Keith Flett is a 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

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 and the Beard Liberation Front

Beard Liberation Front

The Beard Liberation Front is a British interest group which campaigns in support of beards and opposes discrimination against those who wear them. It was founded in 1995 by socialist historian Keith Flett who continues to organise and represent the organisation...

. Flett's contributions appear in the letters pages of the London Review of Books

London Review of Books

The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...

, New Statesman

New Statesman

New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....

, The Morning Star

The Morning Star

The Morning Star is a left wing British daily tabloid newspaper with a focus on social and trade union issues. Articles and comment columns are contributed by writers from socialist, social democratic, green and religious perspectives....

, What's Brewing and Tribune

Tribune (magazine)

Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, founded in 1937 published in London. It is independent but supports the Labour Party from the left...

. Flett has claimed that his first published letter was in The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, criticising an article by Eric Hobsbawm

Eric Hobsbawm

Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm , CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian, public intellectual, and author...

 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

Socialist Worker is the name of several socialist/communist newspapers associated with the International Socialist Tendency...

 and is an active supporter of the Socialist Workers Party

Socialist Workers Party (Britain)

The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...

. He is convenor of the London Socialist Historians Group

London Socialist Historians Group

The LSHG is a group of socialist historians formed in 1993 to promote discussion of new socialist approaches to history among the public and the academic community. It is focused on discussing the history from the "point of view of the working class." Its convenor is Keith Flett. It holds an...

 and the president of the Haringey

London Borough of Haringey

The London Borough of Haringey 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 three former boroughs. It shares borders with six other London boroughs...

 Trades Council

Labour 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 state level...

.

Flett is the 'organiser' of the Beard Liberation Front

Beard Liberation Front

The Beard Liberation Front is a British interest group which campaigns in support of beards and opposes discrimination against those who wear them. It was founded in 1995 by socialist historian Keith Flett who continues to organise and represent the organisation...

(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.

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.

Publications

• Chartism After 1848 : The Working Class and the Politics of Radical Education (Chartist Studies series). Merlin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-85036-544-9.
• The Twentieth Century: A Century of Wars and Revolutions (ed. with David Renton). Rivers Oram Press, 2000. ISBN 1-85489-126-X.
• New Approaches to Socialist History (ed. with David Renton). New Clarion Press, 2003. ISBN 1-873797-41-9.
• 1956 and All That (editor). Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007. ISBN 1847181848