The Attitude of Socialists – Members of the National Croatian Union towards the Need for Maintaining Ethnic and Class Consciousness

U radu Narodne hrvatske zajednice, hrvatske iseljeničke dobrotvorne organizacije osnovane krajem godine 1894. u Pittsburghu, SAD, isticali su se najprije pojedinci, a od godine 1912. i političke grupacije »narodnjaka«, »socijalista«, »trovilaša«, »izjavaša« i »auštrijaka«, kao otvorene pristaše političkih stranaka u Hrvatskoj i SAD. »Socijalisti« su, za razliku od »narodnjaka«, koji su do godine 1921. u djelatnost NHZ ugradili etničku funkciju, predstavljali političku grupaciju, koja se zajedno s komunistima nakon godine 1918. zalagala za jačanje klasne ili radničke, a dokidanje etničke funkcije zajednice. Kao progresivna politička grupacija »socijalisti« su pri¬donijeli jačanju Zajedničara, službenog glasila NHZ, kao radničkih novina, te ujedinjenju nekoliko hrvatskih potpornih organizacija u novu Hrvatsku bratsku zajednicu godine 1926, i izmjeni pravila NHZ na klasnim osnovama. Zato što nisu razumjeli potrebe etničke funkcije NHZ i njihovu želju i potrebu za etničkom identifikacijom njezina članstva u američkim uvjetima, »socijalisti« su nažalost pridonijeli i sukobima i raskolu u redovima hrvatskog iseljeništva. Rezultat toga bilo je osnivanje Hrvatske katoličke zajednice, nakon XIV konvencije NHZ održane godine 1921, pod rukovodstvom jedne od političkih grupacija »narodnjaka« pod nazivom »izjavaši« te povezivanje preostalih skupina »narodnjaka« u jedinstvenu političku grupaciju nakon XV konvencije NHZ održane 1924, te preuzimanje rukovodstva u novoj HBZ u prvoj polovici 1926.The National Croatian Union (NCU), a Croatian emigrant benefit organization, was founded in Pittsburgh at the end of 1894. Its individual members were the first to support openly political parties in Croatia and in the United States of America, and so did – from 1912 – the political groupings of narodnjaci (i.e. men of the people), »socialists«, trovilaši (i.e. schemers), izjavaši (i.e. declarationists), and auštrijaki (i.e. Austriacs). Unlike the narodnjaci who had made the ethnic function part of the NCU ac-tivity up to 1921, the socialists represented a political grouping that would after 1918, together with the communists, make efforts to strengthen the class-based or worker-orientated function of the Union, while disregarding its ethnic function. As a progressive political grouping, they contributed to the strengthening of Zajedničar, the official NCU paper, as a Workers\u27 paper, and to several Croatian national benefit organizations\u27 uniting into a new Croatian Fraternal Union (CFU) in 1926, as well as to changes in the NCU regulations on a class basis. Since the socialists had failed to understand the need for the NCU\u27s ethnic function and the ethnic identification of its members in American conditions, they – unfortunately – also contributed to conflicts and cleavages in the ranks of Croatian emigration. The outcome was the foundation of the Croatian Catholic Union (CCU), after the 14th NCU convention that was held in 1921 under the leadership of one of the political groupings of narodnjaci, called izjavaši. The remaining groups of narodnjaci got together to form a unified political grouping after the 15th NCU convention that was held in 1924, and they took control over the new CFU in the first half of 1926