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'''Communist front''' organizations are characterized by their common origin, the rigid conformity of these organizations to the [[Communist]] pattern, their interlocking personnel, and their methods of [[deception]].
'''Communist front''' organizations are characterized by their common origin, the rigid conformity of these organizations to the [[Communist]] pattern, their interlocking personnel, and their methods of [[deception]].
A '''front organization''' is operated in two ways: either the Communists infiltrate an organization, work inside it (in Marxist language, the revolutionary mole burrows beneath the surface to "bore from within")<ref>[http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12302/1/405 ''After Iowa'', [[Frank Chapman]], [[People's Weekly World]] Letters, Jan. 12, 2008].</ref> and eventually capture it; or they form their own organization - and simply invite the gullible in. In either case, many unsuspecting people wind up working to further some specific Marxist objective.
A '''front organization''' is operated in two ways: either the Communists infiltrate an organization, work inside it (in [[Marxist]] language, the [[revolution]]ary mole burrows beneath the surface to "bore from within")<ref>[http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12302/1/405 ''After Iowa'', [[Frank Chapman]], [[People's Weekly World]] Letters, Jan. 12, 2008].</ref> and eventually capture it; or they form their own organization - and simply invite the gullible in. In either case, many unsuspecting people wind up working to further some specific Marxist objective.
==Browder on fronts==
==Browder on fronts==
{{Cquote|Entering the 1930's as a small [[radical|ultra-left]] sect of some 7,000 members... rose to become a national political influence far beyond its numbers (at its height it never exceeded 100,000 members), on a scale never before reached by a socialist movement claiming the [[Marxist]] tradition. It became a practical power in organized labour, its influence became strong in some state organizations of the [[Democratic Party]] (even dominant in a few for some years)...guided ...the [[American League for Peace and Democracy]] that united a cross-section of some five million organized Americans (a list of its sponsors and speakers would include almost a majority of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s Cabinet, the most prominent intellectuals, judges of all grades up to State Supreme Courts, church leaders, labour leaders, etc.). Right-wing intellectuals complained that it exercised an effective veto in almost all publishing houses against their books, and it is at least certain that those right-wingers had extreme difficulty getting published.<ref>Earl Browder, ''Socialism in America'' in International Communism, St. Antony's Papers, Number 9, Edited by David Footman, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, III, 1960, p 101. [http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?lang=ru&booknr=164781192]</ref> }}
{{Cquote|Entering the 1930's as a small [[radical|ultra-left]] sect of some 7,000 members... rose to become a national political influence far beyond its numbers (at its height it never exceeded 100,000 members), on a scale never before reached by a socialist movement claiming the [[Marxist]] tradition. It became a practical power in organized labour, its influence became strong in some state organizations of the [[Democratic Party]] (even dominant in a few for some years)...guided ...the [[American League for Peace and Democracy]] that united a cross-section of some five million organized Americans (a list of its sponsors and speakers would include almost a majority of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s Cabinet, the most prominent intellectuals, judges of all grades up to State Supreme Courts, church leaders, labour leaders, etc.). Right-wing intellectuals complained that it exercised an effective veto in almost all publishing houses against their books, and it is at least certain that those right-wingers had extreme difficulty getting published.<ref>Earl Browder, ''Socialism in America'' in International Communism, St. Antony's Papers, Number 9, Edited by David Footman, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, III, 1960, p 101. [http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?lang=ru&booknr=164781192]</ref> }}
== Stalin on fronts ==
== Stalin on fronts ==
"We revolutionary workers, it appears to me, should not be shy about using the same tactics . . .<ref>Georgi Dimitroff, The United Front (New York, International Publishers, 1938), p. 52, quoted from a report to the Seventh World Congress (August 1935).</ref><ref>William A. Nolan, ''Communism Versus the Negro'' (Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1951), p. 115.</ref>}}
"We revolutionary workers, it appears to me, should not be shy about using the same tactics . . .<ref>Georgi Dimitroff, The United Front (New York, International Publishers, 1938), p. 52, quoted from a report to the Seventh World Congress (August 1935).</ref><ref>William A. Nolan, ''Communism Versus the Negro'' (Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1951), p. 115.</ref>}}
== Munzenberg on fronts ==
During the first few years of the [[Communist International]], immediately after the [[October Revolution]], its international appeal was stridently [[revolution]]ary. As world economic conditions improved following the [[First World War]], the international revolutionary movement began to wane. The Hungarian and German Communist revolutions failed and the Communist International began to lose strength. Hence it was deemed necessary to moderate the earlier revolutionary appeal, to adopt middle-of-the-road slogans, and to build so-called [[united front]] organizations, as bridge and supporting organizations in the interest of the international Communist movement.
One of the leading organizers of these 'innocent' organizations on an international scale was [[Willi Munzenberg]], a prominent German Communist, whose organizing ability won him the sobriquet of the 'Henry Ford of the Communist International.' Munzenberg was engagingly frank in describing the real purpose of these organizations:
{{Cquote|
#To arouse the interest of those millions of apathetic and indifferent workers...who simply have no ear for Communist [[propaganda]]. These people we wish to attract and arouse through new channels, by means of new ways.
#Our sympathetic organizations should constitute bridges for the nonparty workers...who have not yet mustered the courage to take the final step and join the [[Communist Party]], but who are nevertheless in sympathy with the Communist movement and are prepared to follow us part of the way.
#By means of the mass organizations we wish to extend the Communist [[sphere of influence]] in itself.
#The organizational linking up of the elements in sympathy with the [[Soviet Union]] and with the Communists.
#We must build up our own organizations in order to counteract the increasing efforts of the [[bourgeois]] and social-democratic parties in this respect, and
#Through these sympathetic and mass organizations we should train the cadres of militants and officials of the Communist Party possessing organizational experience.<ref>Speech before the Sixth Congress of the Communist International in Moscow, July 20, 1928. International Press Correspondence, vol. 8, No. £2, Aug. 1, 1928, pp. 751, 752.</ref>}}
==Budenz on fronts==
==Budenz on fronts==