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Popular front

A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".[1][2] More generally, it is "a coalition especially of leftist political parties against a common opponent".[3][4]

Cartoon depiction of a popular front in the Romanian leftist and anti-fascist newspaper Cuvântul Liber, 1935

The term was first used in the mid-1930s in Europe by communists concerned over the ascent of fascism in Italy and Germany, which they sought to combat by coalescing with non-communist political groupings they had previously attacked as enemies. Temporarily successful popular front governments were formed in France, Spain, and Chile in 1936.[2]

Not all political organizations who use the term "popular front" are leftist or coalitions formed to defend democratic norms (for example Popular Front of India), and not all leftist or anti-fascist coalitions use the term "popular front" in their name.

Terminology and similar groups edit

When communist parties came to power after World War II in the People's Republic of China, and the countries of Central, and Eastern Europe, it was common to do so at the head of a "front" (such as the United Front and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in China, the National Front in Czechoslovakia, the Front of National Unity in Poland, the Democratic Bloc in East Germany, etc.) containing several ostensibly-noncommunist parties. While it was the communist party—not the fronts—that held power in these countries, the alleged coalitions gave the Party the ability to maintain that it did not have a monopoly on power in that country.

Another use of the word "front" in connection with communist activity was "Communist front". This phrase used "front" not in the sense of a political movement "linking divergent elements to achieve common objectives",[5] but as a facade "used to mask" the identity/true character/activity of "the actual controlling agent",[5] (examples being the World Federation of Democratic Youth, International Union of Students, World Federation of Trade Unions, Women's International Democratic Federation, and the World Peace Council). Communist front was a label frequently applied to political organizations opposed by anti-communists during the Cold War.

The strategy of creating or taking over organizations that would then claim to be expressions of popular will, and not manipulation by the Soviet Union or communist movement, was first suggested by Vladimir Lenin. These would not be political coalitions seeking power in opposition to fascist movements, but groups designed to spread the Marxist–Leninist message in places where the Communist party was either illegal or distrusted by many of the people the party wanted to reach.[6] It was used from the 1920s through the 1950s, and accelerated during the popular front period of the 1930s. Eventually there were large numbers of front organizations.

Comintern policy: 1934–1939 edit

 
Cover of an American communist pamphlet from the Popular Front that used patriotic themes under the slogan "Communism is the Americanism of the 20th Century."

The international communism, in the form of the Communist International (Comintern), the international communist organization created by the Russian Communist Party in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, went through a number of ideological strategies to advance proletarian revolution. Its 1922 congress called for a "United Front" (the "Second Period") after it became clear proletarian revolution would not sweep aside capitalism in the rest of the world,[7] whereby the minority of workers who supported communist revolution would join forces against the bourgeoisie with workers outside the communist parties.[8] This was followed by the "Third Period" starting in mid-1928, which posited that capitalism was collapsing and militant policies should by rigidly maintained,[9]: 395–6  As the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 in Germany, and annihilated one of the more successful communist movements in that country, it became clear fascism was both on the rise and saw Communism as an enemy to be destroyed, and that opposition to fascism was disorganized and divided.[1] A new, less extreme policy was called for whereby Communists would form political coalitions with non-Communist socialists and even democratic non-socialists – "liberals, moderates, and even conservatives" – in "popular fronts" against fascism.[1][2][how?]

Germany edit

Until early 1933, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was regarded as the world's most successful communist party in terms of membership and electoral results. As a result, the Communist International, or Comintern, expected national communist parties to base their political style on the German example. That approach, known as the "class against class" strategy, or the ultra-left "Third Period", expected that the economic crisis and the trauma of war would increasingly radicalise public opinion and that if the communists remained aloof from mainstream democratic politics, they would benefit from the populist mood and be swept to power. As such, non-communist socialist parties were denounced as "social fascist".

After a series of financial crises in 1926, 1929 and 1931, public opinion in Europe was certainly radicalising but not to the benefit of left-wing anticapitalist parties. In the weeks that followed Hitler's rise to power in February 1933, the German Communist Party and the Comintern clung rigidly to their view that the Nazi triumph would be brief and that it would be a case of "after Hitler – our turn". However, as the brutality of the Nazi government became clear and there was no sign of its collapse, communists began to sense that there was a need for a radical alteration of their stance, especially as Adolf Hitler had made it clear that he regarded the Soviet Union as an enemy state.

In several countries over the previous years, a sense had grown within elements of the Communist Parties that the German model of "class against class" was not the most appropriate way to succeed in their national political contexts and that it was necessary to build some alliance to prevent the greater threat of autocratic nationalist governments. However, figures such as Henri Barbé and Pierre Célor in France and José Bullejos and Adama in Spain, who advocated greater flexibility by co-operating loyally with social-democratic parties and possibly even left-wing capitalist parties, were removed from positions of power. Predecessors to the Popular Front had existed, such as in the (later-renamed) World Committee Against War and Imperialism, but they sought not to co-operate with other parties as equals but instead to draw potential sympathisers into the orbit of the communist movement, which caused them to be denounced by the leaders of other left-wing associations.

It was thus not until 1934 when Georgi Dimitrov, who had humiliated the Nazis with his defence against charges of involvement in the Reichstag fire became the general secretary of the Comintern, and its officials became more receptive to the approach. Official acceptance of the new policy was first signalled in a Pravda article of May 1934, which commented favourably on socialist-communist collaboration.[10] The reorientation was formalised at the Comintern's Seventh Congress in July 1935 and reached its apotheosis with the proclamation of a new policy: "The People's Front Against Fascism and War". Communist parties were now instructed to form broad alliances with all antifascist parties with the aim of securing social advance at home as well as a military alliance with the Soviet Union to isolate the fascist dictatorships. The "popular fronts" thus formed proved to be successful politically in forming governments in France, Spain and China but not elsewhere.[11]

France edit

 
SFIO demonstration in response to the 6 February 1934 crisis. A sign reads "Down with fascism"

In France, the collapse of a leftist government coalition of social-democrats and left-liberal republicans, followed by the far-right riots, which brought to power an autocratic right-wing government, changed the equation. To resist a slippery slope of encroachment towards authoritarianism, socialists were now more inclined to operate in the street and communists to co-operate with other antifascists in Parliament. In June 1934, Léon Blum's socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) signed a pact of united action with the French Communist Party. By October, the Communist Party had begun to suggest that the republican parties that had not sided with the nationalist government might also be included, and it accepted the offer the next July after the French government tilted even further to the right.

