The Fabian Socialists

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The British counterpart of the German Marxian
revisionists and heavily influenced by the English Historical
school, the upper-middle-class intellectual group - the "Fabian Society" -
emerged in 1884 as a strand of latter-day utopian socialism.
They became known to the public firstly through Sidney Webb's Facts for
Socialists (1884) and then through the famous Fabian Essays in
Socialism (1889) written by the Webbs, Shaw, and others.

The "Fabians" were named after Fabius, the famous Roman general which opposed
Hannibal as they were "biding their time" until they would "strike hard".
Exactly when this strike would occur was a perennial question.   Eschewing
the revolutionary tactics of more orthodox Marxians, the
middle-class Fabians were more directly involved with politics and practical
gains - through contacts not only in the "International Labor Party", trade
unions and cooperative movements but also throughout the entire British
political apparatus (Liberals and Tories included).

At the core of the Fabian Society were the Webbs - Sidney J. Webb and his wife,
Beatrice Potter
Webb (married 1892). Together, they wrote numerous studies of industrial
Britain, alternative economic arrangements (esp. cooperatives) and pamphlets for
political reform. At the core of their system was the Ricardian theory
of rent which they applied to capital as well as land (and labor as well - their
opposition to high labor incomes was also an issue). Their conclusion was that
it was the state's responsibility to acquire this rent (a position strikingly
familiar to Henry George - whom Shaw credited
explicitly).  Their later admiration of Soviet Russia stemmed partly from
Stalin's "efficiency" at acquiring this rent.

As one contemporary noted, "they combined an ounce of theory with a ton of
practice". The practice, for the Fabians, was to influence public opinion in
this direction. This was to be accomplished, they argued, not through mass
organization but rather by the selective education of the powerful "few" who
would lead the reforms in government (hopefully themselves), thus they only
belatedly extended their appeal beyond the narrow intelligentsia class from
which they arose. It was the Webbs who founded the
London School of
Economics (L.S.E.) in 1895.

Through the relentless outpouring of Fabian Essays and the charismatic
appeal of the Webbs - coupled with the prowess of literary figures such as
George Bernard Shaw and H.G.
Wells -
ensured that they would be indeed influential among British intellectuals and
government officials. Alfred Marshall, for
one, readily admitted his sympathies for the Fabian cause (although he abhorred
their anti-theoretical stance). Philip Wicksteed - who
tangled with Shaw over the
labor theory of value and marginal utility theory - in contrast, was
considerably more critical.

It was this narrowness of appeal that led some Fabians, such as G.D.H. Cole and
novelist H.G. Wells to break
with the Fabians. Cole went on to establish the "Guild Socialists" who relied
more on state-chartered but nonetheless self-governing producer organizations of
workers - "guilds" - than on the intellectual-government machine the Fabians
preferred. In this sense, the "Guild Socialists" were closer to the French
syndicalism of Sorel - albeit
a bit more muted.

Further splits in the Fabian camp emerged when the Webbs and Shaw decided to
throw their weight behind the British Imperial enterprise - supporting the Boer
War and other colonial misadventures - as they felt their reforms (when they
came about) would thus have a wider application. An overarching British Empire,
they believed, would be a more efficient conductor of reform than a multitude of
smaller countries. The Webb's support of monopolies was also well-known -
particularly, in their famous 1897 claim that "higgling in the market" (i.e.
competition) was inimical because competitive prices always bore down on the
workers. Thus, monopolies are more desirable as they would have more room to
treat their workers better.

The Fabians finally disintegrated in the 1930s for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, the Webbs' unqualified admiration of Soviet Russia seemed distasteful
to too many in their group. Secondly, the ascendancy of the British Labour Party
on the back of trade union activism had rendered the Fabians superfluous - and
this body of working class activists did not trust the paternalistic and
nationalistic Fabians (esp. after the Education Act of 1902, essayed by Sidney
Webb and against which almost all of the Labour Party was mobilized - although
Arthur Henderson, Labour Party leader from 1914 to 1922 was himself a Fabian and
it was Sidney Webb who authored the famous Clause Four of the Labour Party
charter committing it to a Socialist basis). Thirdly, they lost control of the
L.S.E. when Cannan and then,
more vigorously, Robbins turned it
on a decidedly Jevonian track;
fourthly, their intellectual influence during the 1930s was overshadowed by that
of Keynes.
Finally,  many of the reforms they had advocated had actually been
undertaken during and after the Great Depression, thus rendering their work, in
a sense, "complete". Of particular importance was the establishment of a
comprehensive welfare state in Britain in the 1940s following the famous 1942
"Beveridge
Report".

The Fabians

Sidney James Webb,
1859-1947.

Beatrice Potter Webb,
1858-1943.

George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950. (1), (2)

The Jevonian Criticism of Marx, 1885.

An Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, 1923.

Essays in Fabian Socialism, 1932.

Early Fabian essayist and famous literary persona who was one of the
most prominent members of the Fabian Society. Apparently, it was Shaw who
prodded the Fabians into supporting the Boer War. He once claimed to be the
only man in England who had actually read Marx's
Capital (although Shaw gave the labor theory of value a twist by
noting that it was the purchaser, not the capitalist, who is ultimately
robbing the surplus value from labor). However, the private tutorship of his
good friend Philip Wicksteed
led him to abandon the labor theory of value to become a "raving Jevonian". Most
of his contributions were in the Fabian Essays of 1889 and in
scattered Fabian pamphlets.

Graham
Wallas, 1858-1932, (1), (2), (3),
(4), (5)

The Life of Francis Place, 1898

Human Nature in Politics 1908.

The Great Society, 1914

Our Social Heritage, 1921.

Art of Thought, 1926.

Political scientist and one of the Fabian Society's "inner circle", one
of the contributors to the 1889 Fabian Essays, although he later
became disenchanted and resigned.  Notable for stressing the importance
of human and social psychology, rather than institutional forces, in the
analysis of political events. Wallas became the dominant figure in the
political science department at the L.S.E. in its early
years.

Ramsay MacDonald

G.D.H. Cole, 1890-1959.

The World of Labour, 1913.

Self-Government in Industry, 1917.

"Recent
Developments in the British Labor Movement", 1918, AER

Introduction to Trade Unionism, 1918 - review

The Payment of Wages, 1918 - review

Social Theory, 1920 - review

Essays in Social Theory, 1952.

A History of Socialist Thought, 1956.

Split with the Fabians to advocate "Guild Socialism". Unlike the Webbs,
he disliked "state socialism" of the Russian (or any other) variety.

H.G. Wells, 1866-1946.

The
Time Machine, 1895

Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress
on Human Life and Thought, 1902.

Famous novelist who broke with the Fabians in 1909 on the issue of mass
agitation (or rather lack of it).

William H. Beveridge,
1879-1963.

Richard H. Tawney,
1880-1962

Harold J. Laski,
1893-1950

The London School of
Economics

Resources on the Fabian Society

The
Fabian Society Homepage

Fabian Stained-glass
window  at Beatrice Webb Home.

Young
Fabians of the Labour Party.

The Fabian
Society at LSE History

Oxford's Fabian
Society

British Labour
Links

Tonbridge & Tunbridge Wells
Fabian Society

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