In 1969 the PFLP declared it was a “Marxist-Leninist” organisation – a term universally used by Maoist organisations. Lenin’s united workers front strategy was replaced by Mao’s popular frontism; his class-based approach to the national question was overturned by prioritising the national conflict over class struggle;  his international workers’ solidarity was replaced by alliances with the ruling elites of ‘friendly countries’; and Lenin’s “arming the working class” during a working-class led political revolution was replaced by “guerrilla struggle” aimed at igniting a mass based popular war.

There is no reformist road to breaking with capitalism. When it has been tried, the results have been a disaster. Capitalism has at times been prepared to tolerate reforms, such as the creation of the welfare state and NHS post-World War 2. It did so because the alternative was a revolution. Faced with a powerful, organised workers movement, the ruling class risked losing their wealth and privileged place in society.

According to the Socialists and Stalinists, i.e., the Mensheviks of the first and second instances, the Spanish revolution was called upon to solve only its “democratic” tasks, for which a united front with the “democratic” bourgeoisie was indispensable. From this point of view, any and all attempts of the proletariat to go beyond the limits of bourgeois democracy are not only premature but also fatal.