In May 1935, France and the Soviet Union signed a defensive alliance, and in August 1935, the 7th World Congress of the Comintern officially endorsed the Popular Front strategy.[12] In the elections of May 1936, the Popular Front won a majority of parliamentary seats (378 deputies against 220), and Blum formed a government.[10] In Fascist Italy, the Comintern advised an alliance between the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party, but the latter rejected the idea.

Great Britain edit

There were attempts in Great Britain to found a popular front, against the National Government's appeasement of Nazi Germany, between the Labour Party, the Liberal Party, the Independent Labour Party, the Communist Party and even rebellious elements of the Conservative Party under Winston Churchill, but they failed mainly because of opposition from within the Labour Party, which was seething with anger over communist efforts to take over union locals. In addition, the incompatibility of liberal and socialist approaches also caused many Liberals to be hostile.[13]

United States edit

The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) had been quite hostile to the New Deal until 1935, but it suddenly reversed positions and tried to form a popular front with the New Dealers.[14] It sought a joint Socialist-Communist ticket with Norman Thomas's Socialist Party of America in the 1936 presidential election, but the Socialists rejected the overture. The communists also then offered support to Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. The Popular Front saw the Communist Party taking a very patriotic and populist line, later called Browderism.

The Popular Front has been summarized by historian Kermit McKenzie as:

...An imaginative, flexible program of strategy and tactics, in which Communists were permitted to exploit the symbols of patriotism, to assume the role of defenders of national independence, to attack fascism without demanding an end to capitalism as the only remedy, and, most important, to enter upon alliances with other parties, on the basis of fronts or on the basis of a government in which Communists might participate.[15]

McKenzie asserted that to be a mere tactical expedient, with the broad goals of communists for the overthrow of capitalism through revolution remaining unchanged.[15]

Cultural historian Michael Denning has challenged the Communist Party-centric view of the US popular front, saying that the "fellow travelers" in the US actually composed the majority of the movement. In his view, Communist party membership was only one (optional) element of leftist US culture at the time.[16]

End of popular fronts edit

The period suddenly came to an end with another abrupt reversal of Soviet or communist policy, where the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in August 1939, dividing Central and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, and leading to the Soviet takeover of the Baltic Republics and Finland.[17] Comintern parties then turned from a policy of anti-fascism to one of advocating peace with Germany, maintaining that World War II (until Germany invaded the Soviet Union and the Communist party line reversed yet again) was not a fight against Nazi aggression, but "the Second Imperialist War".[18][19] Many party members quit the party in disgust at the agreement between Hitler and Stalin, but many communists in France and other countries refused to enlist in their countries' forces until June 1941 since until then, Stalin was not at war with Hitler.[citation needed]

Critics and defenders of policy edit

Leon Trotsky and his far-left supporters roundly criticised the strategy. Trotsky believed that only united fronts could ultimately be progressive and that popular fronts were useless because they included bourgeois forces such as liberals. Trotsky also argued that in popular fronts, working-class demands are reduced to their bare minimum, and the ability of the working class to put forward its own independent set of politics is compromised. That view is now common to most Trotskyist groups. Left communist groups also oppose popular fronts, but they came to oppose united fronts as well.

In a book written in 1977, the eurocommunist leader Santiago Carrillo offered a positive assessment of the Popular Front. He argued that in Spain, despite the excesses attributable to the passions of civil war, the period of coalition government in Republican areas "contained in embryo the conception of an advance to socialism with democracy, with a multi-party system, parliament, and liberty for the opposition".[20] Carrillo, however criticised the Communist International for not taking the Popular Front strategy far enough, especially since French communists were restricted to supporting Blum's government from without, rather than becoming full coalition partners.[21]

Soviet bloc edit

After World War II, most Central and Eastern European countries were ruled by coalitions between several different political parties that voluntarily chose to work together. By the time that the countries in what became the Eastern Bloc had developed into Marxist–Leninist states, the non-communist parties had pushed out those members not willing to do the communists' bidding and were taken over by fellow travellers. As a result, the front had turned into a tool of the communists. The non-communist parties were required to accept the communist party's "leading role" as a condition of their continued existence.

For example, East Germany was ruled by a "National Front" of all parties and movements within Parliament (Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Liberal Party, Farmers' Party, Youth Movement, Trade Union Federation etc.). At legislative elections, voters were presented with a single list of candidates from all parties.[22]

The People's Republic of China's United Front is perhaps the best known example of a communist-run popular front in modern times. It is nominally a coalition of the Chinese Communist Party and eight minor parties. Though all parties had origins in independent parties prior to the Chinese Civil War, noncommunists eventually splintered out to join the Nationalists, and the parties remaining in Mainland China allied with either Communist Party sympathizers or, in some cases, actual members.[23]

Soviet republics edit

In the republics of the Soviet Union, between around 1988 and 1992 (when the USSR had dissolved, and the republics were all independent), the term "Popular Front" had quite a different meaning. It referred to movements led by members of the liberal-minded intelligentsia (usually themselves members of the local Communist Party), in some republics small and peripheral but in others broad-based and influential. Officially, their aim was to defend perestroika against reactionary elements within the state bureaucracy, but over time, they began to question the legitimacy of their republics' membership of the Soviet Union. It was their initially cautious tone that gave them considerable freedom to organise and to gain access to the mass media. In the Baltic republics, they soon became the dominant political force and gradually gained the initiative from the more radical dissident organisations established earlier by moving their republics towards greater autonomy and then independence. They also became the main challengers to the communist parties' hegemony in Byelorussia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan. A Popular Front was established in Georgia but remained marginal, compared to the dominant dissident-led groups, since the April 9 tragedy had radicalised society and so it was unable to play the compromise role of similar movements. In the other republics, such organisations existed but never posed a meaningful threat to the incumbent party and economic elites.[24]

List of popular fronts edit

Popular fronts in non-communist countries edit

The French Front populaire and the Spanish Frente Popular popular fronts of the 1930s are the most notable ones.

