Fabians

The Fabian Society

The Fabian Society is a British socialist organization, which was a forerunner to the Labour Party. Promoting progressive social causes by gradualist, rather than revolutionary, methods, it was a major forum for political, social and cultural debate for the intelligentsia of fin-de-siècle Britain.

Spurred by the Liberal reforms of the early 1900s, the Society campaigned for a minimum wage, national health and education systems, the abolition of hereditary peerages and the nationalization of land. Drawing into its ambit most of the prominent intellectuals of the time, it grew to be the pre-eminent academic meeting-place of the Edwardian era. A close association existed with the London School of Economics, which was founded in 1895 by the Society’s lifelong guiding spirits Sidney and Beatrice Webb, together with G. B. Shaw.

A major split occurred in the Society over its response to the Boer War, leading to the resignation of Emmeline Pankhurst. Narrowly deciding in favour of the British invasion of the Transvaal, the Fabians supported British imperialism as a means of disseminating enlightened principles of governance throughout the world. Despite this, the Society between the wars was patronized by several expatriate nationalists, including Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Obafemi Awolowo and Lee Kuan Yew. The Fabian worldview was in turn to make a major impression on the constitutions of the emergent Commonwealth nations.