SPORT 1913 - 2013

part two_CHAPTER 6

Federation (Suomen Voimistelu- ja Urheiluli- itto SVUL) established in 1906. Some of the worker sport clubs were very successful in competitive sport, especially in wrestling and track and field, already before the First World War. The bitter Civil War in 1918 divided the Finnish sport movement in two. The leadership of the SVUL decided in November 1918 to expel sport clubs which had sent troops to the Red Guard. If more than fifty per cent of the members of the club had participated to the war on the red side the club had to be expelled as well. Additionally sports- men who had been sentenced for their par- ticipation to the war had to be discharged. (Hentilä 1982, 66–70) Only two months after the fateful deci- sion of the SVUL, in January 1919, delegates of 56 expelled worker sport clubs founded a new central federation for the Finnish worker sport (Työväen Urheiluliitto TUL). Although during the 1920’s and 1930’s political pressure from the right, as well as internal disputes between Social Democrats and Communists were hard, the TUL developed to a very vivid and success- ful sport organisation. Significant was TUL’s strong orientation to competitive sport which led to great victories in the Workers’ Olympi- ads in 1925, 1931 and 1937 (Hentilä 2001, 256– 271). The TUL was one of the founders of the LSI in 1920 and remained member of the SASI. When the CSIT was created in 1946, the TUL from Finland was present again. The three de- cades after the Second World War were TUL’s strongest in organisational as well as in ath-

an international cooperation in worker sport was not mature enough. Still the participants of the Gent meeting decided to establish a joint organisation named Association Socialiste In- ternationale d’Éducation Physique (ASIEP). Some representatives fromAustrian and Swiss worker sport movements, too, announced that they were interested in taking part to the ac- tivities of the ASIEP. Finally, in March 1914 the biggest German union Arbeiter-Turnerbund entered for participation. The ASIEP understood itself as a help or- ganisation of the Socialist International on the field of physical education. Organising in- ternational worker sport exchange would pro- mote the achievement of the revolutionary aims of the socialist worker movement. How- ever, before the first international sport festi- val of the ASIEP could be opened in August 1914 in Herstal, Belgium, the First World War broke out and crushed the cooperation of the worker sport movement for five years. (Gou- not 2002, 27–28) As soon as the war was over, two Belgian worker sport activists Gaston Bridoux and Jules Devlieger called French and English la- bour sportsmen to a meeting which was held in August 1919 in Seraing-sur-Meuse in Bel- gium. Two important issues were discussed: do we revive the worker sports international and do we allow Germans and Austrians to join it (10 Jahre SASI, 9–13)? As it is well known, Germany and Austria were banned by the IOC and they were not invited to the Olympics in Antwerp 1920 and in Germany, not even to the

letic development. By the end of the 1970’s the number of the members of the TUL grew up to 450 000. Along with the Austrian ASKÖ, the TUL has been one of the strongest member unions of the CSIT since 1946. Towards International Collaboration Promoting international solidarity and world peace was from the beginning one of the back- bones of worker sport ideology. Therefore it was quite natural that the national worker sport unions wanted to establish international contacts and partnerships as early as possible. The first meeting for organising international worker sport was held in Gent, Belgium on May 10th, 1913. The initiative was taken by Gaston Bridoux from Belgium and Charles Saint-Venant from France. Bridoux was the head of the first Belgian worker sport organisa- tion (Fédération Socialiste de Gymnastique) established in 1904. Saint-Venant for his part was a trustee of the French socialist youth movement. The Gent meeting was supported by the bureau of the Socialist International (The Second International) which was at that time located in Brussels (10 Jahre SASI, 7–8). In addition to Belgian and French repre- sentatives, a delegate from the English Cyclist Club “Clarion”, Tom Groom, attended the meeting and Gerhard Hoff, a treasurer of a lo- cal German Gymnastic Club, was present with- out an official mandate. The leaders of the strongest worker sports organisation of the German Central Commission did not want to participate because they thought that time for

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