WEBVTT - Esperanto with Andrew 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:06.880 Alz Media, Hello and welcome to It could happen here. 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.640 I want you to imagine a world where everyone shared 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:15.040 a second language, not because of imperial conquest, but out 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:19.720 of a shared desire for unity and understanding. That was 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.919 the dream behind Esperanto, a constructed language designed to be 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:28.240 the basis for global bilingualism. Long before I learned anything 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.040 about anarchism, I spent some time trying to learn Esperanto. 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:34.840 It has shown up on my dual lingo one day, 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.640 and it seems like such a fascinating and simple project 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:41.360 to pick up. I was enamored with the philosophy behind it, 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:43.680 so I generally spent a few months on and off 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.680 trying to learn it. I was probably a decade ago 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.040 at this point, so I don't remember too much about it, 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.000 but the connection was there. And it's really because I've 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.160 been exploring this topic for this episode that I ended 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.120 up going back and dabbling in some of it again. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:03.480 I've learned recently actually somewhat of a connection between Esperanto 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.560 and anarchism, so I stayed the time to explore the 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:11.880 origins of Esperanto. It's anarchist connections, it's flaws, and its future. 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.560 My name is Andrew Siege and I'm here once again 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:16.959 with it's me. 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:19.119 It's James again. Very excited for this one. 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:21.280 Yes, you're familiar with Esperanto. 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.320 Right, yeah, very familiar I am. I wrote about it 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:29.319 a little bit in my first book and my PhD dissertation. Also, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.039 the last living person to participate in the Popular Olympics, 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:35.160 which is what I wrote my book about, was an 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.000 Esperantis like. Part of the project of the Popular Front 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.920 in Catalonia was to bring people to diverstory sport, and 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.280 then Esperanto is going to be this thing that would, 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.639 as you mentioned, like bridge the gaps between people. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.240 Right. Yes, it's a really inspiring project. And so I 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.040 know you're probably gonna know all this information, but I 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:54.440 do have to share it with the audience. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:59.640 Yeah, I'm excited. I never like really did full rundown Esperanto. 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:01.880 It just paid now, So howly shit that's called so 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:03.040 learn a lot. 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:07.000 Sure. So. Esperanto was first constructed in a little booklet 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:12.200 in eighteen eighty seven by Polish Jewish ophthalmologist el El Samonhoff. 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:16.120 According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the name itself comes from 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.280 the pseudonym he took on to publish the booklet. He 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:24.680 called himself doctorro Esperanto. Esperanto meaning one who hopes and 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.440 hope really analyzed the whole project. According to a BBC 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.240 article written by Jose Luis Benarredondo, he lived as a 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.720 Polish Jew in the multicultural Russian Empire in a time 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.480 rife with racial and national conflict. He was trying to 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.080 promote peace and understanding, and he saw an international language 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.560 as a ways to do that, with a flag of 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.080 green and white, the colors of hope and peace. For 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.880 his efforts, Zamenhoff himself was nominated fourteen times for the 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.600 Nobel Peace Prize. He genuine believed that if we all 0:02:55.720 --> 0:03:02.720 shared a common second language quote education, ideals, convictions, aims 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.160 would be the same too, and all nations would be 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:10.280 united in a common brotherhood end quote. Esperanto was created 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.320 in a time when modernism was on the rise and 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.480 the idea of rationality and science was being used to 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:20.280 quote un quote optimize the world. When it was featured 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.800 in Paris's Exposition Universal in nineteen hundred, the language caught 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.799 on amongst the French intelligensia, who saw it as more 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.040 optimal than the messy and the logical realm of natural languages. 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.400 Because it was so easy, all words and sentences being 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.160 built from sixteen basic rules that could fit on a paper, 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.880 and the language lacked the confusing exceptions and special rules 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.240 or other languages, it was once seen as the language 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.120 of the future. Esperanto made its full fledged public debut 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:54.320 in nineteen oh five when seven Hoff published The Fundamental Esperanto, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.320 which laid down the basic principles of languages structure and formation. 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.920 Esperanto designed to be simple, logical, and accessible, drawn from 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.560 the influence of Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages and its construction. 