{{short description|British socialist organisation founded in 1884}} {{for|other organisations known by the same name|#Fabianism outside the United Kingdom}} {{Use British English|date=January 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox organisation | name = Fabian Society | image = Fabian Society logo.png | image_border = | image_size = 200px | formation = {{start date and age|1884|1|4|df=y}} | 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 | region_served = | subsidiaries = [[Young Fabians]], Fabian Women's Network, Scottish Fabians, around 60 local Fabian Societies | num_members = 8,000 | language = English | leader_title = General Secretary | leader_name = Joe Dromey, son of [[Jack Dromey|Jack]] | leader_title2 = Chair | leader_name2 = [[Sara Hyde, Baroness Hyde of Bemerton|The Baroness Hyde of Bemerton]] | leader_title3 = Vice-Chairs | leader_name3 = [[Luke Davies|Luke John Davies]] | leader_title4 = Treasurer | leader_name4 = Paul Richards | main_organ = Executive Committee | parent_organization = | affiliations = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], [[Foundation for European Progressive Studies]] | website = {{URL|fabians.org.uk}} | remarks = }}
The '''Fabian Society''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|eɪ|b|i|ən}}<ref>{{Cite Collins Dictionary|Fabian}}</ref>) is a [[History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom|British socialist]] organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of [[social democracy]] and [[democratic socialism]] via [[gradualist]] and [[reformist]] effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow.<ref name=gt76>{{cite web |last=Thomson |first=George |author-link=George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth |title=The Tindemans Report and the European Future |url=http://aei.pitt.edu/10796/1/10796.pdf |date=1 March 1976}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cole |first=Margaret |author-link=Margaret Cole |title=The Story of Fabian Socialism |url=https://archive.org/details/storyoffabiansoc0000cole |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=1961 |isbn=978-0804700917}}</ref> It is related to [[Radicalism (historical)|radicalism]], a left-wing liberal tradition.<ref name="radical1">{{cite book|last=Perdue|first=Jon B.|title=The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism|date=2012|publisher=[[Potomac Books]]|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-1597977043|page=97|edition=1st}}<!--|access-date=30 August 2015--></ref><ref name="radical2"/><ref name="radical3"/>
As one of the founding organisations of the [[Labour Representation Committee (1900)|Labour Representation Committee]] in 1900, and as an important influence upon the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] which grew from it, the Fabian Society has strongly influenced [[British politics]]. Members of the Fabian Society have included political leaders from other countries, such as [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] and [[Lee Kuan Yew]],<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Barr | first1=Michael D. | title=Lee Kuan Yew's Fabian Phase | journal=Australian Journal of Politics & History | date=2000 | volume=46 | pages=110–126 | doi=10.1111/1467-8497.00088 | url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8497.00088 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Here's what it would really mean if Britain was like Singapore | date=2017-02-06 | url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2017/02/heres-what-it-would-really-mean-if-britain-was-singapore |access-date=2026-03-26|website=[[The New Statesman]]|last=Anthony|first=Scott}}</ref> who adopted Fabian principles as part of their own political ideologies. The Fabian Society founded the [[London School of Economics]] in 1895.
Today, the society functions primarily as a [[think tank]] and is one of twenty [[socialist societies]] affiliated with the Labour Party. Similar societies exist in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Italy.
==Organisational history==
===Establishment=== [[File:Frank Podmore.jpg|thumb|upright|The Fabian Society was named after "[[Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus|Fabius the Delayer]]" at the suggestion of [[Frank Podmore]] (above)]] [[File:Fabian Society coat of arms.svg|thumb|left|150px|A [[wolf in sheep's clothing]], the original coat of arms of the Fabian Society<ref>{{cite book |last=Perdue |first=Jon B. |title=The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism |date=2012 |publisher=[[Potomac Books]] |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-1-59797-704-3 |page=97 |edition=1st}}</ref>]] 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]], which had been a forebear of the British [[Ethical movement|Ethical]] and [[secular humanism|humanist]] movements.<ref name='Pease 1916'>Edward R. Pease, ''A History of the Fabian Society''. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1916.</ref> Early Fellowship members included the visionary [[Victorian era|Victorian-era]] elite, among them the poets [[Edward Carpenter]] and [[John Davidson (poet)|John Davidson]], the sexologist and eugenicist [[Havelock Ellis]], and the early socialist [[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,<ref>Pease, 1916</ref> but the Fabian Society grew to become a leading academic society in the United Kingdom in the [[Edwardian era]]. It was typified by the members of its vanguard [[Coefficients (dining club)|Coefficients club]]. Public meetings of the Society were for many years held at [[Essex Hall]], a popular location just off [[Strand, London|the Strand]] in [[Central London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall0.shtml |title=''The History of Essex Hall'' by Mortimer Rowe, Lindsey Press, 1959, chapter 5|publisher=Unitarian.org.uk|access-date=2 January 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120116153833/http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall0.shtml|archive-date=16 January 2012}}</ref>
