Fabian repudiations
The Fabian Society discards such phrases as “the abolition of the wage system,” which can only mislead the public as to the aims of Socialism. Socialism does not involve the abolition of wages, but the establishment of standard allowances for the maintenance of all workers by the community in its own service, as an alternative to wages fixed by the competition of destitute men and women for private employment, as well as for commercial profits, commissions, and all other speculative and competitive forms of remuneration. In short, the Fabian Society, far from desiring to abolish wages, wishes to secure them for everybody.
The Fabian Society resolutely opposes all pretensions to hamper the socialisation of industries with equal wages, equal hours of labour, equal official status, or equal authority for everyone. Such conditions are not only impracticable, but incompatible with the equality of individual rights, which is fundamental in modern Democracy, and the equality of subordination to the common interest which is fundamental in modern Socialism.
The Fabian Society steadfastly discountenances all schemes for securing to any person, or any group of persons, ” the entire product of their labour.” It recognises that wealth is social in its orign and must be social in its distribution, since the evolution of industry has made it impossible to distinguish the particular contribution that each person makes to the common product, or to ascertain its value.
The Fabian Society desires to offer to all projectors and founders of Utopian communities in South America, Africa, and other eligible localities, its apologies for its impatience of such adventures. For the information of such projectors, and of all patrons of schemes for starting similar settlements and workshops at home, the Society announces emphatically that it does not believe in the establishment of Socialism by private enterprise, and will do nothing to encourage or assist those who do.
The Fabian Society does not put Socialism forward as a panacea for all the ills of human society, but only for those produced by defective organisation of industry and radically bad distribution of wealth.
The Fabian Society, by steadfastly refusing to sacrifice the interests of Socialism either to the mistakes of Socialists on the one hand, or the political convenience of the established political parties on the other, has been violently denounced from both sides, the Liberal and Socialist newspapers often vying with one another in their efforts to discredit the Fabian Society. The only compliments which the Fabian Society receives or expects from non-Fabian Socialists, are the applications for advice, speakers, and money, which are invariably made to it in all emergencies, and to which it always responds to the best of its ability.
Recent Entries
- British section
- The split in the feench section
- Parliamentary Socialist and Bourgeois Radical Congress
- German Social Democratic Reichstag fraction
- Dutch report, socialist league
- United States of America
- Switzerland
- Report on Fabian Policy
- Fabian democracy
- Fabian constitutionalism
June 15th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Hi, interest post. I’ll write you later about few questions!