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.600 The orthography is phonetic, so all the words are spelled 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.400 as pronounced, and the grammar is so straightforward. There's a 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:21.320 consistent word ending for nouns, pluralization, adjectives, and verbs. But 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.320 although simple, it can convey complexity. There's a lot of 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.279 suffixes you can add to give degrees of meaning, and 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.960 there's room for compound words too. It's European focus to 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.960 be the target of criticism later on, but it actually 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.159 ended up being picked up in some unusual places anyway. 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.679 Zamenhoff translated literature and wrote original verse, and after years 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.719 of effort, there were speakers to be found across Europe, 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.680 the Americas, China, and Japan. 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:51.600 Interesting. 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.960 By nineteen oh eight, the Universala Esperanto a Socio was founded, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:00.320 and it can now find members in eighty three countries worldwide. Today, 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:05.080 there's also fifty national Esperanto associations and twenty two international 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:09.200 professional associations that use Esperanto. There's an annual World Esperanto 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:13.000 Congress and more than one hundred periodicals published in Esperanto. 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.160 Estimates range widely in terms of how many people speak 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.760 Esperanto today. They are apparently a handful of native speakers, 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.600 folks who are raised speaking Esperanto. Oh wow, yeah, it's 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:25.799 really really really cool. 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:26.600 Yeah. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.520 But L two speakers are somewhere between thirty eight thousand 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.640 l to being you know, second language speakers are somewhere 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:38.400 between thirty eight thousand to two million. According to Wildfith's 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.440 article on Esperanto and anarchism, there are tens of thousands 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.839 of books in Esperanto and several hundred, mostly small periodicals 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:51.120 that appear regularly. Partly a day passes about international meetings, 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:55.800 such as those of specialized organizations, conferences, youth get togethers, seminars, 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.719 group holidays, and regional meetings. There are several radio stations 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:03.760 that podcast programs in Esperanto, and Esperanto has even been 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.080 used by couples of different origins as a family language. 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.120 It's cool, funny enough. As with every language, even an 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.880 aspiring universal language, it has since had its offshoots. I 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.080 saw on Wikipedia that nearly a year after Salmonhoff's creation 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.080 of Esperanto, in eighteen eighty eight, Dutch author J. Brachmann 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.520 proposed a few changes to language, like combining the end 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.560 in for the adjective and adverb, change in conjugations, introducing 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.479 more Latin roots, getting rid of the diacritics, and so on. 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.440 This language would be called Mundolinko, and it was the 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:42.280 first of many offshoots from Esperanto proper. Even zalmon Hooff 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.200 would try to reform the language at one point in 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.760 eighteen ninety four, but it was rejected by the Esperanto 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.640 community and eventually even himself. These reforms would later be 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.960 used to develop Edo, another attempt at universal language, with 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.800 far less success. I also learned view Wikipedia there was 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.840 an attempt to make Esperanto more complex by introducing Cherokee 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:06.599 components called policepo created by a Native American activist named 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:11.480 Billy ray Walden. Esperanto speakers continue to play the language 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.680 in all sorts of ways. To this day. Esperanto is 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.720 an evolved in language and Samanhoff himself is honored as 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:23.080 part of this global Esperanto culture. They celebrate his birthday 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.440 the fifteenth of December. There are statues and streets and 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:30.360 plaques remembering him worldwide, and even an asteroid bears his name. 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.720 At one point, according to the BBC article, there was 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.640 an effort to establish an Esperanto speaking land called ami Kejo, 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.600 which would have been a three point five square kilometer 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:46.760 territory between the Netherlands, Germany and France. Yeah. Nice, three 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:48.320 point five square kilometers. 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.600 Yeah, not huge, Yeah, it's like how big. Well, I know, 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.000 we've got a few of those, like little ones in Europe, you. 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.000 Know, Yeah, a couple of micro estates. It could have 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.800 been another micro state, but the idea was very squashed 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:01.760 follow World War One. 