The United Front characterised the relationship between the revolutionary and reformist wings of the Russian working class movement between 1902 and 1917, during which time the relationship was variously one of unity, semi-unity or outright split. The relationship maintained the ideological and organisational unity of the Bolsheviks and independence from the opportunist theory and practice of the Mensheviks, whilst co-operating to build mass campaigns on specific issues and winning support for communists.

In 1920, after the communist movement had made a complete break with the reformist Second International, and the question of building links with the masses assumed decisive importance, a dispute arose at the second congress of the Comintern. The "left" position, which Lenin characterised as left infantilism, dismissed the importance of using any available platform, e.g. bourgeois parliaments or work in reformist trade unions, in building links with the masses. This contrasted with the position of the United Communist Party of Germany, which, in January 1921, published an open letter to all workers' organisations, including the reformists, calling for joint action on the immediate needs of the workers.

In 1921, the Comintern elaborated theses on the United Front tactic. Lenin described the tactic as the need for Communist Parties repeatedly to call for united action with the leaders of reformist parties and trade unions.

Today, however, the question of the United Front of Communists is not that of work between an established communist movement and workers who have to be won over from the leadership of the reformists. Rather, it concerns the unity of the communists themselves. At present scattered in diverse, small organisations and divided by sectarian differences, British communists have yet to achieve organisational and ideological unity. The communist movement is undergoing a world crisis. Liquidationism is the dominant trend, both internationally and in Britain, where first the Eurocommunists finally liquidated the CPGB into a non-communist, non-Party, farcical "Democratic Left", and more recently, where numerous small groupings have liquidated and joined the social-democratic Socialist Labour Party.

In such conditions, it is imperative that communists of all organisations, or of no organisation, should put political differences aside and unite around specific political issues central to the common cause.

In this country, the decisive element which distinguishes the communist world view from that of the reformists and opportunists, is the stand taken on imperialism, in particular that of our "own" bourgeoisie. The present epoch is characterised by the domination of a handful of imperialist countries, including Great Britain. The extraction of superprofits from the rest of the world makes possible a high standard of living in the imperialist countries, whilst the majority of countries remain impoverished, their development held back by the imperialist economic system; it funds a labour aristocracy at home and creates the material basis for opportunism. Great Britain is an imperialist country, and the relationship between Britain and Ireland, the war with Argentina, the paradoxical policies on Kuwait and Palestine and the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO forces are evidences of British imperialism today. Historically, the wealth of imperialism also succeeded in isolating the economy of the Soviet Union and forced it into a "cold war" in order to negate the gains of the socialist mode of production. This, despite the waste and outdated nature of the capitalist mode of production.

The United Front of Communists should have as its central issue anti-imperialism, in particular opposition to our "own" imperialists, and in conjunction with this, the struggle against revisionism and the opportunist ideology which justifies imperialism within the working class.