Popular fronts in post-Soviet countries edit

These are non-socialist parties unless indicated otherwise:

Republic Main ethnonationalist movement (foundation date)
Russian SFSR Democratic Russia (1990)
Ukrainian SSR People's Movement of Ukraine (Narodnyi Rukh Ukrajiny) (November 1988)
Byelorussian SSR Belarusian Popular Front (October 1988), Renewal (Andradzhen'ne) (June 1989)
Uzbek SSR Unity (Birlik) (November 1988)
Kazakh SSR Nevada Semipalatinsk Movement (February 1989)
Georgian SSR Committee for National Salvation (October 1989)
Azerbaijan SSR Azerbaijani Popular Front Party Azərbaycan Xalq Cəbhəsi Partiyası; (July 1988)
Lithuanian SSR Reform Movement of Lithuania (Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis) (June 1988)
Moldavian SSR Popular Front of Moldova Frontul Popular din Moldova; (May 1989)
Latvian SSR Popular Front of Latvia Latvijas Tautas fronte;(July 1988)
Kirghiz SSR Openness (Ashar) (July 1989)
Tajik SSR Openness (Ashkara) (June 1989)
Armenian SSR Karabakh movement (February 1988)
Turkmen SSR Unity (Agzybirlik) (January 1990)
Estonian SSR Popular Front of Estonia (Eestimaa Rahvarinne) (April 1988)
Autonomous Republic Main ethnonationalist movement (foundation date)
South Ossetian AO Adamon Nykhaz (1988)
Tatar ASSR Tatar Public Center (Tatar İctimağí Üzäge) (February 1989)
Checheno-Ingush ASSR All-National Congress of the Chechen People (November 1990)
Abkhaz ASSR Unity (Aidgylara) (December 1988)

[33]

These were established after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991:

  • All-Russia People's Front Общероссийский народный фронт, created in 2011 by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to provide United Russia with "new ideas, new suggestions and new faces" and intended to be a coalition between the ruling party and numerous non-United Russia nongovernmental organizations.

List of national fronts edit

In current communist countries edit

In former communist countries edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ There are varying definitions for a Popular Front in Finland, both historically and in modern use. For example, Aimo Kaarlo Cajander's III Cabinet of the Agrarian Union, Social Democrats, National Progressives(Liberals) and the Swedish Folks Party was called the first "Red-Brown Coalition"(Punamulta), a coalition where the two largest parties were the Agrarian Union/Centre Party and the Social Democrats, but the coalition could have the National Progressives(Liberals) and/or the Swedish Folks Party supporting the coalition. Post WW2 however, as the Communist SKDL became a large player in the parliament of Finland, there started to form a three-way coalition between the Agrarian Union/Centre Party, Social Democrats and the Communists, by format the actual "Popular Bloc", such as Mauno Pekkala's Cabinet or Mauno Koivisto's I Cabinet. What makes the definition more confusing is that in 2019 Antti Rinne's government was formed of the Social Democrats, Centre Party (Agrarians), Greens, Left Alliance (Left/far-left parties) and the Swedish Folks party. Rinne himself called the new 5-party coalition a "New Red-Brown Coalition", but many in the media called it a "New Popular Bloc"[31]
  2. ^ The DPRK officially moved away from the ideology Marxist Leniinism under former leader Kim Il-Sung who criticized Marxism–Leninism and historical materialism in favor of "Juche". Juche, the official state ideology, differs from Marxism–Leninism in considering human beings in general -- rather than the relations of production or class struggle -- to be the driving force in history, and "the great man" in particular to be "the leading force of the working class". The country then removed all references to "communism" from the constitution in 2009 under former leader Kim Jong-il.

