Excerpts from Dimitrov’s famous 1935 speech codifying the ‘Popular Front’ and abandonment of the politics of the Third Period by the Communist International. The limits of the Front in the U.S. would be shortly met in the 1936 elections where overwhelming support for Roosevelt and the Democrats lead to move further, to the ‘Democratic Front’ to include liberal bourgeois forces as personified by the C.P. support of New York mayor LaGuardia through the American Labor Party. The speech below outlines the ‘classic’ Popular Front. The Front is a policy which has dominated, with exceptions, the politics of all the ‘official’ Communist Parties since the Seventh, and last, Comintern Congress in 1935. The move away from the ‘Third Period,’ and its preparations for power, began almost immediately after the unparalleled defeat of March, 1933’s fascist capture of the German state and outlawing of, arguably, the most important Communist Party in the world. Such a dramatic change in position required dramatic justification. Georgi Dimitrov was the Secretary of the Comintern in the period and its foremost persona during the 1930s.

‘The Threat of Fascism in the United States’ by Georgi Dimitrov from The Communist Vol. 14 No. 10. October, 1935.

IN the United States of America millions of people have been brought into motion by the crisis. The program for the recovery of capitalism has collapsed. Vast masses are beginning to abandon the bourgeois parties, and are at present at the crossroads.

Incipient American fascism is endeavoring to direct the disillusionment and discontent of these masses into reactionary fascist channels. It is a peculiarity of the development of American fascism that at the present stage it appears principally in the guise of an opposition to fascism, which it accuses of being an “un-American” tendency imported from abroad. In contradistinction to German fascism, which acts under anti-constitutional slogans, American fascism tries to portray itself as the custodian of the constitution and “American democracy”. It does not yet represent a directly menacing force. But if it succeeds in penetrating to the broad masses who have become disillusioned with the old bourgeois parties, it may become a serious menace in the very near future.

Even now we still have survivals of a stereotyped approach to the question of fascism. When some comrades assert that Roosevelt’s “New Deal” represents an even clearer and more pronounced form of the development of the bourgeoisie towards fascism than the “National Government” in Great Britain, for example, is this not a manifestation of such a stereotyped approach to the question? One must indeed be a confirmed addict of the use of hackneyed schemes not to see that the most reactionary circles of American finance capital which are attacking Roosevelt represent first and foremost the very force which is stimulating and organizing the fascist movement in the United States. Not to see the beginnings of real fascism in the United States behind the hypocritical outpourings of these circles “in defense of the democratic rights of the American citizen” is tantamount to misleading the working class in the struggle against its worst enemy.

WHAT HAS THE VICTORY OF FASCISM BROUGHT TO THE MASSES IN GERMANY AND OTHER COUNTRIES!

Fascism promised the workers “a fair wage”, but actually it has brought them an even lower, a pauper standard of living. It promised work for the unemployed, but actually has brought them even more painful torments of starvation, and compulsory, servile labor. It actually converts the workers and unemployed into pariahs of capitalist society stripped of rights, destroys their trade unions, deprives them of the right to strike and to have their working class press, forces them into fascist organizations, plunders their social insurance funds and transforms the mills and factories into barracks where the unbridled arbitrary rule of the capitalists prevails.

Fascism promised the toiling youth a broad highway to a brilliant future. But actually it has brought with it wholesale dismissals of young workers, labor camps and continuous military drilling for a war of conquest.

Fascism promised the non-manual workers, the petty officials and the intellectuals to ensure them security of existence, to destroy the omnipotence of the trusts and wipe out profiteering by bank capital. But actually it has brought them an even greater degree of hopelessness and uncertainty as to the morrow; it is subjecting them to a new bureaucracy made up of the most compliant of its followers, it is setting up an intolerable dictatorship of the trusts, and fosters corruption and degeneration to an unprecedented extent.

Fascism promised the ruined and impoverished peasants to put an end to debt bondage, to abolish rent and even to alienate the landed estates without compensation, in the interests of the landless and impoverished peasants. But actually it is placing the toiling peasants in a state of unprecedented servitude to the trusts and the fascist state apparatus, and promotes the exploitation of the great mass of the peasantry by the big agrarians, the banks and the usurers to the very utmost limit.

In Germany alone, since the National-Socialists came to power, over 4,200 anti-fascist workers, peasants, employees, intellectuals—Communists, Social-Democrats and members of opposition Christian organizations—have been murdered, 317,800 arrested, 218,600 wounded and subjected to excruciating tortures. In Austria, since the battles of February last year, the “Christian” fascist government has murdered 1,900 revolutionary workers, maimed and wounded 10,000 and arrested 40,000. And this summary, comrades, is far from complete.

