# Fabian Society

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British socialist organisation founded in 1884

For other organisations known by the same name, see [§ Fabianism outside the United Kingdom](#Fabianism_outside_the_United_Kingdom).

Fabian Society Formation 4 January 1884; 142 years ago (1884-01-04) Legal status Unincorporated membership association Purpose "To promote greater equality of power, wealth and opportunity; the value of collective action and public service; an accountable, tolerant and active democracy; citizenship, liberty and human rights; sustainable development; and multilateral international cooperation" Headquarters London, England Members 8,000 Official language English General Secretary Joe Dromey, son of Jack Chair The Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Vice-Chairs Luke John Davies Treasurer Paul Richards Main organ Executive Committee Subsidiaries Young Fabians, Fabian Women's Network, Scottish Fabians, around 60 local Fabian Societies Affiliations Labour Party, Foundation for European Progressive Studies Website fabians.org.uk

The **Fabian Society** ([/ˈfeɪbiən/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English)[1]) is a [British socialist](/source/History_of_the_socialist_movement_in_the_United_Kingdom) organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of [social democracy](/source/Social_democracy) and [democratic socialism](/source/Democratic_socialism) via [gradualist](/source/Gradualist) and [reformist](/source/Reformist) effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow.[2][3] It is related to [radicalism](/source/Radicalism_(historical)), a left-wing liberal tradition.[4][5][6]

As one of the founding organisations of the [Labour Representation Committee](/source/Labour_Representation_Committee_(1900)) in 1900, and as an important influence upon the [Labour Party](/source/Labour_Party_(UK)) which grew from it, the Fabian Society has strongly influenced [British politics](/source/British_politics). Members of the Fabian Society have included political leaders from other countries, such as [Jawaharlal Nehru](/source/Jawaharlal_Nehru) and [Lee Kuan Yew](/source/Lee_Kuan_Yew),[7][8] who adopted Fabian principles as part of their own political ideologies. The Fabian Society founded the [London School of Economics](/source/London_School_of_Economics) in 1895.

Today, the society functions primarily as a [think tank](/source/Think_tank) and is one of twenty [socialist societies](/source/Socialist_societies) affiliated with the Labour Party. Similar societies exist in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Italy.

## Organisational history

### Establishment

The Fabian Society was named after "[Fabius the Delayer](/source/Quintus_Fabius_Maximus_Verrucosus)" at the suggestion of [Frank Podmore](/source/Frank_Podmore) (above)

A [wolf in sheep's clothing](/source/Wolf_in_sheep's_clothing), the original coat of arms of the Fabian Society[9]

The Fabian Society was founded on 4 January 1884 in London as an offshoot of a society founded a year earlier, called The [Fellowship of the New Life](/source/Fellowship_of_the_New_Life), which had been a forebear of the British [Ethical](/source/Ethical_movement) and [humanist](/source/Secular_humanism) movements.[10] Early Fellowship members included the visionary [Victorian-era](/source/Victorian_era) elite, among them the poets [Edward Carpenter](/source/Edward_Carpenter) and [John Davidson](/source/John_Davidson_(poet)), the sexologist and eugenicist [Havelock Ellis](/source/Havelock_Ellis), and the early socialist [Edward R. Pease](/source/Edward_R._Pease). They wanted to transform society by setting an example of clean simplified living for others to follow. Some members also wanted to become politically involved to aid society's transformation; they set up a separate society, the Fabian Society. All members were free to attend both societies. The Fabian Society additionally advocated renewal of Western European Renaissance ideas and their promulgation throughout the world.

The Fellowship of the New Life was dissolved in 1899,[11] but the Fabian Society grew to become a leading academic society in the United Kingdom in the [Edwardian era](/source/Edwardian_era). It was typified by the members of its vanguard [Coefficients club](/source/Coefficients_(dining_club)). Public meetings of the Society were for many years held at [Essex Hall](/source/Essex_Hall), a popular location just off [the Strand](/source/Strand%2C_London) in [Central London](/source/Central_London).[12]

[Blue plaque](/source/Blue_plaque) at 17 Osnaburgh St, where the Society was founded in 1884

The Fabian Society was named—at the suggestion of [Frank Podmore](/source/Frank_Podmore)—in honour of the [Roman](/source/Roman_Republic) general [Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus](/source/Quintus_Fabius_Maximus_Verrucosus) (nicknamed *Cunctator*, meaning the "Delayer").[13] His [Fabian strategy](/source/Fabian_strategy) sought gradual victory against the superior [Carthaginian](/source/Ancient_Carthage) army under the renowned general [Hannibal](/source/Hannibal) through persistence, harassment, and wearing the enemy down by attrition rather than pitched, climactic battles.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

An explanatory note appearing on the title page of the group's first pamphlet declared:

For the right moment you must wait, as Fabius did most patiently when warring against Hannibal, though many censured his delays; but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fabius did, or your waiting will be in vain, and fruitless.[14]

According to the author [Jon Perdue](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jon_B._Perdue&action=edit&redlink=1), "The logo of the Fabian Society, a tortoise, represented the group's predilection for a slow, imperceptible transition to socialism, while its coat of arms, a '[wolf in sheep's clothing](/source/Wolf_in_sheep's_clothing)', represented its preferred methodology for achieving its goal."[4] The wolf in sheep's clothing symbolism was later abandoned, due to its obvious negative connotations.[15]

Its nine founding members were [Frank Podmore](/source/Frank_Podmore), [Edward R. Pease](/source/Edward_R._Pease), [William Clarke](/source/William_Clarke_(Fabian)), [Hubert Bland](/source/Hubert_Bland),[16] [Percival Chubb](/source/Percival_Chubb), Frederick Keddell,[17] [Henry Hyde Champion](/source/Henry_Hyde_Champion),[18] [E. Nesbit](/source/E._Nesbit)[5] and Rosamund Dale Owen.[17][16] Havelock Ellis is sometimes also mentioned as a tenth founding member, although there is some question about this.[17]

### Organisational growth

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Immediately upon its inception, the Fabian Society began attracting many prominent contemporary figures drawn to its socialist cause, including [George Bernard Shaw](/source/George_Bernard_Shaw), [H. G. Wells](/source/H._G._Wells), [Annie Besant](/source/Annie_Besant), [Graham Wallas](/source/Graham_Wallas), [Charles Marson](/source/Charles_Marson), [Sydney Olivier](/source/Sydney_Olivier), [Oliver Lodge](/source/Oliver_Lodge), [Ramsay MacDonald](/source/Ramsay_MacDonald) and [Emmeline Pankhurst](/source/Emmeline_Pankhurst). [Bertrand Russell](/source/Bertrand_Russell) briefly became a member, but resigned after he expressed his belief that the Society's principle of [entente](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/entente) (in this case, between countries allying themselves against Germany) could lead to war.

