Most historians of the Popular Front recognize the role of the Communist Party in keeping the strike movement from becoming more radical and threatening the Popular Front government. Worker militants looked to the Communists to take the initiative. While a kind of de facto workers power existed in many of the larger factories, the Communists did not call for creating workers factory committees to run the factories, nor did they take the more radical step of beginning to create workers councils, institutions of workers economic and political power on the model of the Russian Revolution in its first few years. Such a united front of labor organizations was not, however, what Stalin and the Communists envisioned. 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". ", Torigian, Michael. By the time that the countries in what became the Eastern Bloc had developed into MarxistLeninist states, the non-communist parties had pushed out their more radical members and was now ruled by fellow travellers. The mid- to late-1930s in Europe was a period of enormous popular struggle and resistance from Austria to Spain, accompanied at different times and in various places by peasants strikes and land seizures, workers strikes and factory occupations, armed resistance of the laboring classes, and even attempts at revolutionary seizures of power on a regional or local level. In the other republics, such organisations existed but never posed a meaningful threat to the incumbent party and economic elites.[24]. [27] During the Popular Front government, though at moments there was a loosening of governmental controls, in general repression of movements for self-determination and independence from the empire continued in Vietnam.[28]. The "popular fronts" thus formed proved to be successful politically in forming governments in France, Spain and China but not elsewhere.[11]. Yet, even as they restated this commitment to the dictatorship of the proletariat as a model of working class democracy, Stalin was at work in the Soviet Union liquidating the opposition in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, dismantling the workers councils (soviets), and ending the autonomy of the trade unions. The Popular Front saw the Communist Party taking a very patriotic and populist line, later called Browderism. On 11 June, the Chamber of Deputies voted for the forty-hour workweek, the restoration of civil servants' salaries, and two weeks' paid holidays, by a majority of 528 to 7. In 1938 Blum again tried, unsuccessfully, to establish a popular front ministry. The Communists and the Socialists, fearing that the strike could get out of hand and jeopardize political relations with the Radicals, worked to restrain the strikes and to keep them from spreading. Zyromski, after decades as a leader of the Socialist Party, worked with the Communist Party during the Resistance and joined it in 1945. [19], Radical cultural ideas came to the fore in the era of the Popular Front and often were explicitly supported by the governments, as in the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. While the Popular Front remained in power, it gradually lost ground in society and in politics because it failed to take initiatives in the workplace. For a discussion of the left in Vietnam during this period see, La Lutte and the Vietnamese Trotskyists, a collection of excerpts from Daniel Hemerys book Revolutionnaires Vietnamiens et pouvoir colonial en Indochine, edited by Ted Crawford and published in RevolutionaryHistory, Vol. [34] The Popular Front had failed in France disastrously. [19] At the same time the Blum government put forward social legislation which legalized collective bargaining and established the 40-hour work week, two-week paid vacations, and other benefits. 15. Dialectics of the popular front - Communist Party USA 13. The first Popular Front government of Lon Blum lasted only from June of 1936 to June of 1937, to be succeeded by the more moderate socialist government of Camille Chautemps. The Partisan Review, formerly the literary arm of the Communist Party of the USA, became more sympathetic to the ideas of Stalin's arch-foe, Trotsky. The tragedy of this Popular Front experience was that another alternative was possible, and that the Communist Party and its Popular Front not only blocked the path forward, but also collaborated with the capitalist class and its state in the suppression of that alternative. The shifts in the Communist Party strategy between 1927 and Stalins death in 1953 form the context for understanding the place of the Popular Front in Communist thinking. Popular front - Wikipedia 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. The wars and revolutions that had shattered the old Europe and the postwar economic crises kept the pot boiling. Please donate to New Politics to allow us to continue bringing you independent, sharp, and provocative political analysis. For the full article, see, https://www.britannica.com/summary/popular-front-European-coalition. 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. 8 Best Door Locks to Keep your Home or Business Protected [42] Economists especially consider the bad effects of the 40-hour week, which made overtime illegal, forcing employers to choose whether stop work or to replace their best workers with inferior and inexperienced workers when 40 hours had been reached. [30] There is also general agreement, that the Popular Front provided a set of lessons and even an inspiration for the future. Was it possible to have pushed the movement further? This prolonged and painful crisis brought much of Europe to a boiling point three times, once in the late 1910s, again in the mid-1920s, and finally a third time in the mid- to late-1930s. The conditions called for action. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. First published in English in 1936. The workers obtained major new rights, but their 48 percent increase in wages was offset by a 46 percent rise in prices. I, 126-241. Updates? "popular front But the Communists could not have been successful without the support of a layer of skilled workers and shop floor militants in the plants. Citations here from the article. Denver weather: Thunderstorms ahead for July 4 afternoon, evening The Popular Front and the Barcelona 1936 Popular Olympics Playing as if the World Was Watching Home Book Authors: James Stout The first significant text examining the 1936 Popular Olympics in the English language 217-226, and in, Adolf Sturmthal, Nationalization and Workers Control in Britain and France, The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. However, the date of retrieval is often important. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. popular front synonyms, popular front pronunciation, popular front translation, English dictionary definition of popular front. The failure to advance the power of the working class meant that the power of the capitalists advanced. Omissions? As a result, the front had turned communist. In 1937, careers guidance classes (classes d'orientation) were established in some lyces as a means of helping pupils to make a better choice of their subsequent course of secondary schooling. "[16] The Republicans in Spain found themselves increasingly on the defensive, and over 500,000 political refugees crossed the border into France, where they lived for years in refugee camps.