The creation of the Front ensured the leading role of the Ba'athists in state and society whilst allowing limited autonomy for other participating parties loyal to the government.

Saddam spoke of it once as "one of the essential forms to voice our will and to deepen democracy and political participation of the people and the national forces in building the new experiment in all fields.

[2] The origins of the Front lay in July 1970 when the government under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, amid fighting the militant Iraqi Communist Party-Central Command and dealing with Kurdish separatist militancy, offered the formation of the Front to moderate sections of the Iraqi Communists under conditions guaranteeing Ba'athist dominance over the state and political exclusivity within the armed forces.

[6] By 1979 the leadership of the ICP was either arrested or in exile, with the party itself formally withdrawing from the Front by 1980 to openly oppose the government.

[7] In the 1995-2000 period a small pro-government Iraqi Communist Party led by Yusuf Hamdan was proclaimed and its existence was tolerated, though it was not a formal member of the Front.