References edit

Citations
  1. ^ a b c "popular front European coalition". Britannica. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Popular Front". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  3. ^ "popular front". Merriam Webster. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  4. ^ Barrett, James R. (7 September 2009). "Rethinking the Popular Front". Rethinking Marxism a Journal of Economics, Culture & Society. 21 (4): 531–550. doi:10.1080/08935690903145671. S2CID 143043228. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  5. ^ a b "front noun". Merriam Webster. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  6. ^ Theodore Draper, American Communism and Soviet Russia (2003) p 172
  7. ^ Worley, Matthew (2000). "Left Turn: A Reassessment of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the Third Period, 1928-33". Twentieth Century British History. 11 (4): 353–378. doi:10.1093/tcbh/11.4.353.
  8. ^ "Theses on Comintern Tactics". 1922. Retrieved 20 February 2008..
  9. ^ Kozlov, Nicholas N.; Weitz, Eric D. (1989). "Reflections on the Origins of the 'Third Period': Bukharin, the Comintern, and the Political Economy of Weimar Germany". Journal of Contemporary History. 24 (3): 387–410. doi:10.1177/002200948902400301. JSTOR 260667. S2CID 144906375.
  10. ^ a b 1914-1946: Third Camp Internationalists in France during World War II, libcom.org
  11. ^ Archie Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism (2009) pp 88-100.
  12. ^ The Seventh Congress, Marxist Internet Archive
  13. ^ Joyce, Peter (Autumn 2000). "The Liberal Party and the Popular Front: An assessment of the arguments over progressive unity in the 1930s" (PDF). Journal of Liberal History (28).
  14. ^ Frank A. Warren (1993). Liberals and Communism: The "Red Decade" Revisited. Columbia UP. pp. 237–38. ISBN 9780231084444.
  15. ^ a b Kermit E. McKenzie, Comintern and World Revolution, 1928-1943: The Shaping of a Doctrine. London and New York: Columbia University Press, 1964; p. 159.
  16. ^ Denning, Michael (2010). The cultural front : the laboring of American culture in the twentieth century ([2010] ed.). London: Verso. ISBN 978-1844674640.
  17. ^ "German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact". Britannica. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  18. ^ García, Hugo; Yusta, Mercedes; Tabet, Xavier (2016). Rethinking Antifascism: History, Memory and Politics, 1922. Berghahn Books. p. 189. ISBN 9781785331398. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  19. ^ Haynes, John E. (December 2000). "Did Communism Give Peace a Bad Name? (Book review)". H-Net online. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  20. ^ Santiago Carrillo, Eurocommunism and the State. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1977; p. 128.
  21. ^ Carrillo, Eurocommunism and the State, pp. 113–114.
  22. ^ Kindell, Alexandra; Demers, Elizabeth S., eds. (2014). Encyclopedia of Populism in America: A Historical Encyclopedia. Abc-Clio. p. 542. ISBN 9781598845686.
  23. ^ Judicial politics as state-building, Zhu, Suli, Pp. 23–36 in Stéphanie Balme and Michael W. Dowdle (eds.), Building Constitutionalism in China.New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  24. ^ Wheatley, Jonathan. Georgia from National Awakening to Rose Revolution, pp. 31, 45. Ashgate Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-7546-4503-7.
  25. ^ David R. Corkill, "The Chilean Socialist Party and The Popular Front 1933-41." Journal of Contemporary History 11.2 (1976): 261-273. in JSTOR; John R. Stevenson, The Chilean Popular Front (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1942).
  26. ^ Hilal, Jamil. "The Palestinian Left and the Multi-Layered Challenges Ahead | The Institute for Palestine Studies". oldwebsite.palestine-studies.org. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  27. ^ Halliday, Fred (4 April 2002). Revolution and Foreign Policy: The Case of South Yemen, 1967-1987. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521891646.
  28. ^ "الجبهة الوطنية التقدمية". pnf.org.sy. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  29. ^ Hennigan, Tom (29 November 2014). "Uruguay set to return left-wing Broad Front movement to power". The Irish Times. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  30. ^ "Venezuelan opposition leaders jailed, accused of planning escape while under house arrest | CBC News". CBC. Associated Press. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  31. ^ Karvonen, Kyösti (12 May 2019). "Uusi kansanrintama vai uusi punamulta? – Suomi kaartaa vasemmalle". Kaleva.fi.
  32. ^ "Antti Rinne: Tämä on uusi punamulta" (in Finnish). 5 August 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  33. ^ Tsygankov, Andrei P. Russia's Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity, p. 46. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, ISBN 0-7425-2650-X.

Further reading edit

  • Graham, Helen, and Paul Preston, eds. The Popular Front in Europe (1989).
  • Haslam, Jonathan. "The Comintern and the Origins of the Popular Front 1934–1935." Historical Journal 22#3 (1979): 673–691.
  • Horn, Gerd-Rainer. European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s. (Oxford University Press, 1997).
  • Mates, Lewis. "The United Front and the Popular Front in the North-east of England, 1936-1939." PhD dissertation, 2002.
  • Priestland, David. The Red Flag: A History of Communism (2010) pp 182–233.
  • Vials, Christopher. Haunted by Hitler: Liberals, the Left, and the Fight against Fascism in the United States. (U of Massachusetts Press, 2014).

