Keith Flett (born 31 October 1956) is a British socialist historian and a prolific letter writer in the British press.

Activities

Letters from "Keith Flett, London N17" are regularly published in the press, literary and political journals, advancing his favoured causes of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

and the

Beard Liberation Front The Beard Liberation Front (BLF) is a British interest group which campaigns in support of beards and opposes pogonophobic discrimination against those who wear them. It was founded in 1995 by socialist historian Keith Flett who continues to orga ...

. Flett's contributions (sometimes termed "fletters") appear in the letters pages of the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'', '' Private Eye'', ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'', '' The Morning Star'', '' What's Brewing'' and ''

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

''. Flett has claimed that his first published letter was in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', criticising an article by Eric Hobsbawm on Soviet history. Flett has written and edited a number of history books. He has also written for the left-wing newspaper the ''

Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several far-left newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since ...

'' and is an active supporter of the Socialist Workers Party. He is convenor of the London Socialist Historians Group and the president of the

Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of ...

Trades Council A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or ...

. Flett is the 'organiser' of the

(which campaigns against the trend of New Labour politicians removing their facial hair to show a more moderate, presentable, image to the public). He is also associated with Campaign for Real Conkers. In this, Flett forms part of a British satirical tradition of using tongue-in-cheek flippancy to make more serious political points. Flett is a

real ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous car ...

enthusiast and has been a member of

CAMRA The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is ...

since 1974.

Philosophy of activism

Flett has emphasised the importance of being involved in the affairs of one's homeland. In August 2010 he wrote: :In the age of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, texts and YouTube, why bother to write a letter to the editor? I use all the above formats, but it is only when I have a letter published in a national paper that people stop me to say: "I saw your letter". They hardly ever say "I saw your tweet" or "I saw your post on Facebook". :The reason is obvious: a letter in the Guardian or Independent will reach many thousands of people. Other, newer media will reach hundreds if you are lucky. Letters to the editor deliver impact – one of the reasons why those of us who are politically active want to impart our thoughts to a wider audience in the first place.''''Putting Pen to Paper Still Gives You Power'', 23 August 2010
/ref> In June 2015, Flett endorsed

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

in the Labour Party leadership election.

Publications

*''The Twentieth Century: A Century of Wars and Revolutions'' (ed. with David Renton). Rivers Oram Press, 2000. . *''New Approaches to Socialist History'' (ed. with David Renton). New Clarion Press, 2003. . *''Chartism After 1848 : The Working Class and the Politics of Radical Education'' (Chartist Studies series). Merlin Press, 2005. . *''1956 and All That'' (editor). Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007. *''A History of Riots'' (editor). Cambridge Scholars Press, 2015.

References and sources

;References ;Sources *Routledge, Paul, ''Bumper Book of British Lefties'', 2003, Politicos ()
BBC: Pupils wear goggles for conkers, 4/10/2004
*Flett, Keith. ''My kind of decade'' in ''The Pink Paper'', 14 November 1997, issue 507, p. 21 qv *
BBC reports on Beard Liberation Front awards
by Keith Flett

External links

kmflett.wordpress.com
– Flett's blog
@kmflett
– Flett's Twitter account {{DEFAULTSORT:Flett, Keith 1956 births British Marxists British Trotskyists Living people British Marxist historians Socialist Workers Party (UK) members