About Islington IWCA

The story so far…

Following lengthy discussions between a dozen national and local organisations, the Independent Working Class Association (IWCA) was formed in October 1995. It was agreed that Labour had ditched the working class and become a party for the middle classes, that the existence of the 'Labour Movement' was a myth, and that the working class no longer had any genuine representation.

Accordingly, there was a need for a new independent working class organisation that would break cleanly with the past. This organisation would be community based with open membership and would strive for immediate gains in the interests of working class people.

In 1997, before the general election, IWCA activists leafleted council estates across the country. The leaflet, entitled 'Done well under a Labour Council? You Wait until Labour's in Government' stressed the need for working class organisation in the face of a New Labour administration which threatened to be even worse than the Tories.

Islington IWCA

In Spring 1998 the Islington branch of the IWCA was formed. The first issue of the Islington Independent was distributed on estates throughout the borough, declaring 'We Live Here Too!' - a statement aimed at the increasing marginalisation of the majority working class population in the area.

This was picked-up nationally by The Guardian and locally by the Highbury & Islington Express, who announced (not too accurately!) that we were: 'Old Labour reforming to reclaim Blair's Islington.'

In the years since, the IWCA have become the number one campaigning force in the borough and prides itself on not being a conventional 'Olympic party' - in other words we do not suddenly appear in the run-up to an election and disappear shortly afterwards, as the mainstream parties do.