The early weeks of Boris Johnson’s premiership have seen a range of voices on the left urge conciliation with the political center as a means to impede his progress. The strategies proposed have varied — from the “progressive alliance” that was in favor in early 2017 to a more clear-cut “Remain alliance” and even a national unity government. But probably the most high profile was Paul Mason’s call for a “popular front,” modeled on the one advocated in these pages by Nye Bevan and Stafford Cripps in the late 1930s.

In his article, Mason clarifies what a modern popular front would look like. “We need,” he wrote, “a one-off electoral arrangement between parties of the left and centre aimed at preventing a no-deal Brexit and removing Johnson from Downing Street.” Claiming the mantle of Bevan and Cripps — “the Corbynistas of their day” — he argues that Labour activists must “listen to the polls, the professionals and above all the historians” if they want to beat Boris Johnson and prevent no deal.

Unlike Mason, who avoids mentioning the necessary conclusion of such an alliance, Stafford Cripps was clear about what a British popular front would mean. “Any idea of real Socialism,” he wrote in 1938, “will have to be put aside for the present.” The popular front would accept “the abandonment for the time being of the hope of working-class control” in pursuit of the broadest possible alliance against fascism and war.