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Music for a Multi-Issue People/Movement

by richard

The Internationale

by Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg complained to Pete Seeger that the traditional lyrics to the Internationale were somewhat dated. Pete Seeger said: “why don’t you write new ones?” So Billy Bragg did. For May Day 2008 Queers Without Borders sends out to all of you this wonderful version of the Internationale. The original Internationale was first written and sung after the brutal suppression of the Paris Commune in 1871. This rallying cry sings out loud and clear for all exploited and oppressed people of the world to rise up and overthrow their masters.

2 comments

1 Peter G { 04.28.08 at 9:09 am }

Brilliant! Very much in the spirit of the original and at least no MORE difficult to sing than the traditional American translation. Thanks for posting it Richard.

It is a little sad though that subsequent versions have largely erased the concept of the Internationale itself. When the song was composed the word referred to the International Working Men’s Association, later called the First International. Subsequently, singers of the song were frequently thinking of one of the “Internationals” that have followed in the communist, socialist and anarchist movements. So the title of the song was not in reference to an ideal but to something very concrete: the organization of the working class and oppressed peoples of the world into a unified movement or party that would make the continuation of capitalist exploitation anywhere on the planet impossible.

2 richard { 04.28.08 at 9:40 am }

Thanks Peter for the info.

After listening to this version click on the guy in the right hand corner. Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory sing another version which I love to listen to. Barbara Scott also sings a version.

Anyone interested in the original words check it out here

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