Left Front (Russia)

The Left Front is a revolutionary anti-capitalist united front encompassing a range of far-left and ultra-left political organisations in Russia, as well as other countries of the former Soviet Union. It is part of the illegal Russian United Labour Front and Garry Kasparov's The Other Russia coalition.

Goals and objectives
The main purpose of the Platform of the Left Front declared the building of socialism in Russia. The task of the Left Front declares ensure unity among all who stand for socialism, democracy and internationalism, and coordination of left-wing opposition forces. Left Front unites now more left-wing organizations, with membership in the Left Front does not oblige its members to leave their own organization.

History
The idea of ​​creating the Left Front was born in the spring of 2005 among some activists who participated in the preparation of the first Russian Social Forum. Among them were Ilya Budraytskis, Karin Clement, Boris Kagarlitsky, Ilya Ponomarev, Victor Shapinov, Heydar Jemal, Alexei Sakhnin and others. That summer was the first conference of the movement, and in October - the founding conference of the Moscow regional organization. However, the wave of mass protests caused by the monetization of social benefits to the fall of 2005 came to naught, which caused a crisis in the Left Front.

This was the cause of the decline of activity of the organization. Nevertheless, the Left Front has become one of the leading forces were preparing for a second Russian Social Forum in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2006, coincided with the same time, the summit "Big Eight". Activists of the Left Front took part in workshops at the forum, and in protests against the heads of government "Big Eight».

Since 2007, there has been a new rise of the Left Front. In many ways he was connected with cooperation with the Vanguard of Red Youth, activists and leaders who played a major role in reviving the idea of ​​combining the radical left. However, the preparatory period before the first congress of the organization took almost a year since the bid was made to work on the development of new regional offices, which would include both the old activists of the Left Front, and Vanguard of Red Youth, and members of other organizations or just people leftist. In total, over one and a half years (summer 2008 - autumn 2009) has been more than 40 regional conferences, established under the areas of the country offices of the front.

An important event in the development of the Left Front was the first congress, held October 18, 2008. The main direction of work after the Congress was using Social movements, unions, labor collectives. The second focus of activists has become a so-called "propaganda of action" in which ideas and demands of leftist activists came to the society in the form of direct action, thus attempting to overcome the difficulties of access to media. In addition, the Left Front was the organizer of the annual summer youth camps, schools, political activists, conferences, study groups for the study of socialist thought and practice, film clubs and other activities.

On April 19, 2013 the political rights of the Left Front were suspended for 3 months by Russian prosecutors. The organization is forbidden to hold meetings, participate in protests, or use its symbols or bank accounts for 3 months.

Actions
Left Front holds a variety of authorized and unauthorized actions, rallies, marches. The most famous of the promotions are meetings under the title "Day of Wrath", the host organization in Moscow and in other regions of the country. In addition, the Left Front, together with its allies conducting (despite the ban on government) action "anti-capitalism", which aims, according to organizers, to show the public presence of political forces, anti-capitalist orientation.

Structure
The highest governing body of the Left Front is the Congress. Tip of the Left Front carries out the current leadership of the movement, and the Board is an operational working body of the organization.

Member Organizations

 * Vanguard of Red Youth
 * RCYL(b) - Revolutionary Communist Youth League (Bolshevik)
 * EIF
 * Russian Communist Workers' Party – Revolutionary Party of Communists (RCWP-RPC)
 * Russian Socialist Movement
 * Autonomous Action

Allied Organizations

 * Other Russia

Links

 * Official website of the Left Front
 * Newspaper "Ultimatum"
 * Official site of the Rostov branch of the Left Front
 * Official site of the Penza Branch of the Left Front