People's Front of Yugoslavia
People's Front of Yugoslavia was an organization of antifascist and democratic masses of nations of Yugoslavia. The idea of its creation sprang up in the 1930s, especially during the May 5, 1935 parliamentary elections in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
At the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in June 1935 held in the city of Split (Dalmatia) it was concluded to form the Front of National Freedom. Also it was concluded that Fascism could be defeated by the joint efforts of proletariat, peasantry, nationally oppressed and all democratic and progressive layers of society. The basis for the Front of the People's Freedom would be the Communist Party of Yugoslavia joined by the trade unions, "left wings" of the peasant parties, youth, university students, cultural, educational, sports societies, different professional associations and national liberation movements under the auspices of civic parties. The main platform was:
- The destruction of the 6 January Regime,
- Equal rights of the nations of Yugoslavia,
- Preventing the burden of crisis on the back of the People and improving the economic position of broad working masses at the expense of the rich.
The Communist Party of Yugoslavia comprehended the People's Front (NF) as a political platform for the approaching of masses with its ideas and as a method of alliance with other opposition parties like civic, republican and democratic bourgeois parties.
The Communist Party of Yugoslavia was banned from political life of the country but remained seized with the matter of creating a singular People's Front up to the beginning of World War II.
At the conference in Stolice (Serbia) it was concluded that the antifascist movement should be transformed to a United People's Liberation Front of Yugoslavia.
Each of the future republics and autonomous provinces had its own People's Liberation Front.
National front of republics and provinces
| Name of the people's front | Date of first lands' conference | Place, Republic or province |
|---|---|---|
| United People's Liberation Front of Croatia | May 18, 1944 | Croatia |
| People's Liberation Front of Bosnia and Herzegovina | July 3, 1944 | Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| People's Liberation Front of Montenegro | July 16, 1944 | Kolašin, Montenegro |
| United People's Liberation Front of Serbia | November 14, 1944 | Serbia |
| People's Liberation Front of Macedonia | November 26, 1944 | Skopje, Macedonia |
| People's Liberation Front of Vojvodina | December 11, 1944 | Novi Sad, Vojvodina |
| People's Liberation Front of Kosovo | April 11 and April 12, 1945 | Kosovo |
| Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation | July 15 and July 16, 1945 | Ljubljana, Slovenia |
The first congress of the People's Front of Yugoslavia was held in Belgrade from August 5 to August 7, 1945. The Programme and the Statute of the National Front of Yugoslavia were passed. Edvard Kardelj gave the main guidelines for the NFY in his seminary which described the NFY as "the sole of the Nation, its reflection, its heroic uprising, its greatest majority – that it is – the Nation itself".
The NFY was the only organisation to contest the first postwar election, in 1945; opposition parties pulled out after claiming to have experienced severe intimidation. On 29 November, the Communist-dominated parliament formally abolished the monarchy and declared Yugoslavia a republic. From that moment onward, the NFY was effectively the only legally permitted political organisation in the country.
At the fourth congress of the NFY it changed its name to the Socialist Alliance of the Working People of Yugoslavia. The congress accepted the proposal of the sixth congress of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia to have the name changed at the fourth congress of the National Front of Yugoslavia, held in Belgrade from February 22 to February 25, 1953.
Parties and general people's organizations of the NF
- Antifascist Front of Women of Yugoslavia (AFŽ)
- Croatian Peasant Party
- Independent Democratic Party
- Landworkers' Party
- National Peasant Party
- Socialist Party of Yugoslavia
- Social-Democratic Party of Yugoslavia
- United Alliance of Antifascist Youth of Yugoslavia (USAOJ)
- United Trade Union of Workers and Employees (JSRiN)
- Yugoslav Republican Democratic Party
Parties not members of the NF
- Democratic Party
- National Radical Party
References
- Narodni front Jugoslavije, Političko odeljenje Ministarstva narodne odbrane, Beograd, 1945.
- Katarina Spehnjak, Narodni front Jugoslavije (SSRNJ) - razvoj, programsko-teorijske osnove i procesi u društvenoj praksi, published in Povijesni prilozi Year 3, No 1, a collection of papers by the Institute of the History of the Workers Movement of Croatia, Zagreb, 1984. ISSN 0351-9767