Imagine waking one morning to find a major national symbol of your country destroyed by an act of terrorism and your country caught up in a wave of insecurity, xenophobia and blind ultra-nationalism. After the terrorist attack, you are told as a citizen that “the world has changed�? and that the government must be given emergency powers that infringe upon civil liberties in the name of “national security.�? The decrees are followed by a vigilant silencing of dissent, an increase in military production in preparation for a series of potentially endless wars and exploitation of this national tragedy by ultra-right politicians to consolidate power. This was the political world faced by German citizens in 1933 with the rise of Adolph Hitler; an era which contains eerie parallels with the world in which we live today.
While Hitler was eventually able to consolidate his power in Germany, his path toward war was slowed and his ultimate destruction ensured by the theoretical and strategic positions laid out by the Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov and adopted by the Comintern and the Young Communist International in 1935. In his book, The United Front: The Struggle Against Fascism and War, Dimitrov laid the groundwork that transformed the worldwide communist movement into a mass movement against the racist and militarist threats of the ultra-right. How did Dimitrov propose to defeat the ultra-right and to protect the world from imperialist war? Through the strategy of the Popular Front!
The Popular Front can be summed up in one simple word: Unity! The original United Front program of the Communist International referred to a political and industrial unity of the working class. Dimitrov’s concept of the Popular Front was a series of political alliances of all progressive forces with a common agenda of defeating the ultra-right. The Popular Front worked as a program that communists could follow in one country to further the struggle against fascism and war. But the Popular Front was also a larger international series of alliances that eventually manifested itself in the Grand Alliance between the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union – an alliance which led to the ultimate destruction of Hitler’s Reich.
Dimitrov also warned of the danger of divisions in the alliance of progressive forces – divisions bred by the “ultra-left.�? The ultra-left, most notably the Trotskyites, condemned any type of populist unity that crossed class barriers or which did not propose the immediate advancement of socialist revolution. Dimitrov always contended that the only way to counter the “divide and rule�? tactics of the fascists was to unite all progressive forces under a common civic and political platform of anti-fascism. His proposition was based not on an abstract theoretical formula, but on the hard lessons of struggle and failure learned by the German communists, who had focused their energies attacking reformists on the left instead of organizing a United Front against the Nazi Party. Some argue that this dangerous mistake is being repeated today by those who propose equal condemnation for the Democrats and Republicans.
Throughout his writings, Dimitrov praised the examples of Republican Spain and France for showing the potential strength of popular anti-fascist unity bred by their Popular Front governments. The communists in the United States never came to power as coalition partners in a Popular Front government. But they followed the example of their Spanish and French comrades in supporting the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the fight against the reactionary and pro-fascist elements of finance capital and in supporting Roosevelt’s New Deal program. On a civic level, the CPUSA and YCL were instrumental in organizing and influencing Popular Front organizations like the American League Against Fascism and War and the American Youth Congress which exemplified the strategic tactics laid out by Dimitrov.
The vital element of the strategy laid out by Dimitrov which makes his writings relevant today is the role of the youth in implementing and carrying forward the Popular Front. As a unique stratum of society, youth have always had the greatest to loose with the triumph of the ultra-right, especially when the threat of perpetual war brings the looming danger of military draft. During the Popular Front era, Dimitrov encouraged the YCL to assert itself as a dynamic and independent organization capable of mobilizing progressive youth across class lines into an inclusive alliance in the causes of peace and social justice.
As Dimitrov advised in his closing words to the Young Communist International in 1935, “Be bold, independent and full of initiative… Be exemplary, staunch and valiant fighters against fascism, against capitalism!�? Let us take confidence in these words this election year as the youth mobilize to unite to defeat Bush and the ultra-right.
Joel Lewis is a student activist and PHD candidate in the Department of History at Central Michigan University. He is currently writing a book entitled “Youth Against Fascism: Popular Front Activism and the YCL in Britain and the United States.�?
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