[[File:Fabian Society (5026519016).jpg|thumb|left|[[Blue plaque]] at 17 Osnaburgh St, where the Society was founded in 1884]] The Fabian Society was named—at the suggestion of [[Frank Podmore]]—in honour of the [[Roman Republic|Roman]] general [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus]] (nicknamed ''Cunctator'', meaning the "Delayer").<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fabian-Society|title=Fabian Society|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=24 August 2017}}</ref> His [[Fabian strategy]] sought gradual victory against the superior [[Ancient Carthage|Carthaginian]] army under the renowned general [[Hannibal]] through persistence, harassment, and wearing the enemy down by attrition rather than pitched, climactic battles.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
An explanatory note appearing on the title page of the group's first pamphlet declared:<blockquote>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.<ref>Quoted in McBriar, A.M., ''Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884–1918''. [1962] Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1966; p. 9.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref></blockquote>
According to the author [[Jon B. Perdue|Jon Perdue]], "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]]', represented its preferred methodology for achieving its goal."<ref name="radical1">{{cite book|last=Perdue|first=Jon B.|title=The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism|date=2012|publisher=[[Potomac Books]]|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-1597977043|page=97|edition=1st}}<!--|access-date=30 August 2015--></ref> The wolf in sheep's clothing symbolism was later abandoned, due to its obvious negative connotations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ford |first=James |date=2017-01-04 |title=Enter The Fabian Society: A Small Meditation About What Democratic Socialism Actually Means |url=https://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2017/01/enter-fabian-society.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250922024623/https://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2017/01/enter-fabian-society.html |archive-date=2025-09-22 |access-date=2025-09-22 |website=[[Patheos]] |language=en |quote="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,"}}</ref>
Its nine founding members were [[Frank Podmore]], [[Edward R. Pease]], [[William Clarke (Fabian)|William Clarke]], [[Hubert Bland]],<ref name="McBriar">{{cite book|last=McBriar|first=Alan M.|title=Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884–1918|date=1962|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> [[Percival Chubb]], Frederick Keddell,<ref name="Story">{{cite book|last=Cole|first=Margaret|title=The Story of Fabian Socialism|url=https://archive.org/details/storyoffabiansoc0000cole|url-access=registration|date=1961|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-1163700105}}</ref> [[Henry Hyde Champion]],<ref name="Pease">{{cite book|last=Pease|first=Edward R.|title=The History of the Fabian Society|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.499184|date=1916}}</ref> [[E. Nesbit]]<ref name="radical2">{{cite book|last=Matthews|first=Race|title=Australia's First Fabians: Middle-class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement|date=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> and Rosamund Dale Owen.<ref name="Story"/><ref name="McBriar"/> Havelock Ellis is sometimes also mentioned as a tenth founding member, although there is some question about this.<ref name="Story"/>
===Organisational growth=== {{Socialism in the UK}}Immediately upon its inception, the Fabian Society began attracting many prominent contemporary figures drawn to its socialist cause, including [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[H. G. Wells]], [[Annie Besant]], [[Graham Wallas]], [[Charles Marson]], [[Sydney Olivier]], [[Oliver Lodge]], [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Emmeline Pankhurst]]. [[Bertrand Russell]] briefly became a member, but resigned after he expressed his belief that the Society's principle of [[wikt:entente|entente]] (in this case, between countries allying themselves against Germany) could lead to war.
At the core of the Fabian Society were [[Sidney Webb|Sidney]] and [[Beatrice Webb]]. Together, they wrote numerous studies<ref>See [http://webbs.library.lse.ac.uk/ The Webbs on the Web bibliography]</ref> of industrial Britain, including alternative [[co-operative economics]] that applied to ownership of [[Capital (economics)|capital]] as well as land.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}
Many Fabians participated in the formation of the [[Labour Representation Committee (1900)|Labour Representation Committee]] 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|date=February 2018}}
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.<ref name=Morgan63>Kevin Morgan, ''Labour Legends and Russian Gold: Bolshevism and the British Left, Part 1.'' London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2006; p. 63.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> In 1912 a student section was organised called the [[University Socialist Federation]] (USF) and by the outbreak of World War I in 1914 this contingent counted its own membership of more than 500.<ref name=Morgan63/>
The Fabian Women's Group was founded on 14th March 1908 to create a stronger link between women's suffrage and socialism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-09-06 |title=Our founding feminists {{!}} Fabian Society |url=https://fabians.org.uk/our-founding-feminists/ |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=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. |language=en}}</ref> It operated until 1948.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fabian Nursery, Fabian Women's Group, Young Fabian Group |url=https://archives.lse.ac.uk/records/FABIAN_SOCIETY/H |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=archives.lse.ac.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref> [[Letitia Fairfield]] was a member and spoke to [[Brian Harrison (historian)|Brian Harrison]] 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.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=London School of Economics and Political Science |title=The Suffrage Interviews |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights/the-suffrage-interviews |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=London School of Economics and Political Science |language=en-GB}}</ref>
