“Esperanto is certainly the most widely spoken artificial language in universal congresses and in gatherings of all kinds, in travelling, in international offices, and, even in the theatre. This makes it a living language—a charakteristic not possessed by any of the systems which are only written and not spoken. It has become possible to express feelings in it. After 35 years, the language has begun to attain a style. There are some writers and speakers who really use it with force and elegance. Its sonorous qualities remind one of the Romance languages of the South . . . .”

— From the Report on "Esperanto as an International Auxiliary Language" (p. 11) accepted by the Third Assembly of the League of Nations (Sept. 1922).

ESPERANTO AND LABOUR

I.

GROWING INTERNATIONALISM.

At the Labour Party Conference at Edinburgh (1922), Esperanto appeared upon the agenda for the first time. Resolutions on the subject have also appeared upon the agendas of Annual Conferences of the Independent Labour Party. So far in every case the pressure, of other business has prevented any full discussion, although many delegates and prominent labour leaders have warmly approved of the adoption of an international language. Several Labour journals, notably Plebs, the Workers' Dreadnought and the Bradford Pioneer have a regular Esperanto feature, and constant mention and use of it occur in other newspapers and in trade union journals like those of the Union of Post Office Workers, the National Union of Railwaymen and the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers. Moreover, for the last three years speeches have been made in Esperanto in the May Day Demonstration in Hyde Park.

This is all very well so far as' it goes, but there is not the slightest doubt that, if the case for Esperanto were better known, the sympathy now existing would become transformed into practical and concerted effort, and Labour, in consequence of its growing internationalism, would quickly seize such an invaluable, aid in organization as a neutral international language affords.

WHAT IS ESPERANTO?

What is Esperanto? How can it help the Labour Movement? Is it being taken up by workers in other lands? Can the ordinary worker with little time to learn and appreciate even his own language be expected to take up another, however simple it may be? How can the introduction of Esperanto be best promoted? These are some of the questions that arise in considering Esperanto in relation to the definite needs of working‑class organization.

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Esperanto, then, is an international auxiliary language. By "auxiliary" we mean that Esperanto seeks to supplement, not to supplant, existing national languages. Because it belongs to no one nationality it provides a neutral means of communication for people of differing national tongues. The neutrality of Esperanto is one of its greatest moral assets, for all people who use it, no matter what their nationality, are on an equal footing as regards language.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE.

The important part played by language in human evolution scarcely needs to be emphasized. Without speech, man would still be low down in the scale of life. With speech, he made a leap forward. By its means he could exchange his thoughts with his fellows, and attain to effective co‑operation with them. Later, when language came to be represented by written signs, further progress was rendered possible, and each succeeding generation profited by the experience of those who had gone before —stood, as it were, on their shoulders and reached higher and higher in the conquest of nature. Language is in any society a potent binding factor. That is why races who feel themselves in danger of suppression endeavour to preserve their mother‑tongue; why all struggling nationalisms —e. g., the Irish and the Jewish —have striven to maintain or revive their languages; and why, for opposite reasons to those of a persecuted nationalism, Big Business in Amerika is in haste to confer the blessing of American speech on all the polyglot races thrown into the great melting‑pot of the United States.

But difference of language is a dividing factor. Who has not been in a railway carriage when different languages were being spoken, and wanted very badly to ask questions and yet been unable to do so because of the barrier of language? No more effective means could have been devised to bring about confusion and misunderstanding than that used in the old table of the Tower of Babel. For us workers, the moral of the fable is: Existing differences of language hamper all our attempts at international organization, and the first requisite to any effective international co‑operative effort among the workers of the world is the general adoption of a common language, not in place of, but in addition to, our mother‑tongue. Labour, which is striving to build in all countries, bridges of understanding between the peoples, must have an international language. Mankind has fashioned language as its chief means of co‑operation. Esperanto but carries the process

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one step further. Instead of stopping short at the boundaries of nationality and speech, Esperanto provides a means of comprehension between people of different nationality —a means which is indispensable for effective international organization.

