Esperanto What About the Workers? Part 3: The Formation of S.A.T.Author: David Poulson When Eugene Adam was released from military service in 1918 he returned to Paris a committed socialist. During the war, he had learned Esperanto with another member of his ambulance team as well as circumstances could permit and he had become convinced that an easy-to-learn auxiliary language would be of great value to any working class militants who needed to cooperate with, and learn from their comrades in other countries, but who were not able to commit the huge amount of time and effort required to learn another national language. In 1919, Adam attended a meeting the purpose of which was to revive a workers' Esperanto Group known as "Liberiga Stelo" ("The Liberating Star"). At that meeting, he met Lucien Banner and Louis Glodeau who became life-long friends and supporters. Shortly before this meeting took place, Adam had written a short pamphlet about international languages and, on the strength of that demonstration of his literary talent, it was decided that he should become the editor of a journal to be called Le Travailleur Esperantiste, or, in English, The Esperantist Worker. Adam pointed out that he did not know Esperanto well enough to edit a journal, but his objection was brushed aside because it was intended that most of the contents of the journal would be written in the French language anyway. On that basis, Adam accepted but those editorial responsibilities resulted in him progressively improving his Esperanto until he had totally mastered the language.And he became convinced it Esperanto was the best auxiliary language for revolutionary socialists. Before long, Adam began to write about the desirability of creating a new, international organisation for socialists, in which the Esperanto language would just be accepted as the main working language. The organisation would not be concerned with assisting the Esperanto movement but would encourage the development of the language itself. As a result of promoting these ideas in the columns of Le Travailleur Esperantiste a small meeting of interested Esperantists met in Prague during the International Esperanto Congerence which took place there in 1921. The official attendance was recorded as 79 people from 15 different countries which is quite a good turn-out for an inaugural meeting and was certainly enough to establish "Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda" as the new organization was called. By the end of the decade the membership of S.A.T. had grown to over 6,000 individuals and, despite the ups and downs which many left-wing organizations experienced in Europe between 1930 and 1960, it has remained a strong and influential group within the Esperanto movement. It has also attracted the support of some of the most outstanding Esperantists in the history of the movement. (While incurring the animosity of others...a point which will be explored in a later article.) To visit the home page of S.A.T. click on http://www.multimania.com/satesperanto/ Although still a "workers' organization," S.A.T. is no longer so definitely aligned to Marxist socialism as it was during the first years of its existence. Nevertheless, its objectives, as defined in its present constitution, still show the unmistakeable traces of the rhetorical style and jargon of socialist polemic. In the translation which follows, I have done my best to give the sense of these objectives while re-casting them in more contemporary language. The objectives of S.A.T. are: 1. to make practical use of the international language, Esperanto, to meet the class objectives of the workers of the world; 2. to develop a strong sense of human solidarity in the members of SAT by improving as much as possible relationships between them; 3. to continually educate its members so that they become the most capable and the most perfect of the so-called internationalists; 4. to serve as an intermediary between associations of different countries whose aims are analogous to those of SAT; 5. in every way possible, to help with the creation and distribution of literature (translations and original works) which reflect the ideals of our Association; SAT is not a political, but only an educational and cultural organization. Members of S.A.T should be understanding and tolerant of those political philosophies on which the parties and trades union movements of the militant working class are based. By allowing the comparison of facts and ideas, and through free discussion, SAT aims to neutralise the dogmatic ideas to which workers are exposed. In short, SAT aims, through the constant use of a rationally conceived language and its application world-wide, to help with the creation of rationally thinking individuals, who are capable of making valid comparisons, who can correctly understand and analyse ideas, theses, tendencies, and, can therefore choose which way which they think most appropriate to achieve the liberation of the working class and the progress of mankind to the highest level of civilization and culture. One of the ways in which S.A.T. aims to fulfil its educational ends is by publishing two journals, details of which can be found here: I was interested to see in a recent issue of La Sennacieca Revuo an article on Australian aborigines written by my "samlandano", Kep Enderby, who is currently the President of the Universala Esperanto Associo. Small world! (dau^rigota...to be continued) |