Address: 11 Dartmouth Street, London, SW1H 9BN
Telephone: 020 7227 4900
Email: info@fabians.org
Website: http://fabians.org.uk/
General Secretary: Sunder Katwala
Editorial Director: Tom Hampson
Editorial Manager: Ed Wallis
Research Director: Tim Horton
Senior Research Fellow: Louise Bamfield
Research Fellow: James Gregory
Events Director: Jemima Olchawski
Senior Events Manager: Rosie Clayton
The centre-left Fabian Society is the oldest think- tank in the UK and its influence has grown under current general secretary Sunder Katwala. The society retains its links with the Labour Party, which it helped to found, as one of the sixteen affiliated socialist societies.
In recent times, its research and publications have focused on economic inequality, child poverty, progressive taxation and constitutional reform. The society was influential in persuading the government to grant the Bank of England independence and to raise National Insurance Contributions to fund NHS spending increases. More recently, it claimed its gradualist approach had been vindicated by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s pledge to raise the top rate of income tax to 50 per cent.
The society was founded in 1884 by figures including George Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb and HG Wells. These influential members also played a central role in the creation of the New Statesman. The society’s reformist approach is reflected in its name, a reference to the Roman general Quintus Fabius. Fabius pioneered the strategy of wearing opponents down through a war of attrition rather than engaging in direct battle.
Prominent members of its current Executive Committee include MPs Ed Balls, John Denham and Sadiq Khan. The society’s blog Next Left has become one of the key online meeting places for the centre-left.