THE BASIS OF INTERNATIONALISM.

Yes, you may say, I agree that language is important, but I have no use for an international language in my daily life. I haven't the time or money for foreign travel. I may know only my native tongue, but that is all I want to know. Other people are too far away for me to bother much about them. Esperanto, if I learned it, would be merely a hobby, with no practical significance.

This is a very short‑sighted view. It is very much as if you were to try to convince a conservative country yokel that it would be well for him to learn to use standard English, and he were to reply that his dialect had been found to be quite good enough for his father and for his grandfather and was therefore quite good enough for him. It would be worth while to pause and consider how international life has become to‑day. The very food we eat comes from all parts of the world: meat from the Argentine; wheat from Canada; tea from China and India; and stuff for clothing comes to us from cotton and wool grown in other far‑away Continents. We read of plans to establish air routes from continent to continent, even of projected aeroplane flights round the world. International radio‑telephone concerts are already a possibility. And wireless telegraphy and telephony have but continued a process begun by the flashing locomotive, the great ocean greyhound, and the ordinary telegraph wire and cable; all of which are annihilating space by facilitating intercourse between various countries and linking together every part of the globe.

Then, in addition to the development of international trade and means of transport and communication, every branch of science, art and literature is tending to become international. A national Science, indeed, cannot properly exist, for Science abhors national boundaries as Nature is said to abhor a vacuum. But the internationalisation of Science can be hindered for a time by the existence of diversity of language. Before new discoveries and inventions can even be discussed, descriptions of them have to be translated into some thirty languages. Imagine how much better it would be if all advances were at once made accessible to men and women irrespective of nationality. Why should human speech—or, rather, diver‑

6

sity of speech—be tolerated as a barrier to the progress of knowledge; — why should language lag behind the internationalism already existing in trade, in technical development and Science?

AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE FOR LABOUR.

Yes, but I am not a scientist. I'm a worker in the Labour Movement. How will Esperanto help that movement? — Surely, just because the Labour Movement, even more than Science, is international, because we are learning that, as members of a world‑wide working‑class, we are members one of another in a very real sense. We know from bitter experience how one national section of workers is used to scab upon another. Our employers form international alliances; we have been forced to do the same. Sometimes a group of Imperialists have tried to spread their own brand of "kultur", and, because we did not understand, we workers became cannon fodder at their dictate.

In the past, International Conferences of Labour have followed the tedious procedure of having at least three official languages into which every speech and document had to be translated. The cost, the waste of time, the tedium and the imperfections of translations could all be avoided by the use of Esperanto. Delegates have shouted "Workers of the world, unite!" in a dozen different tongues, when it would have been obviously more effective if the appeal were made in one common tongue. The International Labour Office of the League of Nations, from a census of its letters taken in 1922, found that in all 19 languages were used by the 75 nations, that contributed to its post‑bag. (Esperanto, by the way, was fifth in order of use —i. e., after English, French, German and Spanish.) This instance well indicates the problem as it exists in practice. Efficiency and economy demand a newer and a better way. Labour must for its international purposes use Esperanto.

REAL PERSONAL CONTACT.

But there is an additional argument on the side of Esperanto. In the past, Conferences have been field days for labour leaders who had acquired fluency in several foreign languages. That helped to contribute to the internal weakness of our organization; for age‑long traditions and nationalistic sentiments are not dissipated by occasional meetings of polyglot leaders.  The rank and file all over Europe and America—aye, and Japan and China—must come into personal con-

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tact; and Esperanto gives them the means of doing this. Our children in the schools could correspond in Esperanto; with others in all parts of the world. (This is done already to some extent, but is not of course general.) In this way, an international outlook would be early acquired and fostered. Individual members of labour organizations could find valued friends in other countries, even in far‑away Japan and China, and find from personal correspondence the likeness of the exploitation of labour the whole world over. Labour experiments and methods of organization in other countries could be ascertained and discussed by this means. The slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" would lose its vagueness and would no longer be reserved for May Day perorations. To those of us whose schooling ended early and who in workaday life have many calls upon our time and energy and thus have very little time for language study, Esperanto is of especial advantage. The “Latin of Democracy”, as Esperanto has been called, provides for the common people, who are beginning to think internationally, a way to self‑expression and a means to strengthen those bonds of solidarity which alone will ensure the future happiness of the world.

