The Fabian society

The Fabian Society

Founded in 1884, the Fabian Society was an intellectual movement concerned with the research, discussion, and publication of socialist ideas. The society was named after the Roman general Fabius Cunctator, 'the delayer' who advocated a war of attrition rather than direct confrontation against Hannibal. The Fabians believed that social reform could be achieved by a new political approach of gradual and patient argument, 'permeating' their ideas into the circles of those with power: 'the inevitability of gradualism' was an early slogan.

As Sidney Webb wrote to the Fabian Edward Pease in 1886, 'Nothing is done in England without the consent of a small intellectual yet political class in London, not 2000 in number. We alone could get at that class.' The Fabians were especially active in London local government. The Fabians aimed for democratic socialism. Believing that voters could be persuaded of socialism's justice, they sought to achieve reform by education, stimulating debate through lectures and discussions initiated by democratically accountable and educated professionals.

The Fabian Society grew out of the Fellowship of the New Life in 1883, the object of which had been 'The cultivation of a perfect character in each and all.' Members of the Fabian Society also argued that 'the end of the State…is, in fact, the development of character.' Not only was character - national, individual, moral - a Victorian preoccupation, but its development in the individual was perceived by social reformers as a form of liberation from oppression. Cultivating character involved education and achieving bias-free judgement, and social reform aimed to build a society where altered political and social circumstances improved the conditions of those whom society could and should help.

Leading early members of the society include Annie Besant, Beatrice (A future Fabian Society president) and Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw, George Wallas, Hubert Bland, and Sidney Olivier. The Fabian Society maintained its independence from the Labour Party, although it helped to create the Labour Representation Committee in 1900. Trade union militancy from 1910-26 and the unemployment climate and depression of the 1930s diminished the attractiveness of Fabian gradualism, but its influence had revived by 1939 through senior members, for example, Clement Attlee was chairman of the Fabian Research Bureau. The Fabian Society continues today with over 6000 members.