United Front (other)
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A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a
front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * ''The Front'', 1976 film Music * The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...
. The name often refers to a political and/or military struggle carried out by revolutionaries, especially in revolutionary socialism, communism or
anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
. The basic theory of the united front tactic among socialists was first developed by the
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
, an international communist organization created by communists in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. According to the thesis of the 1922
4th World Congress of the Comintern The 4th World Congress of the Communist International was an assembly of delegates to the Communist International held in Petrograd and Moscow, Soviet Russia, between November 5 and December 5, 1922. A total of 343 voting delegates from 58 countr ...
:
The united front tactic is simply an initiative whereby the Communists propose to join with all workers belonging to other parties and groups and all unaligned workers in a common struggle to defend the immediate, basic interests of the working class against the bourgeoisie..
In its Leninist formulation, the united front tactic allowed workers committed to the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism to struggle alongside non-revolutionary workers. Through these common struggles, revolutionaries sought to win other workers to revolutionary socialism. The concept of the united front has also been invoked by non-Leninist authors.


History


Formulation and early usage after 1917

According to Russian communist Leon Trotsky, the roots of the united front go back to the practice of the Bolshevik Party during the 1917
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
. The Comintern generalised that experience among the fledgling Communist Parties that were established or grew significantly during the years after 1917. The theory of the united front was elaborated at the 3rd and the 4th Congresses of the Comintern, held from November 5 to December 5, 1922. Revolutionary socialists represented a minority in the working class, and the united front offered a method of working with large numbers of non-revolutionary workers and simultaneously winning them to revolutionary politics. The strategy was used by leaders after the initial revolutionary tide since 1917 began to ebb. According to the leaders of the Comintern, the shift from offensive to defensive struggles by workers strengthened the desire for united action within the working class. The leaders hoped that the united front would allow the revolutionaries to win a majority inside the class:
The task of the Communist Party is to lead the proletarian revolution. In order to summon the proletariat for the direct conquest of power and to achieve it the Communist Party must base itself on the overwhelming majority of the working class.... So long as it does not hold this majority, the party must fight to win it..
The revolutionaries were told to maintain independence:
The existence of independent Communist Parties and their complete freedom of action in relation to the bourgeoisie and counter-revolutionary social democracy.... In the same way the united front tactic has nothing to do with the so-called 'electoral combinations' of leaders in pursuit of one or another parliamentary aim. The united front tactic is simply an initiative whereby the communists propose to join with all workers belonging to other parties and groups and all unaligned workers in a common struggle to defend the immediate, basic interests of the working class against the bourgeoisie.
However, revolutionaries could not simply go over the heads of the leaders of reformist organizations. They should approach those leaders demanding unity on the basis of a united front. That would pose a dilemma for the reformist leaders: to refuse the invitation and be seen by their followers as an obstacle to unity or to accept the invitation and be required to operate on the terrain of mass struggle (strikes, protests etc.) on which the revolutionaries would be proved to have superior ideas and methods. The tactic was put into practice in Germany in 1922 and 1923 and, for a time, was effective in winning workers to revolutionary socialism.


Stalinist alternatives

As
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
came to dominate The Communist International, the strategy was dropped. In the Comintern's Third Period from 1928, the period preceding Adolf Hitler's victories in German elections, the Comintern argued that the social democrats were " social fascists" and represented an equal danger to the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
. After Hitler's 1933 victory, the Comintern argued for popular fronts drawing in forces far beyond the working-class movement. Trotsky, now exiled from the Soviet Union, argued that the first conclusion was disastrous because it prevented unity against the far right and that the second, by emphasizing popular fronts, was disastrous because the terms of the struggle would be dictated by mainstream liberal parties. He feared that the communists would have to subordinate their politics within the alliance. Trotsky continued to argue for a workers' united front against fascism. Trotsky argued that the united front strategy would have great appeal to workers who wished to fight fascism:
The programme of action must be strictly practical, strictly objective, to the point, without any of those artificial 'claims', without any reservations, so that every average Social Democratic worker can say to himself: what the Communists propose is completely indispensable for the struggle against fascism. On this basis we must pull the Social Democratic workers along with us by our example, and criticize their leaders who will inevitably serve as a check and a brake.


United fronts in Asia

In
Chinese history The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...
, during the First United Front (1924–1927), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) worked closely with the nationalist Kuomintang. The Chinese organized a
Second United Front The Second United Front ( zh, t=第二次國共合作 , s=第二次国共合作 , first=t ) was the alliance between the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to resist the Japanese invasion of China during the Seco ...
(1937–1943) to fight the Japanese during World War II. Currently, the
United Front Work Department The United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (UFWD; ) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is officially tasked with "united front work". For this endeavo ...
manages relations between the CCP and other parties, such as the pro-Beijing parties in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas. In Vietnam, the Vietcong organized the National Liberation Front (1960–1977) to gather widespread support for the independence struggle, first against France and then against the United States during the Vietnam War. Trotsky and Trotskyists, such as Harold Isaacs in his ''The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution'', would argue that they were popular fronts, not united fronts, that were based upon the model used by the Bolsheviks in 1917 and later. In 1954, the United Front was a coalition of Awami League, Ganatantri Dal, Krishak Sramik Party, and the Nizam-e-Islam Party in East Pakistan. It won the majority of the seats in the 1954 provincial elections and formed a short lived provincial government. In West Bengal, India, a United Front (
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
: যুক্তফ্রণ্ট) was formed shortly after the 1967 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election. It was conceived on 25 February 1967, through the joining together of the United Left Front and the People's United Left Front, along with other parties. The front comprised the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the
Samyukta Socialist Party Samyukta Socialist Party (; SSP), was a political party in India from 1964 to 1972. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party (PSP) in 1964. In 1972, SSP was reunited with PSP, forming the Socialist Party. The General Secret ...
, the
Socialist Unity Centre of India The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) or SUCI(C), previously called the Socialist Unity Centre of India and "Socialist Unity Centre", is an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in India. The party was founded by Shibda ...
, the Marxist Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India, the Workers Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party,
Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...
, the Bangla Congress, the
All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party a ...
and the Bolshevik Party of India. Soon after its formation, a massive rally was held in Calcutta, at which an 18-point programme of the Front was presented.
Ajoy Mukherjee Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee (15 April 1901 – 27 May 1986) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served three short terms as the fourth and sixth Chief Minister of West Bengal. He hailed from Tamluk, Purba Medinipur district, West Be ...
, leader of the Bangla Congress, was the head of the United Front. It dislodged the Indian National Congress in the state of West Bengal for the first time.


See also

* Entryism * Eurocommunism * Left communism * Popular Front * Third Period


References


Further reading

* Florian Wilde: ''Building a Mass Party: Ernst Meyer and the United Front Policy 1921-1922'', in: Ralf Hoffrogge / Norman LaPorte (eds.): ''Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918-1933'', London: Lawrence & Wishart 2017. pp. 66-86.
''The United Front''
by Joseph Choonara in ''International Socialism'' 117 (2007)

by
Duncan Hallas Duncan Hallas (23 December 1925 – 19 September 2002), was a prominent member of the Trotskyist movement and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party in Great Britain. Biography Born into a working-class family in Manchester, Duncan Hall ...
in ''International Socialism'' (1976)
''The United Front''
by Lindsey German (1984)
''The United Front''
by Pete Goodwin in ''International Socialism'' (1978) * {{Authority control Communist terminology Trotskyism