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51-848: LRD had its beginnings as the Committee of Inquiry into the Control of Industry, set up by the Fabian Society in 1912. The following year the committee was consolidated as the Fabian Research Department. Its first monthly bulletin was established in 1917, as the Monthly Circular . In 1918 the organisation broadened its membership and changed its name to the Labour Research Department. LRD publishes extensively on employment law, including

102-653: A ceremony over which Tony Blair presided. As of 2016, the Fabian Society had about 7,000 members. In June 2019 it had 7,136 individual members. The Fabian Society Tax Commission of 2000 was widely credited 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

153-415: A directly hypothecated "NHS tax" 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

204-520: 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". In 1900 the Society produced Fabianism and

255-410: A means to implement the Fabian Society version of socialism. 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. Obafemi Awolowo , who later became the premier of Nigeria 's now defunct Western Region , was also a Fabian member in the late 1940s. It

306-400: A role in the 1994 election of Tony Blair as Labour Leader. Today there is also an active Fabian Women's Network and Scottish and Welsh Fabian groups. After the election of a Labour Party government in 1997 , the Fabian Society was a forum for New Labour ideas and for critical approaches from across the party. The most significant Fabian contribution to Labour's policy agenda in government

357-583: 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, but the Fabian Society grew to become a leading academic society in the United Kingdom in the Edwardian era . It was typified by

408-486: 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. The first Fabian Society pamphlets advocating tenets of social justice coincided with the zeitgeist of Liberal reforms during the early 1900s. This includes eugenics , but eugenics was a common view for

459-562: Is a member of the Trade Union related Research Institutes (TURI) network. Fabian Society Social democracy Socialism Communism Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Other The Fabian Society is a 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. The Fabian Society

510-497: 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

561-584: 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." 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 and Sidney Webb , Graham Wallas , and George Bernard Shaw , founded

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612-580: The 2017 United Kingdom general election , the lowest number since 1935, due to Brexit , lack of support in Scotland , and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn 's unpopularity, although in the event the party won 262. 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

663-644: The Action Party in Italy. 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. In 2000, the Sicilian Fabian Society was founded in Messina . It is written into the rules of

714-720: The Attlee government (1945–51). Rita Hinden founded the colonial bureau and was its secretary. 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 . 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

765-730: 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 . Direct or indirect Fabian influence may also be seen in the liberal socialism of Carlo Rosselli (founder, with his brother Nello , of the anti-fascist group Giustizia e Libertà ) and all its derivatives such as

816-680: 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 , in Canada , in New Zealand , and in Sicily . 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

867-538: 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 designed by George Bernard 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

918-594: The Arab world in the form of dictatorial regimes in Iraq and Syria . Salāmah Mūsā of Egypt, another prominent champion of Arab Socialism, was a keen adherent of Fabian Society, and a member since 1909. In October 1940, the Fabian Society established the Fabian Colonial Bureau to facilitate research and debate British colonial policy. The Fabian Colonial Bureau strongly influenced the colonial policies of

969-563: The British armed forces in a high state of readiness to defend the Empire; the creation of 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". The Fabians also favoured

1020-407: 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 Harcourt . It claimed that the classical liberal political economy was outdated, and that imperialism was the new stage of the international polity. The question

1071-502: 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 entente (in this case, between countries allying themselves against Germany) could lead to war. At

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1122-556: The New Life , which had been a forebear of the British Ethical and humanist movements. Early Fellowship members included the visionary Victorian elite, among them poets Edward Carpenter and John Davidson , sexologist Havelock Ellis , and 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

1173-623: The Society were elected to Parliament at the 1945 general election . Ben Pimlott served as 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 . In recent years the Young Fabian group , founded in 1960, has become an important networking and discussion organisation for younger (under 31) Labour Party activists and played

1224-652: The annual guide Law at Work. LRD publishes LRD booklets, Labour Research, Workplace Report, Fact Service and Safety Rep. Full information on LRD's publications is available on their website LRD maintains the Payline database of pay and conditions which contains information on pay settlements, pay rates, pensions, maternity, paternity and other terms and conditions. The database contains information on more than 2000 agreements. LRD carries out research on collective bargaining, equality, health and safety, union developments, workers participation. Published research includes LRD

1275-538: The colonies, like Singapore and 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. In the Middle East , the theories of Fabian Society intellectual movement of early 20th-century Britain inspired the Ba'athist vision. The Middle East adaptation of Fabian socialism led

1326-487: The core of the Fabian Society were Sidney and Beatrice Webb . Together, they wrote numerous studies of industrial Britain, including alternative co-operative economics that applied to ownership of capital as well as land. Many Fabians participated in the formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and the group's constitution, written by Sidney Webb, borrowed heavily from

1377-406: The creation of the modern Bank of England"; William Keegan offered a similar analysis of Balls's Fabian pamphlet in his book on Labour's economic policy, which traces in detail the path leading up to this dramatic policy change after Labour's first week in office. 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

1428-678: 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. 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. Coefficients (dining club) The Coefficients