WHAT VICTORIOUS FASCISM WOULD MEAN IN THE UNITED STATES?

Fascism in power is the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.

Whatever the masks which fascism adopts, whatever the forms in which it presents itself, whatever the ways by which it comes to power—fascism is a most ferocious attach by capital on the toiling masses; fascism is unbridled chauvinism and annexationist war; fascism is rabid reaction and counter-revolution; fascism is the most vicious enemy of the working class and of all the toilers!

Fascism is not super-class government, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is chauvinism in its crudest form, fomenting the bestial hatred of other nations.

And what would the success of fascism in the United States entail? For the toiling masses it would, of course, entail the unrestrained strengthening of the regime of exploitation and the destruction of the working class movement. And what would be the international significance of this success of fascism? As we know, the United States is not Hungary, or Finland, or Bulgaria, or Latvia. The success of fascism in the United States would change the whole international situation quite materially.

CAN THE VICTORY OF FASCISM BE PREVENTED!

Yes, the road in the way of fascism can be blocked. It is quite possible. It depends on ourselves—on the workers, the peasants and all the toilers!

Whether the victory of fascism can be prevented depends in the first place on the militant activity displayed by the working class itself, on whether its forces are welded into a single militant army combatting the offensive of capitalism and fascism. Having established its fighting unity, the proletariat would paralyze the influence of fascism over the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie of the towns, the youth and the intelligentsia, and would be able to neutralize one section and win over another section.

Millions of workers and toilers of the capitalist countries ask the question: How can fascism be prevented from coming to power and how can fascism be overthrown after it has been victorious? To this the Communist International replies: The first thing that must be done, the thing with which to commence, is to form a united front, to establish unity of action of the workers in every factory, in every district, in every region, in every country, all over the world. Unity of action of the proletariat on a national and international scale is the mighty weapon which renders the working class capable not only of successful defense but also of successful counter-offensive against fascism, against the class enemy.

There is but one thing that the working class lacks—unity in its own ranks.

We must strive to establish the widest united front with the aid of joint action by workers’ organizations of different trends for the defense of the vital interests of the toiling masses.

UNITED FRONT—WHAT FOR?

The defense of the immediate economic and political interests of the working class, the defense of the working class against fascism, must form the starting point and main content of the united front in all capitalist countries. This means:

First, joint struggle really to shift the burden of the consequences of the crisis on the shoulders of the ruling classes, the shoulders of the capitalists, landlords—in a word, to the shoulders of the rich.

Second, joint struggle against all forms of the fascist offensive, in defense of the gains and the rights of the toilers, against the liquidation of bourgeois-democratic liberties.

Third, joint struggle against the approaching danger of imperialist war, a struggle that will impede the preparations for such a war.

In countries of bourgeois democracy, we want to bar the road to reaction and the offensive of capital and fascism, prevent the abrogation of bourgeois-democratic liberties, forestall fascism’s terrorist vengeance upon the proletariat, the revolutionary section of the peasantry and the intellectuals, save the young generation from physical and spiritual degeneracy.

In the fascist countries, we want to prepare and hasten the overthrow of fascist dictatorship.

We want to save the world from fascist barbarity and the horrors of imperialist war.

The popular hatred of war is constantly gaining in depth and intensity. In pushing the toilers into the abyss of imperialist wars, the bourgeoisie is staking its head. Today not only the working class, the peasantry and other toilers champion the cause of the preservation of peace, but also the oppressed nations and weak peoples whose independence is threatened by new wars.

This gives rise to the possibility of forming a most extensive front of the working class, of all the toilers, and of entire nations against the threat of imperialist war. Relying on the peace policy of the Soviet Union and the will of millions upon millions of toilers to have peace, our Congress has opened up the perspective of unfolding a wide anti-war front not only for the Communist vanguard, but for the working class of the whole world, for the peoples of every land. The extent to which this world-wide front is realized and put into action will determine whether the fascist and other imperialist war-incendiaries will be able in the near future to kindle a new imperialist war, or whether their fiendish hands will be hacked off by the axe of a powerful anti-war front.

Now the toiling masses are faced with the necessity of making a definite choice, and of making it today, not between proletarian dictatorship and bourgeois democracy but between bourgeois democracy and fascism. We are not anarchists and it is not at all a matter of indifference to us what kind of political regime exists in any given country: whether a bourgeois dictatorship in the form of bourgeois democracy, even with democratic rights and liberties greatly curtailed, or a bourgeois dictatorship in its open, fascist form. Being upholders of Soviet democracy, we shall defend every inch of the democratic gains which the working class has wrested in the course of years of stubborn struggle, and shall resolutely fight to extend these gains.