===Early Fabian views=== {{Progressivism}}The first Fabian Society pamphlets<ref>A full list of Fabian pamphlets is available at the [http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/fabianarchive/home.aspx Fabian Society Online Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709175922/http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/fabianarchive/home.aspx |date=9 July 2011 }}</ref> advocating tenets of [[social justice]] coincided with the [[zeitgeist]] of [[Liberal reforms|progressive reforms]] during the early 1900s. The Fabians lobbied for the introduction of a [[minimum wage]] in 1906, for the creation of a [[universal health care]] system in 1911 and for the abolition of [[hereditary peers|hereditary peerages]] in 1917.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2001-08-13 |title=The Fabian Society: a brief history |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/aug/13/thinktanks.uk |access-date=2026-03-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> [[Agnes Harben]] and [[Henry Devenish Harben]] were among Fabians advocating women's emancipation and supporting [[Women's suffrage|suffrage]] movements in Britain, and internationally.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |title=The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866-1928 |publisher=UCL Press |year=1999 |isbn=1-84142-031-X |location=London |pages=269–271, 694}}</ref>
The early Fabian Society’s advocacy for social reform was deeply intertwined with the contemporary [[eugenics]] movement, which was particularly popular among progressive intellectuals at the time.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Paul|first=Diane|date=1984|title=Eugenics and the Left|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2709374|journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]]|volume=45|issue=4|page=586|doi=10.2307/2709374|issn=0022-5037|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Rather than a peripheral interest, eugenics provided the 'scientific' basis for the early Fabian vision of a rationally planned society.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=MacKenzie |first=Donald |year=1976 |title=Eugenics in Britain |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/030631277600600310 |journal=Social Studies of Science |language=en |volume=6 |issue=3-4 |pages=499–532 |doi=10.1177/030631277600600310 |issn=0306-3127|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Leading figures in the early Fabian Society such as [[Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield|Sidney]] and [[Beatrice Webb]], [[George Bernard Shaw]], and [[H. G. Wells]] argued that a [[Rationalization (sociology)|rationalised]] 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.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Freedland|first=Jonathan|date=2012-02-17|title=Eugenics: the skeleton that rattles loudest in the left's closet|language=en-GB|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/eugenics-skeleton-rattles-loudest-closet-left|access-date=2020-06-15|issn=0261-3077|author-link=Jonathan Freedland}}</ref> They were also influenced by the idea that the lowest echelons of society, sometimes termed the 'residuum', "had hereditary defects and would increasingly degenerate."<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lucassen |first=Leo |year=2010 |title=A Brave New World: The Left, Social Engineering, and Eugenics in Twentieth-Century Europe |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020859010000209/type/journal_article |journal=International Review of Social History |language=en |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=265–296 |doi=10.1017/S0020859010000209 |issn=0020-8590}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freeden |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Freeden |date=1979 |title=Eugenics and Progressive Thought: A Study in Ideological Affinity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638658 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=645–671 |issn=0018-246X}}</ref>
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".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Webb |first=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield |year=1896 |title=The difficulties of individualism |url=https://jstor.org/stable/community.29886638 |journal=Fabian Tract |language=English |issue=69 |pages=6 |via=JSTOR}}</ref> [[Havelock Ellis]], a founding member of the Fabian Society, was a vice-president of the [[Adelphi Genetics Forum|Eugenics Society]] 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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Havelock |author-link=Havelock Ellis |title=The Task of Social Hygiene |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Company]] |year=1916 |location=Boston & New York |pages=401 |chapter=Individualism and Socialism}}</ref> {{Eugenics sidebar}} Fabian socialists were in favour of reforming the foreign policy of the [[British Empire]] as a conduit for [[Liberal internationalism|internationalist reform]] and were in favour of a [[Welfare capitalism|capitalist welfare state]] modelled on the [[Otto von Bismarck#Bismarck's social legislation|Bismarckian]] German model; they criticised [[Gladstonian liberalism]] both for its individualism at home and its internationalism abroad. They favoured a national [[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".<ref>[[Bernard Semmel]], ''Imperialism and Social Reform: English Social-Imperial Thought 1895–1914'' (New York: Anchor, 1968), p. 63.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>
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]] and Sir [[William Vernon Harcourt (politician)|William Harcourt]].<ref name="Semmel, p. 61">Semmel, p. 61.</ref> 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]] because small nations, such as the [[Boers]], were anachronisms in the age of empires.<ref name="Semmel, p. 61"/> 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]] between the 1940s–1960s.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-59962|title=Hinden [née Gesundheit], Rita (1909–1971), journalist and campaigner on colonial issues.|date=2004-09-23|access-date=2026-01-02|website=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]|last=Pugh|first=Patricia M.|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/59962}}</ref>
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]] 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".<ref>Semmel, p. 62.</ref>
The Fabians also favoured the nationalisation of [[Economic rent|land 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]]. 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."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bernard Shaw |first1=George |title=Tribute to the Work of Henry George |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tribute_to_the_Work_of_Henry_George |website=Wikisource |access-date=25 March 2026}}</ref>
===Second generation=== In the period between the two World Wars, the "Second Generation" Fabians, including the writers [[R. H. Tawney]], [[G. D. H. Cole]] and [[Harold Laski]], continued to be a major influence on [[socialist]] thought. Cole's [[New Fabian Research Bureau]], founded in 1931, was particularly important in revitalising both the Fabians and Labour generally from an interwar low.<ref>https://fabians.org.uk/about-us/our-history</ref>
{{Rquote|right|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.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Future Socialism|author=Annie Besant|publisher=Bibby's Annual (reprinted by Adyar Pamphlet)|oclc=038686071|url=http://kingsgarden.org/English/Organizations/TS.GB/Besant/FutureSocialism/FutureSocialism.htm|access-date=10 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116134659/http://kingsgarden.org/English/Organizations/TS.GB/Besant/FutureSocialism/FutureSocialism.htm|archive-date=16 January 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>|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]] were exposed to Fabian thought, most notably India's [[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]] were considered by Nehru as a means to implement the Fabian Society version of socialism.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Socialism and Indian economic policy|author=Padma Desai and Jagdish Bhagwati|journal=World Development|volume=3|issue=4|date=April 1975|pages=213–21|doi=10.1016/0305-750X(75)90063-7|url=https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D80V8PNG/download}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Socialism at crossroads|author=B.K. Nehru|journal=India International Centre Quarterly|volume=17|date=Spring 1990|pages=1–12|jstor=23002177|issue=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://icrier.org/pdf/WP170GrPov11.pdf|title=Policy Regimes, Growth and Poverty in India: Lessons of Government Failure and Entrepreneurial Success|last=Virmani|first=Arvind|date=October 2005|series=Working Paper No. 170|publisher=Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi}}</ref> In addition to Nehru, several pre-independence leaders in colonial India such as [[Annie Besant]]—Nehru's mentor and later a president of [[Indian National Congress]] – were members of the Fabian Society.<ref name="radical3">{{cite journal |title=From Radicalism to Socialism: Men and Ideas in the Formation of Fabian Socialist Doctrines, 1881–1889|journal=History: Reviews of New Books|volume=3|issue=10|year=1975|page=263|doi=10.1080/03612759.1975.9945148 |last1=Dunham |first1=William Huse}}</ref>
[[Obafemi Awolowo]], who later became the premier of [[Nigeria]]'s now defunct [[Western State (Nigeria)|Western Region]], 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|date=August 2024}} It is less known that the founder of [[Pakistan]], [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]],{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} was an avid member of the Fabian Society in the early 1930s. [[Lee Kuan Yew]], the first [[Prime Minister of Singapore|prime minister]] of [[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.<ref name=mb1>{{cite journal |title=Lee Kuan Yew's Fabian Phase|author=Michael Barr|journal=Australian Journal of Politics & History|volume=46|issue=1|pages=110–26|date=March 2000|doi=10.1111/1467-8497.00088}}</ref> In 1993, Lee said:
{{blockquote|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]] and [[British Malaya|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.<ref name=mb1/>}}
In the [[Middle East]] the theories of the Fabian Society intellectual movement of early-20th-century Britain inspired the [[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.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Broken Promises|author=Amatzia Baram|journal=Wilson Quarterly|date=Spring 2003|publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars|url=http://www.mafhoum.com/press7/188C33.htm}}</ref> [[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]] and [[Zaki al-Arsuzi]], came to fruition in the Arab world in the form of dictatorial regimes in [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-led faction)|Iraq]] and [[Ba'ath Party (Syrian-led faction)|Syria]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Goal of Arab Unification|author=L. M. Kenny|journal=International Journal|volume=19|date=Winter 1963–1964|pages=50–61|jstor=40198692|issue=1 |doi=10.2307/40198692}}</ref> [[Salama Moussa|Salāmah Mūsā]] of Egypt, another prominent champion of Arab Socialism, was a keen adherent of Fabian Society, and a member since 1909.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Salāmah Mūsā: Precursor of Arab Socialism|author=Kamel S. Abu Jaber|journal=Middle East Journal|volume=20|date=Spring 1966|pages=196–206|jstor=4323988|issue=2}}</ref>
In October 1940 the Fabian Society established the Fabian Colonial Bureau to facilitate research and debate British colonial policy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Papers of the Fabian Colonial Bureau {{!}} Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts |url=https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/1290 |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk}}</ref> The Fabian Colonial Bureau strongly influenced the colonial policies of the [[Attlee government]] (1945–51).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kahler |first=Miles |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/33697 |title=Decolonization in Britain and France: The Domestic Consequences of International Relations |date=1984 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5558-2 |pages=236}}</ref> [[Rita Hinden]] founded the colonial bureau and was its secretary.<ref name=":0" />
Fabian academics of the late-20th century included the political scientist Sir [[Bernard Crick]], the economists [[Thomas Balogh]] and [[Nicholas Kaldor]] and the sociologist [[Peter Townsend (sociologist)|Peter Townsend]].
==20th century== During the 20th century the group was always influential in Labour Party circles, with members including [[Ramsay MacDonald]], [[Clement Attlee]], [[Anthony Crosland]], [[Roy Jenkins]], [[Hugh Dalton]], [[Richard Crossman]], [[Ian Mikardo]], [[Tony Benn]], [[Harold Wilson]], and more recently [[Shirley Williams]], [[Tony Blair]], [[Gordon Brown]], [[Gordon Marsden]] and [[Ed Balls]]. 229 members of the Society were elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] at the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Our History |url=https://fabians.org.uk/about-us/our-history/ |website=Fabians |date=26 January 2018 |access-date=17 June 2018}}</ref> [[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]]'' in 2005 and continues annually. The Society is affiliated to the party as a [[Socialist society (Labour Party)|socialist society]]. In recent years the [[Young Fabians|Young Fabian group]], founded in 1960, has become a networking and discussion organisation for younger (under 31) Labour Party activists and played a role in [[1994 Labour Party leadership election|the 1994 election]] of Blair as the [[Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|leader of the Labour Party]]. 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 [[Premiership of Tony Blair|government in 1997]], the Fabian Society was a forum for [[New Labour]] ideas and for critical approaches from across the party.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/aug/13/thinktanks.uk|title=The Fabian Society: a brief history|date=13 August 2001|work=The Guardian|access-date=24 August 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The most significant Fabian contribution to Labour's policy agenda in government was Balls's 1992 discussion paper, advocating [[Monetary Policy Committee (United Kingdom)|Bank of England independence]]. Balls had been a ''[[Financial Times]]'' journalist when he wrote this Fabian pamphlet, before going to work for Gordon Brown. Former BBC Business Editor [[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";<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afsp.msh-paris.fr/archives/congreslyon2005/communications/tr4/wickham.pdf|title=Party Officials, Experts and Policy-making: The Case of British Labour|author=Mark Wickham-Jones|year=2005|publisher=r/ French Political Science Association}}</ref> [[William Keegan]] offered a similar analysis of Balls's Fabian pamphlet in his book on Labour's economic policy,<ref>{{cite news |author=Sunder Katwala|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/sep/14/politicalbooks.politics|title=Observer review: The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown by William Keegan | By genre | guardian.co.uk Books|publisher=Politics.guardian.co.uk|access-date=2 January 2012|location=London|date=14 September 2003}}</ref> 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|date=November 2016}}
The latest edition of the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' (a reference work listing details of famous or significant [[Britons]] throughout history) includes 174 Fabians. Four Fabians, [[Beatrice Webb|Beatrice]] and [[Sidney Webb]], [[Graham Wallas]] and [[George Bernard Shaw]], founded the [[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]]<ref>Press release, [http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/newsAndEvents/archives/2006/FabianWindow.htm A piece of Fabian history unveiled at LSE] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205222634/http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/newsAndEvents/archives/2006/FabianWindow.htm |date=5 February 2007}}, London School of Economics & Political Science Archives, Last accessed 23 February 2007</ref> designed by Shaw. The window was stolen in 1978 and reappeared at [[Sotheby's]] in 2005. It was restored to display in the Shaw Library at the [[London School of Economics]] in 2006 at a ceremony over which Blair presided.<ref>Andrew Walker, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4944100.stm Wit, wisdom and windows], BBC News, Last accessed 23 February 2007</ref>
As at 2016 the Fabian Society has about 7,000 members.<ref name=annualrep-2016>{{cite report |url=http://www.fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Fabian-Society-annual-report-2016.pdf |title=Annual Report 2016 |publisher=Fabian Society |year=2016 |access-date=7 July 2017}}</ref> As at June 2019 it has 7,136 individual members.<ref name=annualrep-2019>{{cite report |url=https://fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Updated-Annual-report-2018-19-06.11.2019-WEBFINAL.pdf |title=Annual Report 2019 |publisher=Fabian Society |year=2019 |access-date=19 March 2020}}</ref>
The Fabian Society Tax Commission of 2000 was widely credited<ref>{{cite news |author=Andrew Rawnsley, columnist of the year|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/dec/02/politics.politicalcolumnists|title=Honesty turns out to be the best policy|work=The Observer|access-date=2 January 2012|location=London|date=22 December 2001}}</ref> with influencing the Labour government's policy and political strategy for its one significant public tax increase: the [[National Insurance]] rise to raise £8 billion for [[National Health Service]] spending. (The Fabian Commission had in fact called for a directly [[hypothecation (taxation)|hypothecated]] "NHS tax"<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1042801.stm|title=Think tank calls for NHS tax|work=BBC News|date=27 November 2000|access-date=2 January 2012}}</ref> 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]] was influential in economic policy and political circles, and a new top rate of income tax of 50 per cent was introduced in 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/text65_p.html |title=In defence of earmarked taxes – FT 07/12/00 |publisher=Samuelbrittan.co.uk |date=15 December 1994 |access-date=2 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112192015/http://www.samuelbrittan.co.uk/text65_p.html |archive-date=12 January 2012}}</ref>
In early 2017 Fabian general secretary Andrew Harrop produced a report<ref name=fabian-20170103>{{cite report |last=Harrop |first=Andrew |title=Stuck – How Labour is too weak to win and too strong to die |url=https://www.fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Stuck-Fabian-Society-analysis-paper.pdf |publisher=Fabian Society |date=3 January 2017 |access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> arguing the only feasible route for Labour to return to government would be to work with the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] and [[Scottish National Party]]. The report predicted Labour would win fewer than 150 seats at the [[2017 United Kingdom general election|2017 general election]], the lowest number since 1935, due to their opposition to [[Brexit]], lack of [[Scottish Labour|support in Scotland]], and Labour leader [[Jeremy Corbyn]]'s unpopularity, although it won 262.<ref name=guardian-20170102>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/02/labour-election-jeremy-corbyn-fabian-society |title=Labour could slump to below 150 MPs, Fabian Society warns |last=Walker |first=Peter |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2 January 2017 |access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref><ref name=reuters-20170103>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-politics-labour-idUSKBN14N0WN?il=0 |title=UK's opposition Labour 'too weak' to win an election: think tank |last=MacLellan |first=Kylie |work=Reuters |date=3 January 2017 |access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref>
===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]], [[Massachusetts]], by [[W. D. P. Bliss]], a prominent [[Christian socialist]].<ref name=Bliss>William D.P. Bliss (ed.), ''The Encyclopedia of Social Reforms.'' Third Edition. New York: Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1897; pg. 578.</ref> The group published a periodical, ''The American Fabian'', and issued a small series of pamphlets.<ref name=Bliss /> Around the same time a parallel organisation emerged on the Pacific coast, centred in [[California]], under the influence of the socialist activist [[Laurence Gronlund]].<ref name=Bliss /> American Fabianism lasted for less than a decade.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jenkin |first=Thomas P. |date=June 1948 |title=The American Fabian Movement |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/106591294800100202 |journal=Western Political Quarterly |language=en |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=113–123 |doi=10.1177/106591294800100202 |s2cid=153833198 |issn=0043-4078|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Similar non-UK societies include the [[Australian Fabian Society]], the [[Douglas–Coldwell Foundation]] and the now-disbanded [[League for Social Reconstruction]] in Canada, and the NZ Fabian Society in New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NZ Fabian Society - NZ Fabian Society |url=https://www.fabians.org.nz/ |access-date=2025-09-30 |website=www.fabians.org.nz}}</ref>
The ''Fabian Quarterly'' of 1944 reported the existence of a Nigerian Fabian Society led by Max Iyalla and visited by [[Arthur Creech Jones]].<ref>'Max Iyalla, The Nigerian Fabian Society ''Fabian Quarterly'' July 1944.</ref><ref>Matera, M. (2010). Colonial subjects: Black intellectuals and the development of colonial studies in Britain. ''Journal of British Studies'', 49(2), 388-418.</ref>
Direct or indirect Fabian influence may also be seen in the [[liberal socialism]] of [[Carlo Rosselli]], founder, with his brother [[Nello Rosselli|Nello]], of the [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] group {{lang|it|[[Giustizia e Libertà]]}}, and all its derivatives such as the [[Action Party (Italy)|Action Party]] in Italy.<ref>[http://www.criticasociale.net/index.php?&lng=ita&function=rivista&pid=page&year=2009&id=0004176&top_nav=archivio_2009&sintesi=1 Leo Valiani, ''Socialismo liberale. Carlo Rosselli, tra Critica Sociale e Fabian Society'']</ref> The [[Community Movement]], created by the socialist entrepreneur [[Adriano Olivetti]], was then the only Italian party which referred explicitly to Fabianism, among his main inspirations along with federalism, social liberalism, fighting [[partitocracy]] and social democracy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.millennivm.org/millennivm/?p=601|title=''Olivetti: comunitarismo e sovranità industriale nell'Italia postbellica''|website=millennivm.org|access-date=21 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529085914/http://www.millennivm.org/millennivm/?p=601|archive-date=29 May 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 2000 the Sicilian Fabian Society was founded in [[Messina]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=http://fabiana.it/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250804102815/http://fabiana.it/ |archive-date=2025-08-04 |access-date=2025-09-30 |website=www.fabiana.it}}</ref>
==Structure== {{more citations needed|section|date=January 2019}}<!--subsections have no citations--> 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."<ref>{{cite web |title=Rules of the Fabian Society November 2017 |url=https://fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/rules-nov-17.pdf |website=Fabian Society |access-date=17 June 2018}}</ref>
===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.<ref>{{cite web |title=POLITICO London Influence December 17 2020 |url=https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-london-influence/politico-london-influence-sedwills-new-gig-sexism-spotlight-music-on-the-map/ |website=politico |date=17 December 2020 |access-date=17 December 2020}}</ref>
===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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fabian Review |url=https://fabians.org.uk/publications/fabian-review/ |website=Fabian Society |date=19 September 2017 |access-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813190449/https://fabians.org.uk/publications/fabian-review/ |archive-date=2022-08-13 |language=en}}</ref>
===Young Fabians=== {{main|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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.youngfabians.org.uk/networks|title=Networks|website=Young Fabians}}</ref> 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.<ref name=labourlist-20231023>{{cite news |url=https://labourlist.org/2023/10/fabian-society-young-fabians-join-complaint-think-tank/ |title=Young Fabians suspend members, review culture and halt events over complaint |last1=Belger |first1=Tom |last2=Jones |first2=Morgan |website=LabourList |date=23 October 2023 |access-date=6 April 2024}}</ref> 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.<ref name=labourlist-20240331>{{cite news |url=https://labourlist.org/2024/03/fabian-society-young-fabians-under-18s-banned-complaint-review-culture/ |title=Young Fabians relaunch with under-18s banned after complaints and review |last=Green |first=Daniel |website=LabourList |date=31 March 2024 |access-date=6 April 2024}}</ref>
===Fabian Women's Network=== All female members of the Fabian Society are also members of the [[Fabian Women's Network]]. 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]], a [[Labour and Co-operative Party|Labour and Co-operative]] 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]] across the UK, bringing Fabian debates to communities around the country. Some, such as [[Bournemouth]] and [[Oxford]], have long histories, dating from the 1890s,<ref>Hatts, Leigh, ''Fabians in Bournemouth'' (1984)</ref><ref>Weatherburn, Michael, et al, "The First Century of Oxford Fabianism, 1895-1995", ''Oxfordshire Local History'' (2020)</ref> though most have waxed and waned over the years. The Fabian local societies were given a major boost during the [[Second World War]] when re-founded by G. D. H. Cole and [[Margaret Cole]],<ref>''Fabian Quarterly'', 1944.</ref> who noted renewed interest in socialism and that wartime evacuation created chances for Fabians to strengthen influence outside London.<ref>Cole, Margaret. ''The life of G.D.H. Cole''. Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971.</ref> 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 [[parliament]]arian organisation, there was no leftist party with which the Fabians could connect. As such, they initially attempted to 'permeate' the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]], with some success. The foundation of the Labour Party in 1900 signalled a change in tactics,<ref>Clarke, Peter, and P. F. Clarke. ''Liberals and social democrats''. Cambridge University Press, 1981.</ref> although Fabian-Liberal links on specific topics such as welfare reform lasted well into the interwar period.<ref>Clarke, Peter, and P. F. Clarke. ''Liberals and Social Democrats''. Cambridge University Press, 1981.</ref><ref>Briggs, Asa. ''A Study of the Work of Seebohm Rowntree, 1871-1954.(Social Thought and Social Action)''. Longmans, 1961.</ref>
More recent studies have examined their impact on the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], such as the foundation of [[Ashridge College]], explicitly designed in the 1930s to create Conservative Fabians.<ref>Berthezène, Clarisse. "Creating Conservative Fabians: the Conservative party, political education and the founding of Ashridge College." ''Past & Present'' 182 (2004): 211-240.</ref><ref>Berthezène, Clarisse. "Archives: Ashridge College, 1929–54: A Glimpse at the Archive of a Conservative Intellectual Project." ''Contemporary British History'' 19.1 (2005): 79-93.</ref><ref>Berthezène, Clarisse. ''Training Minds for the war of ideas: Ashridge College, the Conservative Party and the cultural politics of Britain, 1929-54''. 2015.</ref>
==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]] 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/h-g-wells-politics|title=H G Wells's politics|last=Taunton|first=Matthew|website=The British Library|access-date=5 October 2016}}</ref> He later parodied the society in his 1910 novel ''[[The New Machiavelli]]''.<ref>H. G. Wells, ''The New Machiavelli'', Dunfield & co., New York (1910)</ref>
[[Vladimir Lenin]] during the [[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]], Lenin declared the Fabians were "a gang of bourgeois rogues who would demoralise the workers, influence them in a counter-revolutionary spirit".<ref>V.I. Lenin, ''British Pacifism and the British Dislike of Theory''. Written in June 1915. First published on 27 July 1924, in ''Pravda''. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/jun/x02.htm</ref> In the 1920s, [[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".<ref>Leon Trotsky, ''The Fabian 'Theory' of Socialism'' (1925). https://fabians.org.uk/permeating-politics/</ref>
The post-war [[Communist Party Historians Group]] was critical of the Fabians, and indeed the [[post-war consensus]], with its strong social-democratic influence. The Marxist historian [[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]].<ref>Hobsbawm, Eric J. ''Labouring men: Studies in the history of labour''. Basic Books, 1965.</ref><ref>Evans, Richard J. ''Eric Hobsbawm: a life in history''. Hachette UK, 2019.</ref> Fabian socialism has also been criticised for expanding state power under the guise of [[social justice]], with critics like [[Friedrich Hayek]] arguing in his book ''[[The Road to Serfdom]]'' that such policies lead to a "centralized state dominated by unelected bureaucrats."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Friedrich A.hayek |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.218162/page/n3/mode/2up |title=The Road To Serfdom |journal=Nature |date=1944 |volume=154 |issue=3911 |page=473 |doi=10.1038/154473a0 |bibcode=1944Natur.154..473C }}</ref>
In more recent years, critiques of the early Fabians have focused on other areas. In an article published in ''[[The Guardian]]'' on 14 February 2008 (following the apology offered by Australian Prime Minister [[Kevin Rudd]] to the "[[stolen generations]]"), [[Geoffrey Robertson]] criticised Fabian socialists for providing the intellectual justification for the eugenics policy that led to the stolen generations scandal.<ref>{{cite news |title=We should say sorry, too|author=Geoffrey Robertson|date=13 February 2008|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/14/australia|location=London|work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Eugenics, Mental Deficiency and Fabian Socialism between the Wars|author=L.J. Ray|journal=Oxford Review of Education|volume=9|issue=3|year=1983|doi=10.1080/0305498830090305 |pages=213–22}}</ref> Similar claims have been repeated in ''[[The Spectator]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/2009/11/how-eugenics-poisoned-the-welfare-state/|title=How eugenics poisoned the welfare state {{!}} The Spectator|date=25 November 2009|newspaper=The Spectator|language=en-US|access-date=26 December 2016}}</ref> In 2009, making a speech in the United States, the British MP [[George Galloway]] denounced the Fabian Society for its failure to support the [[Easter Rising|uprising of Easter 1916]] in [[Dublin]] during which an [[Irish Republic]] was proclaimed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtkJYKfCDhA|title=George Galloway Easter Rising 1916|last=pas1888|date=29 December 2009|via=YouTube}}</ref> Others, including [[Thomas Sowell]], have criticised the Fabians, in his work ''[[Intellectuals and Society]],'' stating they represent an elitist [[managerial class]] that favours "governance by intellectuals and experts" over grassroots democracy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sowell |first=Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/intellectualssoc0000sowe |title=Intellectuals and society |date=2009 |publisher=New York : Basic Books |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-465-01948-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=James Burnham |url=https://archive.org/details/the-managerial-revolution |title=The Managerial Revolution - James Burnham |date=1942-01-01}}</ref>
== Funding == The Fabian Society has been rated as "broadly transparent" in its funding by [[Transparify]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.transparify.org/blog/2018/12/17/yu6z844z5sf3vnhvqkegzeefuzv12o|title=Round-Up of Transparify 2018 Ratings|website=Transparify|date=17 December 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=7 July 2019}}</ref> In November 2022, the funding transparency website [[Who Funds You?]] gave the Fabian Society an A grade, the highest transparency rating.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who Funds You? The Fabian Society |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/who-funds-you/fabian-society/ }}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Politics|United Kingdom|Socialism}} * [[Ethical movement]] * [[Keir Hardie]] * [[Labour Research Department]] * [[List of Fabian Tracts to 1915]] * [[List of think tanks in the United Kingdom]] * ''[[New Statesman]]'' * ''[[The New Age]]''
==Footnotes== {{reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |last=Howell |first=David |title=British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888–1906 |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |location=Manchester |year=1983}} * {{cite book |last=McBriar |first=A.M. |title=Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884–1918 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |year=1962}} * [[James A. McKernan|McKernan, James A.]], "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. * {{cite book |last=Pease |first=Edward R. |author-link=Edward R. Pease |title=A History of the Fabian Society |url=https://archive.org/details/thehistoryofthef13715gut |publisher=E. P. Dutton & Co |location=New York |year=1916}} {{librivox book | title=The History of the Fabian Society | author=Edward R. Pease}} * {{cite book |last=Radice |first=Lisanne |title=Beatrice and Sidney Webb: Fabian Socialists |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |year=1984}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Shaw |editor-first=George Bernard |editor-link=Bernard Shaw |title=The Fabian Society: Its Early History |url=https://archive.org/details/TheFabianSocietyItsEarlyHistory |publisher=Fabian Society |location=London |orig-year=1892 |year=1906}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Shaw |editor-first=George Bernard |title=Fabian Essays in Socialism |publisher=Fabian Society |location=London |year=1931}} * {{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Willard |title=From Radicalism to Socialism: Men and Ideas in the Formation of Fabian Socialist Doctrines, 1881–1889 |url=https://archive.org/details/fromradicalismto0000wolf |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven, CT |year=1975 |isbn=9780300013030}} * {{cite book |last=MacKenzie |first=Norman & Jeanne |title=The First Fabians |url=https://archive.org/details/firstfabians0000mack |publisher=[[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]] |location=London |year=1977|isbn=9780297770909 }}
==External links== {{NIE Poster|year=1905|Fabian Society, The|Fabian Society}} {{Commons category|Fabian Society}} * {{Official website|http://fabians.org.uk}} * [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=FABIAN%20SOCIETY Finding Aid for the Fabian Society archives], British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics * [https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/list/collections/16 Fabian Society and Young Fabian Collection], British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics * [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?field1=ocr;q1=%22Hubert%20Bland%22;a=srchls;lmt=ft Annual Reports 1894–1918] * [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?field1=ocr;q1=Fabian%20tracts;a=srchls;lmt=ft;pn=1 Fabian Tracts 1893–1990]
{{Guild Socialism}} {{Fabian Society}} {{UK Labour Party}} {{Authority control}}
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