At the core of the Fabian Society were [Sidney](/source/Sidney_Webb) and [Beatrice Webb](/source/Beatrice_Webb). Together, they wrote numerous studies[19] of industrial Britain, including alternative [co-operative economics](/source/Co-operative_economics) that applied to ownership of [capital](/source/Capital_(economics)) as well as land.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

Many Fabians participated in the formation of the [Labour Representation Committee](/source/Labour_Representation_Committee_(1900)) in 1900 and the group's constitution, written by Sidney Webb, borrowed heavily from the founding documents of the Fabian Society. At the meeting that founded the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, the Fabian Society claimed 861 members and sent one delegate.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

The years 1903 to 1908 saw a growth in popular interest in the socialist idea in Britain, and the Fabian Society grew accordingly, trebling its membership to nearly 2,500 by the end of the period, half of whom were located in London.[20] In 1912 a student section was organised called the [University Socialist Federation](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_Socialist_Federation&action=edit&redlink=1) (USF) and by the outbreak of World War I in 1914 this contingent counted its own membership of more than 500.[20]

The Fabian Women's Group was founded on 14th March 1908 to create a stronger link between women's suffrage and socialism.[21] It operated until 1948.[22] [Letitia Fairfield](/source/Letitia_Fairfield) was a member and spoke to [Brian Harrison](/source/Brian_Harrison_(historian)) about joining the Group, and their lectures and discussions as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled *Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.*[23]

### Early Fabian views

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The first Fabian Society pamphlets[24] advocating tenets of [social justice](/source/Social_justice) coincided with the [zeitgeist](/source/Zeitgeist) of [progressive reforms](/source/Liberal_reforms) during the early 1900s. The Fabians lobbied for the introduction of a [minimum wage](/source/Minimum_wage) in 1906, for the creation of a [universal health care](/source/Universal_health_care) system in 1911 and for the abolition of [hereditary peerages](/source/Hereditary_peers) in 1917.[25] [Agnes Harben](/source/Agnes_Harben) and [Henry Devenish Harben](/source/Henry_Devenish_Harben) were among Fabians advocating women's emancipation and supporting [suffrage](/source/Women's_suffrage) movements in Britain, and internationally.[26]

The early Fabian Society’s advocacy for social reform was deeply intertwined with the contemporary [eugenics](/source/Eugenics) movement, which was particularly popular among progressive intellectuals at the time.[27] Rather than a peripheral interest, eugenics provided the 'scientific' basis for the early Fabian vision of a rationally planned society.[27][28] Leading figures in the early Fabian Society such as [Sidney](/source/Sidney_Webb%2C_1st_Baron_Passfield) and [Beatrice Webb](/source/Beatrice_Webb), [George Bernard Shaw](/source/George_Bernard_Shaw), and [H. G. Wells](/source/H._G._Wells) argued that a [rationalised](/source/Rationalization_(sociology)) socialist state required the 'improvement of the human stock' to ensure social efficiency through the gradual elimination of undesirable elements through compulsory sterilisation and segregation.[29] They were also influenced by the idea that the lowest echelons of society, sometimes termed the 'residuum', "had hereditary defects and would increasingly degenerate."[28][30][31]

Sidney Webb wrote in *The Difficulties of Individualism* (1896) about the problem of the "breeding of degenerate hordes of a demoralized ‘residuum’ unfit for social life".[32] [Havelock Ellis](/source/Havelock_Ellis), a founding member of the Fabian Society, was a vice-president of the [Eugenics Society](/source/Adelphi_Genetics_Forum) from 1909–12. He wrote in opposition to the provision of welfare to this 'residuum', since, in his view, the "superficially sympathetic man flings a coin to the beggar; the more deeply sympathetic man builds an almshouse for him so that he need no longer beg; but perhaps the most radically sympathetic of all is the man who arranges that the beggar shall not be born. So it is the question of breed, the production of fine individuals, the elevation of the ideal of quality in human production over that of mere quantity, begins to be seen, not merely as a noble idea in itself, but as the only method by which Socialism can be enabled to continue on its present path."[33]

This article is part of a series on Eugenics Historical trajectory Ancient Jus trium liberorum Lex Papia Poppaea Jewish views on incest Incest in the Bible British eugenics Malthusian League Eugenic feminism Nazi eugenics "Racial hygiene" Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring Hereditary Health Court Lebensborn Romani Holocaust Aktion T4 Doctors' Trial US eugenics Slave breeding in the US Eugenics Survey of Vermont Oneida stirpiculture Immigration Act of 1924 US birth control movement Sterilization law in the United States Buck v. Bell Doe ex. rel. Tarlow v. District of Columbia Madrigal v. Quilligan Poe v. Lynchburg Training School & Hospital Skinner v. Oklahoma Stump v. Sparkman Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924 Canadian eugenics The Famous Five Sexual Sterilization Act French Eugenics Japanese eugenics Hispanic eugenics Mexican eugenics Swedish sterilization program (1906–1975) Peruvian sterilization program (1990–2000) Population planning in Singapore New eugenics He Jiankui affair Human genetic enhancement Religious response to assisted reproductive technology Pre-war academic proponents Bell Brigham Burbank Carrell Davenport Darwin (Leonhard) DeCourcy Ward von Ehrenfels Elderton Ellis Evang Fisher Fischer Galton Gates Goldscheid Grant Gruber Günther Guyer Haldane Hentschel Herseni Holmes Hrdlička Jennings Jordan Kang Key Kraepelin Laughlin Lenz Lewis London Magnussen Manuilă Mittmann Moreira Munro Nordau Osborn Pan Pearson (Karl) Perkins Pérez Ploetz Quetelet Rainer Relgis Ross Schallmayer Scharffenberg Serebrovsky Sergi Slater Southard Stoddard Taussig Terman Tesla Thorndike Vacher de Lapouge Verschuer Wiggam Yerkes Post-war academic remnants Agar Bell (Julia) Blacker Carl Carter Cattell Coleman Darlington Fleischman Garrett Glad Hardin Haldane Hanania Herndon Huxley Ingle Itzkoff José Figueredo Kallmann Kirkconnell Koch Laski Lederberg Lorenz Ludovici Lundman Lynn MacEachran Magnussen Miller Muller Murray Nijenhuis Nyborg Osborn Pearson (Roger) Pendell Pitt-Rivers Popenoe Rostand Savulescu Shapiro Shockley Verschuer Vining Jr. Weiss Pamphlets and manifestos Hereditary Genius (1869) Degeneration (1892–1893) Gallia (1895) "The Blood of the Nation" (1901/1910) Anticipations (1901) Varuna (1901) Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (1911) Daedalus (1924) La raza cósmica (1925) Marriage and Morals (1929) The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (1930) "Charter for Rationalists" (1932) Man, the Unknown (1935) After Us (1936) "Eugenics manifesto" (1939) The Marching Morons (1951) Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins (1973) Organizations Without significant post-war activity ABCL Alberta Eugenics Board AASPIM AES Carnegie Institution for Science Carrel Foundation CSHL Co-operative Women's Guild EBNC ERO Fabian Society Galton Laboratory German Society for Racial Hygiene Gobineau Association Heredity Commission HBF Human Betterment League Immigration Restriction League INED IAAEE International Eugenics Conference IFEO Kaiser Wilhelm Institute Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry PAA Progressive League Race Betterment Foundation RHA Rockefeller Foundation State Institute for Racial Biology With significant post-war activity Annals of Eugenics (1954) CIS The Eugenics Review (1968) FREED HDF J. Soc. Political Econ. Stud. LCI Mankind Quarterly OpenPsych Project Prevention Repository for Germinal Choice Ulster Institute for Social Research Related Demographic engineering Dysgenics Fujimorism Genetic discrimination German anthropology History of eugenics Idiocracy Pedigree chart Political views of Bertrand Russell Political views of H. G. Wells Raymond Cattell bibliography Ronald Fisher bibliography Selective breeding History of science portal v t e

