SAT and SEU: Pluralism Under a United Front
Two months after the founding of SEU, an additional important orga- nizing event occurred in the international Esperanto movement, mark- ing the beginning of a new phase. Early in 1921, SAT was founded. Its aim was to serve as the representative organization of those united in the desire to put Esperanto at the service of the worldwide class struggle.
Efforts to create self-supporting groups of worker Esperantists actu- ally began before the war. Most workers using Esperanto preferred to distance themselves from the traditional, neutral organizations. Quite apart from the fact that the leadership of the traditional movement lay primarily in the hands of 'socially respectable' individuals, the workers were put off by the apolitical atmosphere of 'samideanoj' (adepts of the same idea, as the Esperantists called themselves), the cult surrounding the 'master' Zamenhof (which he himself abhorred), the singing of a nai've hymn (Zamenhof's poem La Espero, which became the anthem of the Esperantists) and symbols of the Esperanto movement, green flags and stars. They were drawn by the idealistic element in Esperanto, to be sure, but they noted, not without disquietude, that many Esperantists seemed to have an insufficient understanding of the ideas of Zamenhof or Hodler, both of whom emphasized the link between Esperanto and the goal of removing international tensions and social injustice.
The historical merit of initiating an independent international organi- zation of worker Esperantists goes to the Frenchman, Eugene Adam, who became known by the pseudonym Lanti.2 5 Born in Normandy in 1879, Lanti received only an elementary education, but as an autodidact rap- idly acquired considerable knowledge. He learned the craft of woodwork- ing, which he later also taught. In Paris, around the turn of the century, Lanti was drawn to anarchism, under the influence of Peter Kropotkin and Elisee Reclus, and later had personal contact particularly with the theorists Sebastien Faure, Jean Grave and Han Ryner.[568] He was particularly taken with the undogmatic character of anarchism and its radical opposition to nation- alism. The war, in which Lanti participated as a member of an ambulance brigade, reinforced his hatred for everything associated with nationhood; but also, because of the dispiriting example of the great anarchist Kropotkin, who in 1914 announced himself a Russian patriot, the war caused him to distance himself from anarchism. As a result, when in 1917 the October Revolution triumphed, Lanti gladly joined the sympathizers of the Bolsheviks.
In December 1914 he began to learn Esperanto; and, following the war, he had his first contact with revolutionary Esperantists in Paris, who had just re-established 'Liberiga Stelo' (Star of Liberation), a small orga- nization that had come into being before the war. They offered Lanti the editorship of their journal Le Travailleur Esperantiste. He accepted, including in the first issue a declaration that established the priority 'socialists and trade-unionists first ... Esperantists second' and ended with the cry, 'Down with all fanaticisms!'.[569]
In his articles for the journal, Lanti expressed skepticism about efforts to unite the national workers' associations in a 'Red/Green International'. He argued, for the first time in April 1920, for a 'nationless' form of organization,[570] and in the following months repeatedly returned to that theme. Time after time proclaiming his conviction that nations must be stamped out, he called on his readers to put into action immediately 'a society which could, as it were in embryo, function as society might uni- versally function in the future'. Lanti conceded that national associations were needed, but he refused the idea that they might form a basis for the desired worldwide organization. He preferred that an effort be made, through a kind of Esperanto-speaking microcosm, to create a 'nation- less people', which 'could immediately accustom itself to action and to a capacity for thought and feeling outside nationhood'.[571]
Lanti insisted on rigorous separation from the neutral Esperanto move- ment. He condemned its bourgeois spirit as he condemned the illusion that Esperanto would inhibit wars[572]—in fact the whole Esperanto neutral- ism that 'clouds the vision to class consciousness'. For Lanti, 'Esperanto is not the goal of our action, but merely a means to reach our goal'[573]—and he concluded with the battle cry 'Down with neutralism!'. This was the title of a collection of Lanti's articles that later appeared, bearing on its cover the following supportive words of the French revolutionary writer Henri Barbusse: 'The bourgeois and worldly Esperantists will be more and more amazed and terrified by everything that can emerge from this talisman: an instrument allowing all human beings to understand one another.'[574]
Lanti saw himself as linked to a venerable tradition in the workers' movement when he argued energetically for ignoring nationhood.23 In the same way, he was inspired by the model of Hector Hodler, who in 1908 founded the Universal Esperanto Association on the basis of indi- vidual members, not national associations.[575] Unique to Lanti, however, was his decisive effort to put Esperanto at the service of the class struggle regardless of party-political preferences. From the beginning, Lanti aimed to open his organization equally to socialists, communists and anarchists and not to allow it to be swayed by the passions and tactical zigzags of the different workers' parties. Though the understanding of such agen- das may diverge, Esperanto should remain the common language of all revolutionaries, providing a basis for the solidarity of all people, even if outside the framework of Esperanto they might feel themselves linked primarily to their own parties. This strategy meant that Esperanto had, in effect, a wider role than a mere tool of class struggle:
By means of our language a spiritual current must arise that overcomes all national boundaries. This constant intercourse will cultivate in our hearts a feeling that transcends nations. It will serve as a kind of antidote to the ugly nationalist education thrust on us by the state. It will be a kind of spiritual hygiene against the nationalist miasma that we inhale constantly in the chauvinist atmosphere created by governments. Using an artificial lan- guage as often as possible, we will incorporate in our beings characteristics suitable for making us true citizens of the world. We cannot over-emphasize the importance of this fact. Therein lies the revolutionizing essence of Esperanto. Because we are in constant contact with our Comrades in all countries, we can be justly proud that we are the most committed of all of the so-called internationalists.[576]
We will explore later the question of whether the requirement to submit Esperanto to the class struggle[577] and the implicit assertion that in itself it had a revolutionary effect were contradictory, and, if they were in con- flict, whether that conflict could be resolved.
At the beginning of August 1921, at the 13th World Congress of Esperanto in Prague, some 80 members of 'Liberiga Stelo' met to found an association inspired by the ideas formulated by Lanti. It took the name SAT. Chosen, despite his absence, as honorary president of the founding meeting was Henri Barbusse, whose movement 'Clarte' (Clarity)—a union of progressive intellectuals from various countries[578]— somewhat resembled the organization of revolutionary Esperantists in its undogmatic internationalism.'[579] In planning the founding of SAT, Lanti sought to steer a course between two obstacles: first, to prevent the association from falling under the influence of Zamenhof's 'illusionary' Homaranismo; secondly, not to allow it to consist of the members of a single political party. The first obstacle was easily dispensed with; as for the second, while SAT ran the risk of communist uniformity, the discus- sions in Prague showed that a majority of the communists accepted the project for an organization that would rise above party differences.[580] The founding resolution was unanimously approved; its final words declared: 'Down with neutralist hypocrisy, down with capitalism, long live SAT!'[581]The break between the workers' Esperanto movement and that of the neutralists was now an accomplished fact.