Independent Working Class Education is an approach to education, particularly adult education, developed by labour activists, whereby the education of working-class people is seen as a specifically political process linked to other aspects of class struggle. The term, abbreviated to IWCE, is particularly linked to the Plebs' League, the British educational and political organisation which was founded in 1908.
Ruskin College When Ruskin College was founded in Oxford in 1899, its founders Walter Vrooman and Charles A. Beard declared:
Proletcult (1921) In their book Proletcult (Proletarian culture), English communist authors Eden Paul and his wife Cedar Paul addressed the question "What ... is the fundamental requirement of the modern working class?" Their response was: "to use the economic power of the workers for the overthrow of the capitalist system, the abolition of wagery and the inauguration of a classless commonwealth." They continued: Paul and Paul (1921) went on to identify the Plebs League as "the most effective exponent of the demand for a distinctively proletarian culture", whereas they described the Workers Educational Association, as making a "parade of impartiality" which masked an "unconscious bias in favour of the institutions of the bourgeois State". They drew inspiration from Proletkult, an organisation which was set up in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Envisioning an imminent revolution spreading to Great Britain, they saw the development of a fighting proletarian culture as being requisite for social revolution. They opined: "Proletcult is practically synonymous with what is generally known in this country by the cumbrous name of Independent Working-Class Education."
Independent Working Class Education Network (ICWEN) In 2013 Robert Turnbull announced the establishment of the Independent Working Class Education Network (ICWEN). He observed that the Plebs Journal, was a 'major vehicle' for promoting Independent Working Class Education. However, after it had been continued by the National Council of Labour Colleges (NCLC) and the NCLC was transferred to the Education Department of the Trades Union Congress (the TUC), he opined that its direction 'had somewhat altered'. He further opined: 'education has to be at the heart of the resistance to neoliberalism' and that it: Turnbull then announced: 'The Independent Working Class Education Network (www.iwceducation.co.uk/) has been established to take forward this vision.'
The ICWEN has disclosed that it wants to 'to rebuild the tradition of independent working-class education (IWCE) that used to exist across many parts of England, Scotland and Wales.' As part of doing so, it hosts an archive of a selection of some of the past issues of the quarterly magazine Post-16 Educator.Publications.
Institutions founded on the basis of IWCE Central Labour College, London Scottish Labour College, Glasgow Victorian Labour College, Australia
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References
Further reading Clarke, Richard. (2014) "‘Really useful’knowledge? The London Mechanics’ Institution and the struggle for (independent) working class education.".
Waugh, Colin. (2014). Educational history: Gramsci and Independent Working Class Education
Archive Working Class Movement Library