Fabian socialists were in favour of reforming the foreign policy of the [British Empire](/source/British_Empire) as a conduit for [internationalist reform](/source/Liberal_internationalism) and were in favour of a [capitalist welfare state](/source/Welfare_capitalism) modelled on the [Bismarckian](/source/Otto_von_Bismarck#Bismarck's_social_legislation) German model; they criticised [Gladstonian liberalism](/source/Gladstonian_liberalism) both for its individualism at home and its internationalism abroad. They favoured a national [minimum wage](/source/Minimum_wage) in order to stop British industries compensating for their inefficiency by lowering wages instead of investing in capital equipment; slum clearances and a health service in order for "the breeding of even a moderately Imperial race" which would be more productive and better militarily than the "stunted, anaemic, demoralised denizens ... of our great cities"; and a national education system because "it is in the classrooms ... that the future battles of the Empire for commercial prosperity are already being lost".[34]

In 1900 the Society produced *Fabianism and the Empire*, the first statement of its views on foreign affairs, drafted by Bernard Shaw and incorporating the suggestions of 150 Fabian members. It was directed against the liberal individualism of those such as [John Morley](/source/John_Morley) and Sir [William Harcourt](/source/William_Vernon_Harcourt_(politician)).[35] It claimed that the classical liberal political economy was outdated, and that imperialism was the new stage of the international polity. The question was whether Britain would be the centre of a world empire or whether it would lose its colonies and end up as just two islands in the North Atlantic. It expressed support for Britain in the [Boer War](/source/Boer_War) because small nations, such as the [Boers](/source/Boers), were anachronisms in the age of empires.[35] Much of the work developing and organising the thinking behind a Fabian post-colonial position on the Empire was done by South African-born [Rita Hinden](/source/Rita_Hinden) between the 1940s–1960s.[36]

In order to hold onto the Empire, the British needed to fully exploit the trade opportunities secured by war; maintain the British armed forces in a high state of readiness to defend the Empire; and create a citizen army to replace the professional army; the [Factory Acts](/source/Factory_Acts) would be amended to extend to 21 the age for half-time employment, so that the thirty hours gained would be used in "a combination of physical exercises, technical education, education in civil citizenship ... and field training in the use of modern weapons".[37]

The Fabians also favoured the nationalisation of [land rent](/source/Economic_rent), believing that rents collected by landowners in respect of their land's value were unearned, an idea which drew heavily from the work of the American economist [Henry George](/source/Henry_George). George Bernard Shaw wrote "When I was thus swept into the great socialist revival of 1883, I found that 5/6 of those who were swept in with me had been converted by Henry George."[38]

### Second generation

In the period between the two World Wars, the "Second Generation" Fabians, including the writers [R. H. Tawney](/source/R._H._Tawney), [G. D. H. Cole](/source/G._D._H._Cole) and [Harold Laski](/source/Harold_Laski), continued to be a major influence on [socialist](/source/Socialist) thought. Cole's [New Fabian Research Bureau](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Fabian_Research_Bureau&action=edit&redlink=1), founded in 1931, was particularly important in revitalising both the Fabians and Labour generally from an interwar low.[39]

But the general idea is that each man should have power according to his knowledge and capacity. [...] And the keynote is that of my fairy State: From every man according to his capacity; to every man according to his needs. A democratic Socialism, controlled by majority votes, guided by numbers, can never succeed; a truly aristocratic Socialism, controlled by duty, guided by wisdom, is the next step upwards in civilisation.[40]

— Annie Besant, a Fabian Society member and later president of Indian National Congress

It was at this time that many of the future leaders of the [Third World](/source/Third_World) were exposed to Fabian thought, most notably India's [Jawaharlal Nehru](/source/Jawaharlal_Nehru), who subsequently framed economic policy for India on Fabian socialism lines. After independence from Britain, Nehru's Fabian ideas committed India to an economy in which the state owned, operated and controlled means of production, in particular key heavy industrial sectors such as steel, telecommunications, transportation, electricity generation, mining and real estate development. Private activity, property rights and entrepreneurship were discouraged or regulated through permits, while nationalisation of economic activity and high taxes were encouraged, and rationing, control of individual choices and the [Mahalanobis model](/source/Mahalanobis_model) were considered by Nehru as a means to implement the Fabian Society version of socialism.[41][42][43] In addition to Nehru, several pre-independence leaders in colonial India such as [Annie Besant](/source/Annie_Besant)—Nehru's mentor and later a president of [Indian National Congress](/source/Indian_National_Congress) – were members of the Fabian Society.[6]

[Obafemi Awolowo](/source/Obafemi_Awolowo), who later became the premier of [Nigeria](/source/Nigeria)'s now defunct [Western Region](/source/Western_State_(Nigeria)), was also a Fabian member in the late 1940s. It was the Fabian ideology that Awolowo used to run the Western Region during his premiership with great success, although he was prevented from using it in a similar fashion on the national level in Nigeria.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] It is less known that the founder of [Pakistan](/source/Pakistan), [Muhammad Ali Jinnah](/source/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah),[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] was an avid member of the Fabian Society in the early 1930s. [Lee Kuan Yew](/source/Lee_Kuan_Yew), the first [prime minister](/source/Prime_Minister_of_Singapore) of [Singapore](/source/Singapore), stated in his memoirs that his initial political philosophy was strongly influenced by the Fabian Society. However, he later altered his views, considering the Fabian ideal of socialism as impractical.[44] In 1993, Lee said:

They [Fabian Socialists] were going to create a just society for the British workers—the beginning of a welfare state, cheap council housing, free medicine and dental treatment, free spectacles, generous unemployment benefits. Of course, for students from the colonies, like [Singapore](/source/Singapore) and [Malaya](/source/British_Malaya), it was a great attraction as the alternative to communism. We did not see until the 1970s that that was the beginning of big problems contributing to the inevitable decline of the British economy.[44]