popular, front, other, uses, popular, front, disambiguation, neutrality, style, writing, this, article, disputed, please, remove, this, message, until, conditions, november, 2020, learn, when, remove, this, template, message, popular, front, coalition, working. For other uses see Popular Front disambiguation The neutrality of the style of writing in this article is disputed Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met November 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message A popular front is any coalition of working class and middle class parties including liberal and social democratic ones united for the defense of democratic forms against a presumed Fascist assault 1 2 More generally it is a coalition especially of leftist political parties against a common opponent 3 4 Cartoon depiction of a popular front in the Romanian leftist and anti fascist newspaper Cuvantul Liber 1935The term was first used in the mid 1930s in Europe by communists concerned over the ascent of fascism in Italy and Germany which they sought to combat by coalescing with non communist political groupings they had previously attacked as enemies Temporarily successful popular front governments were formed in France Spain and Chile in 1936 2 Not all political organizations who use the term popular front are leftist or coalitions formed to defend democratic norms for example Popular Front of India and not all leftist or anti fascist coalitions use the term popular front in their name Contents 1 Terminology and similar groups 2 Comintern policy 1934 1939 2 1 Germany 2 2 France 2 3 Great Britain 2 4 United States 2 5 End of popular fronts 2 6 Critics and defenders of policy 3 Soviet bloc 3 1 Soviet republics 4 List of popular fronts 4 1 Popular fronts in non communist countries 4 2 Popular fronts in post Soviet countries 5 List of national fronts 5 1 In current communist countries 5 2 In former communist countries 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further readingTerminology and similar groups editWhen communist parties came to power after World War II in the People s Republic of China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe it was common to do so at the head of a front such as the United Front and Chinese People s Political Consultative Conference in China the National Front in Czechoslovakia the Front of National Unity in Poland the Democratic Bloc in East Germany etc containing several ostensibly noncommunist parties While it was the communist party not the fronts that held power in these countries the alleged coalitions gave the Party the ability to maintain that it did not have a monopoly on power in that country Main article Communist front Another use of the word front in connection with communist activity was Communist front This phrase used front not in the sense of a political movement linking divergent elements to achieve common objectives 5 but as a facade used to mask the identity true character activity of the actual controlling agent 5 examples being the World Federation of Democratic Youth International Union of Students World Federation of Trade Unions Women s International Democratic Federation and the World Peace Council Communist front was a label frequently applied to political organizations opposed by anti communists during the Cold War The strategy of creating or taking over organizations that would then claim to be expressions of popular will and not manipulation by the Soviet Union or communist movement was first suggested by Vladimir Lenin These would not be political coalitions seeking power in opposition to fascist movements but groups designed to spread the Marxist Leninist message in places where the Communist party was either illegal or distrusted by many of the people the party wanted to reach 6 It was used from the 1920s through the 1950s and accelerated during the popular front period of the 1930s Eventually there were large numbers of front organizations Comintern policy 1934 1939 edit nbsp Cover of an American communist pamphlet from the Popular Front that used patriotic themes under the slogan Communism is the Americanism of the 20th Century The international communism in the form of the Communist International Comintern the international communist organization created by the Russian Communist Party in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution went through a number of ideological strategies to advance proletarian revolution Its 1922 congress called for a United Front the Second Period after it became clear proletarian revolution would not sweep aside capitalism in the rest of the world 7 whereby the minority of workers who supported communist revolution would join forces against the bourgeoisie with workers outside the communist parties 8 This was followed by the Third Period starting in mid 1928 which posited that capitalism was collapsing and militant policies should by rigidly maintained 9 395 6 As the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 in Germany and annihilated one of the more successful communist movements in that country it became clear fascism was both on the rise and saw Communism as an enemy to be destroyed and that opposition to fascism was disorganized and divided 1 A new less extreme policy was called for whereby Communists would form political coalitions with non Communist socialists and even democratic non socialists liberals moderates and even conservatives in popular fronts against fascism 1 2 how Germany edit Until early 1933 the Communist Party of Germany KPD was regarded as the world s most successful communist party in terms of membership and electoral results As a result the Communist International or Comintern expected national communist parties to base their political style on the German example That approach known as the class against class strategy or the ultra left Third Period expected that the economic crisis and the trauma of war would increasingly radicalise public opinion and that if the communists remained aloof from mainstream democratic politics they would benefit from the populist mood and be swept to power As such non communist socialist parties were denounced as social fascist After a series of financial crises in 1926 1929 and 1931 public opinion in Europe was certainly radicalising but not to the benefit of left wing anticapitalist parties In the weeks that followed Hitler s rise to power in February 1933 the German Communist Party and the Comintern clung rigidly to their view that the Nazi triumph would be brief and that it would be a case of after Hitler our turn However as the brutality of the Nazi government became clear and there was no sign of its collapse communists began to sense that there was a need for a radical alteration of their stance especially as Adolf Hitler had made it clear that he regarded the Soviet Union as an enemy state In several countries over the previous years a sense had grown within elements of the Communist Parties that the German model of class against class was not the most appropriate way to succeed in their national political contexts and that it was necessary to build some alliance to prevent the greater threat of autocratic nationalist governments However figures such as Henri Barbe and Pierre Celor in France and Jose Bullejos and Adama in Spain who advocated greater flexibility by co operating loyally with social democratic parties and possibly even left wing capitalist parties were removed from positions of power Predecessors to the Popular Front had existed such as in the later renamed World Committee Against War and Imperialism but they sought not to co operate with other parties as equals but instead to draw potential sympathisers into the orbit of the communist movement which caused them to be denounced by the leaders of other left wing associations It was thus not until 1934 when Georgi Dimitrov who had humiliated the Nazis with his defence against charges of involvement in the Reichstag fire became the general secretary of the Comintern and its officials became more receptive to the approach Official acceptance of the new policy was first signalled in a Pravda article of May 