socialism

Socialism has had several degrees of severity
ranging from Fabianism to German National Socialism
and/or to the socialism of Stalin, Pol Pot or maybe Obama.

The Fabian Society has played a central role for more than a century in the development of political ideas and public policy on the left of centre. Analysing the key challenges facing the UK and the rest of the industrialised world in a changing society and global economy, the society's programme aims to explore the political ideas and the policy reforms which will define progressive politics in the new century.

The society is unique among think-tanks in being a democratically-constituted membership organisation. It is affiliated to the Labour Party but is editorially and organisationally independent. Through its publications, seminars and conferences, the society provides an arena for open-minded public debate.

All Labour Prime Ministers have been members of the Fabian Society ...

Famous members:
George Bernard Shaw, HG Wells , Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Oscar Wilde, Peter Townsend, and all Labour prime ministers.

Fabian Society
socialist society founded in 1883"84 in London, having as its goal the establishment of a democratic socialist state in Great Britain. The Fabians put their faith in evolutionary socialism rather than in revolution.

The name of the society is derived from the Roman general Fabius Cunctator, whose patient and elusive tactics in avoiding pitched battles secured his ultimate victory over stronger forces. Its founding is attributed to Thomas Davidson, a Scottish philosopher, and its early members included George Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb, Annie Besant, Edward Pease, and Graham Wallas. Shaw and Webb, later joined by Webb’s wife, Beatrice, were the outstanding leaders of the society for many years. In 1889 the society published its best-known tract, Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw. It was followed in 1952 by New Fabian Essays, edited by Richard H.S. Crossman.

The Fabians at first attempted to permeate the Liberal and Conservative parties with socialist ideas, but later they helped to organize the separate Labour Representation Committee, which became the Labour Party in 1906. The Fabian Society has since been affiliated with the Labour Party.

The national membership of the Fabian Society has never been very great (at its peak in 1946 it had only about 8,400 members), but the importance of the society has always been much greater than its size might suggest. Generally, a large number of Labour members of Parliament in the House of Commons, as well as many of the party leaders, are Fabians; and in addition to the national society, there are scores of local Fabian societies.

The principal activities of the society consist in the furtherance of its goal of socialism through the education of the public along socialist lines by means of meetings, lectures, discussion groups, conferences, and summer schools; carrying out research into political, economic, and social problems; and publishing books, pamphlets, and periodical. ...

Meantime, I'm going to add the Britannica site to my reference list.

Socialism after Marx » Fabian socialism

As the anarcho-communists argued for a form of socialism so decentralized that it required the abolition of the state, a milder and markedly centralist version of socialism, Fabianism, emerged in Britain. Fabian Socialism was so called because the members of the Fabian Society admired the tactics of the Roman general Fabius Cunctator (Fabius the Delayer), who avoided pitched battles and gradually wore down Hannibal’s forces. Instead of revolution, the Fabians favoured “gradualism” as the way to bring about socialism. Their notion of socialism, like Saint-Simon’s, entailed social control of property through an effectively and impartially administered state"a government of enlightened experts. The Fabians themselves were mostly middle-class intellectuals"including George Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas, and H.G. Wells"who thought that persuasion and education were more likely to lead to socialism, however gradually, than violent class warfare. Rather than form their own political party or work through trade unions, moreover, the Fabians aimed at gaining influence within existing parties. They eventually exercised considerable influence within Britain’s Labour Party, though they had little to do with its formation in the early 1900s.

Socialism is like the color grey.

'Red'

Socialism has had several degrees of severity
ranging from Fabianism to German National Socialism
and/or to the socialism of Stalin, Pol Pot or maybe Obama.

BUSINESS TICKER: FINANCIAL GUIDANCE: BOOKS

Marx's : Das Kapital makes a comeback

Associated Press

October 18, 2008

Some Germans seem to be seeking solace in the words of their countryman Karl Marx amid the global financial crisis - to the delight of a small academic publisher.

The Karl-Dietz Verlag has sold 1,500 copies of Marx's Das Kapital this year, making the annotated edition of the dense text an unlikely hit for the Berlin publisher. It moved 200 in September, as many as it used to sell in a year.

"It's definitely in vogue right now," said Joern Schuetrumpf, the publisher's director. "The financial crisis brought us a huge bump."

Mr. Schuetrumpf said Karl-Dietz's yearly sales for the work that Mr. Marx wrote in 1867 once barely cracked the double digits. But he has noted a steady upward trend since 2005, when 400 copies were sold, to a total of 1,300 sales in 2007.

Socialism begins to creep into the mix when the government enters into the transactions perhaps becoming the middleman and taking a cut of the profits from one or by owning or controlling the process or means of production or the product itself. The buyer and/or seller operate more at the pleasure of or as the agent of the government rather than as independent entities but can negotiate the terms.

Socialism slides into totalitarianism when the people can no longer negotiate the terms with the government but the government assumes power to control all commerce and industry and the affairs of the people and the people have no ability or authority to negotiate any terms with the government and no power to opt out of the system.

Totalitariaism become dictatorship when one or a very few individuals obtain the power to control both the government and all affairs of the people.