We Communists are the irreconcilable opponents, on principle, of bourgeois nationalism of every variety. But we are not supporters of national nihilism, and should never act as such.

The interests of the class struggle of the proletariat against its native exploiters and oppressors are in no contradiction whatever to the interests of a free and happy future of the nation. On the contrary, the Socialist revolution will signify the saving of the nation and will open up to it the road to loftier heights. By the very fact of building at the present time its class organizations and consolidating its positions, by the very fact of defending the democratic rights and liberties against fascism, by the very fact of fighting for the overthrow of capitalism, the working class is fighting for the future of the nation.

The revolutionary proletariat is fighting to save the culture of the people, to liberate it from the shackles of decaying monopoly capitalism, from barbarous fascism which is violating it. Only the proletarian revolution can avert the destruction of culture, and raise it to the highest stage of florescence as a truly national culture—national in form and Socialist in content.

We, Communists, are a class party, a proletarian party. But, as the vanguard of the proletariat, we are ready to arrange joint actions between the proletariat and the other toiling classes interested in the fight against fascism. We, Communists, are a revolutionary party, but we are ready to undertake joint action with other parties fighting against fascism.

We, Communists, have other ultimate aims than these classes and parties, but, in struggling for our aims, we are ready to fight jointly for any immediate tasks which, when realized, will weaken the position of fascism and strengthen the position of the proletariat.

We, Communists, employ methods of struggle which differ from those of the other parties, but, while using our own methods in combatting fascism, we, Communists, will also support the methods of struggle used by other parties, however inadequate they may seem to be, if these methods are really directed against fascism.

The Communist International attaches no conditions to unity of action except one, and that an elementary condition acceptable for all workers, viz., that the unity of action be directed against fascism, against the offensive of capital, against the threat of war, against the class enemy. This is our condition.

We are definitely for the re-establishment of trade union unity in each country and on an international scale. We are for one union in each industry.

We stand for one federation of trade unions in each country. We are for one international federation of trade unions organized according to industries.

We stand for one International of trade unions based on the class struggle. We are for united class trade unions as one of the major bulwarks of the working class against the offensive of capital and fascism. Our only condition for uniting the trade unions is: Struggle against capital, struggle against fascism, and internal trade union democracy.

The struggle against the class enemy demands unity of political leadership, inasmuch as duality in leadership impedes the further development and reinforcement of the joint struggle of the working class.

The interests of the class struggle of the proletariat and the success of the proletarian revolution make it imperative that there be a single party of the proletariat in each country.

We are for the political unity of the working class! Therefore we are ready to collaborate most closely with all Social-Democrats who are for the united front and sincerely support unification.

FOR A WORKERS’ AND FARMERS’ PARTY: THE MASS PEOPLE’S FRONT IN THE U.S.A.

The interests of the American proletariat demand that all its forces dissociate themselves from the capitalist parties without delay. It must at the proper time find ways and suitable forms of preventing fascism from winning over the broad discontented masses of the toilers. And here it must be said that under American conditions the creation of a mass party of toilers, a “Workers’ and Farmers’ Party”, might serve as such a suitable form. Such a party would be a specific form of the mass people’s front in America that should be set up in opposition to the parties of the trusts and the banks, and likewise to growing fascism. Such a party, of course, will be neither Socialist nor Communist. But it will have to be an antifascist party and not an anti-Communist party. The program of this party must be directed against the banks, trusts and monopolies, against the principal enemies of the people who are gambling on its misfortunes. Such a party will be equal to its task only if it defends the urgent demands of the working class, only if it fights for genuine social legislation, for unemployment insurance; only if it fights for land for the white and black share-croppers and for their liberation from the burden of debt; only if it works for the cancellation of the farmers’ indebtedness; only if it fights for the equal status of the Negroes; only if it fights for the demands of the war veterans, and for the interests of the members of the liberal professions, the small business men, the artisans, and so on.

It goes without saying that such a party will fight for the election of its own candidates to local offices, to the state legislatures, to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The question of forming a “Workers’ and Farmers’ Party”, and its program, should be discussed at mass meetings of the people. We should develop the most widespread movement for the creation of such a party, and take the lead in it. In no case must the initiative of organizing the party be allowed to pass to elements desirous of utilizing the discontent of the masses which have become disillusioned in both the bourgeois parties, Democratic and Republican, in order to create a “third party” in the U.S., as an anti-Communist party, a party directed against the revolutionary movement.

