WordNet
n. a leftist coalition organized against a common opponent
Wikipedia
The Popular Front in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral coalition and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organisations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's election.
The Popular Front included the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Communist Party of Spain (PCE), the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM, independent communist) and the republicans: Republican Left (IR), (led by Azaña) and Republican Union Party (UR), led by Diego Martínez Barrio. This pact was supported by Galician ( PG) and Catalan nationalists ( ERC), socialist union Workers' General Union (UGT), and the anarchist trade union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). Many anarchists who would later fight alongside Popular Front forces during the Spanish Civil War did not support them in the election, urging abstention instead.
The Joseph Stalin-controlled Comintern had decided in 1935 that, in response to the growth of Fascism, popular fronts allying Communist parties with other anti-Fascist parties including Socialist and even bourgeois parties were advisable. In Spain, it was a coalition between leftist republicans and workers' organizations to defend social reforms of the first government (1931–1933) of the Second Spanish Republic, and liberate the prisoners, political prisoners according with the front propaganda, held since the Asturian October Revolution (1934).
The Popular Front defeated the National Front (a collection of right-wing parties) and won the 1936 election, forming the new Spanish Government. Manuel Azaña was elected President of the Republic on May 1936, but the PSOE didn't join the government because of the opposition of Francisco Largo Caballero.
In July 1936, conservative/ monarchist generals instigated a coup d'état which started the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The Government dissolved the Spanish Republican Army in the loyal territory and brought weapons to armed groups organized by the unions (UGT and CNT) and workers' parties (PSOE, PCE, POUM) that had initial success in defeating the Francoist forces in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia. In October the same year, the Spanish Republican Army was reorganized. After a protracted war of attrition Franco would defeat the Republican forces and rule Spain as a dictatorship until he died in 1975.
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party (PCF), the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period. Three months after the victory of the Frente Popular in Spain, the Popular Front won the May 1936 legislative elections, leading to the formation of a government first headed by SFIO leader Léon Blum and exclusively composed of Radical-Socialist and SFIO ministers.
Blum's government implemented various social reforms. The workers' movement welcomed this electoral victory by launching a general strike in May–June 1936, resulting in the negotiation of the Matignon agreements, one of the cornerstone of social rights in France. All employees were assured a two-week paid vacation, and the rights of unions were strengthened. The socialist movement's euphoria was apparent in SFIO member Marceau Pivert's "Tout est possible!" (Everything is possible). However, the economy continued to stall; by 1938 production still had not recovered to 1929 levels, while higher wages had been neutralized by inflation. Businessmen took their funds overseas. Blum was forced to stop his reforms and devalue the franc. With the French Senate controlled by conservatives, Blum, and thus the whole Popular Front, fell out of power in June 1937. Blum was then replaced by Camille Chautemps, a Radical, but Blum came back as President of the Council in March 1938, before being succeeded by Édouard Daladier, another Radical, the next month. The Popular Front dissolved itself in autumn 1938, confronted by internal dissensions related to the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), opposition of the right-wing, and the persistent effects of the Great Depression.
After one year of major activity, it lost its spirit by June 1937 and could only temporize as the European crisis grew worse and worse. The Socialists were forced out; only the Radicals were left. It failed to live up to the expectations of the left. The workers did gain major new rights, but their 48 percent increase in wages was offset by a 46 percent rise in prices. Unemployment remained high, and overall industrial production was stagnant. Industry had great difficulty adjusting to the imposition of a 40-hour workweek, causing serious disruptions of the time when France was desperately trying to catch up with Germany in military production. France joined other nations and refused to help the Spanish Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, for fear that civil war could break out in France itself. The refusal bitterly disappointed the French Left.
The Popular Front in the United Kingdom attempted an alliance between political parties and individuals of the left and centre-left in the late 1930s to come together to challenge the Nazi/fascist appeasement policies of the National Government led by Neville Chamberlain. The Popular Front (PF) despite not having the formal endorsement of either the Labour Party or the Liberal Party, fielded candidates at parliamentary by-elections with success. There was no general election to test the support of the PF and therefore the opportunity for it to form a government.
