THE INTERNATIONALIST PROGRAMME

1. A study of the present linguistic status of humanity must be made, in order to establish a list of nations based on their inter-comprehension. A national language is defined as :

   • any language common to, or any group of dialects commonly used by a human group occupying a determined territory ;

   • any language currently in common use by an ethnic group that formerly occupied a territory, if this idiom has been commonly used without interruption and if it has not evolved since into a new national language.

2. The principal of inter-comprehension will be widely interpreted in the case of small populations, and in the case of intermediary dialects with no important characteristics.

3. The total disappearance of the usage of a language implies the disappearance of this nation and in no circumstances can this be reversed. In the same way, certain very small tribes are not taken into account if their disappearance as an ethnic group is practically inevitable. If one applies these principles, there are some two hundred nationalities concerned.

4. The territorial delimitation between nations should be made according to the linguistic membership of the population when this membership is unique and stable.

5. When this membership has partially changed in a given territory through assimilation, this assimilation will be considered worthless. When this membership has totally changed, the same will happen unless the assimilation is very old (dating back at least three centuries) or if it concerns a nation that has already disappeared.

6. When this membership has changed through recent immigration and substitution, this substitution will also be invalid unless the population density of the former ethnic group is very low. In this case, the territory is shared in respect of the numerical importance of the two populations, whilst allowing for the right of priority. When different nationalities have lived on a territory for a very long time, it will be split according to their numerical importance.

7. Exchanges of territories and populations will be effected when this proves necessary in order to restore the territorial and human unity. The sea is not, however, to be considered as a break in this territorial unity. The same will happen in order to avoid a nation or a state being surrounded on all sides by another nation and in order to assure the state either access to the sea or a common border with another nation.

8. When a nation no longer has a territory, its former country will be returned, partially or entirely, depending on the numerical importance of the ethnic groups present, and allowing for the right of priority.

9. Territories which are almost unpopulated, and territories that have recently been occupied by heterogeneous populations will be attributed to over-populated nations, taking into account the proximity, geographical similarity and spontaneous emigration movements.

10. In each nationality, the linguistic unity will be perfected or restored. The change from the "group of dialects" status to that of "single common language" will take place wherever it has not already happened.
    In this objective, the phonetic and grammatical form of the central dialects should be adopted, modified by borrowing from different peripheral dialects.
    The original forms should be preferred to input from other languages, this second criterion being the only one acceptable as far as the lexical selection is concerned. Finally, maximum clarity and precision will be sought, as much in the grammatical as in the lexical forms.

    Once unified in this manner, the national languages will be endowed with any philosophical or scientific terms they do not possess.

11. All languages will adopt an alphabetical script and a phonetic spelling.

12. Within the territory of each nation, the national tongue will be the sole language used by the administration, the press and education (in which lessons are given). Foreign language learning will be encouraged, but none should become obligatory to the detriment of another.

13. When the national language is no longer spoken by a large part of the population, or until the theoretical work of its unification and its enrichment has been achieved, the measures stipulated above will only be put into place progressively, according to individual possibilities and through a system of official bilingualism.

14. Each nation should form a united and sovereign state, enjoying political independence and legal equality vis-ý-vis the other nations. A state, in this sense, means an organism settling all the problems posed by its relations with other nations, and not a particular internal structure. The state must be led by real ethnist forces; any government with anti-national objectives or capable of having such objectives due to its dependence on foreign leadership, along with any group having imperialistic objectives, should be excluded from any possibility of coming to power.

15. Foreigners will be allowed to reside on the national territory with the state's authorisation, but cannot play any political or military role. Their naturalisation can only be accorded in restricted numbers and when it corresponds to a real assimilation.

16. Each nation should obtain economic independence, all the major means of production and distribution should be national property, either belonging to the nation's members or to the state. Foreign trade should be controlled or monopolised by the state; interdependence - namely exchanges on egalitarian bases and not subject to political conditions - is the only form compatible with national independence.

17. All the problems posed by international relations should be settled by agreements between the independent nations concerned. All the armed forces should be dissolved, and war arms destroyed. The international organisms that express the interdependence of nations are desirable, but only as organisms for technical collaboration having no authority of their own.

    The United Nations, which in principle, is a perfectly valid organisation, should be reformed as follows :

    1. only those states corresponding to a nationality and that are truly independent can belong ;

    2. conflicts must be settled, not through haphazard bargaining and coalitions, but using ethnist principles as the only objective and impartial basis of settlement.

18. The means of achieving this programme are : propaganda and legal means, mass actions and passive resistance, and finally, when it proves efficient and necessary, war for national liberation.

    This signifies that the relinquishment of force in international relationships and disarmament are subordinate to the achievement of independence and of national unity and come prior to worldwide internationalism.

    The non-intervention in internal affairs of a nation must immediately be applied, but the same does not apply for international conflicts. As long as power struggles exist between nations, it is in each nation's interest, as well as being their right and duty, to help other nations defend themselves against an aggressor or to win their independence. However, this raises a tactical problem, as conflicts for national freedom should themselves be subordinate to the greater necessity of avoiding war.

19. In each nation a movement should exist whose task is to achieve these objectives. All these movements should co-ordinate their efforts on a worldwide scale within an international organisation, conceived not as a super-party, but as an association of parties equal and united by a common and precise programme concerning international problems, whilst only exchanging information on internal problems.

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