Finvenkismo

"Finvenkismo" is an ideological current within the Esperanto movement dating back to Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto. The name is derived from the concept of "Fina Venko" ("Final Victory") denoting the moment when most (or almost all) inhabitants of the earth will speak Esperanto as a second language. A Finvenkisto is thus someone who hopes for and/or works towards this "Final Victory" of Esperanto. According to some Finvenkistoj, this "Final Victory" of Esperanto may help eradicate war, chauvinism and cultural oppression.

Recently some Esperantists have been trying to replace the expression "Fina Venko" (Final Victory) with "Fina Sukceso" (Final Success) because "Fina Venko" reminds some people of war.

Origin

As Zamenhof created Esperanto with the goal of it eventually being used by everyone as a second language for international communication, Finvenkismo has been around for as long as Esperanto itself. In the early days of the Esperanto movement, being an Esperantist practically implied being a Finvenkisto, i.e. hoping for the "Final Victory" of Esperanto. However, as the Esperanto movement (i.e. the movement for the propagation of Esperanto) grew by convincing people of the ideals of Finvenkismo, the Esperanto community (i.e. those who speak Esperanto independently of whether they propagate it) became a lively language community, and thus got more and more independent of the Esperanto movement with its ideology of Finvenkismo. Thus, one could now be an Esperantist without being a Finvenkisto at all.

Raŭmismo/Civitanismo

Since 1980, Finvenkismo encountered criticism by so-called "Raŭmismo". This ideological current interprets the Esperanto community as a language diaspora, whose members should not concentrate on the propagation of the language but rather on its cultivation. The term "Raŭmismo" comes from a manifesto signed by many participants of the Youth Esperanto Congress in the Finnish town Rauma in 1980.

Soon the word "Raŭmismo" acquired two different meanings: According to some, a "Raŭmist" is just someone who uses Esperanto without propagating it. According to the more ideological "Raŭmismo", a "Raŭmist" is someone who considers the Esperanto community a self chosen linguistic minority and supports attempts to get a state-like representation for this minority. This more ideological "Raŭmismo" is now often called "Civitanismo", because it is the official ideology of the "Esperanta Civito" (Esperanto Citizens' Community), an organisation which attempts to be such a state-like representation of the Esperanto diaspora.

Even though nowadays most Esperantists highly value cultivating the language -- and the proportion of Esperanto-speakers who cultivate the language without propagating it is larger than ever -- the ideological "Raŭmismo" ("Civitanismo") has isolated itself somewhat within the Esperanto community because Civitanistoj are perceived to spend more energy on criticising the Finvenkist Esperanto movement than on cultivating Esperanto.

In response to the criticisms from Raŭmismo, the Finvenkista Esperanto movement has produced the Prague manifesto, which attempts at showing the importance of Finvenkismo in our modern society by emphasizing democratic communication, language rights, preservation of language diversity, and effective language education.

External links

* [http://uea.org/info/angle/an_manifesto_prago.html Text of the Prague Manifesto in English]
* [http://www.esperantio.net Esperanta Civito]