1934 which commented favourably on socialist communist collaboration 10 The reorientation was formalised at the Comintern s Seventh Congress in July 1935 and reached its apotheosis with the proclamation of a new policy The People s Front Against Fascism and War Communist parties were now instructed to form broad alliances with all antifascist parties with the aim of securing social advance at home as well as a military alliance with the Soviet Union to isolate the fascist dictatorships The popular fronts thus formed proved to be successful politically in forming governments in France Spain and China but not elsewhere 11 France edit Main article Popular Front France nbsp SFIO demonstration in response to the 6 February 1934 crisis A sign reads Down with fascism In France the collapse of a leftist government coalition of social democrats and left liberal republicans followed by the far right riots which brought to power an autocratic right wing government changed the equation To resist a slippery slope of encroachment towards authoritarianism socialists were now more inclined to operate in the street and communists to co operate with other antifascists in Parliament In June 1934 Leon Blum s socialist French Section of the Workers International SFIO signed a pact of united action with the French Communist Party By October the Communist Party had begun to suggest that the republican parties that had not sided with the nationalist government might also be included and it accepted the offer the next July after the French government tilted even further to the right In May 1935 France and the Soviet Union signed a defensive alliance and in August 1935 the 7th World Congress of the Comintern officially endorsed the Popular Front strategy 12 In the elections of May 1936 the Popular Front won a majority of parliamentary seats 378 deputies against 220 and Blum formed a government 10 In Fascist Italy the Comintern advised an alliance between the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party but the latter rejected the idea Great Britain edit Main article Popular Front UK There were attempts in Great Britain to found a popular front against the National Government s appeasement of Nazi Germany between the Labour Party the Liberal Party the Independent Labour Party the Communist Party and even rebellious elements of the Conservative Party under Winston Churchill but they failed mainly because of opposition from within the Labour Party which was seething with anger over communist efforts to take over union locals In addition the incompatibility of liberal and socialist approaches also caused many Liberals to be hostile 13 United States edit The Communist Party of the United States of America CPUSA had been quite hostile to the New Deal until 1935 but it suddenly reversed positions and tried to form a popular front with the New Dealers 14 It sought a joint Socialist Communist ticket with Norman Thomas s Socialist Party of America in the 1936 presidential election but the Socialists rejected the overture The communists also then offered support to Franklin D Roosevelt s New Deal The Popular Front saw the Communist Party taking a very patriotic and populist line later called Browderism The Popular Front has been summarized by historian Kermit McKenzie as An imaginative flexible program of strategy and tactics in which Communists were permitted to exploit the symbols of patriotism to assume the role of defenders of national independence to attack fascism without demanding an end to capitalism as the only remedy and most important to enter upon alliances with other parties on the basis of fronts or on the basis of a government in which Communists might participate 15 McKenzie asserted that to be a mere tactical expedient with the broad goals of communists for the overthrow of capitalism through revolution remaining unchanged 15 Cultural historian Michael Denning has challenged the Communist Party centric view of the US popular front saying that the fellow travelers in the US actually composed the majority of the movement In his view Communist party membership was only one optional element of leftist US culture at the time 16 End of popular fronts edit The period suddenly came to an end with another abrupt reversal of Soviet or communist policy where the Soviet Union signed the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in August 1939 dividing Central and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence and leading to the Soviet takeover of the Baltic Republics and Finland 17 Comintern parties then turned from a policy of anti fascism to one of advocating peace with Germany maintaining that World War II until Germany invaded the Soviet Union and the Communist party line reversed yet again was not a fight against Nazi aggression but the Second Imperialist War 18 19 Many party members quit the party in disgust at the agreement between Hitler and Stalin but many communists in France and other countries refused to enlist in their countries forces until June 1941 since until then Stalin was not at war with Hitler citation needed Critics and defenders of policy edit Leon Trotsky and his far left supporters roundly criticised the strategy Trotsky believed that only united fronts could ultimately be progressive and that popular fronts were useless because they included bourgeois forces such as liberals Trotsky also argued that in popular fronts working class demands are reduced to their bare minimum and the ability of the working class to put forward its own independent set of politics is compromised That view is now common to most Trotskyist groups Left communist groups also oppose popular fronts but they came to oppose united fronts as well In a book written in 1977 the eurocommunist leader Santiago Carrillo offered a positive assessment of the Popular Front He argued that in Spain despite the excesses attributable to the passions of civil war the period of coalition government in Republican areas contained in embryo the conception of an advance to socialism with democracy with a multi party system parliament and liberty for the opposition 20 Carrillo however criticised the Communist International for not taking the Popular Front strategy far enough especially since French communists were restricted to supporting Blum s government from without rather than becoming full coalition partners 21 Soviet bloc editAfter World War II most Central and Eastern European countries were ruled by coalitions between several different political parties that voluntarily chose to work together By the time that the countries in what became the Eastern Bloc had developed into Marxist Leninist states the non communist parties had pushed out those members not willing to do the communists bidding and were taken over by fellow travellers As a result the front had turned into a tool of the communists The non communist parties were required to accept the communist party s leading role as a condition of their continued existence For example East Germany was ruled by a National Front of all parties and movements within Parliament Socialist Unity Party of Germany Liberal Party Farmers Party Youth Movement Trade Union Federation etc At legislative elections voters were presented with a single list of candidates from all parties 22 The People s Republic of China s United Front is perhaps the best known example of a communist run popular front in modern times It is nominally a coalition of the Chinese Communist Party and eight minor parties Though all parties had origins in independent parties prior to the Chinese Civil War noncommunists eventually splintered out to join the Nationalists and the parties remaining in Mainland China allied with either Communist Party sympathizers or in some cases actual members 23 Soviet republics edit In the republics of the Soviet Union between around 1988 and 1992 when the USSR had dissolved and the republics were all independent the term Popular Front had quite a different meaning It referred to movements led by members of the liberal minded intelligentsia usually themselves members of the local Communist Party in some republics small and peripheral