In the [Middle East](/source/Middle_East) the theories of the Fabian Society intellectual movement of early-20th-century Britain inspired the [Ba'athist](/source/Ba'athist) vision. The Middle East adaptation of Fabian socialism led the state to control big industry, transport, banks, internal and external trade. The state would direct the course of economic development, with the ultimate aim to provide a guaranteed minimum standard of living for all.[45] [Michel Aflaq](/source/Michel_Aflaq), widely considered as the founder of the Ba'athist movement, was a Fabian socialist. Aflaq's ideas, with those of [Salah al-Din al-Bitar](/source/Salah_al-Din_al-Bitar) and [Zaki al-Arsuzi](/source/Zaki_al-Arsuzi), came to fruition in the Arab world in the form of dictatorial regimes in [Iraq](/source/Ba'ath_Party_(Iraqi-led_faction)) and [Syria](/source/Ba'ath_Party_(Syrian-led_faction)).[46] [Salāmah Mūsā](/source/Salama_Moussa) of Egypt, another prominent champion of Arab Socialism, was a keen adherent of Fabian Society, and a member since 1909.[47]

In October 1940 the Fabian Society established the Fabian Colonial Bureau to facilitate research and debate British colonial policy.[48] The Fabian Colonial Bureau strongly influenced the colonial policies of the [Attlee government](/source/Attlee_government) (1945–51).[49] [Rita Hinden](/source/Rita_Hinden) founded the colonial bureau and was its secretary.[49]

Fabian academics of the late-20th century included the political scientist Sir [Bernard Crick](/source/Bernard_Crick), the economists [Thomas Balogh](/source/Thomas_Balogh) and [Nicholas Kaldor](/source/Nicholas_Kaldor) and the sociologist [Peter Townsend](/source/Peter_Townsend_(sociologist)).

## 20th century

During the 20th century the group was always influential in Labour Party circles, with members including [Ramsay MacDonald](/source/Ramsay_MacDonald), [Clement Attlee](/source/Clement_Attlee), [Anthony Crosland](/source/Anthony_Crosland), [Roy Jenkins](/source/Roy_Jenkins), [Hugh Dalton](/source/Hugh_Dalton), [Richard Crossman](/source/Richard_Crossman), [Ian Mikardo](/source/Ian_Mikardo), [Tony Benn](/source/Tony_Benn), [Harold Wilson](/source/Harold_Wilson), and more recently [Shirley Williams](/source/Shirley_Williams), [Tony Blair](/source/Tony_Blair), [Gordon Brown](/source/Gordon_Brown), [Gordon Marsden](/source/Gordon_Marsden) and [Ed Balls](/source/Ed_Balls). 229 members of the Society were elected to the [House of Commons](/source/House_of_Commons_of_the_United_Kingdom) at the [1945 general election](/source/1945_United_Kingdom_general_election).[50] [Ben Pimlott](/source/Ben_Pimlott) was its chairman in the 1990s; a Pimlott Prize for Political Writing was organised in his memory by the Fabian Society and *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)* in 2005 and continues annually. The Society is affiliated to the party as a [socialist society](/source/Socialist_society_(Labour_Party)). In recent years the [Young Fabian group](/source/Young_Fabians), founded in 1960, has become a networking and discussion organisation for younger (under 31) Labour Party activists and played a role in [the 1994 election](/source/1994_Labour_Party_leadership_election) of Blair as the [leader of the Labour Party](/source/Leader_of_the_Labour_Party_(UK)). Today there is also an active Fabian Women's Network and Scottish and Welsh Fabian groups.

### Influence on Labour government

Following the election of a Labour Party [government in 1997](/source/Premiership_of_Tony_Blair), the Fabian Society was a forum for [New Labour](/source/New_Labour) ideas and for critical approaches from across the party.[51] The most significant Fabian contribution to Labour's policy agenda in government was Balls's 1992 discussion paper, advocating [Bank of England independence](/source/Monetary_Policy_Committee_(United_Kingdom)). Balls had been a *[Financial Times](/source/Financial_Times)* journalist when he wrote this Fabian pamphlet, before going to work for Gordon Brown. Former BBC Business Editor [Robert Peston](/source/Robert_Peston), in his book *Brown's Britain*, calls this an "essential tract" and concludes that Balls "deserves as much credit – probably more – than anyone else for the creation of the modern Bank of England";[52] [William Keegan](/source/William_Keegan) offered a similar analysis of Balls's Fabian pamphlet in his book on Labour's economic policy,[53] which traces in detail the path leading up to this dramatic policy change after Labour's first week in office.

## Contemporary Fabianism

On 21 April 2009, the Society's website stated that it had 6,286 members: "Fabian national membership now stands at a 35 year high: it is over 20% higher than when the Labour Party came to office in May 1997. It is now double what it was when Clement Attlee left office in 1951."[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

The latest edition of the *[Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_National_Biography)* (a reference work listing details of famous or significant [Britons](/source/Britons) throughout history) includes 174 Fabians. Four Fabians, [Beatrice](/source/Beatrice_Webb) and [Sidney Webb](/source/Sidney_Webb), [Graham Wallas](/source/Graham_Wallas) and [George Bernard Shaw](/source/George_Bernard_Shaw), founded the [London School of Economics](/source/London_School_of_Economics) with the money left to the Fabian Society by Henry Hutchinson. Supposedly the decision was made at a breakfast party on 4 August 1894. The founders are depicted in the [Fabian Window](/source/Fabian_Window)[54] designed by Shaw. The window was stolen in 1978 and reappeared at [Sotheby's](/source/Sotheby's) in 2005. It was restored to display in the Shaw Library at the [London School of Economics](/source/London_School_of_Economics) in 2006 at a ceremony over which Blair presided.[55]

As at 2016 the Fabian Society has about 7,000 members.[56] As at June 2019 it has 7,136 individual members.[57]

The Fabian Society Tax Commission of 2000 was widely credited[58] with influencing the Labour government's policy and political strategy for its one significant public tax increase: the [National Insurance](/source/National_Insurance) rise to raise £8 billion for [National Health Service](/source/National_Health_Service) spending. (The Fabian Commission had in fact called for a directly [hypothecated](/source/Hypothecation_(taxation)) "NHS tax"[59] to cover the full cost of NHS spending, arguing that linking taxation more directly to spending was essential to make tax rise publicly acceptable. The 2001 National Insurance rise was not formally hypothecated, but the government committed itself to using the additional funds for health spending.) Several other recommendations, including a new top rate of income tax, were to the left of government policy and not accepted, though this comprehensive review of [UK taxation](/source/UK_taxation) was influential in economic policy and political circles, and a new top rate of income tax of 50 per cent was introduced in 2010.[60]

In early 2017 Fabian general secretary Andrew Harrop produced a report[61] arguing the only feasible route for Labour to return to government would be to work with the [Liberal Democrats](/source/Liberal_Democrats_(UK)) and [Scottish National Party](/source/Scottish_National_Party). The report predicted Labour would win fewer than 150 seats at the [2017 general election](/source/2017_United_Kingdom_general_election), the lowest number since 1935, due to their opposition to [Brexit](/source/Brexit), lack of [support in Scotland](/source/Scottish_Labour), and Labour leader [Jeremy Corbyn](/source/Jeremy_Corbyn)'s unpopularity, although it won 262.[62][63]

### Fabianism outside the United Kingdom

The major influence on the Labour Party and on the English-speaking socialist movement worldwide, has meant that Fabianism became one of the main inspirations of international social democracy.

