An International United Front?

Abstract

Abstract Hitler’s smooth accession to power triggered a profound sense of disorientation within the Social Democratic and the Communist Internationals, thus creating a favorable opening facilitating moves toward unity. Most historians date the beginning of this attempt to reach an international understanding to 19 February 1933, when the LSI bureau published an appeal-”TotheWorkers of the World”-calling for a cessation of hostilities between the two Internationals and a common effort to counter the growing threat of fascism and war. Yet there is reason to believe that the very first recorded international initiative was a Communist move. According to Jonathan Haslam, “On 13 February, two weeks after Hitler became chancellor, French, German and Polish communist leaders issued a joint communique to the social demo crats offering a united front of action against fascism.” Undoubtedly, the explicit appeal of the LSI raised the stakes considerably higher. It took the Comintern two weeks to respond. When it finally issued its proclamation on 5 March 1933, it rejected any attempt to engage in top-level negotiations and instead called on each national Communist Party to enter separate united front negotiations for each individual count ry.3 In turn, the next LSI executive meeting on 18-19 March decided to recommend to its “affiliated Parties to refrain from any separate negotiations ... until results have been achieved by agreement between the two lnternationals,” thereby effectively ending the official moves toward an alliance in times of great need. The Comintern quickly switched back to its tactics of united fronts “from below,” and Aldo Agosti is undoubtedly on the mark when he infers: “The position adopted by the leadership of the LSI could not but have the effect of reinforcing the position of the most tenacious advocates of the theory of ‘social fascism’ within the leading circles of the Comintern.”6 But an interesting and little-known aftermath of this exchange suggests that the brief rapprochement of the LSI and the Comintern carried more promise than most participant observers suspected at the time. The postscript to the document exchange saw the French writer and political activist Henri Barbusse emerging from the sidelines to enter center stage, if behind closed curtains.