COMMENT In an attempt to justify their alliance with the man responsible for destroying much our Malaysian democratic institutions, the anti-Najib Abdul Razak coalition has described themselves as a ‘united front’. The usage of this historically-significant term is, to say the least, illusory.

The term ‘united front’ has been used to refer to a form of struggle or political organisation carried out by progressives and revolutionaries in the history of the 20th century. It is a strategy to join all forces in the struggle to defend the immediate, basic interests of the people against the bourgeoisie, against fascism and imperialism.

The roots of the united front go back to the practice of revolutionaries in the 1917 Russian Revolution. The united front offered a method of working with large numbers of non-revolutionary workers and simultaneously winning them to revolutionary politics. While uniting with non-revolutionaries, however, progressives and revolutionaries did not subordinate themselves within the united front or sacrifice their independence.