GROWING USE IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

Are workers in other countries interested in Esperanto? Shall we find correspondents capable and willing? There can be no doubt about that. In France, so well has the Socialist Esperantist Society, supported by Henri Barbusse, done its work that the French Ministry of Education issued a circular (3rd June 1922) banning Esperanto from the schools, on the ground that it is a medium for the propaganda of revolutionary ideas. In this country one Sunday newspaper has referred to it as the "linguistic handmaid of revolution". In Japan, where Imperialism is ruthless in suppression of Labour organizations, the press has been giving Esperanto great advertisement by attacking it as a “danger to the State”. Such attacks, more than any statistics, should commend Esperanto to the attention of workers. But statistics are by no means lacking. In the second section of this pamphlet will be found a few extracts from a mass of material presented in the Report on Esperanto issued by the League of Nations. Since the date of that report (Sept. 1922), it has been announced that the German Workers' Esperanto Association has 103 groups containing 2,600 members. (These Labour groups exist independently of the so‑called neutral Esperanto associations.) France is the headquarters of the international organization called the Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda, whose members are to be found in many different

8

countries and are individually attached to different sections of the Labour movement. This association publishes a monthly journal in Esperanto, the Sennacieca Revuo, with over 6000 subscribers in twenty or more countries. Although in existence for only two years, the S. A. T. has already 3000 members, and its international Congress, held in Frankfurt in 1922 was attended by 200 persons. In Austria and Czecho‑Slovakia there are many labour groups which are organized independently of the "neutral" Esperantists. Herbert Elvin ("Daily Herald", 1.9.22) reporting upon the International Conference on Workers' Education convened in August 1922, said of Czecho‑Slovakia: "There is an Esperantist branch organizing regular courses and supporting a lively international intercourse."

Some facts concerning the spread of Esperanto generally will be found in the next section of this pamphlet. Here, however, we would observe that the claims of Esperanto are based on experience. The international Congresses of Esperanto held before the war at Boulogne (1905), Geneva, Cambridge, Dresden, Barcelona, Washington (USA.), Antwerp, Cracow, Berne (1913); its post war congresses at the Hague (1920), Prague (1921, attended by about 2500 persons), and Helsingfors (1922); the appreciable number of journals, among them a weekly, published in Esperanto; its literature (at least 4000 books have been published in Esperanto—among them Kerr's edition (1908) of Marx's Communist Manifesto); its use by many commercial fairs held at various places on the Continent; the important Conference for the Adoption of a Common Commercial Language held in Venice (Easter 1923), which was supported by 80 Chambers of Commerce and at which Esperanto was used; its use by the International Labour Office of the League of Nations—all these facts demonstrate beyond a doubt the practicability of Esperanto for international purposes.

II.

EXTRACTS FROM THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS REPORT
ON "ESPERANTO AS AN INTERNATIONAL AUXILIARY
LANGUAGE"
[ACCEPTED BY THE THIRD ASSEMBLY, SEPT. 1922]

Schools.

To‑day, Esperanto is taught in certain of the primary or secondary schools of about 320 towns in 17 different countries, and in evening classes in about 1,200 towns scattered throughout 39 countries of the five continents. (p. 14)

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Bulgaria.