1479-648: The first dinner at his home in December 1902. In 1903 Bertrand Russell, who believed that the Entente cordiale policy would lead to war, resigned after Edward Grey espoused it in a speech. The group was further divided over the issue of Tariff Reform following Joseph Chamberlain 's resignation as Secretary of State for the Colonies and the increasing dominance of the pro-Unionist membership, which favoured Chamberlain and his tariff reform policies, contributed to

1530-613: The foreign policy of the British Empire as a conduit for internationalist reform and were in favour of a capitalist welfare state modelled on the 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

1581-582: 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. The years 1903 to 1908 saw a growth in popular interest in the socialist idea in Great Britain, and the Fabian Society grew accordingly, tripling its membership to nearly 2500 by the end of the period, half of whom were located in London. In 1912,

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1632-429: 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. It

1683-568: 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% was introduced in 2010. In early 2017, Fabian general secretary Andrew Harrop produced a report arguing the only feasible route for Labour to return to government would be to work with the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party . The report predicted Labour would win fewer than 150 seats in

1734-525: The members of its vanguard Coefficients club . Public meetings of the Society were for many years held at Essex Hall , a popular location just off the Strand in central London. The Fabian Society was named—at the suggestion of Frank Podmore —in honour of the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (nicknamed Cunctator , meaning the "Delayer"). His Fabian strategy sought gradual victory against

1785-421: The nationalisation of 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 American economist Henry George . 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. But

1836-663: The parties". Representing the Liberal Imperialists were Sir Edward Grey and Richard Burdon Haldane; the Tories were represented by economist William Hewins and editor of the National Review Leopold Maxse ; and the British military was represented by Leo Amery , an "expert on the conditions of the army", and Carlyon Bellairs , a naval officer. The club's membership included: Wells

1887-399: 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." The Fabian Society

1938-466: 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. 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

1989-414: The superior Carthaginian army under the renowned general Hannibal through persistence, harassment, and wearing the enemy down by attrition rather than pitched, climactic battles. An explanatory note appearing on the title page of the group's first pamphlet declared: For the right moment you must wait, as Fabius did most patiently when warring against Hannibal, though many censured his delays; but when

2040-425: The time comes you must strike hard, as Fabius did, or your waiting will be in vain, and fruitless. According to author 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." The wolf in sheep's clothing symbolism

2091-648: The time. The Fabian proposals however were considerably more progressive than those that were enacted in the Liberal reform legislation. 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 peerages in 1917. Agnes Harben and Henry Devenish Harben were among Fabians advocating women's emancipation and supporting suffrage movements in Britain, and internationally. Fabian socialists were in favour of reforming

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2142-401: Was Ed Balls 's 1992 discussion paper, advocating 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

2193-468: Was a monthly dining club founded in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb as a forum for British socialist reformers and imperialists of the Edwardian era . The name of the dining club was a reflection of the group's focus on "efficiency". The Webbs proposed that the club's membership reflect the entire gamut of political beliefs, and "proposed to collect politicians from each of

2244-624: Was also historically related to some of the furthest left factions of radicalism , a left-wing liberal tradition. As one of the founding organisations of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, and as an important influence upon the Labour Party which grew from it, the Fabian Society has had a powerful influence on British politics . Members of the Fabian Society have included political leaders from other countries, such as Jawaharlal Nehru , who adopted Fabian principles as part of their own political ideologies. The Fabian Society founded

2295-846: 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, nationalisation of economic activity and high taxes were encouraged, rationing, control of individual choices and Mahalanobis model considered by Nehru as

2346-607: Was established in Boston by W. D. P. Bliss , a prominent Christian socialist . The group published a periodical, The American Fabian , and issued a small series of pamphlets. Around the same time a parallel organisation emerged on the Pacific coast, centred in California , under the influence of socialist activist Laurence Gronlund . American Fabianism lasted for less than a decade. Similar non-UK societies include

2397-414: Was later abandoned, due to its obvious negative connotations. Its nine founding members were Frank Podmore , Edward R. Pease , William Clarke , Hubert Bland , Percival Chubb , Frederick Keddell, H. H. Champion , Edith Nesbit , and Rosamund Dale Owen. Havelock Ellis is sometimes also mentioned as a tenth founding member though there is some question about this. Immediately upon its inception,

2448-418: Was recruited because he was deemed "capable of original thoughts on every subject" and proved to be "an especially active member". The Webbs came up with the idea of the dinner club as a forum for "serious discussions and to formulate or propose political policy", but shortly after its founding the members "abandoned immediate political goals" but continued to meet and discuss issues of interest. Haldane hosted

2499-472: Was strongly influenced by the Fabian Society. However, he later altered his views, considering the Fabian ideal of socialism as impractical. In 1993, Lee said: They [Fabian Socialists] were going to create a just society for the British workers—the beginning of a welfare state, cheap council housing, free medicine and dental treatment, free spectacles, generous unemployment benefits. Of course, for students from

2550-578: 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. It is less known that the founder of Pakistan , Muhammad Ali Jinnah , was an avid member of the Fabian Society in the early 1930s. Lee Kuan Yew , the first Prime Minister of Singapore , stated in his memoirs that his initial political philosophy

2601-577: 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. In order to hold onto the Empire, the British needed to fully exploit the trade opportunities secured by war; maintain

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