In addressing the issue of unity, two questions have to be asked: Who and what are uniting, and to what purpose are they uniting? And a further question must be answered: How do we achieve this unity?

The United Front Tactic was employed by Communist Parties between 1902 and 1917, and again in the early 1920's, at a time when the question of building links with the masses had assumed decisive importance. The  Communist Parties constantly issued calls on reformist parties and Trades Unions to form a united front.

The relationship maintained the ideological and organisational unity of the Bolsheviks and independence from the opportunist theory and practice of the Mensheviks, whilst co-operating to build mass campaigns on specific issues and winning support for communists.

One of the reasons for these calls was to expose the opportunist leaders of the working class. But the essence of the tactic was the building of links between the established Communist Parties and the masses.

The United Front Tactic was employed by established Communist Parties, one in each country, in order to forge links with the masses. But in Britain today,  there is no such single Party. The advanced section of the class is divided into a number of small, isolated groupings and parties. Our primary task today is to build a Communist Party capable of forging links with the masses. In order to do so, we must build the unity of the advanced element.

This was the situation in which Lenin found himself at the time he founded 'Iskra'. The role of 'Iskra' was one of uniting and increasing the advanced element and of building the Bolshevik grouping. Lenin was building the unity of the advanced section of the working class and the conditions for a Communist Party. 'Iskra' and Lenin became a centre around which the advanced and average workers could organise.

It is our duty to work towards an effectively functioning, single Communist Party. The aim of our National Committee is to work towards the unification of the Marxist-Leninist, anti-revisionist forces in Britain, and eventually to form a single Communist Party.

In order to achieve this goal, we must find ways of building the unity of the advanced element, for the purpose of building the Party.

The NCMLU is a Communist organisation of Marxist-Leninists who are attempting to create the conditions for a single Communist Party through a new tactic.

This tactic differs markedly from the United Front Tactic in that it is not that of a Communist Party, but of an organised grouping of Communists. It also differs significantly in that it does not make calls for united action on Trades Unions and Social-Democratic parties, but makes calls for united, organised action on the advanced section of the class.

The United Front Tactic was concerned with forging links between the Party and the (possibly social-democratic) masses. The masses we are attempting to reach in the "United Front of Communists" are the Marxist-Leninist groupings and isolated Marxist-Leninists of the vanguard. 

In Britain, with no established Party, a call for the United Front would be meaningless. The "United Front of Communists" is a different concept, though it was developed from the concept of the United Front Tactic. The problem today is that there is no (Marxist-Leninist) Communist Party, though there are groupings that call themselves the CP. Today, Marxist-Leninists are divided through sectarian differences. We need to create a vehicle for unity on non-sectarian lines, but without creating an opportunist grouping. This will not be possible with all those who call themselves Marxist-Leninist, but that does not negate the new tactic.

Division, in which small groupings effect their own democratic centralism whilst presenting almost identical views to the masses, like so many competing brands in the market-place, can only damage the Communists. Far from creating links with the masses, these organisations drive Communists out of the movement and they end up as individuals, committed to principles which they are incapable as individuals of putting into action.

Our tactic of the "United Front of Communists" is a strategy of the struggle for unity ( the unity of the advanced element) for the purpose of forming a Marxist-Leninist Party. The struggle for the unity of the advanced element, the concrete, not abstract struggle, can be no other than the struggle for the Party. There can be no contradiction between these two tasks.

The United Front Tactic was employed at a time when the question of Communist Parties building links with the masses had assumed decisive importance. Today, with no Communist Party, the question of Marxist-Leninist unity, of uniting the vanguard for the purpose of forming a single Communist Party has assumed decisive importance.

We therefore urge Communists to join the Campaign for Marxist-Leninist Unity and to join the struggle for the single Communist Party in Britain.