{"id":1850,"date":"2025-10-03T10:02:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T10:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/?p=1850"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:03:42","slug":"big-flame-building-movements-new-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/?p=1850","title":{"rendered":"Big Flame: Building Movements, New Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/a8CoKjjhg7w?si=GfDtsAWPY7cZGSkb&amp;start=4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Speakers: <strong>Max Farrar &amp; Kevin McDonnell<\/strong>, authors of the recent book on Big Flame published by Merlin Press<\/p>\n<div id=\"bookDescription_feature_div\" class=\"celwidget\" data-feature-name=\"bookDescription\" data-csa-c-type=\"widget\" data-csa-c-content-id=\"bookDescription\" data-csa-c-slot-id=\"bookDescription_feature_div\" data-csa-c-asin=\"0850367956\" data-csa-c-is-in-initial-active-row=\"false\" data-csa-c-id=\"yqc6nx-8snxlf-42pjjd-knzfbe\" data-cel-widget=\"bookDescription_feature_div\">\n<div class=\"a-expander-collapsed-height a-row a-expander-container a-spacing-base a-expander-partial-collapse-container\" data-a-expander-name=\"book_description_expander\" data-a-expander-collapsed-height=\"280\">\n<div class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\" data-expanded=\"false\">\n<p>This book addresses the ideas and experiences of a small British revolutionary socialist and feminist organisation in the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>Written by two ex-members, it sets out the organisation\u2019s eclectic influences: Italian Marxism, libertarianism, feminism, James-ianism and personal politics. Big Flame lost momentum in the early 1980s, with the ascent of Thatcherism and the defeats experienced by working class struggles. It includes a critical interpretation of Big Flame\u2019s successes and failures.<\/p>\n<p>The analysis is interspersed with vignettes from 40 members reflecting on their days in the organisation. \u2018Our book is aimed at those in the radical movements of every type who are seriously interested in political ideas and their relationship to political struggle. We are writing for an audience wider than those in the academy. This book seeks to assist those who continue to expose racist, patriarchal capitalism and to organise for a future where love and equality will prevail. The book explains Big Flame\u2019s unconventional organisational structure and it includes descriptions of its\u00a0\u00a0interventions in a wide variety of struggles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"globalStoreInfoBullets_feature_div\" class=\"celwidget\" data-feature-name=\"globalStoreInfoBullets\" data-csa-c-type=\"widget\" data-csa-c-content-id=\"globalStoreInfoBullets\" data-csa-c-slot-id=\"globalStoreInfoBullets_feature_div\" data-csa-c-asin=\"0850367956\" data-csa-c-is-in-initial-active-row=\"false\" data-csa-c-id=\"uu29g9-zac910-ydze3r-us0w5v\" data-cel-widget=\"globalStoreInfoBullets_feature_div\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"buyingOptionNostosBadge_feature_div\" class=\"celwidget\" data-feature-name=\"buyingOptionNostosBadge\" data-csa-c-type=\"widget\" data-csa-c-content-id=\"buyingOptionNostosBadge\" data-csa-c-slot-id=\"buyingOptionNostosBadge_feature_div\" data-csa-c-asin=\"0850367956\" data-csa-c-is-in-initial-active-row=\"false\" data-csa-c-id=\"swiozg-55b9i1-ivyf7h-v7bgz5\" data-cel-widget=\"buyingOptionNostosBadge_feature_div\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"tellAmazon_feature_div\" class=\"celwidget\" data-feature-name=\"tellAmazon\" data-csa-c-type=\"widget\" data-csa-c-content-id=\"tellAmazon\" data-csa-c-slot-id=\"tellAmazon_feature_div\" data-csa-c-asin=\"0850367956\" data-csa-c-is-in-initial-active-row=\"false\" data-csa-c-id=\"l0a60x-vaiiqz-iruh2p-7uykrl\" data-cel-widget=\"tellAmazon_feature_div\">\n<div class=\"celwidget c-f\" data-csa-op-log-render=\"\" data-csa-c-content-id=\"DsUnknown\" data-csa-c-slot-id=\"DsUnknown-3\" data-csa-c-type=\"widget\" data-csa-c-painter=\"tell-amazon-desktop-cards\" data-csa-c-id=\"wdgms8-61drev-c8c0bg-esjaxm\" data-cel-widget=\"tell-amazon-desktop_DetailPage_2\">\n<div id=\"CardInstanceT89LPuIIxazIXQ5ylHNgCg\" data-card-metrics-id=\"tell-amazon-desktop_DetailPage_2\" data-acp-tracking=\"{}\" data-mix-claimed=\"true\">\n<div class=\"_tell-amazon-desktop_style_tell_amazon_div__1YDZk\" data-asin=\"0850367956\" data-customer-id=\"\" data-marketplace=\"A1F83G8C2ARO7P\" data-session-id=\"257-3333924-2125145\" data-logged-in=\"false\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speakers: Max Farrar &amp; Kevin McDonnell, authors of the recent book on Big Flame published by Merlin Press This book addresses the ideas and experiences of a small British revolutionary&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-future-shs-meetings","category-meetings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1916,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}