Big Flame: Inspiring Community Organising Then and Now
The Big Flame project has now come to a close! Read on to discover more about the project and what we got up to...
THE PROJECT
The Big Flame project ran from September 2024 to June 2025 and involved eleven working class people aged 16-25 who were interested both in political organising, and archives and heritage studies.
The project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, involved the use of the WCML’s Big Flame archive in a series of fortnightly workshops. The project group used the archives to learn about who Big Flame were, what campaigns and networks they were part of, and – most importantly – what young organisers today can learn from political organising of the past.
The group got to know each other over a range of trips out, socials, and creative activities within the workshops – and have since dubbed themselves the Little Flames, in homage to the original Big Flame group.
The project’s merging of archival study, creative activities, lively political discussion and understandings of youth work and care from our former project partners, RECLAIM, has sparked an appetite in WCML to continue this work. Please let us know if you have suggestions, ideas, or can offer resources for how we do this.
KEEPING THE FLAME BURNING
As the project nears its end and the exhibition stands proudly, the WCML team and Little Flames group will be working to produce a series of events and online material to prompt you to engage far beyond the four walls of the Library.
They will be added to our website as they’re completed!
BIG FLAME
Excerpt from Keep The Flame Burning exhibition, written by Jason Lee and Seth Connor-Fullwood:
In 1970, Big Flame, a revolutionary socialist and feminist organisation grew out of Liverpool. They were influenced by the 1968 student movement and Italian activist network ‘Lotta Continua’ (trans. ‘The Struggle Continues’), whose ‘base groups’ linked students and rank and file workers.
Throughout Big Flame’s existence, it attracted members and sympathisers from libertarian, anarchist and other left-wing traditions from across the country who were organised into regional branches in London, Manchester and Sheffield, amongst others. They attempted to bring together their commitment to de-centralisation, rank and file workplace and community organising with the emerging women’s liberation and other autonomous movements.
Alongside starting a newspaper, Big Flame involved themselves in major campaigns such as the Kirkby Rent Strike and the Ford Halewood campaign. Despite the wide range and the severity of the issues they attempted to tackle, Big Flame members, like many on the left, were positive that their work would be part of an imminent socialist revolution.
To learn more about Big Flame, you can read this blog written by Big Flame’s Project Researcher, Seth Wheeler.
KEEP THE FLAME BURNING
Keep the Flame Burning is an ambitious exhibition co-produced by a group of volunteers, all aged 16 to 25 and working class. The exhibition centres on the legacy of the libertarian socialist group Big Flame (1970 – 1985), of whom the Working Class Movement Library holds a substantial archive.
Between September 2024 and June 2025, the group worked together to discuss their thoughts and feelings on class, contemporary politics, and the role of archives in political movements – using Big Flame material as a rich stimulus for these discussions.
The exhibition is organised into key thematic areas, selected and curated by the group, which are: Organising Tactics and Daily Operations; Socialist Feminism; Internationalism; and Youth Empowerment. These key themes are punctuated by Spotlights, which home in on specific campaigns throughout Big Flame’s history.
The Little Flames also conducted a part of the project’s oral history programme, interviewing former Big Flame members to hear their memories of Big Flame and understanding of the organisation’s resonance today. You can hear these oral histories in the exhibition.
We hope that this exhibition tells some of Big Flame’s story, and illustrates that though the shape of struggles change, our resistance to them must continue – we must keep the flame burning.
To look back on the exhibition launch, you can read this blog post.
To read about the launch of Max Farrar and Kevin McDonnell’s book, ‘Big Flame: Building the Movements, New Politics’ (Merlin Press), you can read this blog post.
THE LITTLE FLAMES
The Little Flames are: Ally, Chloe, Danny, Ezrin, Jack, Jason, Kongo, Lucy, Ley, Patricia, and Seth.
They worked together to co-curate a vibrant, informative exhibition which, in its participatory prompts and playful design, is reminiscent of Big Flame’s material itself.
The Little Flames will be helping to lead on the programming and delivery of our events series related to the exhibition, including a ‘scanathon’ and panel discussion, with more to come!
Keep up to date with the latest events via our Eventbrite.
Explore the Project Gallery
