Recently, a group of Hackney activists began communicating with like-minded comrades overseas, by use of the international language Esperanto. Why have they chosen to do this?

First of all, while English is used as a kind of "international language", it is in reality, the language of Big Business, capitalism, imperialism, etc. Esperanto on the other hand, does not belong to any nation or corporation, so its speakers can communicate on equal terms. Unlike with any national language, where the native speakers will always have the upper hand.

This means Esperanto can be used as an international voice of friendship and equality. Furthermore, it has the potential to be used as the language of resistance to capitalism worldwide.

This is what we are trying to start up here in Hackney. On the world scale, the global based organisation Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (SAT - World Non-Nationalist Association) has been working to create a means of direct communication and coordination between anti-capitalists from many lands since 1921.

Esperanto itself is the easiest language to learn in the world - it is a phonetic and totally regular language. It can be learnt in a fraction of the time it takes to learn a national language, and you can be fluent in it in a very short time.

Anyone in Hackney (or in the surrounding boroughs) interested in participating in this project can come to group meetings and communicate in the language after a free ten week local beginners course. They will then be put in contact with Esperanto speaking activists overseas.

For more info, contact  libereco2000@yahoo.co.uk

For anyone from other parts of the country interested in learning Esperanto, you can email SATEB (the British affiliate of SAT) at:  arturo@signalprent.demon.co.uk