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:07.040 Yeah, I know. This SENATEAVI, the Spanish Anarchosynthicalist Union was 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.440 like in its first congress, like its foundational Congress. I 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.800 suppose they were like, and everyone has to everyone should 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:15.960 try and learn Esperanto, Like that was one of their 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:20.080 like the things that at the foundation of what became 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.640 probably the most powerful anarchist movement the world's ever seen. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.600 They were like, also, this is a big thing. 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.320 Yeah. Yeah, Esperanto was really huge in the anarchist movement 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.480 at a certain point. Yeah, but we're going to get 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:44.720 to those connections soon enough. I wanted to bring up 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:49.679 this other interesting story. There was actually an effort by esperantists, 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.960 including a delegate from Iran, to get the language to 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.480 become the official language of the League of Nations. But 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.880 take one guess as to which country block that effort. 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.200 Was it one of the anglophone countries? No, oh, wow, 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:06.400 the French. 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:07.400 It was the French. 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.480 Yeah, there is not a state more invested in its 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.240 language than France. Indeed, they have laws I think about, 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.760 like broadcasting music and dubbing films and things. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:24.600 Yeah. The French government seemingly hated Esperanto. At least according 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.160 to the article on imp of the Diverse blog site, 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.480 they blocked its study in universities and public schools, and 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.240 as the article quotes, the opponents directly quote. On September tenth, 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.199 nineteen twenty two, the New York Tribune ran a translation 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:42.959 of a piece by the editor in chief of the 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:48.480 Martin Stefan Lausanne miss Lasan spent half his editorial writing 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.480 about Esperanto. And I'm not going to do a French 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.920 accent for this section. But just imagine, like the most 0:09:54.960 --> 0:10:00.600 French Frenchman reading this, that Finns or Albanians but such 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:05.280 a proper gander is comprehensible. Their dialect has no chance 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.720 of imposing itself on the universe. They need a second 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:13.280 language just as well Esperanto as any other. But that 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:17.400 French people or English or Germans could have let themselves 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:22.400 be allured by this linguistic bolsheviser that is far more extraordinary. 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.400 It is nevertheless a fact that Esperanto, which was born 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.480 twenty five years ago and ought to have died through ridicule, 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.040 continues to have disciples in Europe. Every year, in a 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.960 different capital they hold a congress at which they are 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.720 not very numerous, but where they make a great noise. 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.200 They get so excited that quite recently the Minister of 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.040 Public Instruction had to address a circular to all the 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:50.439 French educational resorts to warn them against the danger of Esperanto. 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.200 An article in the Washington Herald on that same day 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.199 explained the danger, at the least according to the Ministry 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:02.160 of Public Instruction. The reason for this order, according to 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:04.840 certain school teachers, is that teaching of a language as 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:08.520 easy as Esperanto endangers the existence of the French language 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.160 and thus the national solidarity of the country. They consent 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.480 that children will nationally take to an easy language is Esperanto, 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.720 and in that time French and English would perish, and 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:22.840 that the literary standard of the world would be debased. Furthermore, 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.160 they argue that a national language plays a predominant part 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.840 in maintaining national unity, and points to Poland and Lorraine 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:34.200 as examples. Esperanto is an artificial language of no real merit. 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.240 Right to one professor, it has no very definite origin, 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:39.520 and what it aims to draw the scattered people of 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.080 the world together? Does it doth rather tend to denationalization? 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:44.800 End quote. 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.280 They're not wrong, Like France is the language if you 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.480 read like a peasants into Frenchman is kind of the 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.560 classic work on like French nationalization, but like in order 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.480 to make people French, they did have to suppress like 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.599 Basque and Breton and Catalan and other languages, right, and 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.160 make people go to schools where they learned French and 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.880 conceived of themselves as French. As a result of that. 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:12.520 Yeah, their imposition of DaShan identity was perhaps among the 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.040 most successful in the world. Yeah, in terms of its 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.960 iliness and its consistent enforcement. