Outa Work Blues  fr es sv

U.S. translation by Charles Kerr

Arise, ye pris'ners of starvation, arise, ye wretched of the earth:

For justice thunders condemnation, a better world's in birth.

No more tradition's chains shall bind us, arise ye slaves no more in thrall,

The carth shall rise on new foundations, we have been naught, we shall be all.

Tis the final conflict, let each stand in their place;

The international Union shall be the human race. (repeat)

New British translation by Billy Bragg

Stand up, all victims of oppression, for the tyrants fear your might.

Don't cling so hard to your possessions for you have nothing if you have no rights.

Let racist ignorance be ended, for respect makes the empires fall.

Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by one and all.

Se comrades come rally for this is the time and place:

The international ideal unites the human race.

Let no one build walls to divide us, walls of hatred nor wails of stone.

Come greet the dawn together or we'll die alone.

In our world poisoned by exploitation those who have taken, they now must give

And end the vanity of nations: we've but one Earth on which to live.

So begins the final drama, in the streets and in the fields:

We stand unbowed before their armour, we defy their guns and shields.

When we fight, provoked by their aggression, let us be inspired by life and love;

For though they offer us concessions, change will not come from above.

Debout, les damnés de la Terre, debout, les forcats de ta faim!

La raison, tonne en son eratére: c'est l'éruption de la fin,

Dru passé faisons table rase, foules d'éscalves, debout, debout!

Le monde va changer de base: nous ne somme rien, soyons tout!

C'est ia lutte finale, groupons nous et demain,

L' union syndical sere le genre humain.

Arriba, parias de ia tierra! En pic, famélica legión!

Los proletarios gritan; Guerra! Guerra hasta cl fin de la opresion

Borrad el rastro del pasado! Amba esclavos, todos in pit!

E] mundo va a cambiar de base. Los nada de hoy todo han de ser.

Agrupémonos todos, en la lucha final

El género humane es el sindicato Internacional.

Upp tralar uti alla stater, som hungern bojor lagt uppd.

Det danar uti i rattens krater, snart skal! utborttets timmia si.

Stirtas skall det gama snart i gruset slav stig upp fr att slé dig fri!

Frin mérkret stiga vi mot Ijuset, fran intet allt vi vilja bli.

Upp till kamp emot kvalen. Sista striden det dr,

Ty internationalen é1 alla tycka bdr.

Eugene Potter wrote the original lyrics of the Intemationale in June, |871, to commemorate the

Pans Commune, which the French army had just crushed with great bloodshed. After French

defeat in the Franco-Prussian war and the fall vf the French empire, the workers of Paris had

taken over the city and ran it themselves. For iwo months an almasti carnival spirit swept lhe city.

Back rents were canceled. Workers formed couperalives and unions, and took over workshops

abandoned by their owners; arusis formed a fe ion. Nighi work al bakerics was ended hecause

the bakery workers didn’t like iL Municipal nurseries and sup kitchens were founded. Schools were

seculanzed. Churches were taken over ax meeting places for political clubs, some of which were

made up of women.

By the start of the 20kh century, ihe Intermatonale was sung by socialists, anarchists and communists

all over the world in dozens of languages. The communists claimed the sung and until 1943 it

was the nalional anthem of the Soviet Union, but it was never theirs, FW Bragg, sought lo put the

song's vision of communal freedom into eew words, to commemorate the Chinese student in Tinanamen

Square in 1989 who sang the Intemstonale before they were massacred.