Language section

A language section was a section of an organization composed of immigrants which conducted its activities and publishing in their native language. Language sections were a significant portion of the socialist movement in the United States and Canada in the early 20th century. Finnish, Polish, and Ukrainian immigrants from the Russian Empire played a major role. Language sections engaged in cultural and economic support which sometimes conflicted with the focus of the umbrella organization. As immigrants absorbed the culture of the host country they sometimes became less committed to revolutionary goals and sometimes dropped out in large numbers or were expelled.