In the mobilization of the toiling masses for the struggle against fascism, the formation of a broad people’s anti-fascist front on the basis of the proletarian united front is a particularly important task. The success of the entire struggle of the proletariat is closely connected with the establishment of a fighting alliance between the proletariat on the one hand and the toiling peasantry and the basic mass of the urban petty bourgeoisie constituting a majority in the population of even industrially developed countries, on the other.

The fundamental, the most decisive point in establishing the front is the resolute action of the revolutionary proletariat in defense of the demands of all the toilers, particularly of the toiling peasantry, demands in line with the basic interests of the proletariat, combining in the process of struggle the demands of the working class with these demands.

We want to draw increasingly wide masses into the revolutionary class struggle and lead them to proletarian revolution, proceeding from thew vital interests and needs as the starting point, and their own experience as the basis.

We indicate the possibility of forming a government of the antifascist united front in the conditions of a political crisis. In so far as such a government will really prosecute the struggle against the enemies of the people, and give a free hand to the working class and the Communist Party, we Communists shall accord it our unstinted support, and as soldiers of the revolution shall take our place in the first line of fire. But we state frankly to the masses:

Final salvation this government cannot bring. It is not in a position to overthrow the class rule of the exploiters, and for this reason cannot finally eliminate the danger of fascist counter-revolution. Consequently it is necessary to prepare for the socialist revolution! Soviet power and only Soviet power can bring such salvation!

We demand of every united front government that such a government carry out definite and fundamental revolutionary demands required by the situation. For instance, control of production, control of the banks, disbanding of the police, its replacement by an armed workers’ militia, etc.

THE SEVENTH CONGRESS OF THE COMINTERN—A CONGRESS OF WORKING CLASS UNITY!

Ours is a Congress of the unity of the working class, the Congress of struggle for a united proletarian front.

Ours is a Congress of struggle for the preservation of peace, against the threat of imperialist war.

It has been not only a Congress of the Communist vanguard, but a Congress of the entire international working class thirsting for militant trade union and political unity. (Applause.)

Though our Congress was not attended by delegates of the Social-Democratic workers nor by non-party delegates, though the workers herded into fascist organizations were not represented, the Congress has spoken not only for the Communists, but also for these millions of workers. It has expressed the thoughts and feelings of the overwhelming majority of the working class. We want the workers affiliated with the parties of the Second International and the Amsterdam Trade Union Federation, as well as the workers affiliated with organizations of other political trends to discuss these decisions jointly with us, bring in their amendments and make practical proposals; we want them to deliberate jointly with us how these decisions can best be carried into life, how they can best realize them in practice jointly with us, hand in hand.

The working class must and will achieve unity of action in all spheres of the labor movement! In vain are the efforts of the reactionaries, the fascists of every hue, the entire world bourgeoisie, to turn back the wheel of history!

To us, the workers, and not to the social parasites and idlers, belongs the world—a world built by the hands of the workers. The present rulers of the capitalist world are but temporary rulers.

The proletariat is the real master, tomorrow’s master of the world, and it must enter upon its historical rights, take into its hands the reins of government in every country, all over the world!

If we and the proletariat of the whole world firmly follow the path indicated by Lenin and Stalin, the bourgeoisie will perish in spite of everything.

*Excerpts from report, speech summing up the discussion, and closing speech at the Seventh Congress of the Communist International.

There are a number of journals with this name in the history of the movement. This ‘Communist’ was the main theoretical journal of the Communist Party from 1927 until 1944. Its origins lie with the folding of The Liberator, Soviet Russia Pictorial, and Labor Herald together into Workers Monthly as the new unified Communist Party’s official cultural and discussion magazine in November, 1924. Workers Monthly became The Communist in March ,1927 and was also published monthly. The Communist contains the most thorough archive of the Communist Party’s positions and thinking during its run. The New Masses became the main cultural vehicle for the CP and the Communist, though it began with with more vibrancy and discussion, became increasingly an organ of Comintern and CP program. Over its run the tagline went from “A Theoretical Magazine for the Discussion of Revolutionary Problems” to “A Magazine of the Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism” to “A Marxist Magazine Devoted to Advancement of Democratic Thought and Action.” The aesthetic of the journal also changed dramatically over its years. Editors included Earl Browder, Alex Bittelman, Max Bedacht, and Bertram D. Wolfe.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/communist/v14n10-oct-1935-communist.pdf