British socialists aiming at gradual social change through democratic means. The Fabian Society was founded in 1884 by a group of intellectuals who believed that new political pressures were needed to achieve social reforms. It was one of the socialist societies that helped found the Labour Representation Committee, the origin of the Labour Party, in 1900. Trade Union militancy from 1910 to 1926, and the harshness of unemployment in the 1930s, weakened the appeal of Fabian gradualism but by 1939, with moderate leaders, such as Clement Attlee, coming to the forefront, their influence revived.