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.000 It shows like nations are always projects of the bourgeoisie, right, Like, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.280 at least I would argue that, and so a lot 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:30.079 of other people. But like the French example is one 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.480 where we can see it more clearly than others. Like 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.360 it's a state and specifically like a certain class within 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:40.280 the state's project to enforce and continue to perpetuate this 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:41.240 narrative of nation. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.439 And you know, they weren't the only enemies of Esperanto. 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.800 And do you know that's saying judge me by my enemies. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:52.360 Yeah, who else have we got? 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:58.120 Nazi Germany, Francoist Spain and the Soviet Union also heated. 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.760 Esperanto gets cooler with every the. 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:05.400 Nazis, they were nationalists and the Zawonhoff was Jewish, so 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.880 his family was actually targeted and the language was banned 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.240 and Esperantists were targeted and put in camps during the Holocaust, 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:14.680 which is really tragic. 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:15.520 Yeah, pretty fucked. 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:20.280 Yeah, his whole family was heavily targeted by Nazi Germany. 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:26.880 Franco associated Esperanto with anti nationalism and anarchism, which true. Yeah, 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:31.400 he wasn't wrong, So it was targeted for a while. Yeah, 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:36.760 and the Soviets, while originally recognizing Esperantists, eventually reversed that 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.920 policy under Stalin during the Great Purge and executed exiled 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:45.840 or guvagh Esperantists. And as you can imagine, all that 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:51.880 repression all at once kind of killed Esperanto's momentum. Today, 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.360 despite its goal of being a truly international language, Esperanto's 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.200 global reatremain's une fun well. It has made some strides 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.640 in recent years, it's still underrepresented in many parts of 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.320 Africa and Asia. The majority of Esperanto speakers today are 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.640 in Europe. Those development outside of Europe deserves some attention, 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.080 as Esperanto manage to levermarque in China, Iran, Togo, and 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.679 the Democratic Republic of Congo. But the response to Esperanto 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.440 historically should give you an indication as to how anarchists 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:25.080 must have felt about Esperanto as an internationalist or anti 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.040 nationalist movement. Anarchism was very supportive of the Esperanto project. 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.800 When running through the timeline could to see Wilfirth's Esperanto 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.480 and Anarchism. One of the earliest anarchist Esperanto groups was 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.440 founded in Stockholm in nineteen oh five. The same year, 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.120 the anarchist Pull Up with a Lot founded the monthly 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:47.240 magazine Esperanto. Similar groups suonnimmersed in Bulgaria, China and other countries. 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:52.200 In nineteen oh six, anarchists anarchist Synicolis founded an international association, 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:57.840 Paco Libreco Peace Freedom, which published the Internacia Socia Review. 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.920 By nineteen ten, Paco Libireco merged with Esperantista Lawari Staro 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:08.600 to form Liberiga Stello star Liberation, strengthening anarchist Esperanto networks. 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.720 The nineteen oh seven International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam formally 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:17.400 addressed their role of Esperanto in international communication. Subsequent anarchist 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.040 congresses continue to pass resolutions advocating for Esperanto's use within 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:25.400 the movement. By nineteen fourteen, these anarchists esperantist organizations had 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:30.920 published extensive revolutionary literature, including anarchist texts in Esperanto. Around 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.320 this time, correspondence between European and Japanese anarchists became more active, 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:40.960 facilitated by Esperanto. In Prague, Eugene Adam proposed the formation 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:45.280 of Sena Sisa Associo Tutmunda the SAT or the World 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:51.800 in National Association. Unlike other Esperanto associations, SAT rejected nationalism 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:57.240 wholesale and sought to create a transnational class conscious workers movement. 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.040 To quote why is there an Esperanto Workers Movement by 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.880 Gary Michel, SAT was not meant to usurp the role 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.280 of political parties by engaging in political struggles directly, but 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.960 was to be a cultural association engaged in workers education, 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:14.880 one that would help to break down national and ethnic 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.920 barriers between workers by involving them in practical collective activity, 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.840 bringing workers into contact, freeing them from the shackles of nationalism. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.080 SAT's ideas, and especially the ideas of its a nationalist faction, 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.880 were an early statement of an idea that has more 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:35.080 recently come to be known as globalization from below. So 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:38.280 in August nineteen twenty one, seventy nine workers from fifteen 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.880 countries gathered in Prague to formally established SAT. By nineteen 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.040 twenty nine to nineteen thirty, SAT had grown to six 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.400 five hundred and twenty four members across forty two countries, 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:54.360 reaching its peak influence. The use of Esperanto flourished in 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.000 German workers' movements between nineteen twenty and nineteen thirty three. 