Wells also suggested a great central organization of “economic science” that will produce direction and function as the brain of the world community, like “a great encyclopaedic organization, kept constantly up to date and giving estimates and directions for all the material activities of mankind.”
Obviously, this sounds very much like the State in Marx and Engels’ communist society that supposedly will take care of all administrative matters, allowing the citizen “to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner …” (
The German Ideology).
But Wells was not a Marxist. He was a Fabian Socialist and leader of the London Fabian Society. So, could it be that Fabian Socialism has achieved through intellectual and cultural work what Marxism failed through more revolutionary means?
Incidentally, Fabian Socialism is a system that aims to implement socialism or communism by a method called “permeation” that propagates socialist ideas without openly identifying them as such.
The Fabian Society describes itself as having “been at the forefront of developing political ideas and public policy on the left for almost 140 years” and derives its name from the Roman general Quintus Fabius, known for his delaying tactics in the war against the Carthaginians.
Fabianism | socialist movement | Britannica
Fabians – Our History
Shaw and Fabianism - marxists.org
The Two Souls of Socialism - marxists.org
Edit:
Fabian methods. Fabianism’s reputation of “conspiracy” comes from the methods Fabians employed to propagate their ideology, especially what they termed “permeation”. Fabian co-founder and leader G. D. H. Cole explained that although a political organization, the Fabian Society was organized for thought and discussion and not for electoral action which it left to other organizations such as political parties while encouraging its members to infiltrate and operate from within those organizations:
“The Fabian Society has become famous throughout the world as a planner of Socialist policies and an inspirer of Socialist ideas”[…]”The person whom the Fabian Society wishes most to convert is the man or woman who is in the best position for influencing others”[…]”The Fabian Society regards each individual in its relatively tiny membership as a stone thrown into a pool, spreading rings of influence all around him”
The Fabian Society, past and present
Fabian objectives. The Fabians’ political philosophy was identical with Wells’ Open Conspiracy. Their primary objective was to establish a world government on communist lines. They set up a Fabian Research Department to do research, write reports and suggest policies on international government. They founded organizations to promote the idea, and were involved in the establishment of, the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations.
H G Wells, The Idea of a League of Nations
Celebrating H G Wells’s role in the creation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights
Fabian influence. Why was this “Open Conspiracy” or “Fabian Conspiracy” so influential? The Fabian founders were well-off Liberals (members of the British Liberal Party) with close links to industrial interests, such as owners of railway/railroad companies, steel plants and chocolate manufacturers. G B Shaw who was a highly influential Fabian leader, wrote
“Socialism for Millionaires” in which he advised wealthy personalities of the day to use their wealth for social causes. Carnegie and Rockefeller were among those “converted”. For example, the Fabians’ London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) which was established to promote socialism, had more than 30% of its expenses covered by Rockefeller foundations while also receiving funding from the British Chamber of Commerce, bankers, financiers and other sources.
Rockefeller funding led to the LSE being dubbed "Rockefeller's baby".
LSE - Rockefeller's baby? lse.ac.uk
A History of the London School of Economics and Political Science, by LSE Director R. Dahrendorf.
LSE history - from the Fabian Society Archives at LSE
Criticism of Fabianism. Fabianism has received some strong criticism both from the right and the left. Criticism from the left revolves on the charge that Fabians are not true socialists but represent their own vested interests and the interests of their allies from the corporate community.
Leon Trotsky described the Fabians as a “tool of the ruling class”: “By this we do not at all mean that the Fabians, the ILPers and the Liberal defectors exert no influence on the working class. On the contrary, their influence is very great but it is not fixed. The reformists who are fighting against a proletarian class consciousness are, in the final reckoning, a tool of the ruling class”
Writings on Britain, Where is Britain Going?, The Fabian “Theory” of Socialism, Volume 2, 1974, p. 48
Criticism from the right focuses on the Fabian strategy of implementing totalitarian communism under the guise of democratic socialism.
Another key element that both criticisms have in common is the Fabians' close links to powerful financial and industrial groups.
A detailed account of the Anglo-American industrial and banking groups that shared the Fabians’ aims is given in
The Anglo-American Establishment by C Quigley
N.B. In order to properly evaluate the Fabians’ worldwide influence it may be helpful to start with Quigley and then read R. Martin’s Fabian Freeway: High Road to Socialism in the USA
Harry W Laidler, an influential American Fabian, also gives a useful account of the links between the London Fabians and the socialist movement in the USA in his
History of Socialism
The latest critical study of Fabianism and the industrial groups (Milner Group) described by Quigley is
The Milner-Fabian Conspiracy by Ioan Ratiu.
A very good critique of Socialism in general is
Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies by Kristian Niemietz.
By the way,
The League for Industrial Democracy (LID) which the London Fabians described as their “provincial society” in their publications was one of the many conduits through which Fabians influenced political movements in the USA.
The New York-based LID was named after the Fabian book
Industrial Democracy that was also translated into Russian by Lenin and used to promote Bolshevism as a “democratic” project.