Popular Front

A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, usually made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal (or "bourgeois") forces as well as social-democratic and communist groups. Popular fronts are larger in scope than united fronts. In addition to the general definition, the term "popular front" also has a specific meaning in the history of Europe
Europe and the United States during the 1930s, and in the history of Communism
Communism and the Communist Party. During this time in France, the "front populaire" referred to the alliance of political parties aimed at resisting Fascism. The term "national front", similar in name but describing a different form of ruling, using ostensibly non-Communist parties which were in fact controlled by and subservient to the Communist party as part of a "coalition", was used in Central and Eastern Europe
Europe during the Cold War. Not all coalitions who use the term "popular front" meet the definition for "popular fronts", and not all popular fronts use the term "popular front" in their name. The same applies to "united fronts".

Contents

1 The Comintern's Popular Front policy 1934–39

1.1 Critics and defenders of the Popular Front policy

2 Popular Fronts governments in the Soviet Bloc

2.1 In Soviet republics

3 List of Popular Fronts

3.1 Popular fronts in non-communist countries 3.2 Popular fronts in post-soviet countries

4 List of national fronts

4.1 National fronts in current communist countries 4.2 National fronts in former communist countries

5 See also 6 Footnotes 7 Further reading

The Comintern's Popular Front policy 1934–39[edit]

Cover of an American Communist pamphlet from the Popular Front period making use of patriotic themes under the slogan " Communism
Communism is the Americanism of the 20th Century."

In the weeks that followed Hitler's rise to power in February 1933 the German Communist Party (KPD) and the Communist International clung rigidly to their view that the Nazi triumph would be brief and that it would be a case of "after Hitler – our turn". But 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 to radically alter their stance - especially as Hitler had made it clear he regarded the Soviet Union as an enemy state. Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov - who had humiliated the Nazis with his defence against charges of involvement in the Reichstag Fire - became general secretary of the Comintern in 1934 and by 1935, at the International's seventh congress the process of total reorientation reached its apotheosis with the proclamation of a new policy - "The People's Front Against Fascism and War". Under this policy Communist Parties were instructed to form broad alliances with all anti-fascist parties with the aim of both securing social advance at home and a military alliance with the USSR to isolate the fascist dictatorships. The "Popular Fronts" thus formed proved to be successful in forming the government in France, and Spain, and also China. It was not a political success elsewhere.[1] There were attempts in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom 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 due to opposition from within the Labour Party but incompatibility of Liberal and socialist approaches also caused many Liberals to be hostile.[2] The Popular Front policy of the Comintern was introduced in 1934, succeeding its ultra-left "Third Period" during which it condemned non-Communist socialist parties as "social fascist". The new policy was signalled in a Pravda
Pravda article of May 1934, which commented favourably on socialist-Communist collaboration.[3] In June 1934, Léon Blum's Socialist Party signed a pact of united action with the French Communist Party, extended to the Radical Party in October. In May 1935, France and the Soviet Union signed a defensive alliance and in August 1935, the 7th World Congress of the Comintern
7th World Congress of the Comintern officially endorsed the Popular Front strategy.[4] In the elections of May 1936, the Popular Front won a majority of parliamentary seats (378 deputies against 220), and Léon Blum
Léon Blum formed a government.[3] In Italy, the Comintern advised an alliance between the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party, but this was rejected by the Socialists. Similarly, in the United States, the CPUSA sought a joint Socialist-Communist ticket with Norman Thomas's Socialist Party of America in the 1936 presidential election but the Socialists rejected this overture. The CPUSA also offered support to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal
New Deal in this period. The Popular Front period in the USA saw the CP 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.

