Posted by Duncan on April 24, 2003 at 14:36:59 from 64.12.96.103 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Re: AR's Politics (was: Ransome on TV and Radio) posted by John Nichols on April 24, 2003 at 13:27:41:
The Fabians are a society within the British Labour Party (or at least, most of their existence they've been within the British Labour Party). Their key point was to arrive at things with patience and incrumental change rather than revolution or rapid upheaval. I suppose they would see themselves as the intellectual wing of the Labour Party - however they have encompassed most shades of Labour opinion over the years (Tony Benn and Tony Blair were both prominent Fabians...) However, in the early years of the Labour Party one could detect a major difference between the scientific preoccupation of Fabians (some of that generation got a bit carried away with eugenics and other worrying ideas) and the more romantic views of the more 'ethical' or 'utopian' elements of the labour movement. Of course, in more recent times it has been the Fabians who have presented themselves as an 'ethical' tradition as opposed to the 'scientific' nature of the Marxists - which just goes to show how confused and confusing the intellectual history of British socialism really is!!
That wasn't much use really, was it?