Popular front

Cartoon illustration on a white background and two colors: black and magenta-reddish. Three people in the centre share the magenta-reddish color with an industrial building in their background. From left to right: a worker, an intellectual and a peasant are seen trampling on a large black snake with a swastika inside white circle inscribed on its head.
A popular front cartoon showing a worker, intellectual and peasant trampling on a swastika-bearing snake in the Romanian leftist and anti-fascist newspaper Cuvântul Liber, 1935

A popular front is any coalition of working-class and/or middle-class entities, including liberal and social democratic ones, united for a purpose. Generally, it is "a coalition especially of leftist political parties against a common opponent". The phrase uses "front" in the sense of a political movement "linking divergent elements to achieve common objectives".

The term was first used in the mid-1930s in Europe by communists concerned over the rapid growth of fascist movements in Italy and Germany, which they sought to combat by coalescing with non-communist political groupings they had previously attacked as enemies. Temporarily successful popular front governments were formed in France, Spain, and Chile in 1936.

The name has also been used by other alliances such as the Popular Front of India. In the late years of the Soviet Union, the popular fronts created actually played a key role in ending Communist Party rule in the Soviet republics. (see § Soviet republics)

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