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.480 By nineteen thirty two, the Workers Esperanto League had four 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:05.719 thousand members, leading to Esperanto being called the Workers Latin. 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.960 But as you can imagine, this was not to last. 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.840 By the time Hitler came into power. The Scientific Anarchist 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.159 Library of the International Language or ISAB, was founded in 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.760 the USSR in nineteen twenty three, publishing anarchist works by 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.840 Kropotkin and a. Borivoi in Esperanto. This also would not 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.960 last the Great Purge. The Berlin group of anarchistyniclist Esperantis 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.960 creeated the second Congress of the International Workers Association in 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.239 Amsterdam in nineteen twenty five and reported that Esperanto had 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.720 become so integrated into their movement that an international libertarian 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:42.359 Esperantist organization had formed. This likely referred to the TLEs 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.639 the World League of Titless Esperantists, which later merged with SAT. 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:52.159 Esperanto was also popping off amongst anarchists and socialists in Korea, China, 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.919 and Japan. Liushifu, a key figure in Chinese anarchism, began 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.800 publishing La Vocho de la Popolo The Voice of the 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.560 People in nineteen thirteen, the first anarchist periodical in China. 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.920 His work relied heavily on information from Internacia Socier Review 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.800 and helped popularize esperanto in China. Japanese anarchists and socialists, 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.920 as I mentioned, were among the earliest esperantists in the country, 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:22.960 but faced heavy persecution and sadly between imperial Japan, Francoist Spain, 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.640 Nazi Germany, and Stalinist Russia. The rise of tatalitarian regimes 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.679 lead into World War II largely suppressed the anarchist esperanto movement. 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.320 After the war, the Paras Anarchist Esperanto group was the 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:38.640 first to resume organized work, launching the publication Sen Santano 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:43.439 in nineteen forty six. Most anarchist esperantists have since been 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.600 organized within SAT, with an anarchist faction maintaining its autonomy. 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.200 In nineteen sixty nine, this faction began publishing the Liberal 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.240 Sana Bultano, later a day in the Liberate Sana Ligillo. 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.359 By nineteen ninety seven, SAT membership had dwindled to fewer 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.879 than fifteen one hundred members. The initial radical vision of 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.280 SAT was weakened by political shifts and the growing dominance 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.600 of English as a global lingua franca. The only separation 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.159 between SAT and mainstream Esperanto organizations was a response to 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.080 bourgeois political neutrality, but it also contributed to its marginalization, 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.879 and today the anarchist Esperanto movement exists largely as a 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:34.439 niche within SAT. So what can we say about the 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.760 role of Esperanto today. Well, one of the more interesting 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.520 currents I found in the Esperanto community mentioned by Firth 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:46.360 is Raumismo, a philosophy named after the Finnish city of Rauma, 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:51.320 where a youth congress in nineteen eighty helped define this approach. 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:56.600 Braumismo views Esperanto speakers as a kind of linguistic diaspora, 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.760 a cultural group bound together by a shared language rather 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.120 than an national identity. Instead of focusing on making Esperanto 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:07.080 a universal second language, browingy storage embrace it as just 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:11.640 one language among many, valuing its use in literature, culture 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:17.520 and everyday communication without any grand ideological ambitions. But it's possible, Esperanto, 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:19.720 who can still play a role in facilities in exchange 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:23.520 and collaboration between people of different linguistic backgrounds. A German 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:28.280 anarchist once lamented the barriers international understanding, quoted in Food's article, 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.600 more or less in isolation from one another, we work 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.200 and fight without engaging in exchange about our victories and defeats, 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:39.000 and with thoughts supporting and encouraging one another. Intensifying contact 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.399 above the regional level with people having similar ideas and 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.399 aims should be an important component of our work in 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:49.520 order to make effective, active solidarity possible. And that's the trouble. 