_meeting_/|title=We put family and work ahead of city budget meeting|last=Walker|first=Chris|date=20 February 2009|work=Oxford Mail|access-date=28 April 2010}}
Campaigns
The IWCA has adopted tactics of community action to tackle anti-social behaviour, which has led to it being accused of vigilantism. In contrast to many other left-wing groups, the IWCA actively campaigns on crime affecting working-class people and a lack of services.{{cite book|last=Watt|first=Bob|title=UK election law: a critical examination|publisher=Routledge Cavendish|year=2006|series=Contemporary issues in public policy|isbn=1-85941-916-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k9L-13geilMC&pg=PA204}} It campaigns on issues of local concern such as council housing stock transfers, muggings{{cite news|url=http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2008/8/19/256693.html|title=Our park a no-go area after muggings|date=19 August 2008|work=Oxford Mail|access-date=28 April 2010}}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite news|url=http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news428.htm|title=Yobsmacked|date=24 October 2003|work=SchNEWS|access-date=28 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031116014145/http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news428.htm|archive-date=16 November 2003|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} and inner-city regeneration,[https://www.workersliberty.org/node/116 What should the Socialist Alliance say about crime?], Workers Liberty and against social harm due to drug abuse.{{cite news|url=http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2006/8/4/101157.html|title=Cannabis plants no more offensive than tomato plants, says judge|date=4 August 2006|work=Oxford Times|access-date=28 April 2010}}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The group has also argued that many racial issues are symptoms of the wider issue of social deprivation, and for taking a stance against what it describes as multiculturalism in the belief that it encourages segregation.{{cite news|url=http://archive.theoxfordtimes.net/2005/2/7/5488.html|title=Labour accusations shameful and untrue (letter)|last=Craft|first=Stuart|date=7 February 2005|work=Oxford Times|access-date=28 April 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711081450/http://archive.theoxfordtimes.net/2005/2/7/5488.html|archive-date=11 July 2010|df=dmy-all}}
Cultural Impact
With its notable electoral results in Oxford in the early to mid-2000s, the IWCA is briefly mentioned in Patrick Keiller's 2010 film Robinson in Ruins, which explores the social, political and natural history of Oxfordshire and its surrounds.
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20230115043614/http://www.iwca.info/ IWCA national website on 15 January 2023]
{{UK far left}}
Category:1995 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:Political parties established in 1995