In February 1895 an American Fabian Society was established in [Boston](/source/Boston), [Massachusetts](/source/Massachusetts), by [W. D. P. Bliss](/source/W._D._P._Bliss), a prominent [Christian socialist](/source/Christian_socialist).[64] The group published a periodical, *The American Fabian*, and issued a small series of pamphlets.[64] Around the same time a parallel organisation emerged on the Pacific coast, centred in [California](/source/California), under the influence of the socialist activist [Laurence Gronlund](/source/Laurence_Gronlund).[64] American Fabianism lasted for less than a decade.[65]

Similar non-UK societies include the [Australian Fabian Society](/source/Australian_Fabian_Society), the [Douglas–Coldwell Foundation](/source/Douglas%E2%80%93Coldwell_Foundation) and the now-disbanded [League for Social Reconstruction](/source/League_for_Social_Reconstruction) in Canada, and the NZ Fabian Society in New Zealand.[66]

The *Fabian Quarterly* of 1944 reported the existence of a Nigerian Fabian Society led by Max Iyalla and visited by [Arthur Creech Jones](/source/Arthur_Creech_Jones).[67][68]

Direct or indirect Fabian influence may also be seen in the [liberal socialism](/source/Liberal_socialism) of [Carlo Rosselli](/source/Carlo_Rosselli), founder, with his brother [Nello](/source/Nello_Rosselli), of the [anti-fascist](/source/Anti-fascism) group *[Giustizia e Libertà](/source/Giustizia_e_Libert%C3%A0)*, and all its derivatives such as the [Action Party](/source/Action_Party_(Italy)) in Italy.[69] The [Community Movement](/source/Community_Movement), created by the socialist entrepreneur [Adriano Olivetti](/source/Adriano_Olivetti), was then the only Italian party which referred explicitly to Fabianism, among his main inspirations along with federalism, social liberalism, fighting [partitocracy](/source/Partitocracy) and social democracy.[70]

In 2000 the Sicilian Fabian Society was founded in [Messina](/source/Messina).[71]

## Structure

This section needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Fabian Society" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

It is written into the rules of the society that it has no policies. All the publications carry a disclaimer saying that they do not represent the collective views of the society but only the views of the authors. "No resolution of a political character expressing an opinion or calling for action, other than in relation to the running of the Society itself, shall be put forward in the name of the Society."[72]

### Executive committee

The Fabian Society is governed by an elected executive committee. The committee consists of 10 ordinary members elected from a national list, three members nationally elected from a list nominated by local groups, representatives from the Young Fabians, Fabians Women's Network and Scottish and Welsh Fabians. There is also one staff representative and a directly elected honorary treasurer from the membership. Elections are held every other year, with the exception of the Young Fabians and staff representation which are elected annually. The committee meets quarterly and elect a chair and at least one vice-chair annually to conduct its business. The current chair of the Fabian Society is Martin Edobor.[73]

### Secretariat

The Fabian Society has a number of employees based in their headquarters in London. The secretariat is led by a general secretary, who is the organisation's CEO. The staff are arranged into departments including Research, Editorial, Events, and Operations.

### Fabian Review

The Fabian Society publishes the *Fabian Review*, a quarterly magazine.[74]

### Young Fabians

Main article: [Young Fabians](/source/Young_Fabians)

Since 1960 members aged under 31 years of age have also been members of the Young Fabians. This group has its own elected Chair, executive committee and sub-groups. The Young Fabians are a voluntary organisation that serves as an incubator for member-led activities such as policy and social events, pamphlets and delegations. Within the group are five special interest communities called Networks that are run by voluntary steering groups and elect their own Chair and officers. The current Networks are Economy & Finance, Health, International Affairs, Education, Communications (Industry), Environment, Tech, Devolution & Local Government, Law, and Arts & Culture.[75] It also publishes the quarterly magazine *Anticipations*.

In 2023 the Fabian Society suspended all Young Fabians' face-to-face activities following its non-public review of culture and practice.[76] In 2024, Young Fabians was relaunched with under-18s barred from membership, and the upper age limit reduced from 30 to 27. Young Fabians will also be led by two co-chairs, at least one being a woman, with member complaints directly handled by the Fabian Society.[77]

### Fabian Women's Network

All female members of the Fabian Society are also members of the [Fabian Women's Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fabian_Women%27s_Network&action=edit&redlink=1). This group has its own elected Chair and Executive Committee which organises conferences and events and works with the wider political movement to secure increased representation for women in politics and public life. It has a flagship mentoring programme that recruits on an annual basis, and its president is [Seema Malhotra](/source/Seema_Malhotra), a [Labour and Co-operative](/source/Labour_and_Co-operative_Party) MP. The Network also publishes the quarterly magazine, *Fabiana*, runs a range of public speaking events, works closely in partnership with a range of women's campaigning organisations and regularly hosts a fringe at the Labour Party conference.

### Local Fabians

There are 45 [local Fabian societies](/source/Local_Fabian_societies) across the UK, bringing Fabian debates to communities around the country. Some, such as [Bournemouth](/source/Bournemouth) and [Oxford](/source/Oxford), have long histories, dating from the 1890s,[78][79] though most have waxed and waned over the years. The Fabian local societies were given a major boost during the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War) when re-founded by G. D. H. Cole and [Margaret Cole](/source/Margaret_Cole),[80] who noted renewed interest in socialism and that wartime evacuation created chances for Fabians to strengthen influence outside London.[81] Many local societies are affiliated to their local constituency Labour Party and have their own executive bodies. These local branches are affiliated to the national Fabians and local members have the same voting rights as their national counterparts.