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:55.040 Even today. Linguistic barriers hinder international cooperation. Groups struggle to 0:20:55.080 --> 0:21:01.199 maintain foreign language correspondence, organize multilingual meetings, or find interpreters. Instead, 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.320 communication tends to rely on chance. You know someone in 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.440 a group happens to speak a certain language that determines 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:10.720 who they can connect with. But when those key individuals 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.480 move on, those connections can have fallen apart. So I 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.199 get the appeal, I mean, wouldn't it be beneficial for 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.200 these movements and for any interest group working across language 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.440 barriers to have a relatively easy to learn, politically neutral 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.600 means of communication. Major languages like English, Spanish or French 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.919 don't fully solve the problem, as they come with historical 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:35.760 baggage and imbalances influency levels. Esperanto, on the other hand, 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.639 provides a more equitable solution because everybody is from this 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.440 starts and from the same point. Since it isn't tied 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.719 to any one nation, it avoids the poodynamics that arise 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.679 when non native speakers must conform to the linguistic norms 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:53.119 of dominant cultures. Unlike English, which often privileges native speakers 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.120 and places others as perpetual learners, Esperanto fosters a more 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:02.000 level playin field English like a global linguid franca right now, 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:04.959 but a lot of people leave school without ever developing 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:09.000 an effluency to navigate an English dominated world, and English 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:14.359 is not the easiest language to learn. Esperanto, regardless of 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.920 weather ever, becomes a global standard, offers an alternative path. 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.480 It can help people overcome language learning anxieties, as particularly 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:27.240 those who feel disempowered by additional educational systems, and it 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.880 can inspire an interest in language itself. If you've ever 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.280 met an Esperanto speaker, you know that they are very 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:38.480 passionate about linguistics. More often than not, many of the 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:42.160 speakers go on to study linguistics, language politics, or even 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.600 lesser known languages. It's also a great way to develop 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:51.200 translation skills in a friendly, cooperative environment. For monolingual English speakers, 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.440 using Esperanto can be an eye opening experience. It puts 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:57.400 them the shoes of those who never got to rely 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:01.199 on their native language in international settings. Rather than view 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.480 an Esperanto as a competitor to other languages, perhaps a 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:06.800 more productive approach is to see it as a tool 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:11.920 for promoting multilingualism, cultural exchange, and a more cosmopolitan mindset 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:15.720 within the Esperanto speaking The community. Opinions and its future 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:19.240 vary widely, but one thing is clear. The question of 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:22.480 how we communicate a cross linguistic divides is still very 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:27.640 much alive, and Esperanto offers but one possible answer. However, 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:31.640 as I alluded to Ilier, Esperanto is not without its critiques, 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:34.520 as covered by Firth, Let's start with one of the 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:39.240 most frequent critiques, Esperanto is an artificial language. Unlike the 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:43.160 so called natural languages, which evolved organically over time, Esperanto 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:47.359 is deliberately constructed. But here's the thing. Since the rise 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:50.760 of the nation state, the line between natural and artificial 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:56.160 languages has become increasingly blurry. Many national languages, like standard 0:23:56.160 --> 0:24:00.440 German or Standard French, have been shaped by deliberate standardization, 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:06.040 legal regulations, and media influence. In that sense, every language 0:24:06.080 --> 0:24:10.840 is to some degree engineered. Authors, storytellers, and ordinary speakers 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:15.240 continuously influenced language development, meaning that Esperanto is not as different. 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:19.280 After all, it does continue to evolve. And here's where 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:22.920 I think. James Scott had a rather negative characterization of 0:24:23.040 --> 0:24:26.760 Esperanto as a purely high modernist endeavor, as though all 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:31.040 esperandos sought to make Esperanto the official international language in 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:33.520 se Meca State. He claims that Esperanto was created to 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:37.159 replace the dialects and vernaculars of Europe. But such was 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:39.840 never the case. It was always meant to be a 0:24:39.920 --> 0:24:43.640 language used to facilitate communication. There was more than one 0:24:43.680 --> 0:24:46.800 motivation of Esperando's use, and boil in such an exercise 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:49.399 and human creativity, and attempted a connection down to just 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:54.760 that status focus to me seems needlessly reductive. He also 0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:57.800 calls it quote an exceptionally thin language without any of 0:24:57.840 --> 0:25:02.199 the resonances, connotations ready metaphor literatures, oral histories, idioms, and 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:05.600 traditions of practical use that any social embedded language already 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:09.119 had end quote, which may be true when I began, 0:25:09.840 --> 0:25:12.440 but it's certainly not true now was over a century 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:13.800 of use and evolution. 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:16.240 Yeah. 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:20.200 His analogies between Esperanto and plant cities also missed the 0:25:20.240 --> 0:25:23.280 mark for me, as Esperanto has clearly operated as a 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:26.679 self organized and grassroots movement for most of its history 0:25:27.440 --> 0:25:30.000