Blackbird Leys is one of Britain's largest council estate and is located in the South and Eastern suburbs of Oxford. The population are mainly White with a sizable Black minority.

This is the sort of area that NuLabour normally takes for granted in terms of votes in local council elections. However in recent years a new organisation has been gaining votes and council seats at Labour's expense.

The Independent Working Class Association now represents Blackbird Leys on the Oxford City council. Unlike the usual bunch of leftist parties that claim to represent the working-class i.e. the Worker's this or the Socialist that the IWCA do not describe their-selves as socialist or Marxist.

Their stance on anti-social behavior and crime is a departure from the usual left-wing stance whereby they call for more involvement from the Police rather than view crime and disorder as the inevitable result of poverty. The IWCA also take community action to organise pickets of the houses or flats of known drug dealers.

The IWCA opposes multiculturalism and argues that it is a means by which the working-class is divided by favoring some ethnic groups and fostering resentment among the White working-class. The IWCA was vocal in its opposition to the Muslim call to prayer being amplified from a mosque in Oxford.

I am not a member or necessarily a supporter of this organisation but I could possibly be persuaded to vote for them if they stood a candidate in my area. Their significance is that where they are active they pose a credible alternative to New Labour and to the BNP for the working-class vote.

I have posted a link to the IWCA website:-

IWCA - Independent Working Class Association - national website