On this occasion a Constitution was adopted giving the
Conference a regular status, the chief provisions of which required the
submission to the Conference of any alteration of the Basis, and "any
union affiliation or formal alliance with any other society or with any
political party whereby the freedom of action of any society ... is in
any way limited ... "; and of any change in the constitution itself.
These are all matters which concern the local organisations, as they are
required to adopt the Basis, or some approved equivalent, and are
affiliated to the Labour Party through the parent Society. No
contentious topic was on this occasion seriously discussed.
The Conference of 1910 was smaller, sixty-one delegates in all.
Resolutions against promoting parliamentary candidatures and favouring
the by this time vanishing project for an independent Socialist party
obtained but little support, and the chief controversy was over an
abstract resolution on the "economic independence of women," which was
in the end settled by a compromise drafted by Sidney Webb.
Sixty delegates were present at the 1911 Conference, held at Clifford's
Inn, who, after rejecting by a seven to one majority a resolution to
confine Fabian membership to Labour Party adherents, devoted themselves
mainly to opposition to the National Insurance Bill then before
Parliament.
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