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"an FBI plant eventually became president of the association"

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Ubutumwa 16

ururimi: English

Oijos (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 22 Ruheshi 2013 08:31:48

Read this

"Esperanto has come under attack in the United States as well. The FBI
investigated the American Esperanto Association in the early fifties,
suspecting it was riddled with Communists. Many association members
were carrying on active correspondence with fellow Esperanto speakers
behind the Iron Curtain.

According to Mike Sloper, director of the central office of the
Esperanto League of North America, an FBI plant eventually became
president of the association and virtually destroyed it from within."

Who was that "FBI plant"?

erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 01:30:26

I have no clue but you could certainly ask Miko.

patrik (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 02:34:10

I am curious about this myself. I tried searching for more information about this through Google, but nothing appeared. Seems to me like a thorough damnatio memoriae. I assume that this was part of the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram). Some of the files related to the program might be freely available (both declassified and stolen), and I might try to scour those files. If I find something, I'll share it.

dameda (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 04:39:45

I could be mistaken, but I think I figured it out. Was that George Allan Connor? He became head of EANA, and then basically ran it into the ground because he was a McCarthyist, if I recall. Then in the early 60s, ELNA, which later became Esperanto-USA, was formed in its ashes. I heard very little, but Connor basically accused a lot of Esperantists of being pinko commie bastards, more or less, and drove them all away, until the Association more or less disintegrated.

dameda (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 04:41:42

I also might add, he and his wife...George Allan Connor and Doris Tappan Connor...co-authored a book on Esperanto in English in the late 40s or 50s, and in several public libraries where I worked, and at the local community college library, that is to this day almost the only Esperanto book on the shelves.

robbkvasnak (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 05:54:50

I was shocked reading this so I immediately looked under my shorts - no not what some may be thinking - but because that is the patch of skin that is not tanned by the sun around here AND..... LOW AND BEHOLD! They were right! I am a pinko - well that part of me is pink. I was considering seeking out the local tatoo parlor to get the area from my belly button to just the top of my legs maybe inked in red-white-and blue but the tatooist warmed me that after a certain amoundt5 of time the white part would return to pink - unless I went to a nudist beach (like Haulover - the local one) at least once a week so that I would then have red-brown-and-blue but that seemed a bit ominous to me too. I will just have to live with this stigma of being a pinko Esperantist and keep my shorts on.

sudanglo (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 17:47:09

It is true to this day that many Esperantists are of a left-wing persuasion. Dekstruloj are thin on the ground.

Only when Esperanto becomes more mainstream (if ever) will a normal balance be established (normal = typical of the population at large).

Oijos (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 17:55:31

Was it crime to be a communist in the USA in 1950's?

xdzt (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 23 Ruheshi 2013 19:40:54

Oijos:Was it crime to be a communist in the USA in 1950's?
Arguably. This wiki article gives a pretty good overview.

A lot of people had their lives needlessly ruined for alleged communist associations.

Miland (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 24 Ruheshi 2013 12:54:45

Oijos:Was it crime to be a communist in the USA in 1950's?
One of my favourite films about blacklisting, The Front starred Woody Allen with several former blacklisted actors (including Zero Mostel). It's available on DVD.

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