In Bulgaria, Parliament has placed it on the curriculum by legal enactment (Article 143 of the Education Act passed in 1921). The teaching of it as an optional subject began in 1921‑1922, in 25 secondary State schools. The official reports mention 30 classes, 25 teachers and 784 pupils of both sexes. Esperanto is taught in training courses for secondary school teachers, in the Sofia Military School, in the Home for the Blind of Sofia and in public evening classes in 19 towns. The Bulgarian Esperanto Association has branches in 25 towns. (pp. 14 and 15.)

Finland.

In Finland, two long debates were held in Parliament on the Question of an international language. Credits have twice been voted for promoting the public teaching of Esperanto in Finland.

. . . The Ministerial Decree of 1919 authorises the optional teaching of Esperanto in schools where the authorities may desire it. (p. 17.)

Italy.

The Municipalities of Milan, Bologna, and Cremona have introduced it as an optional subject in their primary schools and the Municipality of Cologna‑Veneta in its technical school.

At Milan, the teaching of Esperanto began in 1920, and the Municipal Council has definitely decided to maintain it, since two‑thirds of the parents desire to have their children taught that language. There were in 1921‑1922, 54 classes with 2 000 pupils in the fifth and sixth divisions (10 to 12 years of age).

At Bologna, in 1921‑1922, teaching began in four classes with 200 pupils, and at Cremona in the same year in 10 classes with 225 pupils of the same age as at Milan.

In evening classes and popular universities in Italy there have been 350 courses of Esperanto during the winter 1921‑1922. (p. 19.)

Holland.

In the Netherlands, the new Education Act authorises the optional teaching of supplementary subjects. By virtue of this enactment, Esperanto is taught in a seventh class of the primary schools at Haarlem, in a sixth at De Ryp and in a seventh at Ootmarsum. It is also taught in 32 private schools in the southern provinces, sometimes as a compulsory subject. The Postal and Telegraph Department allows a notice to be placed on the counters, at which there is a clerk who can speak Esper-

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anto, and the Tramway Company at The Hague grants a bonus to those of its employees who learn that language. (p. 20.)

Switzerland.

In 1921‑22, the Board of Education in the Canton of Geneva introduced compulsory instruction in Esperanto as an experiment in the final year of the primary schools. There are thirteen classes with four hundred pupils of both sexes (from thirteen to fourteen years of age). (p. 21.)

Czecho‑Slovakia.

In Czecho‑Slovakia, a Ministerial Decree of March 29^th, 1921, authorises the optional teaching of Esperanto in the schools where qualified teachers exist . . . . In 1919, 1920, and 1921, instruction in Esperanto had already been given in fifteen primary schools to 450 pupils, in three secondary schools to 325 pupils.

In Czecho‑Slovakia, Esperanto is very widely used. There are Esperanto groups in all the towns and even in the villages. The Universal Congress at Prague was held under the patronage of the Government, and Dr. Benés declared, in an official message, that the Government regarded Esperanto as an important factor in civilisation and in the pacification of the world The Postmaster‑General had a list drafted of all officials knowing, Esperanto, and the Board of State Railways grants them advantages. (pp. 21-22.)

Germany.

In Germany, the Ministries of Education in the states of Brunswick, Hesse and Saxony have taken decisions in support of Esperanto. In 1920‑1921, it was introduced by the municipal authorities as a compulsory subject in the primary schools of five towns, and as an optional subject in the primary schools of thirty‑nine towns, in the secondary schools of nine towns in the technical and commercial schools of thirteen towns, and In the continuation courses in forty‑four towns. In 1922, it was introduced in the State schools of fifty‑two new districts, i. e., in 162 towns in all including Breslau, Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipzig, and Nuremberg. It is taught in the Homes for 'the Blind in three towns. . . . .

According to the official report forwarded to us by the representative of the Ministry of the Interior at the Geneva Conference, courses in Esperanto for adults are held in 211 towns, and there are 279 Esperanto groups, ninety of which are workers' groups.

