Between August 21st and August 23rd, 2026, members from chapters of the Independent Labor Club around the US gathered in Chicago for its inaugural convention. For three days we shared our vision of what the Club aims to accomplish, together with the practices by which we hope to bring it about, learning and drawing inspiration from one another.
Over the course of the last century, working class social life has steadily eroded. During an earlier phase of industrial production, workers were concentrated in massive factories and immense warehouses. Today, the wage-dependent masses of workers, caretakers, the unemployed, and the disabled have been dispersed, and many of the organizations that united them have fallen into disuse. Where once there were rich milieux—sports clubs, neighborhood associations, mutual aid societies, dance halls, and choirs—these for the most part have been gutted. Civil society has been hollowed out. Individuals are more isolated and atomized than at any point in living memory.
Meanwhile, at the political level, the elected officials who claim to rule on our behalf in fact answer only to narrow, moneyed interests. They seek at most to manage the crises that grow and deepen with each passing year, keeping their responses well within preexisting parameters. Economically we are just as much at sea, tossed to and fro by tempests we feel powerless to resist. Union density is at an all time low, and decades of activism have failed to turn back the tide, leaving millions demoralized and disengaged. Gone are the mass workers’ parties and militant trade unions of old, replaced by soulless nonprofits and NGOs.
Since the call was first put out in February 2024, the Independent Labor Club has sought in its own modest way to rectify this grim situation. In New York, we have hosted book launches, town halls, game nights, and thrown Halloween and New Year’s parties. In Chicago, we have screened films, supported strikes, and put together strength training and self-defense classes. Around Portland, we have organized hikes and block parties where longtime neighbors met for the first time. Outside Seattle, we have even led snowshoeing expeditions.
If these measures so far seem modest, our goals are anything but. The Independent Labor Club aims at nothing less than the reconstitution of working class social life. So join us. Form a chapter, make friends, meet neighbors, and cultivate the soil from which a truly powerful working class movement can arise. We still have a world to win!
