‘Are you already thinking like a Fabian?’

Two years into a Labour Government it’s easy to forget how difficult the road to victory in 2024 was. Labour had only won four elections from opposition over the last century. It felt like the prognosis delivered for the centre left in many other countries was coming to pass for us too – social democracy losing, year on year, with our coalition eaten away by populist politics.

We’re not the first to note that it was the public’s desperation for change which delivered our landslide victory – not a swing towards Labour and social democratic ideals. Partygate, tractor porn, covid sleaze and the Kamikwazi budget played a far bigger part than the ‘missions’, Great British Energy or “ending sticking plaster politics”.

On entering Government, Keir Starmer rightly refused to shirk responsibility for fixing our country’s truly pulverised foundations: from public services on their knees, to public finances in a terrible state. But our party has always been about more than a technocratic project to just ‘do government better’ or be ‘the grown ups in the room’.

READ MORE:‘A socialism of utility – not posturing’

Of course, the 2024 manifesto did set out some bold proposals, from the biggest upgrade in workers’ rights in a generation to support for arts in the school curriculum to the National Care Service. Many of these ideas were incubated by the Fabian Society in opposition. And now we’re almost half-way through this Parliament, the Fabian Society is again crucial for shaping what comes next.

If you listen to some crank conspiracy theorists on the populist right, who spend a bit too much time in the dark recesses of social media, the Fabian Society has done immense damage to Britain. A shadowy elite pulling the strings, a group of malign communists bent on the destruction of the west. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Fabian Society has made the case for many of the things that have made Britain great; from universal education to the NHS. We are a membership organisation – open to all who share our values – committed to building a better economy and a more equal society. We believe that ideas matter, and that change is possible.

The Fabian Society does not push a narrow doctrine or agenda. Instead, we believe that open debate and discussion make for better policy and for a healthier politics. We have always been non-factional; not due to ideological vagueness, but because our commitment to effective social change is more important for us Fabians than anything else. Wherever you put yourself on the Labour spectrum, from the Campaign Group to Mainstream to Labour First, from Aberdeen to Aldershot to Aberystwyth, whatever your line of work or stage of life, from social democracy to democratic socialism – there’s a place for you in the Fabians.

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In the face of an increasingly divisive and populist right, we have to work together to craft the future of the left. Over recent months the Society’s members and staff have worked on the key challenges not just for the 2020s but the 2030s and beyond: how we can respond to the challenges and opportunities of AI, deliver genuine devolution of power (which we worked on well before it was fashionable!); and secure the (currently, missing) preconditions for mass housing delivery.

Our new Labour leadership team are fizzing with ideas, and grounded by strong instincts on how to change our country for the better. The Fabians can help Labour to deliver on these progressive instincts; building the evidence base, understanding where the public are, and drawing on regional and international lessons. We will be setting out a mid-term manifesto, with bold ideas that we can deliver this side of the election. We will map out Labour’s potential electoral coalition for the next election. And we will help shape ideas both for our next manifesto, and for the next decade of our Labour project.

As the two new co-chairs, we’re excited that the Fabian Society is growing again – driven both by the renewed energy that Andy has brought to the movement, and by peoples’ desire to contribute their own ideas. Our view is that debate, difference and even comradely disagreement in our movement have to be celebrated, not denigrated. We can only secure the change people desperately need by being open and evidence-based about how, through collective action, we can get there. If you feel the same, then you’re already thinking like a Fabian!

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