This book addresses the ideas and experiences of a small British revolutionary socialist and feminist organisation in the 1970s and 1980s.
Written by two ex-members, it sets out the organisations eclectic influences: Italian Marxism, libertarianism, James-ianism, anarchism and its complex relationship with Leninism and Trotskyism. Big Flame lost momentum in the early 1980s when many leftists joined the Labour Party. It includes a critical interpretation of Big Flames successes and failures.
The analysis is interspersed with vignettes from 40 members reflecting on their days in the organisation. Our 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 Flames unconventional organisational structure and it includes descriptions of its interventions in a wide variety of struggles."
CONTENTS:
Introduction
PART 1:
INTRODUCING BIG FLAME, In the
Beginning: by Paul Thompson; Capitalism under threat? The context in which
Big
Flame emerged; Big Flame: its history and how it functioned; New theories,
new practices:
Big Flames praxis;
PART 2:
INTERVENTIONS, INTERVENTIONS, INTERVENTIONS, Organising in workplaces and
neighbourhoods; Big Flame womens
reflections; Organising in single issue campaigns; Changing personal and
cultural life, and the left;
PART 3: THE
STRUGGLE GOES ON, Some
critical observations about Big Flame; After Big Flame; Between the
Chapters,
APPENDICES: Big Flames Publications; Big Flames
Archives.
