i posted some relevant links; flagged i guess...

The original (in French) is at the top— and a literal translation into english is at the bottom.

First stanza

Debout, les damnés de la terre
Debout, les forçats de la faim
La raison tonne en son cratère
C’est l’éruption de la fin
Du passé faisons table rase
Foules, esclaves, debout, debout
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout
|: C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain :|


Arise, wretched of the earth
Arise, convicts of hunger
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us wipe the slate clean
Masses, slaves, arise, arise
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|
Second stanza

Il n’est pas de sauveurs suprêmes
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun
Producteurs, sauvons-nous nous-mêmes
Décrétons le salut commun
Pour que le voleur rende gorge
Pour tirer l’esprit du cachot
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge
Battons le fer quand il est chaud
|: C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain :|


There are no supreme saviours
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves
Decree the common welfare
That the thief might bare his throat,
That the spirit be pulled from its prison
Let us fan the forge ourselves
Strike the iron while it is hot
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|
Third stanza

L’état comprime et la loi triche
L’impôt saigne le malheureux
Nul devoir ne s’impose au riche
Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux
C’est assez, languir en tutelle
L’égalité veut d’autres lois
Pas de droits sans devoirs dit-elle
Egaux, pas de devoirs sans droits
|: C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain :|


The state represses and the law cheats
The tax bleeds the unfortunate
No duty is imposed on the rich
‘Rights of the poor’ is a hollow phrase
Enough languishing in custody
Equality wants other laws:
No rights without obligations, it says,
And as well, no obligations without rights
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|
Fourth stanza

Hideux dans leur apothéose
Les rois de la mine et du rail
Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose
Que dévaliser le travail
Dans les coffres-forts de la bande
Ce qu’il a créé s’est fondu
En décrétant qu’on le lui rende
Le peuple ne veut que son dû.
|: C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain :|


Hideous in their self-glorification
Kings of the mine and rail
Have they ever done anything other
Than steal work?
Into the coffers of that lot,
What work creates has melted
In demanding that they give it back
The people wants only its due.
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|
Fifth stanza

Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans
Appliquons la grève aux armées
Crosse en l’air, et rompons les rangs
S’ils s’obstinent, ces cannibales
A faire de nous des héros
Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles
Sont pour nos propres généraux
|: C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain :|


The kings make us drunk with their fumes,
Peace among ourselves, war to the tyrants!
Let the armies go on strike,
Guns in the air, and break ranks
If these cannibals insist
On making heroes of us,
Soon they will know our bullets
Are for our own generals
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|
Sixth stanza

Ouvriers, paysans, nous sommes
Le grand parti des travailleurs
La terre n’appartient qu’aux hommes
L’oisif ira loger ailleurs
Combien, de nos chairs se repaissent
Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours
Un de ces matins disparaissent
Le soleil brillera toujours.
|: C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous, et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain :|


Labourers, peasants, we are
The great party of workers
The earth belongs only to men
The idle will go reside elsewhere
How much of our flesh they feed on,
But if the ravens and vultures
Disappear one of these days
The sun will always shine
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

The Internationale has become controversial among communists whenever struggle has erupted over a cult of personality. This is for the obvious reason that the song says we don’t need saviors ruling us. Let us consult for all.

In Letter 8 of the 9 Letters to Our Comrades there is an interesting historical aside, which describes how the Lin Biao/Chen Boda forces in China sought to suppress the Internationale (or rewrite it) because of the phrase rejecting saviors. (They were, at that time, seeking to present Mao as a great savior — in order to set the stage for themselves to step into his shoes and position.)

“Communism’s anthem, the Internationale, has a famous phrase that rejects the idea of supreme saviors. At one point in China, the song was rewritten to cut that phrase out.

“Starting in 1966 Mao was called Great Teacher, Great Leader, Great Supreme Commander and Great Helmsman. And soon those “four greats” were formally required in official statements. Respect for a communist leader was being twisted into enforced public rituals of praise and deference.

