Editing Universal Esperanto Association (section)

=== The 'new UEA' and the schism of 1936 ===
[[File:Uk 2008 libroservo.JPG|right|thumb|upright=1|UEA book shop at the 2008 [[World Congress of Esperanto]] ]]

In 1933, at the Cologne congress, UEA and the national organizations made UEA the common or umbrella organization of the international Esperanto movement. In 1934 the UEA members accepted new UEA statutes. The 'new UEA', as it was called, was (and still is) a federation of national associations but also of individual members directly administered by UEA.

The highest organ of UEA was the Komitato. It gathered representatives from the national organizations; the numbers depended on the size of the national organization. Other representatives were elected by the delegates, depending on the number of delegates. A third group of representatives was elected by the two first groups; this opened the possibility to include 'experts' who were not linked to a national organization or popular among the delegates. Since 1947, one speaks of the ''komitatanoj A'' (from the national organizations), the ''komitatanoj B'' (from the delegates, later members) and the ''komitatanoj C'' (those indirectly elected).

As the representatives of the national organizations by far outnumbered the others, it is right to call UEA in essence a federation. But all officeholders of UEA had to be individual members, and the core services of the association, such as the Yearbook, were still reserved to individual members.

UEA since then is the legal heir of the former Helsinki organizations, such as the International Central Committee. The association since then also organizes the annual [[World Congress of Esperanto]].

Although in 1933-1934 it first seemed that the transition could happen in harmony, at the 1934 congress in Stockholm some UEA functionaries were not re-elected. In anger, UEA president Eduard Stettler and others resigned. The new board with president [[Louis Bastien (Esperantist)|Louis Bastien]] faced a catastrophic financial situation and decided in early 1936 to depart Geneva for London. In London, the capable activist Cecil C. Goldsmith wanted to become the new director (secretary), and for certain currency reasons UEA could exist significantly more cheaply in Britain than in Switzerland.

A hastily organized and secret campaign, led by former president Stettler, made it impossible for the Bastien-led board to legally move the headquarters away from Switzerland. After several months of discussions and a referendum, the Bastien board members and the Komitato members left the UEA altogether and established, in September 1936, a new association, the ''Internacia Esperanto-Ligo'' (IEL). Nearly all national organizations and individual members followed. In Geneva there remained a near-deserted shell of the UEA, in which the old leaders once again took power, the so-called Genevan UEA.