Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (13 July 1859 – 13 October 1947) was a British socialist, economist and reformer, who co-founded the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
. He was an early member of the
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. T ...
in 1884, joining, like
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
Graham Wallas
Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 – 9 August 1932) was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics.
Biography
Born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, Wall ...
Hubert Bland
Hubert Bland (3 January 1855 – 14 April 1914) was an English author and the husband of Edith Nesbit. He was known for being an infamous libertine, a journalist, an early English socialist, and one of the founders of the Fabian Society.
Early ...
and Sydney Olivier, Shaw and Webb turned the Fabian Society into the pre-eminent politico-intellectual society in
Edwardian
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
England. He wrote the original, pro-nationalisation
Clause IV
Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book, which sets out the aims and values of the (UK) Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell a ...
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
In 1895, Webb helped to found the London School of Economics with a bequest left to the Fabian Society. He was appointed its Professor of Public Administration in 1912 and held the post for 15 years. In 1892, he married
Beatrice Potter
Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''collective bargaining''. She ...
, who shared his interests and beliefs. The money she contributed to the marriage enabled him to give up his clerical job and concentrate on his other activities. Sidney and Beatrice Webb founded the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' magazine in 1913.
Political career
Webb and Potter were members of the Labour Party and took an active role in politics. Sidney became Member of Parliament for
Seaham
Seaham is a seaside town in County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as a result of investments in its harbour and ...
at the 1922 general election. The couple's influence can be seen in their hosting of the
Coefficients
In mathematics, a coefficient is a multiplicative factor in some term of a polynomial, a series, or an expression; it is usually a number, but may be any expression (including variables such as , and ). When the coefficients are themselves ...
, a dining club that drew in some leading statesmen and thinkers of the day. In 1929, he was created Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner in the County of Southampton. He served as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
The position of Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs was a British cabinet-level position created in 1925 responsible for British relations with the Dominions – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, and the Irish Free S ...
second Labour Government
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of Time in physics, time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally t ...
in 1929.
As Colonial Secretary he issued the
Passfield White Paper
The Passfield White Paper, issued October 20, 1930, by colonial secretary Lord Passfield (Sidney Webb), was a formal statement of British policy in Palestine, which previously had been set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922. The new statement r ...
that revised the government policy on Palestine, previously set by the
Churchill White Paper
The Churchill White Paper of 3 June 1922 (sometimes referred to as "British Policy in Palestine") was drafted at the request of Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, partly in response to the 1921 Jaffa Riots. The off ...
of 1922. In 1930, failing health caused him to step down as Dominions Secretary, but he stayed on as Colonial Secretary until the fall of the Labour government in August 1931.
The Webbs ignored mounting evidence of atrocities being committed by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
and remained supporters of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
until their deaths. Having reached their seventies and early eighties, their books, ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation?'' (1935) and ''The Truth About Soviet Russia'' (1942), still gave a positive assessment of Stalin's regime. The
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
historian Al Richardson later dubbed ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilization?'' "pure Soviet propaganda at its most mendacious".
Writings
Webb co-authored with his wife ''
The History of Trade Unionism
''The History of Trade Unionism'' (1894, new edition 1920) is a book by Sidney and Beatrice Webb on the British trade union movement's development before 1920.
Outline
First published in 1894, it is a detailed and influential accounting of the ...
'' (1894). For the Fabian Society he wrote on poverty in London, the
eight-hour day
The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses.
An eight-hour work day has its origins in the ...
eugenics
Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...
, and
reform of the House of Lords
Certain governments in the United Kingdom have, for more than a century, attempted to find a way to reform the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This process was started by the Parliament Act 1911 introdu ...
. He also drafted
Clause IV
Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book, which sets out the aims and values of the (UK) Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell a ...
, which committed the Labour Party to public ownership of industry.
The New Machiavelli'' (1911), the Webbs, as "the Baileys", are mercilessly lampooned as short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators. The Fabian Society, of which Wells was briefly a member (1903–1908), fares no better in his estimation.
Beatrice Webb in her diary records that they "read the caricatures of ourselves... with much interest and amusement. The portraits are very clever in a malicious way." She reviews the book and Wells's character, summarising: "As an attempt at representing a political philosophy the book utterly fails..."
Personal life
When his wife, Beatrice, died in 1943, the casket of her ashes was buried in the garden of their house in Passfield Corner, as were those of Lord Passfield in 1947.
Shortly afterwards,
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
launched a
petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication.
In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...
to have both reburied in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
, which was eventually granted – the Webbs' ashes are interred in the nave, close to those of Clement Attlee and
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–194 ...
.
The Passfields were also friends of philosopher
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
.
In 2006, the London School of Economics, alongside the Housing Association, renamed its Great Dover Street student residence Sidney Webb House in his honour.
Archives
Sidney Webb's papers form part of the Passfield archive at the London School of Economics. Posts about Sidney Webb regularly appear in the LSE Archives blog.Out of the box. /ref>
Bibliography
Notes
Further reading
*Bevir, Mark. "Sidney Webb: Utilitarianism, positivism, and social democracy." ''Journal of Modern History'' 74.2 (2002): 217–25 online *Cole, Margaret, et al. ''The Webbs and their work'' (1949)
*Davanzati, Guglielmo Forges, and Andrea Pacella. "Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Towards an Ethical Foundation of the Operation of the Labour Market." ''History of Economic Ideas'' (2004): 25–49
*Farnham, David. “Beatrice and Sidney Webb and the Intellectual Origins of British Industrial Relations.” ''Employee Relations'' (2008). 30: 534–552
*Harrison, Royden. ''The Life and Times of Sydney and Beatrice Webb, 1858-1905'' (2001)
*Kaufman, Bruce E. "Sidney and Beatrice Webb's Institutional Theory of Labor Markets and Wage Determination." ''Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society'' 52.3 (2013): 765–791 online *MacKenzie, Norman Ian, and Jeanne MacKenzie. ''The First Fabians'' (Quartet Books, 1979)
*Radice, Lisanne. ''Beatrice and Sidney Webb: Fabian Socialists'' (Springer, 1984)
*Stigler, George. “Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb, and the Theory of Fabian Socialism,” ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' (1959) 103#3: 469–475
Primary sources
*Mackenzie, Norman, ed. ''The Letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb'' (3 volumes. Cambridge University Press, 1978, pp. xvii, 453; xi, 405; ix, 482)
**''Volume 1. Apprenticeships 1873–1892'' (1978)
**''Volume 2. Partnership 1892–1912'' (1978)
**''Volume 3. Pilgrimage, 1912–1947'' (1978)