Now on one level the answer is fairly straightforward. When people think of themselves in terms of class they tend to think in terms of background, education, occupation, income, and culture. According to recent research, if people are asked those questions in Britain today, the overwhelming majority define themselves as ‘working class’. And when you consider that only 7% of all school children go to private schools it is easy to see why the majority view themselves as working class and why they are also correct to do so.
While the factors mentioned earlier such as income and background naturally have a bearing, class is defined most easily by the relationship of an individual to his or her work. Now it must be said, there may sometimes be a difference between what people are and what they think they are. A managing director might work to maximise production but his income is nonetheless largely derived from the work of others. This can work the other way as well.
A recent court case witnessed an attempt to restrict the term ‘working class’ to those involved in manual work only. While by any standards to try and include the managing director would be too broad a definition, to insist on blue-collar workers only would be far too narrow. It could for instance classify those working on the checkout in a supermarket as non-manual and by default middle class, while shelf stackers under the same wage and conditions would be defined as manual and thus working class. So clearly, the thinking behind the white-collar/blue-collar grading is deeply flawed, particularly when you see that bank clerks, nurses, and even teachers, who in the past would have been considered middle class, are today in terms of pay and conditions far nearer to those occupations that are considered firmly working class.
Ultimately the core working class fall into two main categories: those whose work produces a direct profit for their employer (obviously by no means just blue-collar workers) and those engaged in supplementary occupations essential to the functioning of the economy who put in long hours for low pay. Most often these are the same people who most want change and so serve as the natural constituency of the IWCA.
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