As seven of us from the original East London Big Flame group met to put together this web site, we talked about our time of political activism together in the 1970s and realized that at the time we never talked about our personal backgrounds or what brought us into Big Flame. Nor had we talked much since then about our personal experience of that intense period of activity, how it seemed to us in retrospect, and we what felt it all added up to.

So we agreed to go away and each write a short piece trying to answer the following questions:
1. Where we came from and what drew us to East London and to Big Flame.
2. What we did in and around Big Flame, what was most meaningful to us, and what we learnt from our activity, both at the time, and looking back.
3. What thoughts or lessons we’d like to pass on to activists now.

Here are the links to the six very different answers that came back: