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09 JULI 2013 [FABIAN SOCIALISM]


FABIAN SOCIALISM

The termFabian keeps cropping up throughout this study. In most

anti-capitalist endeavors whether at Harvard University, in GovernmentBureaucracy, in Socialism, Communism or Keynesism and even inFacism, Fabian personalities and Fabian policies manifest themselves.

Fabianism has been a much neglected, usually underrated andgenerally misunderstood movement.

In 1883 a Scottish-born American citizen, Thomas Davidson, joinedwith a friend, Edward R. Pease, in the latters apartment in London, toform a rather loose association to discuss, among other things, thequestion of spiritism. Pease was a member of the London StockExchange and an amateur psychical researcher. Among those present atthe formative meetings was Havelock Ellis. (He later achieved notorietythrough his major workStudies in the Psychology of Sex [7 vols. 1897-1928], which was frequently banned on charges of obscenity.)

Sister M. Margaret Patricia McCarran writes that at the fifth meetingthis group Adopting a socialist creed, they resolved to live in the world,

pursuing their avocations and joining other societies. Frank Podmore, awriter, suggested the name Fabian Society.(1) This appelation was to

symbolize the use of the art of penetration into other social bodies inorder to push through socialist objectives. From its very inception theuse of stealth and deception was laid down as a fundamental procedureof the Fabian Society.

The Society was named after the Roman generalQuintusFabius Maximus (Cunctator, i.e. Latin-delayer), whose cautiousstrategy of delay after the disaster of Cannae in 216 B. C. thwartedHannibal, the great Carthaginian.(2)

The Society adopted the nameFabian as a symbol of a planformulated to penetrate civic and social units and to find means todisseminate contemporary social ideas, concentrating on concreteobjectives rather than on doctrines.(3) The Fabians did not constitutethemselves as a political party as such but developed the technique ofsocialistic permeation of existing political institutions.(4)

Margaret Cole, leading Fabian socialist, gives interesting details of thecharacter of the early Fabians:

. . . the handful who made up the Fabian societyonly forty in1885!were as vaguely anarchistic and insurrectionist in theirideas and their expression of them as any group that had existed

before them. They regularly denounced capitalists as thieves andtalked about using dynamite, and they looked forward withconfidence to an imminent social revolution, to take placesomewhere about 1889.(5)
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Incredible as it may seem, the Fabian Socialist Society began withonly nine members, who chose an executive committee of three. Theirorganizational assets consisted of thirteen shillings and seven pence.($1.89 in current monetary value.) Mrs. Cole, a former chairman of theBritish Fabian Society, in her book, The Story of FabianSocialism, boastfully labelled this group as a seeding body busilysowing socialist schemes throughout society and then nursing them intofull bloom.

Bernard Shaw joined the Fabian Society within the first year of itsformation (1884). Another recruit at this time was Sidney Webb who,along with Bernard Shaw, dominated the Fabian movement for over 40years. After Sidney Webbs marriage to the very wealthy Beatrice Potter

(Canadian Grand Trunk Railroad fortune) both he and his wifecollaborated as a unit in Fabian activities.

Shaw contrasted the difference between other radical groups and hisown by repeated references to the highly respectable FabianSociety.(6)

He illustrates the tactic of being highly respectable as follows:The Fabian Society got rid of its Anarchists and Borrovians,

and presented Socialism in the form of a series of parliamentary

measures, thus making it possible for an ordinary respectablereligious citizen to profess socialism and belong to a SocialistSociety without any suspicion of lawlessness, exactly as hemight profess himself a Conservative and belong to an ordinaryconstitutional club.(7)

The clever artifice of feigning respectability, while at the same timesubverting society for revolutionary purposes, is a Fabian tactic that hashad phenomenal success. It gave the Fabians easy entry into

government, banks, stock exchanges and universities. This policy ofconscious deception allowed Fabian Socialists to have their cake and eatit too. While extremists with a franker policy were barred from ordinarysocial intercourse the Fabians were welcomed because they had a velvet

glove approach accompanied by fine intellectual manners.The Fabians were more realistic than the Marxian socialists. They

understood that it is much easier to subvert sons, daughters and wives ofthe prominent and well-to-do than it is to impress the laboring classes.They also understood, that socialist movements spring from the middleand upper classesand not from the proletariat.(8)

Shaw thus describes the social composition of the Fabians:Now the significant thing about the particular Socialist society

which I joined was that the members all belonged to the middleclass. Indeed its leaders and directors belonged to what issometimes called the upper middle class: that is, they were either
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professional men like myself (I had escaped from clerkdom intoliterature) or members of the upper division of the civil service.Several of them have since had distinguished careers withoutchanging their opinions or leaving the Society. To theirConservative and Liberal parents and aunts and uncles fifty yearsago it seemed an amazing, shocking, unheard-of thing that theyshould become Socialists, and also a step bound to make an endof all their chances of success in life. Really it was quite naturaland inevitable. Karl Marx was not a poor laborer: he was thehighly educated son of a rich Jewish lawyer. His almost equallyfamous colleague, Friedrich Engels, was a well-to-do employer.It was precisely because they were liberally educated, and

brought up to think about how things are done instead of merelydrudging at the manual labor of doing them, that these two men,like my colleagues in The Fabian Society (note, please, that wegave our society a name that could have occurred only toclassically educated men), were the first to see that Capitalismwas reducing their own class to the condition of a proletariat, andthat the only chance of securing anything more than a slavesshare in the national income for anyone but the biggest capitalists

or the cleverest professional or business men lay in acombination of all the proletarians, without distinction of class orcountry to put an end to capitalism by developing thecommunistic side of our civilization until communism becamethe dominant principle in society, and mere owning, profiteering,and genteel idling were disabled and discredited.(9)

A fundamental principle of Fabianism is to collect a Brain Trustas anelite class to plan and direct all of society. Shaw pointed it out

succinctly:The Fabian Society succeeded because it addressed itself to itsown class in order that it might set about doing the necessary

brain work of planning Socialist organization for all classes,meanwhile accepting, instead of trying to supersede, the existing

political organizations which it intended to permeate with theSocialist conception of human society.(10)

The principle of thespecialist, the manager, the administrator, according to the Fabiansrepresents an elite which the Fabians say will dominate society.(11) Thiselite concept attracted elements from the old English nobility who had

been stripped of their former elite standing. Aristocratic elements beganto crop up in the Fabian Society reflecting subconscious, and sometimeconscious, attempts to recoup their old power via the socialist road

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(examples: Betrand Russell, the third Earl Russell, Percy DEvelynMarks, Lord Kimberly, etc.)(12)

The policy of hiding behind the skirts of respectability did not,however, prevent the Fabians from consorting with and helping theirmore violent brethren in the socialist movement. In fact, the Fabiansaided and abetted Russian Bolsheviks long before the revolution in1917.

In 1907, the Fabians played host to Lenin and his Bolshevik followerswhile they were holding a revolutionary conference in London. AlanMoorehead in his The Russian Revolutionwrites:

In the usual way the conference got off to a slow and raggedstart. The delegates assembled first in Copenhagen, but were

soon ousted by the police and eventually straggled across toLondon. Here Ramsay MacDonald, the British socialist leader,(Fabian ed.) was of some help to them; he managed to obtainthe use of the Brotherhood Church in Whitechapel in the east endof London. It belonged to a severe religious sect known as theChristian Socialists, and the agreement was that the Russiansshould hold their meetings in this odd place for a period of threedays. Three weeks later the Christian Socialists were still

pleading with their guests to leave the building just long enoughfor them to get in for their Sunday prayer meeting. Gorkymeanwhile kept some of the more needy delegates going byraising funds from his English friends; he had one sum of 3,000

pounds from a wealthy soap manufacturer.(13)George Lansbury (a leading Fabian and member of Parliament for the

Labour Party for ten years), described the Fabian efforts to aid theBolsheviks in the same 1907 London conference and identified the

soap manufacturer as Joseph Fels, an American industrialist and headof the huge Fels Naphtha enterprises in the United States. Fels, as amember of the Fabian Society, was a well-known financial angelofrevolutionary groups. Both Lenin and Trotsky, who headed thisBolshevik conference, later showed their gratitude by repaying the loanofficially through the Soviet government in 1921.(14)

The connection between Fabianism and Lenin harks back to the earlydays of the Fabian Society (1897) when Lenin translated Sidney WebbsFabian publicationHistory of Trade Unionism. Margaret Cole writes:

. . . the name of Webb had an almost mystical prestige in theRussian Communist Party, since it was theirHistory of TradeUnionism which Lenin had read and translated during his exileand which he had recommended to all Party members.(15)

Bolsheviks were considered comrades by the Fabians. GeorgeLansbury wrote that:
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It is, of course, true that none of our Russian comrades fromLenin onwards really understands the mentality of British tradeunionists, but I believe Lenin knew enough to know that inBritain we can be persuaded but cannot be forced into any courseof action of which we disapprove . . . Russia, Britain and theworld need thousands more like him (Lenin ed.) if Socialism isever to become into its own.(16)

One of the tremendous accomplishments of the Fabian Society was thecreation of the British Labour Party. The Fabians had permeated theLiberal and Conservative parties. However, the maneuvers to use these

parties for implementing the Fabian Socialist program metmany obstacles. The main concentration had been in the Liberal Party.

Fabians held key positions in the Liberal Party but after the formation ofthe Labour Party their main tactic was to destroy the Liberal Partyseffectiveness.

Bela Hubbard in hisPolitical and Economic Structures writes:Starting out with a mere handful, the British Fabian Society

prospered and grew. By 1930, it had attained a membership ofmore than fifteen hundred. Its purpose, announced in 1883 andnever subsequently modified, was the conversion of the British

economy from a capitalist to a socialist structure. Among itsaccomplishments were the infiltration, corruption, and finaldestruction of Englands great Liberal party. While a futile andunrecognizable remnant of the Liberal party remains today, the

party has been effectively destroyed. In its place has arisen theso-called Labor party actually a socialist party, created andguided to its present power by this small group of intellectuals,the Fabian Society.(17)

Fabian leader Margaret Cole writes:The modern Labour Party was born at its NottinghamConference in January 1918, and Sidney Webb, with Henderson,was the architect of its constitution and the framer of its first

political programme.(18)The Labour Party policies have since been continuously determined by

the Fabian Society. In this matter a small elite exerts a power thatcontrols the remnants of the British Empire.

The Fabian Society was international in content. It recruited membersfrom France, Italy, Austria, Germany, India, Canada, Australia, NewZealand and the United States.(19) As will be shown subsequently,Fabian influence in the United States has been tremendous.

The Fabian Society regularly sent delegates to meetings of the Second(socialist) International. Fabians were represented at various
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(2). The Fabians early developed the propaganda technique of shoutingdown as reactionary, anti-democratic, and dictatorial those whoown and operate private enterprises while at the same time these sameFabians conspire to impose a one party dictatorial control over societyoperated by an elite of specialists, managers, and socialist politicans.

(3). Fabians, like all socialists, claim to represent a progressive form ofsociety whereas they are actually a throw back to ancient tyranny whichdates back:

. . . to prehistoric times, and practiced today by savage tribes asyet practically untouched by civilization. The truth of thisstatement can be demonstrated both by reference to historicalrecords and by direct observations. This is known to students of

the subject, yet practically unknown to the general public.Viewing this modern socialism in its historical perspective, it

appears to represent, in the domain of social psychology, anexample of what the biologists refer to as atavism, in the field ofheredity. It is a mental throwback to the Stone Age.(26)

(4). The Fabians, along with the entire Marxist movement, have beenperpetrating a gigantic propaganda hoax against the world, the illusionthat socialism is a science. Not only the outside public but the rank

and file of the socialist movement have been victims of this deception.For years some economists and social thinkers have been pointing outthat in spite of socialists criticisms of the capitalist system they havecarefully avoided presenting a detailed outline of the kind of system theyintend to install in the place of free enterprise.

To this day socialists have not published an exhaustive economictheory of the socialist system. Neither Marx nor any of his followers

produced such a work.

The Fabians, under the leadership of such economists as Sidney Webb,J.A. Hobson, Alfred Marshall, A.C. Pigou and John Maynard Keyneshave dissected, analyzed, charted and evaluated statistically (with theirown particular slant) every facet of private enterprise. They insist thatsociety inevitably leads to socialism as a replacement of our presenteconomic and political systems. Even the Soviet Union and its satelliteswith their forty-year experience in socialism have not produced onesingle work outlining a definitive economic theory of socialism.

It remained for Ludwig Von Mises, an economist advocating privateenterprise, to goad the left-wing into taking public notice of theincredible lack of a socialist economic theory.

Oskar Lange, a communist who posed as a reform socialist, tried hishand at formulating such a theory.(27) To keep up the pretense ofscholastic objectivity Lange even criticized (mildly) some of KarlMarxs observations.
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In his workOn the Economic Theory of Socialism, Langes openingparagraph declared:

Socialists have certainly good reason to be grateful to ProfessorMises, the greatadvocatus diaboli of their cause. For it was his

powerful challenge that forced the socialists to recognize theimportance of an adequate system of economic accounting toguide the allocation of resources in a socialist economy. Evenmore, it was chiefly due to Professor Mises challenge that manysocialists became aware of the very existence of such a problem.And although Professor Mises was not the first to raise it, andalthough not all socialists were as completely unaware of the

problem as is frequently held, it is true, nevertheless, that,

particularly on the European Continent (outside of Italy), themerit of having caused the socialists to approach this problemsystematically belong entirely to Professor Mises.(28)

Langes claim to have published, at long last, an economic theory ofsocialism is slightly ridiculous in face of the fact that the entire

presentation is only pamphlet size (85 pages) and is buttressed by acontribution on Guidance of Production In A Socialist State by theeconomist Fred M. Taylor consisting of 13 pages. An examination of this

thin volume shows that it is an obvious attempt to beg the question.The failure of socialist and communist leaders to publish an economic

theory of socialism cannot, however, be ascribed to mere oversight. Acomprehensive work outlining the economic functions of socialismwould give away the real plot.

For over a hundred years socialists of all stripes have been denouncingcapitalist tyranny and have been assuming the role of champions offreedom, democracy and a better life. A definitive work on

socialist economic theory would expose the falsity of such premises.Such a work would have to outline the restrictions, compulsions andoppressions of the people required to make socialist planning possible.The fact that the socialist form must be a closed, stationarysystem operated by a rigid control apparatus could not be divulged too

publicly because of propaganda considerations. Incentives, which areresponsible for fundamental technological improvements, wouldcontinually upset national planned balances. Incentives mean rewards.Such rewards would set up a separate class which would constitute athreat to the political bureaucrats who intend to run the socialist state.

Top socialist leaders have known for years that the only feasiblesociety that they could operate would be one under a closed economyhostile to drastic and sudden technological changes.

Fabian socialist economists like Sidney Webb, R.H. Tawney andHarold Laski have assiduously avoided dealing with the economic forms
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under socialism for fear of disgusting their followers. Benjamin E.Lippincott, professor of political science at the University of Minnesota,reflects the puzzlement of many observers when he writes:

If Marxist economists are largely responsible for failing toshow how the every day economics of socialism might beworked out in practice, socialist writers other than economistsmust share some of the responsibility. Writers on history,sociology, and political science like the Webbs, Tawney, andLaski have done admirable work in constructing institutions for asocialist state, but they have not pressed for an inquiry into theeconomics of such a state, even though the economics mightvitally affect what they have constructed. They have not

sufficiently considered the economic conditions that must besatisfied if a socialist state is to equal or to improve upon thestandard of life provided by capitalism. Nor have they givenadequate attention, from the technical point of view, to theeconomic advantages and disadvantages of socialism ascompared with capitalism.(29)

(5). Fabian Socialist overall aims are international and imperialist incharacter. Starting in England as home base they have extended their

permeation, influence and control to the entire British Empire. Fabianbranches in numerous parts of the world have expanded their power tofantastic proportions. There have been Labour socialist governments inAustralia and New Zealand as well as in England itself. These werefounded and led by members of the Fabian Society. India is pursuing asocialist course set by the precedent of Fabian trained Jawaharlal Nehruand Krishna Menon. Intervention by British and American Fabians in theaffairs of the United States has decided major policies and has largely

molded the course of government control of the economic life of theUnited States. (A more detailed account of this process is dealt with inthe next chapter.) The injection of Fabian socialist influence into theUnited Nations, UNESCO and the International Monetary Fund is soextensive that it would require a separate study.

Early Bolshevik connections with the Fabian socialists, as notedpreviously, inevitably allured the Fabian mind. Bernard Shaw andBeatrice and Sidney Webb, founders and leaders of Fabianism, becamedisillusioned with the principle of gradualness of reform socialism.(30)Fabian leader Margaret Cole reports:

Bernard Shaw who had visited Russia during the summer of1931 in company with Lady Astor and others, came home

bubbling with excitement and delivered a lyrical address to themembers of the Fabian Summer School, (31)

The Webbs went to the Soviet Union in 1931. Margaret Cole writes:

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The Webbs, however, were visitors of a very special kind. Inthe first place, they were people of a very much higher calibreand standing than the majority of the flock of tourists; toconvince them of the rightness of the Soviet system would bewell worth while.

The Webbs were royally entertained and adulated, according to Mrs.Cole:

They were met and welcomed by representatives of the SovietForeign Office, the consumers cooperatives, and the Soviet ofLeningrad. Sidney commented: We seem to be a new type ofroyalty.(32)

Actually, the above account by Margaret Cole is misleading. The

Webbs were already thoroughly wedded to the Kremlin and apparentlythey were assigned the task by the Russian Foreign Office of

perpetrating a huge deception on the unsuspecting Free World.For upon their return the Webbs issued a two-volume work

entitled Soviet CommunismA New Civilization. This presumably waswritten as an unbiased Fabian view. However, on April 7th, 1952, IgorBogolepov appearing before the United States Senate sub-committee onInternal Security, as a former high official of the Soviet Foreign Office,

testified as follows:MR. MORRIS. Through the Foreign Office you had people in

other countries write books favorable to the Soviet point of view.MR. BOGOLEPOV. One British and one American. You

certainly remember the British labor leaders, Sidney and BeatriceWebb, very reasonable people. They visited the Soviet Union inabout 1935 or 1936, and the result of their visit was a two-volume work, Soviet Communism and New Civilization.

MR. MORRIS. That is, after the Webbs got back to England,having been in Soviet RussiaMR. BOGOLEPOV. Yes.MR. MORRIS. They wrote a two-volume work on Russia or

the Soviet?MR. BOGOLEPOV. That is right.SENATOR FERGUSON. Now give us an example of

Americans.MR. BOGOLEPOV. I didnt finish it yet.SENATOR FERGUSON. Pardon me. Go ahead.MR. BOGOLEPOV. The materials for this book actually were

given by the Soviet Foreign Office.SENATOR FERGUSON. Given to the Webbs.MR. BOGOLEPOV. Yes. They had only to remake a little bit

for English text, a little bit criticizing, but in its general trend the
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bulk of the material was prepared for them in the Soviet ForeignOffice.

SENATOR FERGUSON. In the Soviet Foreign Office.MR. BOGOLEPOV. In the Soviet Foreign Office, and I

participated myself in part of this work.SENATOR FERGUSON. So you were really preparing it under

the Soviet, giving it to the Webbs so they might write it inEnglish so it could be distributed in English.

MR. BOGOLEPOV. Thats right; yes.(33)This testimony brought cries of lies and fraud from liberal

intellectuals. However, 16 years after Bogolepovs testimony, the nieceof Beatrice Webb reported that every page ofSoviet Communism was

checked for errors by the Soviet Embassy. Among those involved inthis impartial and scientific account was the Soviet press secretary, thechief of the Soviet Trade Mission and the Soviet Ambassador toEngland.* Thus, even the Webbs slight emendations of an originalSoviet manuscript were carefully refurbished to meet the strict Soviet

party line.The bookSoviet Communism was distributed in huge numbers by

bookshops throughout the world. It was falsely presented as a work

written by respectable and solid British citizens merely recording honestobservations. Such deception is typical of Fabian methods.

Today the British Fabian pronouncement in favor of recognition ofRed China and the demand that the United States stop atomic testing, area logical extension of the traditional Fabian Socialist sympathy withKremlin policy.

Fabians who claim that they advocate only peaceable socialistobjectives are given the lie by their frequent defense of Stalins bloody

mass murders.On the last page ofIntelligent Womans Guide to Socialism, BernardShaw declares:

I also made it quite clear that Socialism means equality ofincome or nothing, and that under Socialism you would not beallowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged,taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it werediscovered that you had not character and industry enough to beworth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindlymanner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have tolive well.(34)

Apparently the basic difference between Bolshevik and Fabiantotalitarianism is that under Fabianism, opponents of socialism would beexecuted in an amiable manner.

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1 Sister M. Margaret Patricia McCarran, Ph.D.,Fabianism In thePolitical Life of Britain, 1919-1931,Heritage Foundation, 74 EastWacker Drive, Chicago I, Ill. pp. 3-4.

Sister McCarrans book is a monumental research on the FabianSociety during its most fruitful period. It is indispensable as a referenceauthority on this question. In this study hundreds of items were checkedfor correctness and in every case the figures, quotations and referencesin this work were found to be completely accurate. It is an indispensablework for all students and researchers on the subject.

2 Fabius, Fabian Society, Hannibal, ColumbiaEncyclopedia, Second Edition, Columbia University Press, 1950.

3Fabianism In The Political Life of Britain, p. 4

4 Fabian Society, Columbia Encyclopedia, 2nd Ed.5 Margaret Cole, Beatrice Webb, Harcourt Brace, N. Y., 1946, p. 49.6 Bernard Shaw,Intelligent Womans Guide to Socialism and

Capitalism, Brentanos, N.Y., 1928, p. 94.7Ibid., p. 220.8 Sidney Webb, in his Socialism in England, 1889, pp. 26-27, wrote:

The Fabian Society occupies a different sphere as aSocialist Society from that of the two larger bodies. It was

founded in 1883 as an educational and propagandist centre,and includes members of all the other organizations, with anumber of active workers chiefly of the middle class, andliterary proletariat. It furnishes lecturers in considerablenumber to all meetings where Socialism, in any guisewhatsoever, can possibly be introduced, and its ownfortnightly discussions have been useful in formulating andadapting socialist principles in relation to actual

contemporary conditions. Two of its members were recentlyelected on the London School Board. The Society exercises aconsiderable influence, more real than apparent, by the

personal participation of its members in nearly all reformmovements, as well as by their work at the Universities andin the fields of journalism and the teaching of PoliticalEconomy. It is not, however, a numerous body, and makes noattempt to increase its numbers beyond a convenient limit.

9Intelligent Womans Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, p. 185.10Ibid., p. 186.11 G.D.H. Cole, a leader of British Guild Socialism in 1919 (later a

Fabian leader), was horrified over the Fabian concept of expertmanipulator as the coming elite. L.L. Price,Economic Journal, June1919, No. 114, Vol. XXIX, p. 189, wrote:
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For that stout believer (S. Webb ed.) in the necessity andadvantage of a trained, informed bureaucracy, vested withfull authority to direct our every movement and supply allneeds, is admonished by Mr. Cole because in one of his mostrecent comprehensive hand-books of final instructionthaton The Works Manager Todayhe believes andassumes that manipulation of men is a science to belearnt and controlled by the expert manipulator.

12Fabianism in the Political Life of Britain, p. 464.13 Alan Moorehead,Russian Revolution, Harper, N. Y., 1958, p. 81.14 George Lansbury,My Life, London, 1928, p. 246. (Lansbury

lectured on socialism at Harvard University in 1913,Ibid., p. 106.)

15Beatrice Webb, p. 193.16My Life, p. 247.An example of the connection between Lenin and the Fabians is the

fact that LeninsImperialism(International Publishers), was largelybased on J.A. HobsonsImperialism (1902). J.A. Hobson was aprominent leader of the Fabian Society. (Facts on Communism, vol. 1,Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives,December, 1959, p. 43, AlsoFabian News, September, 1893, p. 30.)

17 Bela Hubbard,Political and Economic Structures, Caxton Printers,Caldwell, Idaho, 1956, p. 111.

Mr. Hubbard, a retired geologist, has written a most lucid account ofthe twisting of economic theories by political ideology in recent worldhistory.

A frank exposition of the Fabian permeation of the Liberal Party (aswell as other parties) was printed in the FabianEssays inSocialism, 1889, p. 215.

This permeation of the Radical Left, undoubted fact thoughit is of present day politics, is worth a little further attention;for there are two possible and tenable views as to its finaloutcome. One is that it will end in the slow absorption of theSocialist in the Liberal Party, and that by the action of thissponge-like organism the whole of the Rent and Interest will

pass into collective control without there ever having been aparty definitely and openly pledged to that end. According tothis theory there will come a time, and that shortly, when theavowed Socialists and the much socialized Radicals will bestrong enough to hold the balance in many constituencies,and sufficiently powerful in all to drive the advancedcandidate many pegs further than his own inclination wouldtake him. Then, either by abstention or by actual support ofthe reactionary champion at elections, they will be able to
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threaten the Liberals with certain defeat. The Liberals, beingtraditionally squeezable folk (like all absorbent bodies), willthus be forced to make concessions and to offercompromises; and will either adopt a certain minimumnumber of the Socialistic proposals, or allow to Socialists ashare in the representation itself. Such concessions andcompromises will grow in number and importance with eachsuccessive appeal to the electorate, until at last the game iswon.

18Beatrice Webb, p. 152.19 The Fabian News from 1892 to the present is studded with

members from countries all over the world. The United States leads in

the number of foreign Fabian applications.20 Leonard S. Woolf,International Government, N.Y., Brentanos,

1916, quoted inFabianism In The Political Life of Britain, by SisterMcCarran, pp. 32-33. Sister McCarran observes: The plan in Woolfs

book bears comparison with Wilsons League of Nations and with thepresent United Nations organization. Possibly it has a greater likeness tothe latter.

L.S. Woolf is a veteran leader of the Fabian Society and was a life-

long colleague of J.M. Keynes.21 William L. McGrath, President of the Williamson Heater

Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, The Communist Issue in the 38thInternational Labor Conference of the International Labor

Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, June, 1955 (mimeographed), p. 2.Mr. McGrath has made an exhaustive study of the I.L.O. as a delegate

to that body for a number of years. The following are some of hisobservations:

The I.L.O. originated with the League of Nations,continued in existence after the abandonment of the League,and is now an agency of the United Nations. It is therefore aninternational body having an official standing withGovernments the world over, including our own.

In its earlier years the I.L.O. devoted its efforts to mattersdealing directly with Labor, and did excellent constructivework. Its objective was that on endeavoring to raise livingstandards of employees all over the world; helping to get theworkers better working conditions, fuller recognition of theirrights, etc.

However, as State Socialism came into the ascendancy inEurope and the concept of the Planned Economy and theWelfare State gained broad political acceptance, the I.L.O.stepped beyond the field of labor proper, into the field of
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government itself; and under the pretext of helping theworking man, has put forward a whole series of proposals,in the form of conventions and recommendations, which, ifadopted by member countries, might of necessity force theirGovernments into a socialistic mold.

22Fabianism In The Political Life of Britain, p. 33.23Ibid., p. 23n.24Fabian News, London, June, 1892, p. 19, Local societies are

requested to note that it is not desirable to make any change in the nameby the addition of the word Socialist to Fabian.

25 Sidney Webb, Socialism In England, London, 1889, pp. 20-21.26 Bela Hubbard,Political And Economic Structures, pp. 116-117.

27 Oskar Lange is a classic example of how a Kremlin agent canoperate in Fabian socialist circles and capitalize personally on the cloakof respectability such an affiliation gives him. A chronological accountof his career includes: student London (Eng.) School of Economics,1929; traveling fellow, U.S. Rockefeller Foundation, 1934-36; lectureron economics, University of Michigan, 1936; lecturer on economics,University of California, 1936-38; Professor of economics, University ofChicago, 1939-43; (referenceWhos Who in America, 1948-49).

Lange, with his background as graduate of the London School ofEconomics, had no difficulty in passing himself off as a Fabian socialist.(The London School of Economics was founded by Sidney Webb, headof the Fabian Society.)

While in the United States, Professor Lange accumulated a record ofactivity in a score of Communist fronts. Attempts to expose him wereshouted down by liberals and leftists as red baiting and witchhunting. Langes Fabian comrades supported him unstintingly and used

his books and articles as authoritative sources to prove left-wing claims.(Lange invokes as his authorities such fellow Fabians or Socialists asJ.M. Keynes, G.D.H. Cole, Bertrand Russell and A.C. Pigou in his Onthe Economic Theory of Socialism.)

Langes disguise as a mild socialist was so well performed that heeven attacked the Leninist doctrine of world revolution. He wrote: Ihave not the slightest illusion about the Soviet Union being a Socialiststate . . . The Modern Quarterly, Summer 1940, p. 20.

With the invasion of Poland by Soviet armies and the installation ofthe communist government in that country, Oskar Lange suddenly

blossomed out as Ambassador from red Poland to the United States. InCongressional testimony the charge was made that Lange, whileAmbassador, had clandestine meetings with Gregory Silvermaster, headof a Soviet espionage cell in Washington, D.C. Web of Subversion, byJames Burnham, p. 184. Lange is still invoked as an authority on
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economic matters and his booklet, On the Economic Theory ofSocialism, is required reading at Harvards economic department today.(Spring term 1959-60.)History of Economic Analysis, J.A. Schumpeter, p. 986.

As we know, Marx himself had not attempted to describethe modus operandi of the centralist socialism which heenvisaged for the future. His theory is an analysis of thecapitalist economy that is no doubt geared to the idea that thiseconomy, by means of the inevitable breakdown and of thedictatorship of the proletariat resulting from this

breakdown, will give birth to the socialist economy; but thereis a full stop after this and no theory of the socialist economy

that deserves the name follows. Most of his disciples, as wealso know, evaded the problem instead of meeting it. . . .

28 Oskar Lange, et al., On the Economic Theory of Socialism, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1956, p. 57.

29 Benjamin C. Lippincott, introduction to On the Economic Theoryof Socialism, p. 4.

30 Margaret Cole,Beatrice Webb, p. 190.31Ibid., p. 191.

32Ibid., pp. 193-194.33 Sub-Committee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal

Security Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the

Judiciary, Chairman, Senator Pat McCarran; (Institute of PacificRelations Hearing, Part 13, April 1952, p. 4509).

An interesting corollary to this question was the fact that theCommunist publishing firm, Workers Library Publishers, advertised theWebb book, Soviet Communism, as a free bonus along with a

subscription to the Soviet magazines, The CommunistInternationaland The International Press Correspondence (Inprecorr). Itwas also offered as a free bonus with the magazine, TheCommunist.Reference, an advertisement in the Communistmagazine,New Masses, May 18, 1937, p. 27).

* Kitty Muggeridge and Ruth Adam,Beatrice WebbA Life, AlfredA. Knopf, New York, pp. 241-2.

34Intelligent Womans Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, p. 470.

FABIAN SOCIETY

Fabian Society, British socialist society. An outgrowth of theFellowship of the New Life (founded 1883 under the influence ofThomas Davidson), the society was developed the following year
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by Frank Podmore and Edward Pease. George Bernard Shawand Sidney Webb joined soon after this and became itsoutstanding exponents. The group achieved recognition with thepublication ofFabian Essays (1889), with contributions by Shaw,Webb, Annie Besant, and Graham Wallas. The Fabians wereopposed to the revolutionary theory of Marxism, holding thatsocial reforms and socialistic "permeation" of existing politicalinstitutions would bring about the natural development ofsocialism. Repudiating the necessity of violent class struggle, theytook little notice of trade unionism and other labor movementsuntil Beatrice Potter (who later married Sidney Webb) joined thegroup. They subsequently helped create (1900) the unified

Labour Representation Committee, which evolved into the Labourparty. The Labour party adopted their main tenets, and the FabianSociety remains as an affiliated research and publicity agency.

Socialist society founded in 188384 in London, to establisha democratic socialist state in Britain. The name derivedfrom Fabius Maximus Cunctator, whose elusive tactics in avoidingpitched battles led to victory over stronger forces. Fabiansbelieved in evolutionary socialism rather than revolution, and used

public meetings and lectures, research, and publishing to educatethe public. Important early members includedGeorge Bernard

Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb

. They helped organize aseparate party that became the Labour Party

in 1906, and manyLabour members of Parliament have been Fabians.

Fabian Society a reformist organization in Great Britain,founded in 1884. The societys members were drawn primarilyfrom the bourgeois intelligentsia, such as G. B. Shaw, S. Webb,

B. Webb, and H. G. Wells. The societys organizers took theirname from Fabius Maximus Cunctator (the Delayer), who wasknown for his cautious, delaying tactics in fighting Hannibal.

Although they considered socialism the inevitable result ofeconomic development, the Fabians regarded that developmentas evolutionary and rejected revolutionary change. They opposedthe class struggle of the proletariat and the creation of anindependent proletarian political party. V. I. Lenin characterizedFabianism as the trend of extreme opportunism (Poln. sobr.soch., 5th ed., vol. 16, p. 338).

The widespread demand among the British working class foran independent workers policy resulted in the Fabians endorsingthe creation of the Independent Labour Party in 1893. TheFabians supported the Labour Party (created in 1900, but knownas the Labour Representation Committee until 1906) and were
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affiliated with it, but retained their own organization. To thepresent day the Fabian Society has formed the ideological centerof the Labour Party, elaborating the programmatic and tacticalprinciples of Labourism. Many prominent leaders of the LabourParty have come from the Fabian Society.

REFERENCESVinogradov, V. N. Uistokov leiboristskoi partii. Moscow, 1965.Kertfnan, L. E. Rabochee dvizhenie v Anglii i borba dvukhtendentsii v Leiboristskoi partii (19001914). Perm, 1957.Cole, M. The Story of Fabian Socialism. London, 1961.Pease, E. R. The History of the Fabian Society, 2nd ed. London,

1925.

from WIKIPEDIAThe Fabian Society is a British socialist organization whosepurpose is to advance the principles of socialismvia gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means.[1][2] It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginninglate in the 19th century and continuing up to World War I.

The society laid many of the foundations of the LabourParty and subsequently affected the policies of states emerging

from the decolonisation of theBritish Empire, especially India.Today, the society functions primarily as a think tank and isone of 15 socialist societies affiliated with the Labour Party.Similar societies exist in Australia (theAustralian Fabian Society),Canada (the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation and the nowdisbanded League for Social Reconstruction) and in NewZealand.

Organisational history

EstablishmentBlue plaque at 17 Osnaburgh St, where the Society was foundedin 1884.Fabian Society was named after "Fabius the Delayer" at thesuggestion ofFrank Podmore, above.
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Tortoise is the symbol of Fabian Society, representing its goal ofgradual expansion of socialism.[1]

The Fabian Society was founded on 4 January 1884 in London asan offshoot of a society founded in 1883 called The Fellowship ofthe New Life.[3]Fellowship members included poets EdwardCarpenterand John Davidson, sexologistHavelock Ellis and thefuture Fabian secretary Edward R. Pease. They wanted totransform society by setting an example of clean simplified livingfor others to follow, but when some members also wanted tobecome politically involved to aid society's transformation, it wasdecided that a separate society, the Fabian Society, also be setup. All members were free to attend both societies. The Fabian

Society additionally advocated renewal of WesternEuropean Renaissance ideas and their promulgation throughoutthe rest of the world.The Fellowship of the New Life was dissolved in 1899, [4] but theFabian Society grew to become the pre-eminent academic societyin the United Kingdom in the Edwardian era, typified by themembers of its vanguardCoefficients club. Public meetings of theSociety were for many years held at Essex Hall, a popular

location just offthe Strand in central London.[5]The Fabian Society, which favoured gradual change rather thanrevolutionary change, was named at the suggestion ofFrankPodmore in honour of the Roman general FabiusMaximus (nicknamed "Cunctator", meaning "the Delayer").His Fabian strategy advocated tactics of harassmentand attrition rather than head-on battles againstthe Carthaginian army under the renowned general Hannibal.

An explanatory note appearing on the title page of the group's firstpamphlet declared:"For the right moment you must wait, as Fabius did most patiently,when warring against Hannibal, though many censured hisdelays; but when the time comes you must strike hard, as Fabiusdid, or your waiting will be in vain, and fruitless."[6]

Organisational growthImmediately upon its inception, the Fabian Society began

attracting many prominent contemporary figures drawn to itssocialist cause, including George Bernard Shaw, H. G.Wells,Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Charles Marson, HubertBland, Edith Nesbit, Sydney Olivier, Oliver Lodge, LeonardWoolfandVirginia Woolf, Ramsay MacDonald and EmmelinePankhurst. Even Bertrand Russell briefly became a member, but
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resigned after he expressed his belief that the Society's principleofentente (in this case, between countries allying themselvesagainst Germany) could lead to war.At the core of the Fabian Society were Sidney and BeatriceWebb. Together, they wrote numerous studies[7] of industrialBritain, including alternative co-operative economics that appliedto ownership ofcapital as well as land.Many Fabians participated in the formation of the Labour Party in1900 and the group's constitution, written by Sidney Webb,borrowed heavily from the founding documents of the FabianSociety. At the Labour Party Foundation Conference in 1900, theFabian Society claimed 861 members and sent one delegate.

The years 1903 to 1908 saw a growth in popular interest in thesocialist idea in Great Britain and the Fabian Society grewaccordingly, tripling its membership to nearly 2500 by the end ofthe period, half of whom were located in London. [8] In 1912 astudent section was organised called the University SocialistFederation(USF) and by the outbreak ofWorld War I thiscontingent counted its own membership of more than 500.[8]

Early Fabian viewsThe first Fabian Society pamphlets[9] advocating tenets ofsocialjustice coincided with the zeitgeist ofLiberal reforms during theearly 1900s. The Fabian proposals however were considerablymore progressive than those that were enacted in the Liberalreform legislation. The Fabians lobbied for the introduction ofa minimum wage in 1906, for the creation of a universal healthcare system in 1911 and for the abolition ofhereditarypeerages in 1917.[10]

Fabian socialists were in favour of reforming Britain'simperialist foreign policy as a conduit forinternationalistreform and a welfare state modelled on theBismarckian Germanmodel; they criticised Gladstonian liberalism both for itsindividualism at home and its internationalism abroad. Theyfavoured a nationalminimum wage in order to stop Britishindustries compensating for their inefficiency by lowering wagesinstead of investing in capital equipment; slum clearances and a

health service in order for "the breeding of even a moderatelyImperial race" which would be more productive and bettermilitarily than the "stunted, anaemic, demoralised denizens...ofour great cities"; and a national education system because "it is inthe classrooms...that the future battles of the Empire forcommercial prosperity are already being lost".[11]
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In 1900 the Society produced Fabianism and the Empire, the firststatement of its views on foreign affairs, drafted by Bernard Shawand incorporating the suggestions of 150 Fabian members. It wasdirected against the liberal individualism of those such as JohnMorley and SirWilliam Harcourt.[12] It claimed that the classicalliberal political economy was outdated, and that imperialism wasthe new stage of the international polity. The question waswhether Britain would be the centre of a world empire or whetherit would lose its colonies and end up as just two islands in theNorth Atlantic. It expressed support for Britain in theBoerWarbecause small nations, such as the Boers, wereanachronisms in the age of empires.[12] In order to hold onto the

Empire, the British needed to fully exploit the trade opportunitiessecured by war; maintain the British armed forces in a high stateof readiness to defend the Empire; the creation of a citizen armyto replace the professional army; the Factory Acts would beamended to extend to 21 the age for half-time employment, sothat the thirty hours gained would be used in "a combination ofphysical exercises, technical education, education in civilcitizenship...and field training in the use of modern weapons".[13]

The Fabians also favoured the nationalisation of land rent,believing that rents collected by landowners were unearned, anidea which drew heavily from the work of Americaneconomist Henry George.

Second generationIn the period between the two World Wars, the "SecondGeneration" Fabians, including the writers R. H. Tawney, G. D. H.Cole and Harold Laski, continued to be a major influenceon social-democratic thought.It was at this time that many of the future leaders of the ThirdWorld were exposed to Fabian thought, most notablyIndia'sJawaharlal Nehru, who subsequently framed economicpolicy for India on Fabian socialism lines. After independencefrom Britain, Nehrus Fabian ideas committed India to aneconomy in which the state owned, operated and controlledmeans of production, in particular key heavy industrial sectors

such as steel, telecommunications, transportation, electricitygeneration, mining and real estate development. Private activity,property rights and entrepreneurship were discouraged orregulated through permits, nationalization of economic activityand high taxes were encouraged, rationing, control of individualchoices and Mahalanobis model considered by Nehru as a means
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to implement the Fabian Society version of socialism. [15][16][17] Inaddition to Nehru, several pre-independence leaders in colonialIndia such asAnnie Besant - Nehru's mentor and later a presidentofIndian National Congress - were members of the FabianSociety.[18]

Obafemi Awolowo, who later became the premier of Nigeria'sdefunct Western Region was also a Fabian member in the late1940s. It was the Fabian ideology that Awolowo used to run theWestern Region but was prevented from using it on a nationallevel in Nigeria. It is less known that the founder ofPakistan,Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was an avid member of the FabianSociety in the early 1930s. Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime

MinisterofSingapore, stated in his memoirs that his initial politicalphilosophy was strongly influenced by the Fabian Society.However, he later altered his views, considering the Fabian idealof socialism as impractical.[19] In 1993, Lee said:"They (Fabian Socialists) were going to create a just society forthe British workers - the beginning of a welfare state, cheapcouncil housing, free medicine and dental treatment, freespectacles, generous unemployment benefits. Of course, for

students from the colonies, like Singapore and Malaya, it was agreat attraction as the alternative to communism. We did not seeuntil the 1970s that that was the beginning of big problemscontributing to the inevitable decline of the British economy."Lee Kuan Yew interview with Lianhe Zaobao[19]

In the Middle East, the theories of Fabian Society intellectualmovement of early-20th-century Britain inspiredthe 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 ofeconomic development, with the ultimate aim to provide aguaranteed minimum standard of living for all.[20]Michel Aflaq,widely considered as the founder of the Ba'athist movement, wasa Fabian socialist. Aflaq's ideas, with those of Salah al-Din al-Bitarand Zaki al-Arsuzi, came to fruition in the Arab world in the form ofdictatorial regimes in Iraq and Syria.[21]Salmah Ms of Egypt,another prominent champion of Arab Socialism, was a keenadherent of Fabian Society, and a member since 1909.[22]

Among many current and former Fabian academics are the latepolitical scientist Bernard Crick, the late economists ThomasBalogh and Nicholas Kaldorand the sociologist Peter Townsend.

Contemporary Fabianism
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Through the course of the 20th century the group has alwaysbeen influential in Labour Party circles, with membersincluding Ramsay MacDonald, Clement Attlee,AnthonyCrosland, Richard Crossman, Tony Benn, Harold Wilson andmore recently Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Gordon Marsden and EdBalls. The late Ben Pimlott served as its Chairman in the 1990s.(A Pimlott Prize for Political Writing was organised in his memoryby the Fabian Society and The Guardian in 2005 and continuesannually). The Society is affiliated to the Party as a socialistsociety. In recent years the Young Fabian group, founded in 1960,has become an important networking and discussion organisationfor younger (under 31) Labour Party activists and played a role in

the 1994 election ofTony Blairas Labour Leader. Today there isalso an active Fabian Women's Network and Scottish and WelshFabian groups.On 21 April 2009 the Society's website stated that it had 6,286members: "Fabian national membership now stands at a 35 yearhigh: it is over 20% higher than when the Labour Party came tooffice in May 1997. It is now double what it was when ClementAttlee left office in 1951."

The latest edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (areference work listing details of famous or significant Britons throughout history) includes 174 Fabians. FourFabians, Beatrice andSidney Webb, Graham Wallas and GeorgeBernard Shaw founded the London School of Economics with themoney left to the Fabian Society by Henry Hutchinson.Supposedly the decision was made at a breakfast party on 4August 1894. The founders are depicted in the Fabian

Window[23]

designed by George Bernard Shaw. The window wasstolen in 1978 and reappeared at Sotheby's in 2005. It wasrestored to display in the Shaw Library at the London School ofEconomics in 2006 at a ceremony over which Tony Blairpresided.[24]

Young FabiansMembers aged under 31 years of age are also members ofthe Young Fabians. This group has its own elected Chair and

executive and organises conferences and events. It alsopublishes the quarterly magazineAnticipations. The ScottishYoung Fabians, a Scottish branch of the group, reformed in 2005.

Influence on Labour government
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With the advent of a Labour Party government in 1997, theFabian Society has been a forum forNew Labourideas and forcritical approaches from across the party. The most significantFabian contribution to Labour's policy agenda in governmentwas Ed Balls' 1992 pamphlet, advocating Bank of Englandindependence. Balls had been a Financial Times journalist whenhe wrote this Fabian pamphlet, before going to work for GordonBrown. BBC Business EditorRobert Peston, in his book Brown'sBritain, calls this an "essential tract" and concludes that Balls"deserves as much credit probably more than anyone else forthe creation of the modern Bank of England";[25] William Keeganoffers a similar analysis of Balls' Fabian pamphlet in his book on

Labour's economic policy,[26] which traces in detail the pathleading up to this dramatic policy change after Labour's first weekin office.The Fabian Society Tax Commission of 2000 was widelycredited[27] with influencing the Labour government's policy andpolitical strategy for its one significant public tax increase:the National Insurance rise to raise 8 billion forNational HealthService spending. (The Fabian Commission had in fact called for

a directly hypothecated "NHS tax"[28] to cover the full cost of NHSspending, arguing that linking taxation more directly to spendingwas essential to make tax rise publicly acceptable. The 2001National Insurance rise was not formally hypothecated, but thegovernment committed itself to using the additional funds forhealth spending.) Several other recommendations, including anew top rate of income tax, were to the left of government policyand not accepted, though this comprehensive review ofUK

taxation was influential in economic policy and political circles.[29]

Criticism

In the early 1900s Fabian Society members advocated the idealof a scientifically planned society and supported eugenics by wayof sterilization. This is credited to the passage of the Half-CasteAct, and its subsequent implementation in Australia, wherechildren were systematically and forcibly removed from theirparents, so that the British colonial regime could "protect" theAborigine children from their parents. In an article published inThe Guardian on 14 February 2008, (following the apologyoffered by Australian prime ministerKevin Rudd to the "stolengenerations"),Geoffrey Robertson criticised Fabian socialists forproviding the intellectual justification for the eugenics policy thatled to the stolen generations scandal.[30][31] Such views on
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socialism, inequality and eugenics in early 20th century Fabianswere not limited to one individual, but were widely shared inFabian Society.[32][33]

Further reading

; David Howell, British Workers and the Independent LabourParty, 18881906. Manchester: Manchester University Press,1983.

; A.M. McBriar, Fabi

Fabian Society 09072013

Documents

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