World language
I have been a reader of the Standard for many years now and agree wholeheartedly with the ideas contained therein. I would like to know if the Party is aware of the existence of the international language Esperanto and what views you might have about it.
On the assumption that Socialism must be established on a world-wide basis, surely Socialist understanding must also be spread on an equally cosmopolitan scale. I think that you will agree that the greatest barrier to international or perhaps “intercultural” working-class understanding must be the language barrier. This barrier is small to international capitalism, which merely adds the cost of employing professional translators to the final price of commodities. The working-class does not have such resources, so surely the Socialist message would spread much more quickly if a global means of communication were used.
Esperanto does not aim to replace natural languages, only supplement them as a second language for all. The adoption of one of the complicated national tongues for this purpose, e.g. English, would give tremendous prestige and advantage to that culture and create resentment on the part of others. Esperanto would protect minority cultures and put all communication on an equal footing. I feel that Esperanto would be a powerful weapon in the Socialist armoury.
W. Mountford
Stoke-on-Trent
Reply:
We wish it were true that languages constituted "the greatest barrier” tc Socialist understanding!
In fact you are presenting a somewhat unreal position. If (at the present time) we printed Socialist material in Esperanto, it would have not the wide international circulation that you imply but a relatively very small specialized one. To make it effective we should have to become propagandists for Esperanto to some extent; and in turn to concentrate Socialist propaganda on Esperantists — bearing in mind that the majority of them are not Socialists.
However, over the years the SPGB has had keen Esperantist members who believe in its usefulness as you do, while understanding the reasons why as a Party we cannot adopt a collective attitude (i.e. impose a commitment on our members as a whole) over it.
Editors.
No comments:
Post a Comment