The Road to a Popular Front

Helen Graham on the political coalitions in Spain in the 1930s and their role in blocking Fascism.

The Popular Front initiatives of the 1930s in Spain and France were parliamentary experiments in social and economic reform conceived, against a background of ever-increasing Fascist aggression in Europe, as a means of checking political reaction in the domestic arena. But the Popular Front was more than just similar political strategies being put into action in two different countries, rather it was the product of the convergence of national and international political initiatives. The factor connecting the French and Spanish experiences was the adoption of the Popular Front strategy at the VII Congress of the Communist International in July-August 1935.

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