but in others broad based and influential Officially their aim was to defend perestroika against reactionary elements within the state bureaucracy but over time they began to question the legitimacy of their republics membership of the Soviet Union It was their initially cautious tone that gave them considerable freedom to organise and to gain access to the mass media In the Baltic republics they soon became the dominant political force and gradually gained the initiative from the more radical dissident organisations established earlier by moving their republics towards greater autonomy and then independence They also became the main challengers to the communist parties hegemony in Byelorussia Moldavia Ukraine Armenia and Azerbaijan A Popular Front was established in Georgia but remained marginal compared to the dominant dissident led groups since the April 9 tragedy had radicalised society and so it was unable to play the compromise role of similar movements In the other republics such organisations existed but never posed a meaningful threat to the incumbent party and economic elites 24 List of popular fronts editPopular fronts in non communist countries edit The French Front populaire and the Spanish Frente Popular popular fronts of the 1930s are the most notable ones Popular Front UK an unofficial electoral alliance from 1936 to 1939 between the Communist Party of Great Britain supporters of the Labour Party the Liberal Party and the Independent Labour Party and anti appeasers in the Conservative Party Front populaire left wing anti fascist coalition in France in the 1930s was led by Leon Blum s French Section of the Workers International but also included communists and social democrats Frente popular an electoral coalition formed in Spain in 1936 before the Spanish Civil War which led by the Republican Left but also included communists socialists and regional nationalists Popular Front Chile Frente popular an electoral and political left wing coalition in Chile from 1937 to February 1941 25 Popular Democratic Front Italy Fronte Democratico Popolare a coalition of communists and socialists for the 1948 Italian parliamentary election Palestine Liberation Organization formed in 1964 as a confederation of Palestinian nationalist groups opposed to Israel s existence and led by Fatah 26 Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf an organisation formed in 1968 that brought together Arab nationalists and Marxist revolutionaries split into Omani and Bahraini factions 27 Unidad Popular a coalition of left wing socialist and communist political parties in Chile that stood behind the successful candidacy of Salvador Allende for the 1970 Chilean presidential election National Progressive Front Syria a political alliance formed in 1972 that unites parties supporting the ruling Syrian government led by the Arab Socialist Ba ath Party 28 National Progressive Front Iraq a political alliance formed in 1974 that united pro government parties led by the Arab Socialist Ba ath Party Ivorian Popular Front Front Populaire Ivoirien founded in exile in 1982 by history professor Laurent Gbagbo during the one party rule of President Felix Houphouet Boigny Tripartite Alliance a political alliance formed between the African National Congress South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions in 1985 Popular Front Burkina Faso a political alliance that was formed in 1987 by President Blaise Compaore and organised pro government leftist parties Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea led by the Workers Party of Korea originated from the United Democratic National Front of 1946 to 1949 was originally founded in 1948 when North Korea was a Marxist Leninist state Since 1992 all Marxist references were deprecated in favor of Juche United Progressive Alliance a coalition of leftist and centre left parties in India formed in 2004 and led by the Indian National Congress Broad Front Uruguay a coalition of centre left and left wing parties that started to rule Uruguay in 2005 29 Broad Front Peru a coalition of left wing parties founded in 2013 Grand Alliance Bangladesh a leftist political alliance that includes the left wing Awami League the socialist Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and the communist Workers Party With the Strength of the People an electoral coalition formed by Brazil s Workers Party and including social democrats communists socialists and other groups Popular Front Tunisia Front populaire pour la realisation des objectifs de la revolution formed in Tunis in October 2012 as part of the Arab Spring Great Patriotic Pole an electoral coalition formed in 2012 to unite various left wing parties in support of Hugo Chavez and led by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela 30 Kansanrintamahallitus Popular Bloc Coalition is and was a coalition in Finnish parliamentary politics mainly made up of the Agrarian Centre Party Social Democrats and the communist Finnish People s Democratic League note 1 32 Popular fronts in post Soviet countries edit These are non socialist parties unless indicated otherwise The following were part of glasnost and perestroika during the 1980s Republic Main ethnonationalist movement foundation date Russian SFSR Democratic Russia 1990 Ukrainian SSR People s Movement of Ukraine Narodnyi Rukh Ukrajiny November 1988 Byelorussian SSR Belarusian Popular Front October 1988 Renewal Andradzhen ne June 1989 Uzbek SSR Unity Birlik November 1988 Kazakh SSR Nevada Semipalatinsk Movement February 1989 Georgian SSR Committee for National Salvation October 1989 Azerbaijan SSR Azerbaijani Popular Front Party Azerbaycan Xalq Cebhesi Partiyasi July 1988 Lithuanian SSR Reform Movement of Lithuania Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sajudis June 1988 Moldavian SSR Popular Front of Moldova Frontul Popular din Moldova May 1989 Latvian SSR Popular Front of Latvia Latvijas Tautas fronte July 1988 Kirghiz SSR Openness Ashar July 1989 Tajik SSR Openness Ashkara June 1989 Armenian SSR Karabakh movement February 1988 Turkmen SSR Unity Agzybirlik January 1990 Estonian SSR Popular Front of Estonia Eestimaa Rahvarinne April 1988 Autonomous Republic Main ethnonationalist movement foundation date South Ossetian AO Adamon Nykhaz 1988 Tatar ASSR Tatar Public Center Tatar Ictimagi Uzage February 1989 Checheno Ingush ASSR All National Congress of the Chechen People November 1990 Abkhaz ASSR Unity Aidgylara December 1988 33 These were established after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 All Russia People s Front Obsherossijskij narodnyj front created in 2011 by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to provide United Russia with new ideas new suggestions and new faces and intended to be a coalition between the ruling party and numerous non United Russia nongovernmental organizations List of national fronts editIn current communist countries edit People s Republic of China the United Front led by the Chinese Communist Party Socialist Republic of Vietnam the Vietnamese Fatherland Front led by the Communist Party of Vietnam succeeded the North Vietnamese Fatherland Front of 1955 to 1977 Republic of Cuba Committees for the Defense of the Revolution led by the Communist Party of Cuba Lao People s Democratic Republic the Lao Front for National Construction led by the Lao People s Revolutionary PartyIn former communist countries edit People s Socialist Republic of Albania the Democratic Front led by the Party of Labour of Albania which succeeded the National Liberation Front of 1942 to 1945 Democratic Republic of Afghanistan the National Front led by the People s Democratic Party of Afghanistan People s Republic of Bulgaria the Fatherland Front led by the Bulgarian Communist Party People s Republic of the Congo the Defense Civile and then the United Democratic Forces led by the Congolese Party of Labour Czechoslovak Socialist Republic the National Front led by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Democratic People s Republic of Korea the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea led by the Workers Party of Korea succeeded the United Democratic