## Influence on the political right

When founded in 1884 as a [parliamentarian](/source/Parliament) organisation, there was no leftist party with which the Fabians could connect. As such, they initially attempted to 'permeate' the [Liberal Party](/source/Liberal_Party_(UK)), with some success. The foundation of the Labour Party in 1900 signalled a change in tactics,[82] although Fabian-Liberal links on specific topics such as welfare reform lasted well into the interwar period.[83][84]

More recent studies have examined their impact on the [Conservative Party](/source/Conservative_Party_(UK)), such as the foundation of [Ashridge College](/source/Ashridge_College), explicitly designed in the 1930s to create Conservative Fabians.[85][86][87]

## Critiques of the Fabians

As one of the world's oldest and most prominent think tanks, the Fabians have sometimes fallen under criticism, more often from the left than the right. Most older critiques focused on the Fabians' political organisation efforts and claims to have been influential. Although [H. G. Wells](/source/H._G._Wells) was a member of the Fabian Society from 1903 to 1908, he was a critic of its operations, particularly in his 1905 paper "The Faults of the Fabian", in which he claimed the Society was a middle-class talking shop.[88] He later parodied the society in his 1910 novel *[The New Machiavelli](/source/The_New_Machiavelli)*.[89]

[Vladimir Lenin](/source/Vladimir_Lenin) during the [First World War](/source/First_World_War) wrote that the Fabians were "social-chauvinists", "undoubtedly the most consummate expression of opportunism and of Liberal-Labour policy". Drawing from [Friedrich Engels](/source/Friedrich_Engels), Lenin declared the Fabians were "a gang of bourgeois rogues who would demoralise the workers, influence them in a counter-revolutionary spirit".[90] In the 1920s, [Leon Trotsky](/source/Leon_Trotsky) critiqued the Fabian Society as provincial, boring, and unnecessary, particularly to the working class. He wrote that their published works "serve merely to explain to the Fabians themselves why Fabianism exists in the world".[91]

The post-war [Communist Party Historians Group](/source/Communist_Party_Historians_Group) was critical of the Fabians, and indeed the [post-war consensus](/source/Post-war_consensus), with its strong social-democratic influence. The Marxist historian [Eric Hobsbawm](/source/Eric_Hobsbawm) wrote his PhD thesis attacking claims from the early Fabians to have been originators of the Labour Party and the post-war consensus. Instead, he argued that the credit should be given to the more autonomous, working-class [Independent Labour Party](/source/Independent_Labour_Party).[92][93] Fabian socialism has also been criticised for expanding state power under the guise of [social justice](/source/Social_justice), with critics like [Friedrich Hayek](/source/Friedrich_Hayek) arguing in his book *[The Road to Serfdom](/source/The_Road_to_Serfdom)* that such policies lead to a "centralized state dominated by unelected bureaucrats."[94]

In more recent years, critiques of the early Fabians have focused on other areas. In an article published in *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)* on 14 February 2008 (following the apology offered by Australian Prime Minister [Kevin Rudd](/source/Kevin_Rudd) to the "[stolen generations](/source/Stolen_generations)"), [Geoffrey Robertson](/source/Geoffrey_Robertson) criticised Fabian socialists for providing the intellectual justification for the eugenics policy that led to the stolen generations scandal.[95][96] Similar claims have been repeated in *[The Spectator](/source/The_Spectator)*.[97] In 2009, making a speech in the United States, the British MP [George Galloway](/source/George_Galloway) denounced the Fabian Society for its failure to support the [uprising of Easter 1916](/source/Easter_Rising) in [Dublin](/source/Dublin) during which an [Irish Republic](/source/Irish_Republic) was proclaimed.[98] Others, including [Thomas Sowell](/source/Thomas_Sowell), have criticised the Fabians, in his work *[Intellectuals and Society](/source/Intellectuals_and_Society),* stating they represent an elitist [managerial class](/source/Managerial_class) that favours "governance by intellectuals and experts" over grassroots democracy.[99][100]

## Funding

The Fabian Society has been rated as "broadly transparent" in its funding by [Transparify](/source/Transparify).[101] In November 2022, the funding transparency website [Who Funds You?](/source/Who_Funds_You%3F) gave the Fabian Society an A grade, the highest transparency rating.[102]

## See also

- [Politics portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Politics)
- [United Kingdom portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:United_Kingdom)
- [Socialism portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Socialism)

- [Ethical movement](/source/Ethical_movement)

- [Keir Hardie](/source/Keir_Hardie)

- [Labour Research Department](/source/Labour_Research_Department)

- [List of Fabian Tracts to 1915](/source/List_of_Fabian_Tracts_to_1915)

- [List of think tanks in the United Kingdom](/source/List_of_think_tanks_in_the_United_Kingdom)

- *[New Statesman](/source/New_Statesman)*

- *[The New Age](/source/The_New_Age)*

## Footnotes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Fabian"](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/Fabian). *[Collins English Dictionary](/source/Collins_English_Dictionary)*. [HarperCollins](/source/HarperCollins). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [1120411289](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/1120411289).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-gt76_2-0)** [Thomson, George](/source/George_Thomson%2C_Baron_Thomson_of_Monifieth) (1 March 1976). ["The Tindemans Report and the European Future"](http://aei.pitt.edu/10796/1/10796.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** [Cole, Margaret](/source/Margaret_Cole) (1961). [*The Story of Fabian Socialism*](https://archive.org/details/storyoffabiansoc0000cole). [Stanford University Press](/source/Stanford_University_Press). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0804700917](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0804700917). {{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#invalid_isbn_date))

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-radical1_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-radical1_4-1) Perdue, Jon B. (2012). *The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism* (1st ed.). Washington, D.C.: [Potomac Books](/source/Potomac_Books). p. 97. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1597977043](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1597977043).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-radical2_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-radical2_5-1) Matthews, Race (1993). *Australia's First Fabians: Middle-class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement*. Cambridge University Press.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-radical3_6-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-radical3_6-1) Dunham, William Huse (1975). "From Radicalism to Socialism: Men and Ideas in the Formation of Fabian Socialist Doctrines, 1881–1889". *History: Reviews of New Books*. **3** (10): 263. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1080/03612759.1975.9945148](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F03612759.1975.9945148).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Barr, Michael D. (2000). ["Lee Kuan Yew's Fabian Phase"](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8497.00088). *Australian Journal of Politics & History*. **46**: 110–126. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1111/1467-8497.00088](https://doi.org/10.1111%2F1467-8497.00088).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Anthony, Scott (6 February 2017). ["Here's what it would really mean if Britain was like Singapore"](https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2017/02/heres-what-it-would-really-mean-if-britain-was-singapore). *[The New Statesman](/source/The_New_Statesman)*. Retrieved 26 March 2026.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Perdue, Jon B. (2012). *The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism* (1st ed.). Washington, D.C.: [Potomac Books](/source/Potomac_Books). p. 97. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-59797-704-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-59797-704-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Pease_1916_10-0)** Edward R. Pease, *A History of the Fabian Society*. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1916.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Pease, 1916