The following is a list of political parties and alliances called Popular Front (not all of them are actual popular fronts).
- Alliance of the Christian Democratic Popular Front
- Azerbaijani Popular Front Party
- BPF Party
- Broad Popular Front
- Comorian Popular Front
- Humanist Popular Front
- Ivorian Popular Front
- Mauritanian Popular Front
- Popular Democratic Front (Italy)
- Popular Front (Burkina Faso)
- Popular Front (Chile)
- Popular Front (France)
- Popular Front (Senegal)
- Popular Front (Spain)
- Popular Front (Tunisia)
- Popular Front (UK)
- Popular Front for Armed Resistance
- Popular Front for Change and Liberation
- Popular Front for Democracy
- Popular Front for Recovery
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Bahrain
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Chad
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Special Command
- Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf
- Popular Front of Estonia
- Popular Front of India
- Popular Front of Latvia
- Popular Front of Moldova
- Popular Front of Potosí
- Popular Front of the Canary Islands
- Popular Front Party
- Popular Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Palestine
- Unified Popular Front
- United Popular Front
- United Popular Front (Iraq)
- Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party
- Worker Peasant Student and Popular Front
Ahead of the 1936 elections to the French National Assembly, a Popular Front committee was formed in Senegal. It consisted of the local branch of French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), the Senegalese Socialist Party, the local Communist cell, the Human Rights League, and the local branch of the Radical and Radical Socialist Party led by François Carpot. The committee supported the candidature of Lamine Guèye.
Category:Defunct political party alliances Category:French West Africa Category:Political parties established in 1936 Category:Political parties in Senegal Category:Popular fronts
The Popular Front was a political alliance in Burkina Faso. The FP was founded in October 1987 by that country's current President, Blaise Compaoré, immediately after he came to power in a military coup d'état. The first member parties of the FP were the
- Union of Burkinabè Communists (UCB)
- Burkinabè Communist Group (GCB)
- Communist Struggle Union - The Flame (ULC-La Flamme).
In early 1991 the member parties were the
- Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement (ODP-MT)
- Rally of Independent Social Democrats (RSDI)
- National Convention of Progressive Patriots–Social Democratic Party (CNPP/PSD)
- Union of Democrats and Patriots of Burkina (UDPB)
- Burkinabè Communist Group (GCB)
- Group of Patriotic Democrats (GDP)
- Movement of Progressive Democrats (MDP)
- Group of Revolutionary Democrats (GDR)
- Union of Social Democrats (USD)
In 1995 member parties were the
- Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement (ODP-MT)
- Movement of Progressive Democrats (MDP)
- Union of Democrats and Patriots of Burkina (UDPB)
- Rally of Independent Social Democrats (RSDI)
The leader of the FP was Arsène Bongnessan Yé
Category:Defunct political party alliances in Burkina Faso Category:Popular fronts
The Popular Front in Chile was an electoral and political left-wing coalition from 1937 to February 1941, during the Presidential Republic Era (1924–1973). It gathered together the Radical Party, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Democratic Party and the Radical Socialist Party, as well as organizations such as the Confederación de Trabajadores de Chile (CTCH) trade-union, the Mapuche movement which unified itself in the Frente Único Araucano, and the feminist Movimiento Pro-Emancipación de las Mujeres de Chile (MEMCh).
The Popular Front for the Realization of the Objectives of the Revolution , short Popular Front (ej-Jabha), is a leftist political alliance and electoral alliance in Tunisia, made up of nine political parties and numerous independents.
The coalition was formed in October 2012, bringing together 12 mainly left wing Tunisian parties including the Democratic Patriots' Movement, the Workers' Party, Green Tunisia, the Movement of Socialist Democrats (which has left), the Tunisian Ba'ath Movement and Party of the Democratic Arab Vanguard, two different parties of the Iraqi branch of Ba'ath Party, and other Progressive parties. The number of parties involved in the coalition has since decreased to nine. Approximately 15,000 people attended the coalition's first meeting in Tunis.
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 and the United States during the 1930s, and in the history of 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 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".