National Front of 1946 to 1949 note 2 German Democratic Republic the Democratic Bloc and then the National Front led by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany People s Revolutionary Government Grenada the People s Alliance led by the New Jewel Movement Hungarian People s Republic the National Independence Front hu led by the Hungarian Communist Party replaced in 1949 by the Hungarian Independence People s Front led by the Hungarian Working People s Party and replaced by the Patriotic People s Front in 1954 which after 1956 was led by the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party Democratic Kampuchea the National United Front of Kampuchea led by the Communist Party of Kampuchea and replaced by the Patriotic and Democratic Front of the Great National Union of Kampuchea Polish People s Republic the Democratic Bloc led by the Polish United Workers Party replaced by the Front of National Unity in 1952 and then by the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth in 1983 People s Democratic Republic of Yemen the National Liberation Front and National Democratic Front led by the Yemeni Socialist Party Socialist Republic of Romania the National Democratic Front renamed People s Democratic Front led by the Romanian Communist Party and replaced in 1968 by the Socialist Unity Front later renamed the Socialist Democracy and Unity Front SFR Yugoslavia the National Front of Yugoslavia led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and replaced by the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia in 1945See also edit nbsp Socialism portal nbsp Communism portalThird Period United frontNotes edit There are varying definitions for a Popular Front in Finland both historically and in modern use For example Aimo Kaarlo Cajander s III Cabinet of the Agrarian Union Social Democrats National Progressives Liberals and the Swedish Folks Party was called the first Red Brown Coalition Punamulta a coalition where the two largest parties were the Agrarian Union Centre Party and the Social Democrats but the coalition could have the National Progressives Liberals and or the Swedish Folks Party supporting the coalition Post WW2 however as the Communist SKDL became a large player in the parliament of Finland there started to form a three way coalition between the Agrarian Union Centre Party Social Democrats and the Communists by format the actual Popular Bloc such as Mauno Pekkala s Cabinet or Mauno Koivisto s I Cabinet What makes the definition more confusing is that in 2019 Antti Rinne s government was formed of the Social Democrats Centre Party Agrarians Greens Left Alliance Left far left parties and the Swedish Folks party Rinne himself called the new 5 party coalition a New Red Brown Coalition but many in the media called it a New Popular Bloc 31 The DPRK officially moved away from the ideology Marxist Leniinism under former leader Kim Il Sung who criticized Marxism Leninism and historical materialism in favor of Juche Juche the official state ideology differs from Marxism Leninism in considering human beings in general rather than the relations of production or class struggle to be the driving force in history and the great man in particular to be the leading force of the working class The country then removed all references to communism from the constitution in 2009 under former leader Kim Jong il References editCitations a b c popular front European coalition Britannica Retrieved 15 October 2021 a b c Popular Front Oxford Reference Retrieved 16 October 2021 popular front Merriam Webster Retrieved 16 October 2021 Barrett James R 7 September 2009 Rethinking the Popular Front Rethinking Marxism a Journal of Economics Culture amp Society 21 4 531 550 doi 10 1080 08935690903145671 S2CID 143043228 Retrieved 16 October 2021 a b front noun Merriam Webster Retrieved 16 October 2021 Theodore Draper American Communism and Soviet Russia 2003 p 172 Worley Matthew 2000 Left Turn A Reassessment of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the Third Period 1928 33 Twentieth Century British History 11 4 353 378 doi 10 1093 tcbh 11 4 353 Theses on Comintern Tactics 1922 Retrieved 20 February 2008 Kozlov Nicholas N Weitz Eric D 1989 Reflections on the Origins of the Third Period Bukharin the Comintern and the Political Economy of Weimar Germany Journal of Contemporary History 24 3 387 410 doi 10 1177 002200948902400301 JSTOR 260667 S2CID 144906375 a b 1914 1946 Third Camp Internationalists in France during World War II libcom org Archie Brown The Rise and Fall of Communism 2009 pp 88 100 The Seventh Congress Marxist Internet Archive Joyce Peter Autumn 2000 The Liberal Party and the Popular Front An assessment of the arguments over progressive unity in the 1930s PDF Journal of Liberal History 28 Frank A Warren 1993 Liberals and Communism The Red Decade Revisited Columbia UP pp 237 38 ISBN 9780231084444 a b Kermit E McKenzie Comintern and World Revolution 1928 1943 The Shaping of a Doctrine London and New York Columbia University Press 1964 p 159 Denning Michael 2010 The cultural front the laboring of American culture in the twentieth century 2010 ed London Verso ISBN 978 1844674640 German Soviet Nonaggression Pact Britannica Retrieved 5 November 2021 Garcia Hugo Yusta Mercedes Tabet Xavier 2016 Rethinking Antifascism History Memory and Politics 1922 Berghahn Books p 189 ISBN 9781785331398 Retrieved 5 November 2021 Haynes John E December 2000 Did Communism Give Peace a Bad Name Book review H Net online Retrieved 5 November 2021 Santiago Carrillo Eurocommunism and the State London Lawrence and Wishart 1977 p 128 Carrillo Eurocommunism and the State pp 113 114 Kindell Alexandra Demers Elizabeth S eds 2014 Encyclopedia of Populism in America A Historical Encyclopedia Abc Clio p 542 ISBN 9781598845686 Judicial politics as state building Zhu Suli Pp 23 36 in Stephanie Balme and Michael W Dowdle eds Building Constitutionalism in China New York Palgrave Macmillan Wheatley Jonathan Georgia from National Awakening to Rose Revolution pp 31 45 Ashgate Publishing 2005 ISBN 0 7546 4503 7 David R Corkill The Chilean Socialist Party and The Popular Front 1933 41 Journal of Contemporary History 11 2 1976 261 273 in JSTOR John R Stevenson The Chilean Popular Front University of Pennsylvania Press 1942 Hilal Jamil The Palestinian Left and the Multi Layered Challenges Ahead The Institute for Palestine Studies oldwebsite palestine studies org Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Retrieved 25 November 2020 Halliday Fred 4 April 2002 Revolution and Foreign Policy The Case of South Yemen 1967 1987 Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521891646 الجبهة الوطنية التقدمية pnf org sy Retrieved 25 November 2020 Hennigan Tom 29 November 2014 Uruguay set to return left wing Broad Front movement to power The Irish Times Retrieved 25 November 2020 Venezuelan opposition leaders jailed accused of planning escape while under house arrest CBC News CBC Associated Press Retrieved 25 November 2020 Karvonen Kyosti 12 May 2019 Uusi kansanrintama vai uusi punamulta Suomi kaartaa vasemmalle Kaleva fi Antti Rinne Tama on uusi punamulta in Finnish 5 August 2019 Retrieved 5 January 2022 Tsygankov Andrei P Russia s Foreign Policy Change and Continuity in National Identity p 46 Rowman amp Littlefield 2006 ISBN 0 7425 2650 X Further reading editGraham Helen and Paul Preston eds The Popular Front in Europe 1989 Haslam Jonathan The Comintern and the Origins of the Popular Front 1934 1935 Historical Journal 22 3 1979 673 691 Horn Gerd Rainer European Socialists Respond to Fascism Ideology Activism and Contingency in the 1930s Oxford University Press 1997 Mates Lewis The United Front and the Popular Front in the North east of England 1936 1939 PhD dissertation 2002 Priestland David The Red Flag A History of Communism 2010 pp 182 233 Vials Christopher Haunted by Hitler Liberals the Left and the Fight against Fascism in the United States U of Massachusetts Press 2014 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Popular front amp oldid 1215885135, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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