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During the winter 1921‑1922, 1,592 courses were held in Germany, attended by 40,256 adults, of whom 20,456 were workers. (p. 22.)

In Hungary, a Ministerial Decree of October 13th, 1920, authorises the optional teaching of Esperanto in the secondary schools. (p. 23.)

International Labour Office.

In 1921, the International Labour Office made a small experiment. It published in Esperanto three documents on its work and organisation and had them distributed by the representatives of the Universal Esperanto Association. The result was the appearance in. the daily newspapers of 219 special articles on the International Labour Office in 21 different languages, cuttings of which were collected by the International Labour Office. Since that time, the International Labour Office answers, in Esperanto, letters which reach it in that language. (pp. 28‑29.) Commencing in March 1923, the International Labour Office has issued a monthly bulletin in Esperanto.

III.

THE BASIS AND STRUCTURE OF ESPERANTO.

Some people, usually those with some knowledge of foreign languages, dismiss  Esperanto on the ground that it is "artificial". Language, they say, is a living organism and therefore cannot be created. For the moment, let us assume that the material of which language consists—i. e., words, cannot be created. We would point out, however, that the words of Esperanto are not artificial. The vocabulary is derived from existing languages on the principle that, other things being equal, the most international words should form the basis of the international language. The most international words are, of course, generally those derived from Latin and Greek; and such words naturally form the bulk of the Esperanto dictionary. Esperanto, in thus borrowing its words from European languages, has merely done what most languages have constantly done. English, as is well known, borrowed half its dictionary from Latin and Greek sources. The words of Esperanto being derived from European languages are, therefore, not artificial and Esperanto as a whole is as "natural" as a rose, both being the product of artificial selection.

As regards the statement that language is a living organism, this is true in a metaphorical sense only. For language has no

12

life of its own apart from the people who use it. And Esperanto is as much a living language as any national language inasmuch as it has been and is used for intercourse between people of differing national language with no other means of intercommunication. Those who regard language as a living organism in a literal sense are deceiving themselves by a metaphor. (On this point see Professor Otto Jespersen's Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin, pp. 7 and 8, and the Report (p. 12) of the Committee appointed by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which reported in favour of the adoption of an "invented" language as an international language.)

The dictionary of Esperanto, then, is derived from words which are, as far as possible, international. Many words, such as, telephone, centre, theatre, photograph, tea, etc., are to be found in practically every language in Europe; others have a varying degree of "internationality", and the author of Esperanto, Dr. L. L. Zamenhof, an oculist of Warsaw, Poland, chose the words of his language in the main from Romance and Teutonic sources—which are the most international.

One occasionally hears at debating‑societies the objection that Esperanto does not contain Chinese or Japanese words. The objection usually comes from people who advocate English as the world language! The delegates from China and Japan at the League of Nations Assembly (Sept. 1922) were, strange to say, among the warmest supporters of Esperanto. Orientals say that to learn Esperanto they need two years, whereas they need from six to ten years to gain a working knowledge of English. The introduction of a number of Chinese and Japanese words into Esperanto (assuming that it were possible) would make no appreciable difference to their task, while it would not be welcomed by Europeans. Esperanto is "simplified Aryan", and such a proposal as the objection suggests would probably be impracticable. For most Europeans (including Russians) the vocabulary of Esperanto is found by experience to present no serious difficulties; to Chinese and Japanese the choice is between a simple regular language like Esperanto or one or more difficult European languages.