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["*The History of Essex Hall* by Mortimer Rowe, Lindsey Press, 1959, chapter 5"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120116153833/http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall0.shtml). Unitarian.org.uk. Archived from [the original](http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall0.shtml) on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["Fabian Society"](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fabian-Society). *Encyclopedia Britannica*. Retrieved 24 August 2017.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Quoted in McBriar, A.M., *Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884–1918*. [1962] Cambridge: [Cambridge University Press](/source/Cambridge_University_Press), 1966; p. 9.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Ford, James (4 January 2017). ["Enter The Fabian Society: A Small Meditation About What Democratic Socialism Actually Means"](https://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2017/01/enter-fabian-society.html). *[Patheos](/source/Patheos)*. Retrieved 22 September 2025. Its original symbol was a wolf in sheep's clothing, which I particularly like. But for several reasons, not the least the negatives associated with that wolf, that image was soon abandoned in favor of a tortoise,{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_deprecated_archival_service))

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-McBriar_16-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-McBriar_16-1) McBriar, Alan M. (1962). *Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884–1918*. Cambridge University Press.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Story_17-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Story_17-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Story_17-2) Cole, Margaret (1961). [*The Story of Fabian Socialism*](https://archive.org/details/storyoffabiansoc0000cole). Stanford University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1163700105](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1163700105). {{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#invalid_isbn_date))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Pease_18-0)** Pease, Edward R. (1916). [*The History of the Fabian Society*](https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.499184).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** See [The Webbs on the Web bibliography](http://webbs.library.lse.ac.uk/)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Morgan63_20-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Morgan63_20-1) Kevin Morgan, *Labour Legends and Russian Gold: Bolshevism and the British Left, Part 1.* London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2006; p. 63.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** ["Our founding feminists | Fabian Society"](https://fabians.org.uk/our-founding-feminists/). *Fabian Society - The Fabian Society is Britain’s oldest political think tank. Founded in 1884, the Society is at the forefront of developing political ideas and public policy on the left*. 6 September 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** ["Fabian Nursery, Fabian Women's Group, Young Fabian Group"](https://archives.lse.ac.uk/records/FABIAN_SOCIETY/H). *archives.lse.ac.uk*. Retrieved 7 April 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** London School of Economics and Political Science. ["The Suffrage Interviews"](https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights/the-suffrage-interviews). *London School of Economics and Political Science*. Retrieved 7 April 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-24)** A full list of Fabian pamphlets is available at the [Fabian Society Online Archive](http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/fabianarchive/home.aspx) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20110709175922/http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/fabianarchive/home.aspx) 9 July 2011 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-25)** ["The Fabian Society: a brief history"](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/aug/13/thinktanks.uk). *The Guardian*. 13 August 2001. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0261-3077](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0261-3077). Retrieved 26 March 2026.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-26)** [Crawford, Elizabeth](/source/Elizabeth_Crawford_(historian)) (1999). *The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866-1928*. London: UCL Press. pp. 269–271, 694. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1-84142-031-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-84142-031-X).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:2_27-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:2_27-1) Paul, Diane (1984). ["Eugenics and the Left"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2709374). *[Journal of the History of Ideas](/source/Journal_of_the_History_of_Ideas)*. **45** (4): 586. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/2709374](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2709374). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0022-5037](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0022-5037).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:3_28-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:3_28-1) MacKenzie, Donald (1976). ["Eugenics in Britain"](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/030631277600600310). *Social Studies of Science*. **6** (3–4): 499–532. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1177/030631277600600310](https://doi.org/10.1177%2F030631277600600310). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0306-3127](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0306-3127).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-29)** [Freedland, Jonathan](/source/Jonathan_Freedland) (17 February 2012). ["Eugenics: the skeleton that rattles loudest in the left's closet"](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/eugenics-skeleton-rattles-loudest-closet-left). *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)*. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0261-3077](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0261-3077). Retrieved 15 June 2020.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-30)** Lucassen, Leo (2010). ["A Brave New World: The Left, Social Engineering, and Eugenics in Twentieth-Century Europe"](https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020859010000209/type/journal_article). *International Review of Social History*. **55** (2): 265–296. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1017/S0020859010000209](https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0020859010000209). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0020-8590](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0020-8590).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-31)** [Freeden, Michael](/source/Michael_Freeden) (1979). ["Eugenics and Progressive Thought: A Study in Ideological Affinity"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638658). *The Historical Journal*. **22** (3): 645–671. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0018-246X](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0018-246X).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-32)** [Webb, Sidney](/source/Sidney_Webb%2C_1st_Baron_Passfield) (1896). ["The difficulties of individualism"](https://jstor.org/stable/community.29886638). *Fabian Tract* (69): 6 – via JSTOR.

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## Further reading

- Howell, David (1983). *British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888–1906*. Manchester: [Manchester University Press](/source/Manchester_University_Press).

- McBriar, A.M. (1962). *Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884–1918*. Cambridge: [Cambridge University Press](/source/Cambridge_University_Press).

- [McKernan, James A.](/source/James_A._McKernan), "The origins of critical theory in education: Fabian socialism as social reconstructionism in nineteenth-century Britain". *British Journal of Educational Studies* 61.4 (2013): 417–433.

- [Pease, Edward R.](/source/Edward_R._Pease) (1916). [*A History of the Fabian Society*](https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthef13715gut). New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. [*The History of the Fabian Society*](https://librivox.org/search?title=The+History+of+the+Fabian+Society&author=Pease&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced) public domain audiobook at [LibriVox](/source/LibriVox)

- Radice, Lisanne (1984). *Beatrice and Sidney Webb: Fabian Socialists*. London: Macmillan.

- [Shaw, George Bernard](/source/Bernard_Shaw), ed. (1906) [1892]. [*The Fabian Society: Its Early History*](https://archive.org/details/TheFabianSocietyItsEarlyHistory). London: Fabian Society.

- Shaw, George Bernard, ed. (1931). *Fabian Essays in Socialism*. London: Fabian Society.

- Wolfe, Willard (1975). [*From Radicalism to Socialism: Men and Ideas in the Formation of Fabian Socialist Doctrines, 1881–1889*](https://archive.org/details/fromradicalismto0000wolf). New Haven, CT: [Yale University Press](/source/Yale_University_Press). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780300013030](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780300013030).

- MacKenzie, Norman & Jeanne (1977). [*The First Fabians*](https://archive.org/details/firstfabians0000mack). London: [Weidenfeld & Nicolson](/source/Weidenfeld_%26_Nicolson). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780297770909](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780297770909).

## External links

[Wikisource](/source/Wikisource) has the text of a 1905 *[New International Encyclopedia](/source/New_International_Encyclopedia)* article about "**[Fabian Society](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/Fabian_Society,_The)**".

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Fabian Society](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Fabian_Society).

