Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1949 FABIAN SOCIALISM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 42, 17 January 1949, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1949

FABIAN SOCIALISM

With an election 'looming in the near offing, we shall soon find ourselves listening to claims and counter claims of contending parties and probably to some fantastically distorted versions of what their opponents stand for. It is certain that the various brands of Socialism will be discussed fully, heatedly and with varying degrees of knowledge and ignorance. For one of the main points on which the electors will base their judgment on this occasion will be whether or not the Labour Party is still a Socialist Party. Some claim that its basic aims are similar to those of the Communists, a charge which most Labour supporters emphatically deny. There are others who would see a distinct resemblance to the Fabian Society’s aims, and this view is acceptable to at least some members of the Party, who have gone so far as to identify themselves with those beliefs. y Where, then, does Fabian Socialism differ from Communism? It would seem the difference is largely in tactics, in the means of achieving objectives which, if not identical, are certainly similar. Whether those objectives are regarded as laudable or reprehensible by the electors will depend entirely whether they regard the Socialist ideal of the division of p"operty as a fairer method than the present capitalist system. It is not intended at this stage to attempt to influence anyone either way. The object of this article is merely to inform concerning the particular brand of Leftist thinking espoused by the Fabians. In 1882 several persons met in London for the purpose of studying ethics. - The leading spirit was Professor Thomas Davidson, who described himself as an “ethical Anarchist-Commun-ist.” From this small group the Fabian Society was formed in January, 1883. The Society’s first recognised secretary and historian was Mr E* R/.Pease, a-well-known psychical researcher. The Society adopted the name Fabian, from Fabius Maximus Vercosus, named Cunctator, ‘the delayer,’ who was the most eminent of the Roman generals the second Samnite War (326304 8.C.). '■* Fabius adopted the

strategy of harassing the enemy on every possible occasion without allowing his armies to be drawn into pitched battle. . Its aims? The Society’s membership form states: “The Fabian Society consists of Socialists. It therefore aims at the reorganisation of society by the emancipation of land and industrial capital from individual and class ownership and the vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole people. The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in land and the consequent individual appropriation in the form of rent, of the price paid for the permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and sites. “The Society further works for the transfer to the community of the administration of such industrial capital as can be conveniently managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of production in the past, industrial inventions and the transformation of surplus income into capital have mainly pnriched the proprietary class, the worker being now dependent on that class for leave to earn a living. “If the measures be carried out, without compensation (though not without some relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the community), rent and interest will be added to the reward of labour, the idle class now living oh the labour of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by the spontaneous action of economic forces with much less interference with personal liberty than the present system entails. “For the attainment of these ends, the Fabian Society looks to the spread of Socialist opinion,s and the social and political changes consequent thereon, including the establishment of equal citizenship for men and women. It seeks to achieve these ends by the general dissenpnation of knowledge as to the relation between the individual and society in its economic, ethical, and political aspects.”

The thing women dread most about their past is its length.