Cultural Front (Canada)

Origins of the “Popular Front”

In 1930s Canada, these networks forged a social movement initially characterized as the “popular front.” Historically, the term identifies a formal coalition among a range of socialist and communist political parties which formed Popular Front governments in Spain and France in 1936. Facilitating a popular front was also a specific strategy of the Communist International at the time, which sought alignment among progressive political parties and activist groups in many countries with a view to avoid war but defeat fascism.

Such alignments were exemplified in Canada in the formation of umbrella organizations such as the Canadian League Against War and Fascism (1934), bringing together various groups by drawing attention to the intersection between civil rights, political economy, communication, and culture. Such groups included communist, socialist, and labor political parties, labor unions and unorganized workers, associated women's groups (including the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom), and radical religious groups such as the Fellowship for Christian Social Order.

The Canadian League Against War and Fascism was complemented by a push for a “united front” of youth organizations, bringing together labor, pacifist, political, and religious organizations in youth congresses. This resulted in a Bill of Rights of Canadian Youth (1936), which implored the federal government to guarantee a holistic set of rights connecting economic security, ethical and creative labor, and culture, health, and education, as inseparable and interdependent.

Although the politics of allegiance was volatile because of conflicts over rival goals and methods, the energy and mobilization of the Cultural Front grew from the politics of form. This meant cultural action from below, both opposed and alternative [Page 149]to the dominant structuring of culture in sports, drama, and education. It equally meant expanding communication through producing a whole range of alternative media.

The Cultural Front in Sport

An amalgamation of local sports clubs into the Workers' Sport Association of Canada, for example, opposed the commodification of sports, with the associated construction of large premises for paying spectators, and media and corporate promotional budgets (exemplified by Canada's National Hockey League). It distanced itself from the individualism, nationalism, patriotism, and militarism imposed on most amateur sport organizations and aimed to facilitate public alternatives that did not discriminate by age, gender, or social class.

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