It is also sometimes urged against Esperanto that it is a language without the associations that long‑established languages like English, French and German have. The late H. M. Hyndman charged it with being "a barbarous hybrid, a mechanical jargon, without history and without literature". A pretty enough assertion; but the phrase "a barbarous hybrid" might well bring a blush to the cheek of English itself, which Mr. Hyndman, in common with Imperialists like Mr. Garvin of the "Ob-

13

server", thought should be the world language. It might, however, well be argued that the richness and beauty of English, its vigour and energy, are mainly derived from the fact that it has been enriched by the thought-treasures embalmed in the languages of other peoples and incorporated into English by those who spoke Norman French and those who used scholastic Latin and Greek. Esperanto, thanks to the genius of Dr. Zamenhof, was constructed from words living on the lips of the European peoples; its vocabulary therefore is scarcely more artificial than that of English and is not without history. The very associations of English render it less fit for the role of international language than Esperanto, which carries with it an international spirit, a spirit of fraternity among the peoples of the world. Socialists should leave the propaganda of English as a world language to the Liberals and Tories and concentrate on Esperanto because of its neutrality and its absence of national associations. English cannot triumph as a world language if only for the reason that Esperanto can be learnt in at least one‑tenth of the time.

The solution of the problem of an international language was not merely a question of statistics and mathematics; there were also to be considered questions of harmony, euphony, the meaning and suitability of the words chosen, etc. The whole work of Dr. Zamenhof is, indeed, comparable more to the work of the poet than to that of the mathematician, In this connection, we may perhaps quote the judgment of an author who, although he personally favours the creation of a new language which shall satisfy the theoretical requirements of professors of linguistic science (surely, an impossible task!), nevertheless writes thus:

"Perhaps we are taking it too much for granted that an artificial language should be 'scientific': the one great requirement is that it be practical, and, on the whole, Esperanto satisfies that requirement. Nay, Zamenhof's method, or lack of method, had one decided advantage. His language is a work of art—although you are free not to like the art. It has a unity, an originality, of its own. A page of Esperanto has an unmistakeable look and an unmistakeable sound; it is not 'bad Spanish mixed with German, and set up by a drunken Czecho‑Slovakian printer': it is Esperanto and nothing else. And the strange thing is alive. It was alive from the very first, and it has grown in the usual way, through exercise. From that point of view, none of its rivals can compare with it.* We do not deny that life could be breathed into them

* Italics ours.

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through practical use; but so far they are possibilities, while Esperanto is a fact . . . The almost fanatical loyalty of many Esperantists for their kara lingvo is a fact more important for the student of our problem than the carpings of grammarians." (Professor A. L. Guérard, "A Short History of the International Language Movement.")

The grammar of Esperanto consists of sixteen simple rules, to which there are no exceptions. The noun ends in ‑o, e.g., patro, father; the adjective in ‑a, e.g., patra, paternal; and the adverb in ‑e, e.g., patre, paternally. The conjugation of the verb consists of twelve endings, e.g., present tense, mi parolas, I speak; past, mi parolis, I spoke; future, mi parolos, I shall speak. These three terminations (‑as for the present, ‑is for the past, and ‑os for the future), together with six participles and three other endings, comprise the whole verb-system. Anyone who has had to master the difficulties of verbs in foreign languages will recognize the blessings of such simplicity, especially when it is emphasized that the verb mechanism of Esperanto is a veritable masterpiece, by means of which we can express every shade of time far more precisely and concisely than is possible in English, French or German.

Of the three or four thousand root words which are used in Esperanto, probably 65 per cent are already known to the average newspaper reader. The burden of learning many words is, furthermore, considerably lightened by the use of thirty‑three prefixes and suffixes. These give the language extraordinary richness and flexibility, for from one root we can often form twenty or more words; for instance, from the root lern' (which contains the idea of  learning), we can form the following words, among others:

Root, LERN'

lern'i, to learn (‑i is the ending of the Infinitive)

re‑lern'i, to re‑learn

ek‑lerni, to start learning (ek‑ denotes the suddenness or commencement of an action)

el‑lerni, to learn thoroughly

lern'ad'i, to go on learning (the suffix ‑ad denotes continuation, frequency, repetition)

lern'et'li to dabble at learning (the suffix ‑et denotes diminution or diminutiveness)

lern'ig'i, to cause to learn (‑ig means to cause)

lern'ej'o, school (-ej means a place allotted to)

lern'ant'o, one who learns, a learner (-ant' is the present participle)

