Esperanto

Esperanto is an international auxiliary language developed by Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof in 1887 through the Unua Libro. It is the most popular IAL, with the estimated amount of speakers varying between 10,000 and 2,000,000 depending on the criteria of a speaker used. It is maintained by the Academy of Esperanto.

Flag of the Esperanto movement.

History

In 1887, Zamenhof published the Unua Libro, a founding book on. He published the Dua Libro the next year to make minor correction to Esperanto (ekzample: kian is replaced with kiam).

Under pressure from Wilhelm Trompeter, Zamenhof created a Reformed Variant Esperanto of 1894; but it was heavily rejected by the Esperanto community, and Zamenhof himself came to hate attempt.

Oppression

The Kingdom of Hungary restricted Esperanto in 1920 due to it's local association with the Bolsheviks and to uphold bourgeois nationalism.

Esperanto was oppressed by fascists (Nazi Germany in Europe and Imperial Japan in Asia) during the 1930s, due to reactionary nationalism and it's association with communism, anti-imperialism, and national liberation; The Nazis also oppressed Esperanto due to Antisemitism.

Bourgeois media and historians (prominently liberal Ulrich Lins) claim that the USSR oppressed Esperanto. However, there is not much evidence to support this claim, and the minority of Esperantists that were persecuted were often persecuted for being trotskyists, and class enemies of the Soviet Union.

Socialism and Communism

USSR

Soviet Esperantists in the Red Army fought in the anti-fascist war against Nazi Germany.

China

If Esperanto is taken as a form and enshrined in the way of true internationalism and the way of true revolution, then Esperanto can be learned and should be learned.

— Mao Zedong, Letter, Yan'an Esperanto Association, 1939

Esperanto is supported by the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people. They supported it in the Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War movement. El Popola Ĉinio, a state official Esperanto journal, was established in 1951. China Radio International supported Esperanto starting from 1964.

Verda Majo

During the 1930s, an anti-fascist, feminist Japanese Esperantist originally named Hasegawa Teru, who went by the Esperanto name Verda Majo ("Green May"), left Japan and went to China, and ended up taking part in helping the Chinese resistance against the Japanese Empire.

While in Japan, Majo had become acquainted with Esperantist circles. There was a close symbiosis at the time between a part of the Japanese Esperanto-movement and the movement for proletarian literature. In 1932 she was briefly taken into custody, being suspected of having "leftist sympathies", and was thereupon expelled from college. Thus, she returned to Tokyo, where she started to learn typewriting and fully committed herself to propagating proletarian Esperantist literature, especially amongst women.

Via these activities she came into contact with the editor of the Chinese Esperanto magazine La Mondo (The World) in Shanghai at that time, which was looking among the Japanese Esperantists for someone to write an article about the situation of Japanese women. Majo published an article in the March/April issue 1935 focusing on the Japanese Women’s Movement and the question of labour and the suppression of the women's movement by Japanese fascism.

Eventually, Majo went to China after marrying a Chinese Esperantist. While in China she worked with other Chinese Esperantists, and eventually she became a Japanese language broadcaster with the Central Radio Station, broadcasting programs aimed at dividing the Japanese army. In July 1940, the Anti-war Revolution League of Japanese in China was founded and Majo was elected as one of its leaders. Majo died of an illness on January 10, 1947 at the age of 35. Zhou Enlai once said of Majo that she was "a sincere comrade-in-arms of the Chinese people."

Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh learned Esperanto in 1915 and supported Esperanto during the Vietnamese Liberation War. He suggested to the director of Voice of Vietnam to utilize Esperanto in the Declaration of Independence. He allowed the translation of his written diary Tagkajero en Prizono.

Voice of Vietnam supported Esperanto from september 1945 until december 1946, when French colonialists invaded Vietnam.

Cuba

Fidel Castro supported Esperantists in the 1990 UEA Congress to Havana, Cuba.

The broadcast of Radio Havana Cuba, which is meant to spread information about the Cuban revolution to an international audience, is available in Esperanto, including audio broadcasts as well as written articles on their website. The Esperanto name of it is Radio Havano Kubo. It also has an Esperanto language YouTube channel.

In 2016, a 30-minute documentary called "Across the Florida Straits" (Esperanto: Trans La Florida Markolo) was produced. It follows the first legal visit of U.S. Esperantists to Cuba after 54 years of prohibition, where they meet up at a congress of the Cuban Esperanto Association and share their experiences.

Yugoslavia

Socialist Yugoslavia held the 38th World Esperanto Congress in 1953 at Zagreb.

Josip Broz Tito had mentioned in 1953, that he learned and supported Esperanto while in a prison. He said that Esperanto was an easy language to learn.

Further Reading

Language

• L. L. Zamenhof (1905). Fundamento de Esperanto. Hachette.

See also

• Ido