Subversive Articulations of Change? The League against Imperialism and the League of Nations

Paper presented at the conference/workshop: “Subversive Networks: Agents of Change in International Organizations, 1920 – 1960”. International Conference at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context", Heidelberg Universität, 4 – 6 December, 2014. The presentation was given on 5 December in the panel “Challenging Power Hierarchies”. The paper focus on a discussion if the League against Imperialism was a "subversive agent" that introduced "articulations of change" on the global political arena between the wars, and in doing so, tried to function as a radical alternative to the League of Nations. The presentation included a comparative discussion of the two LAI congresses (Brussels, 1927, and Frankfurt am Main, 1929); and a general outline on the term "subversive" in the context of international organizations. The title of the presentation at the conference did not include the question mark (added afterwards). Further, this is an idea and theme that circulated during the analysis and writing of my doctoral thesis “We Are Neither Visionaries Nor Utopian Dreamers”. Willi Münzenberg, the League against Imperialism, and the Comintern, 1925 – 1933 (Åbo Akademi University 2013, published by Queenston Press, Lewiston, vol.I-II, 2013). The panel offered an opportunity to develop this idea.