”

— [5]

This McKenzie asserted was a mere tactical expedient, with the broad goals of the communist movement for the overthrow of capitalism through revolution unchanged.[5] The Popular Front period came to an end with the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact between Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany and USSR, at which point Comintern parties turned from a policy of anti-fascism to one of advocating peace. Many Communist party members quit the party in disgust at this compromise between Hitler and Stalin. Critics and defenders of the Popular Front policy[edit] Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky and his far-left supporters roundly criticised the Popular Front strategy. Trotsky believed that only united fronts could ultimately be progressive, and that popular fronts were useless because they included non-working class 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. This view is now common to most Trotskyist
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
Eurocommunist leader Santiago Carrillo offered a positive assessment of the Popular Front. He argued that in Spain, despite 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".[6] Carrillo however criticised the Communist International for not taking the Popular Front strategy far enough – specifically for the fact that the French Communists were restricted to supporting Leon Blum's government from without, rather than becoming full coalition partners.[7] Popular Fronts governments in the Soviet Bloc[edit] After World War II, most Central and Eastern European countries became de facto one-party states, but in theory they were ruled by coalitions between several different political parties who voluntarily chose to work together. For example, East Germany
East Germany was ruled by a "National Front" of all anti-fascist 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. In practice, however, only the Communist Party had any real power.[8] By ensuring that Communists dominated the candidate lists, it effectively predetermined the composition of the legislature. All parties in the front had to accept the "leading role" of the Communist Party as a condition of being allowed to exist. By the 1950s, the non-Communist parties had pushed out their more courageous members and had been taken over by fellow travelers willing to do the Communists' bidding. The People's Republic of China's United Front is perhaps the best known example of a communist-run popular front in modern times. In Soviet republics[edit] In the Republics of the Soviet Union, between around 1988 and 1992 (by which time the USSR had dissolved and all were 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, 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 USSR. It was their initially cautious tone that gave them considerable freedom to organise and 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, moving their republics towards greater autonomy and later independence. They also became the main challengers to Communist Party hegemony in Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan. A Popular Front was established in Georgia but remained marginal compared to the dominant dissident-led groups, because the April 9 tragedy
April 9 tragedy had radicalised society and 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.[9] List of Popular Fronts[edit] See also: People's Front and People's Liberation Front Popular fronts in non-communist countries[edit] The French Front populaire
Front populaire and the Spanish Frente Popular popular fronts of the 1930s are the most important ones.

Popular Front (UK); an unofficial electoral alliance from 1936–39 between the Communist Party of Great Britain, supporters of the Labour Party (UK), the Liberal Party (UK)
Liberal Party (UK) and the Independent Labour Party and anti-appeasers in the Conservative Party (UK). Popular Front (Chile) Frente popular; an electoral and political left-wing coalition in Chile from 1937 to February 1941.[10] Unidad Popular a coalition of left wing, socialist and communist political parties in Chile that stood behind the successful candidacy of Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende for the 1970 Chilean presidential election. Front populaire
Front populaire left-wing anti-fascist coalition in France in the 1930s. Also Socialist and Communist government from 1981 to 1984.[11] Frente Popular (Goa) Frente Popular, also named Janta Agadh; communist-founded party in the Portuguese colony in India. Popular Front of India
Popular Front of India founded 2006 Popular Democratic Front (Italy)
Popular Democratic Front (Italy) Fronte Democratico Popolare; PCI-PSI coalition of communists and socialists for the 1948 Italian parliamentary election. Ivorian Popular Front Front Populaire Ivoirien; FPI was founded in exile in 1982 by history professor Laurent Gbagbo during the one-party rule of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Popular Front (Mauritania) Frente Popular (Philippines) National Front (Indonesia), founded 1959 Popular Front (Senegal)
Popular Front (Senegal) Front populaire; founded 1936, for electing delegates from French Senegal
French Senegal to the French National Assembly. Frente popular
Frente popular electoral coalition formed in Spain in 1936 before the Spanish Civil War. Popular Front (Tunisia)
Popular Front (Tunisia) Front populaire
Front populaire pour la réalisation des objectifs de la révolution; formed in Tunis in October 2012 as part of the Arab Spring. Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman Popular Front of Finland Multiple governments were formed in the country after the Communist Party of Finland
Communist Party of Finland was legalized in 1944; "Popular Front" governments stood usually as a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (which was though under strong anti-Communist leadership until 1963 and the strong Left orientation of the party from the late 1960s to late 1980s), the Centre Party, the Finnish People's Democratic League (cover organization of Communists and left-wing Socialists), and often also with minor Liberal parties like the Swedish People's Party and the Liberal People's Party, and led from 1944 to 1946 by Centre-right-wing Prime Minister Juho Kusti Paasikivi. "Popular Front" governments stood despite continuous electoral losses in 1944-1946 and during the Social Democratic Leftist period in 1966–70, 1970–71, 1975–76 and 1977–82. The main argument for this governments was good relationships with the Soviet Union, and the Centre-Right National Coalition Party was kept in opposition from 1966 to 1987, despite its continuous approach to the Left in the 1970s and the 1980s. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command Broad Front (Uruguay)

