Theses on United Front Tactics by Bill Bland for MLOB, 1972

First placed online by Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line at marxists.org.

Theses on United Front Tactics 

(Adopted by the Central Committee of the Marxist­ Leninist Organisation of Britain, 20th  February 1972 

1. The socialist revolution can be accomplished only when a majority of the working class has been won to the cause of revolutionary socialism and to acceptance of the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party.
   
   
2. At the present time the majority of the working class support organisations ostensibly within the working class movement but which, as a result of the policies of their leaders, objectively serve the interests of monopoly capital (e.g. the Labour Party, the reformist trade unions).
   
   
3. The winning of a majority of the working class to the cause of revolutionary socialism and to acceptance of the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party can be accomplished not by propaganda alone, but as a result of the Party and its members playing a leading role in the day-to-day struggles of the workers for reforms. In these day-to-day struggles the workers learn from their own experience that it is the Marxist-Leninist Party and its members which genuinely represent their interests.
   
   
4. The Marxist-Leninist Party supports these struggles for reforms not as ends in themselves, but as part of the strategy of mobilising the working class for socialist revolution.
   
   
5. In so far as the Party can win the cooperation of non-Party workers for a particular partial objective and this cooperation takes some organised form, the latter constitutes a UNITED FRONT around that particular partial objective.
   
   
6. Appeals for united front action must be directed primarily at the non-party workers who form the rank-and-file to form a UNITED FRONT FROM BELOW. In so far as such appeals are directed to organisations under reactionary leaderships, they must be open and public, so that the leaders may not prevent the appeals from coming to the attention of the rank-and-­file.
   
   
7. Provided the policy of the Marxist-Leninist Party leadership is a correct one of principled defence of the interests of the working class, the reactionary leaders who objectively, serve the interests of the capitalist class) will normally reject appeals for a united front made to their organisations. Such rejections must be used to expose the leaders to as wide sections of the rank-and­ file as possible.
   
   
8. Where an appeal for a united front is rejected by the reactionary leaders of an organisation, every effort must be made to win the lower bodies of that organisation (branches, districts, etc.) to defy the reactionary leadership and respond positively to the appeal.
   
   
9. In exceptional circumstances rank-and-­file pressure for a united front may be strong enough to force the reactionary leaders nominally to agree to a united front (UNITED FRONT FROM BELOW AND FROM ABOVE). The Marxist-Leninist Party will accept such a United Front.
   
   
10. In entering a UNITED FRONT FROM BELOW AND FROM ABOVE, the Marxist­Leninist Party will insist on maintaining its independent role outside the united front, including its critical exposure of the reactionary leaders concerned in all fields outside that of the united front.
    
    
11. When the reactionary leaders take action to try to sabotage the united front in the interests of the capitalist class, the Marxist-Leninist Party must see that their wrecking, anti-working class role is exposed to the widest possible section of the working class.
    
    
12. The Marxist-Leninist Party must be constantly on guard to prevent deviations from these correct united front tactics either to the right or to the “left”.
    
    
13. The principal deviations to the right consist of making concessions of principle to the reactionary leaders in an effort to maintain the united front in being, in particular the renunciation of criticism of the reactionary leaders in fields outside that of the united front.
    
    
14. The principal deviations to the “left” consist of opposing united front tactics as “opportunist”, of putting forward partial objectives which are beyond the political level of the workers concerned, and of couching united front appeals in terms which are so abusive of the reactionary leaders that they repel their supporters.