Everything about Beatrice Webb totally explained
This article is about the socialist politician. For the children's author, see Beatrix Potter.
Martha Beatrice Potter Webb (
22 January 1858 -
30 April 1943) was an
English socialist, economist and reformer, usually referred to in the same breath as her husband,
Sidney Webb. Although her husband became
Baron Passfield in
1929, she refused to be known as
Lady Passfield.
Beatrice Webb was born in
Gloucester, the granddaughter of a
Radical MP,
Richard Potter. In
1882, she'd a relationship with Radical politician
Joseph Chamberlain, by then a
Cabinet minister. This was a failure, and in
1890 she was introduced to Sidney Webb, whose help she sought in research she was carrying out for her cousin,
Charles Booth, whose
Life and Labour of the People of London categorised the poorest into class A: "Vicious: borderline semi criminal" or class B "Casual earnings, very poor. The labourers don't get as much as three days work a week, but it's doubtful if many could or would work full time for long together if they'd the opportunity". Marrying Sidney in
1892, the two remained together. Beatrice was an active partner in all Sidney's political and professional activities, including the organisation of the
Fabian Society and the establishment of the
London School of Economics. She co-authored books such as the
History of Trade Unionism (
1894), and was co-founder of the
New Statesman magazine (
1913).
In
H.G. Wells's
The New Machiavelli (1911), the Webbs, as 'the Baileys', are unmercifully lampooned as short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators. The Fabian Society, of which Wells was briefly a member (1903-08), fares no better in his estimation.
Webb's nephew,
Sir Stafford Cripps, became a well-known British Labour politician in the
1930s and
1940s, serving as British ambassador to Moscow during the war and later as Chancellor of the Exchequer under
Clement Attlee. Her niece,
Barbara Drake, was a prominent trade unionist and a member of the
Fabian Society. Another niece, Katherine Dobbs, married the journalist
Malcolm Muggeridge, whose experience reporting from the Soviet Union subsequently made him highly critical of the Webbs' optimistic portrayal of Stalin's rule.
When she died in 1943, Webb's ashes were interred in the nave of
Westminster Abbey, close to those of her husband, and were to be joined subsequently by the remains of
Clement Attlee and
Ernest Bevin.
Webb as Co-operative theorist
Webb has made a number of important contributions to political and
economic theory of the
Co-operative movement. It was, for example, Webb who coined the terms
Co-operative Federalism and
Co-operative Individualism in her 1891 book "Cooperative Movement in Great Britain." Out of these two categories, Webb identified herself as a Co-operative Federalist; a school of thought which advocates
Consumer Co-operative societies. Webb argued that Consumers' Co-operatives should form
co-operative wholesale societies (by forming Co-operatives in which all members are co-operatives, the best historical example being the English
Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS)) and that these
Federal Co-operatives should undertake purchasing farms or factories. Webb dismissed the idea of
worker co-operatives where the people who did the work and benefited from it had some control over how it was done, arguing that - at the time she was writing - such ventures had proved largely unsuccessful, at least in ushering in her form of socialism led by volunteer committees of people like herself Examples of successful worker Cooperatives did of course exist then as now. In some professions they were the norm. But Webbs final book,
The Truth About The Soviet Union celebrated central planning.
Archives
Beatrice Webb's papers, including her diaries, are among the Passfield archive at the
London School of Economics.
For a small online exhibition featuring some of these papers see
'A poor thing but our own': the Webbs and the Labour Party.
Bibliography
Works by Beatrice Potter Webb
Works by Beatrice and Sidney Webb
History of Trade Unionism (1894)
Industrial Democracy (1897)
English Local Government Vol. I-X (1906 through 1929)
The Manor and the Borough (1908)
The Break-Up of the Poor Law (1909)
English Poor-Law Policy (1910)
The Cooperative Movement (1914)
Works Manager Today (1917)
The Consumer's Cooperative Movement (1921)
Decay of Capitalist Civilization (1923)
Methods of Social Study (1932)
(1935)
The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942)Further Information
Get more info on 'Beatrice Webb'.
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