ABSTRACT
Finnish socialist intellectuals thought that it would be possible to ward off fascism by creating a counterforce led by a united working class that included parts of the proletarianised middle classes. The party would have to fight for various civil rights, improvement of the workers’ living standards and democratic control of the economy, and against the warmongering of fascism. According to the socialist intellectuals, the sharpening of the cultural struggle dictated that the labour movement should increase its cultural work. The German left socialist Fritz Sternberg and German communist August Thalheimer used a Bonapartist interpretation in their analysis of fascism at the beginning of the 1930s. The Socialist Labour International forbade its member parties from engaging themselves in any activities concerning the united front. Socialist intellectuals also invested the popular front with an international dimension – Cay Sundstrom defined it as an international anti-fascist alliance.
