Anationalism

Anationalism (sometimes translated as apatriotism, in the original sennaciismo in Esperanto) is an ideology developed especially within the Esperanto movement, which does not accept the existence of nations defined as such, and claims a radical cosmopolitanism.

This is a trend promoted within the Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (World National Association, SAT), especially by its founder Eugenio Lanti. It is characterized by:

• a refusal to participate in any nationalist struggle,
• a defense of the workers against the capitalist economic system,
• a Esperanto that is not limited to the linguistic question.

Anationalism goes beyond the more traditional internationalism, in the sense that it does not accept the very existence of nations, and in this sense, in its beginnings it experienced various confrontations with the ideas then prevalent in the international communist movement. Its cosmopolitanism is more radical, since it uses a common language (Esperanto), and does not depend on the dominant languages at each historical juncture.

History

Early members of SAT (founded in 1921) often regarded anationalism as a kind of general SAT ideology, and liked to call themselves "sennaciulo" ("the anational"). However, in this context "anationalism" was a term that was applied to various ideas not always very defined. For many members of the SAT, anationalism at that time simply meant "proletarian internationalism plus Esperanto," a kind of workers' version of the homaranismo of Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto.

However, at the end of the 1920s, tensions began to arise between the point of view of the Esperanto communists, led by Ernst Drezen, who theoretically promoted the right to self-determination and the fight against colonialism, and anationalism as This was understood by Lanti and an important part of SAT, who preferred to omit the national variable in the political struggle.

Little by little, Lanti refined his thinking in various articles. In 1928, he published a pamphlet, La laborista esperantismo ("Worker Esperantism"), in which he devoted an entire chapter to defining the new doctrine. The effort culminated in 1931 with the publication of the Manifesto de la Sennaciistoj (Manifesto of the Anationalists), which was later translated into several languages, including a Spanish version.

To underline that SAT maintained its super-partisan character, an anationalist faction was created, which edited its own magazine.

After Lanti's death in 1947, anationalism suffered a certain weakening. However, in the 1980s the non-nationalist fraction of SAT was revived, and there are still sectors within the Esperanto movement that maintain the objective of cultivating and developing universalist and anti-nationalist currents of opinion, and of opposing ethnicist, purist, and partisan ideologies. of identity politics, widespread in certain political spheres.