The Internationale

    Words by Eugene Pottier (Paris 1871)

       Adaptation of Charles H. Kerr translation from
       The IWW Songbook (34th Edition)

       Arise ye pris'ners of starvation
       Arise ye wretched of the earth
       For justice thunders condemnation
       No more tradition's chains shall bind us
       The earth shall rise on new foundations
       We have been naught we shall be all.
       (Refrain):
       'Tis the final conflict
       Let each stand in his place
       The International Union
       shall be the human race.
       'Tis the final conflict
       Let each stand in his place
       The International Union
       shall be the human race.
       We want no condescending saviors
       to rule us from their judgement hall
       We workers ask not for their favors
       Let us consult for all.
       To make the theif disgorge his booty
       To free the spirit from its cell
       We must ourselves decide our duty
       We must decide and do it well.
       The law oppresses us and tricks us,
       the wage slave system drains our blood;
       The rich are free from obligation,
       The laws the poor delude.
       Too long we've languished in subjection,
       Equality has other laws;
       "No rights," says she "without their duties,
       No claims on equals without cause."
       Behold them seated in their glory
       The kings of mine and rail and soil!
       What have you read in all their story,
       But how they plundered toil?
       Fruits of the workers' toil are buried
       In strongholds of the idle few
       In working for their restitution
       the men will only claim their due.
       We toilers from all fields united
       Join hand in hand with all who work;
       The earth belongs to us, the workers,
       No room here for the shirk.
       How many on our flesh have fattened!
       But if the norsome birds of prey
       Shall vanish from the sky some morning
       The blessed sunlight then will stay.