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
People's Movement of Ukraine (Narodnyi Rukh Ukrajiny) (November 1988)

Belarusian SSR Belarusian People's Front
Belarusian People's Front (October 1988), Renewal (Andradzhen'ne) (June 1989)

Uzbek SSR Unity (Birlik) (November 1988)

Kazakh SSR Nevada Semipalatinsk Movement
Nevada Semipalatinsk Movement (February 1989)

Georgian SSR Committee for National Salvation (October 1989)

Azerbaijan SSR Azeri Popular Front
Azeri Popular Front Azərbaycan Xalq Cəbhəsi Partiyası; (July 1988)

Lithuanian SSR Reform Movement of Lithuania (Lietuvos Persitvarkymo Sąjūdis) (June 1988)

Moldovan SSR Popular Front of Moldova
Popular Front of Moldova Frontul Popular din Moldova; (May 1989)

Latvian SSR Popular Front of Latvia
Popular Front of Latvia Latvijas Tautas fronte;(July 1988)

Kirghiz SSR Openness (Ashar) (July 1989)

Tajik SSR Openness (Ashkara) (June 1989)

Armenian SSR Karabakh Committee (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)

Tatar ASSR Tatar Public Center (Tatar İctimağí Üzäge) (February 1989)

Chechen-Ingush ASSR All-National Congress of the Chechen People (November 1990)

Abkhazian ASSR Unity (Aidgylara) (December 1988)

[12] These were established after the collapse of the USSR in 1991:

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

List of national fronts[edit] National fronts in current communist countries[edit]

People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China - the United Front led by the Communist Party of China Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Socialist Republic of Vietnam - the Vietnamese Fatherland Front
Vietnamese Fatherland Front led by the Communist Party of Vietnam
Communist Party of Vietnam (succeeded the North Vietnamese Fatherland Front of 1955–77) Lao People's Democratic Republic
Lao People's Democratic Republic - the Lao Front for National Construction led by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland led by the Workers' Party of Korea (succeeded the United Democratic National Front of 1946–49)

National fronts in former communist countries[edit]

People's Socialist Republic of Albania – the Democratic Front led by the Albanian Party of Labour
Albanian Party of Labour (succeeded the National Liberation Front of 1942–45) 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 Czechoslovak Socialist Republic – the National Front led by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia German Democratic Republic – the National Front led by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany People's Republic of Hungary – the National Independence Front led by the Hungarian Communist Party
Hungarian Communist Party (replaced in 1949 by the Independent People's Front led by the Hungarian Working People's Party, then replaced by the Patriotic People's Front in 1954, which after 1956 was led by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party) People's Republic of Kampuchea – the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation led by the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (renamed Kampuchean United Front for National Construction and Defence in 1981) People's Republic of Poland – the Democratic Bloc led by the Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party (replaced by the Front of National Unity in 1952 and subsequently by the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth in 1983) Socialist Republic of Romania – the People's Democratic Front led by the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party (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 (replaced by the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia in 1945)