When Mao fought back and ultimately defeated these forces (and this line) — he made a major point of upholding the stance of the Internationale (and of the Maoist mass line) saying:

““You should study the article written by Lenin on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Eugene Pottier. Learn to sing ‘The Internationale’ and ‘The Three Great Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention’. Let them not only be sung but also explained and acted upon. ‘The Internationale’ and Lenin’s article express throughout a Marxist standpoint and outlook. What they say is that slaves should arise and struggle for truth. There never has been any supreme saviour, nor can we rely on gods or emperors. We rely entirely on ourselves for our salvation. Who has created the world of human beings? We the laboring masses. During the Lushan Conference I wrote a 700-word article which raised the question of who created history, the heroes or the slaves.”</blockquote>

[I have just cut out a small excerpt -- but the larger story is explained in Letter 8]

Interesting point, Nando, about how The Internationale becoming controversial whenever the struggle has erupted over a cult of personality is taking place. Could this be why the RCP didn't play or sing this last May Day?

For first time since I started going to May Day celebrations of the RCP, for years-- at Revolution Books, the Internationale was absent. It was always a big part, ending it with the singing along with music, and the high point for me, giving a great sense of solidarity with everyone fists raised high. The first time ever that this was skipped was last year May Day 2009. Instead there was just a call by Ray to get out an issue of the paper that was not even about May Day.

I did ask about why the Internationale was not played, afterwords, and was told that they had just forgotten, that it was not intentional. Just slipped their mind. I didn't buy the explanation. Why is it, this was never forgotten before? How do you forget something this important to a May Day Celebration? This is just like the kind of explanation that was given for taking down the red flags, Mao posters, Marx, etc---that they were only taken down so they can be cleaned, and then just forgotten to be put up again, misplaced, etc. I'm not sure what is more annoying, that these changes have taken place, or that they are not being honest about the reasons behind the changes. One is injury and the other is insulted added to injury.

Well, we shall see if they sing the Internationale this May Day, although, frank frankly I'm not inspired to personally attend this time around.

The RCP's slogan used to be "communists are rebels."

Now their defacto replacement slogan is "communists are followers and instruments of the great leader."

These represent very different outlooks. The idea is put forward "when such a rare and special leader emerges, the nature of the party itself changes, it becomes an instrumentality of that leader, or else it is becomes revisionist." This idea of "instrumentality" -- of the cadre being extensions of the great special rare leader or else revisionists -- is wrong on many levels (at the level of mass line, at the level of how correct ideas emerge, on the level of what role individual communist cadre need to play with initiative and creativity in the many arenas of class struggle." You get a theory where truth comes from one singularity -- one person -- and (inevitably) that source becomes threadbare, exhausted, circularly self-absorbed, bereft of the new, unself-critical, etc.

I like the following clip from the recent Chinese film "The Founding of a Republic". Watch the first three minutes of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAjxHf1hGk />
The film as a whole was good but, unsurprisingly, substantially depoliticized; this is a particularly good bit.

What about a Spanish version?!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATAMPdd23IY />
And G, I don't know the words to The Internationale in English but I'll learn them damn it!! We should bring all the communist forces in our area together to sing it during the rally.

Oops... Just saw the Spanish version up top... Well, the one I posted is the traditional version, not the anarchist version. I believe it is by a Chilean group called Quilapayun that was big during the Nueva Cancion era of the mid 60s-early 70s.

Hi, there. That's a very nice bunch of song clips.

Recently, I've also grown fond of this version performed by the Pakistani rock group Laal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PnIGbtqS5w

Nice video on the history here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X90-mSBc_PY

go to wfmu dot org and search internationale; you'll get ken's playlist for an archived show of about 2 hours worth of versions with commentary by a guy who did a documentary on the song. my attempted post of yesterday, with additional links, didn't make it past the filters, i guess.

This was the international as sung by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (which I am NOT praising or promoting. This is just for curiousity).



The Society of the Future


Stand up all the slaves!

Stand up the wretched of the earth!

We suffer cruelly, we stifle, our chest is about to burst!

From today, life or death, no mailer!

Let us at once make a clean sweep of the past!

Crowds of slaves, stand up!

Tomorrow, our new regime will be restored:

We shall be masters of all the fruits of our labor!

Refrain

Now this is the final struggle:

Let us all band together and tomorrow

The Internationale will be the society of the future!

Let us all band together and tomorrow The Internationale will be the society of the future!

That Chinese Rock band is the best version I've heard yet. Thanks for posting that. It's great.