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Fabian General Secretary Michael
Jacobs,
speaking in Cardiff in November, presaged the Fabian New Year Conference on 1
February 2003. In addressing current public disaffection with public
affairs, he argued that the loss of idealism was undermining many traditional
socialists and Labour Party supporters. Michael
Jacobs develops this case in the current Fabian Review, p.11- Contact The Fabian Society
Few Fabians will disagree. But I remain troubled by this analysis. My concern is that the political realm has come to populated by a new "political" profession whose primary purpose is simply to pursue the profession of power. These new polticians are not ideology-driven. Principles and ideas are picked up and discarded, according to their utility for the purposes of professional advancement. And individuals who are not wholly pragmatic in their pursuit of power are not welcome, as political colleagues. They are not playing the right game, not singing from the same hymn-sheet...
The electorate, I suspect, have come to understand this more quickly than the old warhorses of the Labour Party, like me. 2003 will be my 40th year of continuous Labour Party membership. I belong to the generation whose political commitment was always "amateur", never professional. Party commitment was, for us, merely a mark of our commitment to the building of a socialist society.
Nobody can now believe that the Labour Party is, in any meaningful sense, a "socialist" Party. While Fabian socialists may still prefer to vote Labour, the Party message is unambiguously pragmatic, neutral, practical. For socialists, there is no other electoral refuge. But Fabians should nevertheless retain their sense of philosophical distance. The global future of socialism is more important to mankind than the current travails of the Labour Party...
This is the new logo of the Fabian Society - sharp, crisp, brisk, direct, and contemporary. The process fascinates me, by which typefaces move into and out of fashion. My hope is too that the Fabians will demonstrate the cutting-edge which this typeface implies...
- Contact The Fabian Society
for Wales
I am in the process of updating the Speakers List, to offer Fabian speakers for local groups throughout Wales, for both Fabian and Labour Party occasions - let me have both your suggestions and requirements. And volunteering your services as a Fabian speaker is well within the rules - let me know if you would like an opportunity to get your message across.
Llandudno Field Day
The Fabian Field Day planned for Saturday 15 February 2003, at the Llandudno Junction Labour Club, Conway Road , Llandudno Junction will definitely go ahead. Coffee at 10.30 for a start at 11.00 am, finish by 3.30 pm. Open, short debates on a range of topics, full participation by everyone. "I appreciate that several Fabians are giving priority to getting to London for the Anti-War March," says Wales Convenor Roger Warren Evans, "and I appreciate the force of that concern - I was on the September March myself. But we must try to keep both balls in the air! If we can successfully hold the Llandudno meeting, it could give us a template for future arrangements throughout Wales."
Missing Weblogs
Let me admit it. I am an isolated webmaster, weaving my own web. Not a professional, you understand. I simply use a personal website as a means of communicating my own political ideas, and you will find me at www.warrenevans.net. Yet why have I not been able to find, in over a year of web-weaving, any other Fabian webmaster?
- Where are the pirates?