- [Official website](http://fabians.org.uk)

- [Finding Aid for the Fabian Society archives](http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=FABIAN%20SOCIETY), British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics

- [Fabian Society and Young Fabian Collection](https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/list/collections/16), British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics

- [Annual Reports 1894–1918](http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?field1=ocr;q1=%22Hubert%20Bland%22;a=srchls;lmt=ft)

- [Fabian Tracts 1893–1990](http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?field1=ocr;q1=Fabian%20tracts;a=srchls;lmt=ft;pn=1)

v t e Guild socialism Concepts Direct democracy Economic democracy Guilds Workers' control Workers' self-management Workplace democracy People G. D. H. Cole S. G. Hobson Arthur Penty Karl Polanyi Lionel Robbins Bertrand Russell R. H. Tawney Rafael Uribe Uribe Ernst Wigforss Organisations National Guilds League Fabian Society Blue Labour Related topics Anarcho-syndicalism Council communism Corporatism Distributism Libertarian socialism Market socialism Mutualism (economic theory) National syndicalism Socialism Syndicalism

v t e Fabian Society Chairs G. D. H. Cole Laski G. D. H. Cole Parker Albu Wilson M. Cole Skeffington Jenkins White Hughes Faringdon Crosland Stewart Abel-Smith Benn Townsend Rodgers Blenkinsop Shore Balogh Bray Hall Lester Judd Bosanquet Crouch Radice Leonard Whitehead Archer Williams Lipsey Meldram Jeger Blackstone McIntosh Mitchell Butler Gould Bean Cook McDonald Hayter Pimlott Dubs Rice Smith Hodge Wright MacDonald Marsden MacShane Richards Twigg Joyce Malhotra Balls Campbell Khan Pushpananthan Asato Malhotra Green Bartoletti Edobor Kennedy Hyde General Secretaries Pease Sanders Galton Parker Monck Filson Chapman Rodgers Williams Ponsonby Hayter Martin Willman Crine Twigg Jacobs Katwala Harrop Dromey Presidents Webb Cripps G. D. H. Cole M. Cole Parker Hughes Archer

v t e Labour Party History Main History of the Labour Party Topics Electoral history General election manifestos History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom European Parliamentary Labour Party Scottish Labour Party (1888) Independent Labour Party Labour Representation Committee Labour Party Headquarters Gladstone–MacDonald pact National Labour Organisation Labour Independent Group Campaign for Democratic Socialism Lib–Lab pact Formation of SDP Gang of Four Limehouse Declaration Militant tendency The longest suicide note in history Labour Listens One more heave New Labour Tony's Cronies Blue Labour One Nation Labour Chakrabarti Inquiry Leadership Leaders Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Morrison^ Gaitskell Brown^ Wilson Callaghan Foot Kinnock Smith Beckett^ Blair Brown Harman^ Miliband Harman^ Corbyn Starmer Deputy Leaders Clynes Graham Attlee Greenwood Morrison Griffiths Bevan Brown Jenkins Short Foot Healey Hattersley Beckett Prescott Harman Watson Rayner Powell General Secretaries MacDonald Henderson Middleton Phillips Williams Barker^ Nicholas Hayward Mortimer Whitty Sawyer McDonagh Triesman Carter Watt Collins McNicol Formby Evans Treasurers Henderson MacDonald Henderson Lathan Greenwood Gaitskell Bevan Nicholas Davies Callaghan Atkinson Varley Booth McCluskie Burlison Prosser Elsby Dromey Holland Leaders in the Lords Haldane Cripps Ponsonby Snell Addison Jowitt Alexander Pakenham Shackleton Shepherd Peart Hughes Richard Jay Williams Amos Ashton Royall Smith of Basildon PLP Chairs Hardie Henderson Barnes MacDonald Henderson Hodge* Wardle* Adamson Clynes MacDonald Henderson Lansbury Attlee Lees-Smith* Pethick-Lawrence* Greenwood* Gaitskell Wilson Houghton Mikardo Hughes Willey Dormand Orme Hoyle Soley Corston Clwyd Lloyd Watts Cryer Morden EPLP Leaders Stewart Prescott Castle Lomas Martin Seal Ford Green David Donnelly Murphy Titley Willmott Corbett Party Chairman Clarke Reid McCartney Blears Harman Watson Lavery Rayner Dodds Reeves * = wartime, in opposition ^ Interim/Acting Internal elections and selections Leadership elections 1922 Ramsay MacDonald 1931 Arthur Henderson 1932 George Lansbury 1935 Clement Attlee 1955 Hugh Gaitskell 1960 1961 1963 Harold Wilson 1976 James Callaghan 1980 Michael Foot 1983 Neil Kinnock 1988 1992 John Smith 1994 Tony Blair 2007 Gordon Brown 2010 Ed Miliband 2015 Jeremy Corbyn 2016 2020 Keir Starmer 2026 (next) Deputy Leadership elections 1952 Herbert Morrison 1953 1956 Jim Griffiths 1959 Aneurin Bevan 1960 George Brown 1961 1962 1970 Roy Jenkins 1971 1972 Edward Short 1976 Michael Foot 1980 Denis Healey 1981 1983 Roy Hattersley 1988 1992 Margaret Beckett 1994 John Prescott 2007 Harriet Harman 2015 Tom Watson 2020 Angela Rayner 2025 Lucy Powell Shadow Cabinet elections and reshuffles Sep 1931 (Henderson) Nov 1931 1932 (Lansbury) 1933 1934 1935 (Attlee) 1936 1937 1938 1939 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 (Gaitskell) 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 (Wilson) 1970 1971 1972 1973 1979 (Callaghan) 1980 (Foot) 1981 1982 1983 (Kinnock) 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 (Smith) 1993 1994 (Blair) 1995 1996 2010 (Miliband) June 2016 (Corbyn) May 2021 (Starmer) November 2021 2023 Party structure Constitution Clause IV Executive National Executive Committee General Secretary Treasurer Parliamentary Parliamentary Labour Party Chief Whip of the Labour Party Conference Labour Party Conference Subnational Scottish Labour Welsh Labour Labour Party in Northern Ireland Directly elected city mayoral authorities London Labour CLPs Constituency Labour Party Miscellaneous National Policy Forum Affiliated trade unions Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation Labour Co-operative Co-operative Party Labour – Federation of Labour Groups Associated organisations List Organisations associated with the Labour Party Sectional groups Young Labour LGBT+ Labour Labour for Trans Rights Labour Students BAME Labour Disability Labour Factional groups Blue Labour Campaign for Labour Party Democracy Christians on the Left Compass Fabian Society Young Fabians Future Britain Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance Jewish Labour Movement Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform Labour CND Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East Labour Growth Group Labour Party Irish Society Labour Representation Committee (2004) Labour Women's Network Momentum Open Labour National Union of Labour and Socialist Clubs Progressive Britain Red Wall Caucus Revolutionary Communist Party Formerly Socialist Appeal Socialist Health Association Socialist Educational Association Socialist Environment and Resources Association Socialist Campaign Group Socialist Youth Network Socialist societies Media publications LabourList Tribune Party alliances Current Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats Progressive Alliance Socialist International

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST National United States France BnF data Czech Republic Israel Catalonia Academics CiNii People Trove Other IdRef Open Library Yale LUX

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Fabian Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.