[17]. However, confronted with an increasing possibility of war with Nazi Germany and affected by the scientific racist theories of the time, which were common beyond the fascist parties, the SFIO began to change its ideas concerning sports during the Popular Front, because its social reforms permitted to the workers' to participate in such leisure activities and also because of the increasing risks of a confrontation with Nazi Germany, particularly after the March 1936 remilitarization of the Rhineland. He launched a major program to speed up arms production. Communist front was a label frequently applied to political organizations opposed by anti-communists during the Cold War. It wanted nothing more than to be left in splendid isolationto build "socialism in one country." The next year, Dreyfus succeeded in overwhelming the legendary Rudolf Caracciola, and his 480 horsepower (360kW) Silver Arrow at the Pau Grand Prix, becoming a national hero. Left communist groups also oppose popular fronts, but they came to oppose united fronts as well. While a rank-and-file perspective is important, we must at the same time find a way to project the notion of workers independent political power. The attacker was identified as a 20-year-old Palestinian man from the southern West Bank city of Hebron. 3. After 1937, the precarious coalition went into its death throes with rising extremism on left and right, as well as bitter recriminations. Unio, Popular Entertainment: Escape and Engagement, Popular Arguments for the Existence of God, Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineGeneral Command (PFLPGC), Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineSpecial Command, Popular Front for the Liberation of PalestineSpecial Operations, Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf, Popular Piety, Hispanic, in the United States, Popular Sovereignty in Democratic Political Theory, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front-0, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front-0, https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/popular-front, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/popular-front. For a time it even seemed immune to the economic crisis that spread through Europe beginning in 1929; France went serenely on behind its high-tariff barrier, a healthy island in a chaotic world. Industry had great difficulty adjusting to the imposition of a 40-hour workweek, which caused serious disruptions while France was desperately trying to catch up with Germany in military production. The Popular Front, at first as a kind of labor and left coalition, proved capable of attracting not only workers and peasants, and their unions and leagues, but also the lower middle classes. By mid-August the parliament had passed: The legislative pace of the Popular Front government meant that before parliament went into recess, it had passed 133 laws within the space of 73 days. 6. ", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Women's International Democratic Federation, World Committee Against War and Imperialism, of social-democrats and left-liberal republicans, French Section of the Workers' International, Communist Party of the United States of America, Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf, Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea, All-National Congress of the Chechen People, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, People's Revolutionary Government (Grenada), Patriotic and Democratic Front of the Great National Union of Kampuchea, Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia, "Left Turn: A Reassessment of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the Third Period, 1928-33", 1914-1946: Third Camp Internationalists in France during World War II, libcom.org, The Seventh Congress, Marxist Internet Archive, "The Liberal Party and the Popular Front: An assessment of the arguments over progressive unity in the 1930s", "Did Communism Give Peace a Bad Name? In protest against holding the event in a fascist country, the Spanish Popular Front, decided to organize rival games in Barcelona, under the name People's Olympiad. Europeexcept for Fascist Italy and Nazi Germanywas a cauldron that roiled and seethed and threatened at times to boil over and blow the lid off capitalism. Val R. Lorwin, The French Labor Movement (Cambridge, Mass. Popular Front (France) - Wikipedia ", "We want to make our youth healthy and happy. "The End of the Popular Front: The Paris Metal Strike of Spring 1938,", Wall, Irwin M. "Teaching the Popular Front,", Wall, Irwin M. "The Resignation of the First Popular Front Government of Leon Blum, June 1937. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/popular-front, "popular front 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. With the Popular Front having collapsed, douard Daladier of the right wing of the Radical Party served as Prime Minister from April of 1938 to March of 1940, providing political support for an employers offensive. Lo Lagrange further declared in 1936: "Our simple and human goal is to allow the masses of French youth to find in the practice of sport, joy and health and to build an organization of the leisure activities so that the workers can find relaxation and a reward to their hard labour. In 1937, the Popular Front organized the Million Franc Race to induce automobile manufacturers to develop race cars capable of competing with the German Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union racers of the time, which were backed by the Nazi government as part of its sports policy. [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. France joined other nations and bitterly disappointed many French leftists in refusing to help the Spanish Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, partly because the right threatened another civil war in France itself. 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. However, major differences between the SFIO and PRRRS prevented them from forming a cabinet together, as all had expected, leaving France governed by a series of short-lived cabinets formed exclusively of the six Radical parties. 26. Ingo Kolbloom, La Revance des Patrons : Le patronat franais face au front populaire (Paris: Flamarrion, 1986). Gen Z workers came of age in pandemicand now quitting is always front [23], 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. . While the Communist Party attempted to moderate the Popular Front as it dealt with labor questionseven in the face of a massive general strike and widespread factory occupationsso too it worked to moderate other policies. On June 7, 1936, the General Confederation of French Employers (CGPF) and the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) under the auspices of the Popular Front government negotiated the Matignon Accords, the most significant labor union victory in French history. Many had been inspired by the Russia Revolution of October 1917. Trotskys critique of the Popular Front in France was laid out in his book Whither France? The presidency of the cabinet was then taken over by Camille Chautemps, a Radical-Socialist, but Blum came back as President of the Council in March 1938, before being succeeded by douard Daladier, another Radical-Socialist, the next month. Popular front - definition of popular front by The Free Dictionary 24. The Communist International simultaneously terminated the Popular Front, subordinating Communist politics to the Communist-Nazi alliance. The Popular Front. In 1931 and again in 1936, the Spanish The fascist riots of 1934 provoked the political crisis in France that precipitated the creation of the Popular Front. At the same time it strengthened the hold of the Stalinist Communism of the Soviet Union over the most political and committed groups in the labor movement. [citation needed]. All employees were assured a two-week paid vacation, and the rights of unions were strengthened. To Padmore, the Popular Front meant that the USSR had abandoned its principle of anti-colonialism by allying with the colonizers of Africa and Asia (Britain and France). However inflation also rose 46%.
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