Adam Buick participated in Speaker’s Corner as a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB). Before enrolling at Oxford University, Adam joined the SPGB in 1962. He started making regular trips to London to promote socialism in Hyde Park, as well as other open air speaking places like Tower Hill and Lincoln’s Inn Fields. When he joined the party its main recruitment activity was open air oratory, though this was soon to change. Adam provides a detailed account of the shifting relationship between politics and religion from the 1960s to the 1990s. By the 1990s, he says, the general public’s attitude was “Ah! Socialism’s been tried and failed,” it was “a dirty word.” However, Americans were surprised to hear that socialism had once been a success among indigenous people. He says female orators had a tougher time because people attacked their appearance as well as their message.

Audio clips of Adam