There are over 7,000 members of the Fabian Society. It boasts being “the future of the left since 1884.” Members past and present include Tony Blair, Ed Miliband, Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan. Khan, who is not only London’s mayor but also the chair of C40 Cities, served as chair of the Fabian Society in 2008-10.
The Fabian Society’s website states that it has been affiliated with the Labour Party throughout the party’s history and is the only original founder that “remains affiliated in unchanged form.”
After Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997, over 200 Fabians sat in the House of Commons, including many of the cabinet. After the 2015 election and the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader the role of the society as a pluralist, non-factional forum within the Labour movement came to the fore. Labour’s defeat at the 2019 election saw the party turn back towards its Fabian roots. So, what are the Fabian Society’s “roots”?
It was established in 1884 by a coterie of British eugenicists and Malthusians to promote a new social order designed to mould society into a new, mechanised order run by a managerial elite of “social scientists” from the top down.
Among its early members was George Bernard Shaw who became the leading spirit of the Society. Shaw also advocated for the killing of those who could not justify their existence to a “properly appointed board” – a similar albeit darker vision of the social credit system our rights and freedoms are threatened with today.
Fabian Socialists are Statist, they are absolutely authoritarian in their philosophy, Avangelista wrote. Their long-term goal has always been a socialist dictatorship with the imposition of a legalistic society where the individual is simply a part of the collective.
The idea of social justice is the biggest selling point and perhaps the easiest to peddle to the people. To give a recent example, in her 2018 book ‘Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism’, Kristen Ghodsee freely quotes from the works of Fabian socialist George Bernard Shaw to bolster her argument that capitalism is inherently sexist. Based on Shaw’s analysis, Ghodsee concludes that capitalism makes slaves out of women who, under socialism, would supposedly be happy and free.
The Fabian plan for a gradual socialist revolution was as definitive as it possibly could be, to say it has been a conspiracy is simplistic in the extreme. It instituted a widespread educational program for its leadership and its minions, as time progressed, it opened schools, such as the London School of Economics, and the New School of Social Research.
One stroke of genius was that instead of advocating a Socialist State, they assisted in the implementation of the Welfare State which is merely a few steps away from a purely Socialistic State.
In 1942, Stuart Chase, in his book ‘The Road We Are Traveling’, spelt out the system the Fabians had in mind:
- Strong, centralised government.
- Powerful Executive at the expense of Parliaments or Congress and the Judicial.
- Government-controlled banking, credit and securities exchange.
- Government control over employment.
- Unemployment insurance, old age pensions.
- Universal medical care, food and housing programs.
- Access to unlimited government borrowing.
- A managed monetary system.
- Government control over foreign trade.
- Government control over natural energy sources, transportation and agricultural production.
- Government regulation of labour.
- Youth camps devoted to health discipline, community service and ideological teaching consistent with those of the authorities.
- Heavy progressive taxation.
Read More: George Bernard Shaw, the Fabian Society and a ‘Brave New World’
