History

The Australian Fabian Society - established in 1947 and active ever since - is Australia's oldest political think tank.

Famous British Fabians from history

For more than half a century, we have been at the forefront of research into political ideas and public policy reform. Fabian publications, including our long-running pamphlet series, have played an important part in determining both state and national political agendas.

Gough Whitlam adopted the Fabian approach from the day he entered parliament, and the seminal 1972 Whitlam policy speech - the most comprehensive program ever submitted to the Australian people - was a drawing together of twenty years of systematic Fabian planning and research.

Arthur Calwell before him was proud to call himself a Fabian, and the tradition has been carried on through subsequent Labor leaders including Bill Hayden, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Cain, Don Dunstan, John Bannon, Neville Wran and Bob Carr.

Origins of Australian Fabian Society

The Australian Fabian Society owes its origin to the Fabian Society in Britain. Generations of Fabians have placed the Society's stamp on every facet of British and Australian society. The picture shows key members of the British Fabian Society (clockwise from bottom left):

• Frank Podmore
• Beatrice Webb
• Sidney Webb
• Graham Wallas
• George Bernard Shaw

For more information

AFS membership card - front panel by early Fabian, Walter Crane, rear panel by William Morris.

Further information about the history of Australian Fabian Societies can be found in:

• Australia's First Fabians: Middle-Class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement by Race Mathews (1993. Cambridge University Press) - available from the Society post free for $29.95;
• David Bennett: A Memoir by Race Mathews (1985, Australian Fabian Society Pamphlet No. 44.) Available from the Society post free for $5.

• This Little Band of Prophets by Ann Fremantle (1960. George Allen & Unwin);
• The Story of Fabian Socialism by Margaret Cole (1961. Heinemann);
• Fabian Socialism and English Politics 1884-1918 by Alan McBriar (1962. Cambridge University Press);
• The First Fabians by Norman & Jeanne Mackenzie. (1977. Weidenfeld & Nicolson).
• Fabianism and Culture: A Study in British Socialism and the Arts by Ian Britain (1982. Cambridge University Press).
• Educate, Agitate, Organise: 100 Years of Fabian Socialism by Patricia Pugh (1984. Methuen).