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lern'ant'oj, learners (plural; ‑oj is pronounced as oy in English)

ge‑lern'ant'oj, learners of both sexes (the prefix ge‑ denotes both sexes)

lern'ant'ar'o, a group of learners (the suffix ‑ar denotes a  collection of things considered as one)

lern'int'o, one who has learnt (‑int is the past participle)

lern'ont'o, one who is going to learn (‑ont is the future participle)

lern'em'a, fond of learning (the suffix ‑em denotes fond of, a disposition to)

lern'ebl'a, learnable, able to be learnt

lern'ind'a, worthy of being learnt (the suffix ‑ind means worthy of) etc. etc.

(The words are here divided as in lern'ant'ar'o merely to show how they are built up; they do not, of course, appear like this in ordinary use. The proper form is lernantaro, without marks of division.)

Specimens.

Esperanto estas tiel harmonia kiel la itala lingvo, klara kiel la franca, sufiĉa kiel la greka.

(Esperanto is as harmonious as the Italian language, as clear as French, as adequate as Greek.)

   Prof. Charles Richet, Paris.

LA VERA FRATARO.

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Next Steps.

How can you help? — In many ways. The most convincing advocates of Esperanto are those who have practised the language themselves. You should learn the language yourself. If you are really too busy, introduce it to your children. Get a class started in your Socialist Sunday School or the local Labour Institute, Club or Co‑operative Guild; or, better still, if you are a Labour Councillor, try to get it taught in the elementary schools. It is already taught in a dozen or more day schools in Great Britain (Barry, Barnoldswick, Burntisland, Coatbridge, Eccles, Luddersfield, Keighley, Leeds, Leigh, Liverpool, Rosyth, Stroud, Worcester, etc.), and the Board of Education recognize it as a grant‑earning subject. Raise the matter in your Trade Union journals and get them to imitate what has been done by the British Post Office workers, the Norwegian book binders and the French teachers, who are using Esperanto to find out what their fellow workers are doing in other lands. Discuss the matter in your branches and send on to the Head Offices of the Labour Party, the Trade Union Congress, the Cooperative Guilds, the I. L. P. and the Communist Party resolutions advocating the use of Esperanto in international conferences and correspondence and its encouragement in every section of labour educational activities. Such a resolution was adopted at the All‑Norway Association of Labour Unions in March 1923.

Last, but not least, line yourself up with those who are propagating the idea of an international language for the needs of the Labour Movement. Join the British League of Esperantist Socialists (B. L. E. S.). Join Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda to make practical use of the language Successful and efficient working‑class organization on a world scale is the only way out of the present world chaos and misery. Esperanto is one of the most important means to that end. "Workers of the world, unite!" Esperanto furnishes the means!

Printed by Uns‑Produkttiggenossenschaft, Leipzig.

SOURCE: Esperanto and Labour. London: The British League of Esperantist Socialists, July 1923. 16 pp. [+ front & back covers, outside & inside]

Note / Noto: The author of this pamphlet is Mark Starr, according to Arthur Nobes, BLEA kaj IPE. Historio de la Brita Laborista Esperanto-Asocio kaj Internacio de Proleta Esperantistaro, Rochester 1983, p. 5. A photo depicting Starr among BLEA-activists in 1926 appears on p. 8. (Thanks to Ulrich Lins.)

Mark Starr verkis ĉi tiun broŝuron (Esperanto kaj Laboro), laŭ Arthur Nobes, BLEA kaj IPE. Historio de la Brita Laborista Esperanto-Asocio kaj Internacio de Proleta Esperantistaro, Rochester 1983, p. 5. Foto, kiu montras Starr inter BLEA-aktivuloj en 1926, aperas ĉe p. 8. (Dankon al Ulrich Lins.)

Mark Starr (1894-1985): Labor Educator & Esperantist
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