A new exploration into the relevance of Karl Marx's ideas for understanding…
The Internationale
 
									- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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THE INTERNATIONALE draws on people's stories of an emotionally charged radical song (the long-time anthem of socialism and communism) to celebrate the relationship between music and social change, and to evaluate the uncertain fate of once thriving movements of the left. 
The film chronicles the history of the song written in 1871, at the fall of the Paris Commune, by Eugene Pottier. The lyrics are a rallying cry for all the oppressed and exploited people of the world to rise up and overthrow their masters. After a melody was added a few years later by a French factory worker, Pierre Degeyter, The Internationale spread throughout France, Europe and the world. 
Using rare archival footage, the film traces the development and meanings of the song before and after the Russian Revolution, during the Great Depression in the U.S. and the Civil War in Spain, and since the fall of the Soviet Union, Tiananmen Square, and the end of the Cold War. 
The film includes performances and interviews with musicians and activists from around the world, including Billy Bragg and Pete Seeger, and people from the U.S., Israel, the Philippines, China, and the Soviet Union. 
Exploring relationships between music, history and social change, THE INTERNATIONALE is a serious but often irreverent meditation on socialism, idealism, and the power of music in people's lives.
'An impressive performance! THE INTERNATIONALE traces the cultural history of the stirring anthem that has offered inspiration to social and political activists for more than a century now. Miller manages both skillfully and insightfully to document roughly the first hundred years of a worthy subject resonant with profound social, cultural, and historical value. A moving... and compelling film.'-Journal of Film and History
'HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for all age groups and classroom situations, as an example of the power that one song can engender throughout history and among different peoples and situations.'-Educational Media Reviews Online
'A beautiful documentary that shows the part music plays in social change. Awesome!'-The Michigan Observer and Eccentric
'[A] striking documentary! Tells the absorbing history of how one song can represent both freedom and oppression, sometimes at the exact same time.'-Michigan Daily
'What a remarkable film! THE INTERNATIONALE takes us on a lyrical journey from the Paris Commune to the collapse of Soviet Communism, from the slums of Kingston Jamaica to Tiananmen Square, in search of what might be the only song to change the world. If the song never moved you, I guarantee this film will.'-Prof. Robin D.G. Kelley, NYU (author of Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression and Race Rebels)
Citation
Main credits
								Miller, Peter (Director)
Miller, Peter (Producer)
Toscanini, Arturo (cnd)
Peerce, Jan (Performer)
Meredith, Burgess (Narrator)
Sarton, May (Screenwriter)
Hammid, Alexander (Director)
Lerner, Irving (Producer)
							
Other credits
Editor, Amy Carey Linton; camera, Mike Harlow, Kevin Keating.
Distributor subjects
American Studies; Cultural Studies; France; French Culture; French History; History (U.S.); History (World); Human Rights; Labor Studies; Marxism; Music; North America; Political History; Popular Culture; Russia; Sociology; Western EuropeKeywords
WEBVTT
 
 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000
 Now let’s us all sing the international.
 
 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.999
 This is the original French
 of a famous socialist song,
 
 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.999
 famous revolutionary song.
 The words were written
 
 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.999
 and made in 1871.
 
 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.999
 Paris commune had fallen. A man, I
 think, he was in his 40s at the time
 
 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.999
 had been elected Mayor of one of the districts
 of Paris but now he was fleeing for his life.
 
 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.999
 He was in hiding. Eugène Pottier,
 
 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.999
 I think that’s how he pronounced his
 name, in that very month of May 1871,
 
 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:39.999
 he writes six long versus and, of course, calling
 on all the hardworking people of the entire world
 
 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.999
 to overthrow their masters. And he was
 quite confident that they would soon.
 
 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.999
 [music]
 
 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
 Few years later,
 
 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:59.999
 the book happens into the hands of
 a younger man, Pierre De Geyter.
 
 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.999
 He led a course in his factory.
 
 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.999
 And, I’m told, in a basement apartment
 on his pump organ, he made up a melody.
 
 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.999
 This young musician had a hit song,
 
 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.999
 at least in certain circles.
 
 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.999
 It spread throughout France,
 it spread throughout Europe.
 
 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.999
 He translated it in dozens of languages,
 maybe hundreds of all languages.
 
 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.999
 It was sung all around the world, still is,
 by socialists, communists, anarchists,
 
 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:40.000
 all sorts of people singing this song.
 
 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.999
 The international, well, it
 was tremendously exciting
 
 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.999
 and, you know, have the clenched fist.
 
 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.999
 We’d have these huge parades every May Day, but at
 every meeting you’d open and close it with that.
 
 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.999
 It was sung at meetings, at
 demonstrations, at rallies,
 
 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.999
 and on May Day, for example, when the people
 would march. And the May Day demonstrations
 
 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:29.999
 had to convince me, early on as a child, that they
 would soon be socialism in the United States.
 
 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:34.999
 The first May Day
 demonstration I ever went to
 
 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:39.999
 had about 10,000 people marching into the
 Union Square. The second demonstration
 
 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.999
 I went to had 20,000 people
 marching into the Union Square.
 
 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.999
 The third had 40,000 people marching into the
 Union Square. I therefore became convinced
 
 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.999
 as I sat down with a pencil and paper
 than in a period of about 15 years
 
 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.999
 the whole population of the United States
 would be marching with the very same song
 
 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.999
 singing the international.
 
 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.999
 [music]
 
 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.999
 In 1912, it was sung in
 many different languages
 
 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.999
 simultaneously by the strikers
 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
 
 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.999
 The famous strike led by the war building. Big
 Bill Haywood came up there to speak to them.
 
 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.999
 Nobody thought they would stick together. They had
 Irish, and German, and Italian, and Polish and all.
 
 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:35.000
 And they all sang in their
 own language this song.
 
 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:45.000
 It became the official anthem
 of the Soviet Union in 1917.
 
 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.999
 Of course, I know this
 song from my childhood.
 
 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.999
 It was the most popular from all
 songs (inaudible) in Russia.
 
 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.999
 We played, of course, in the
 revolution in our yard.
 
 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.999
 And it was a big deal for us,
 
 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.999
 because our fathers and mothers
 
 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.999
 sang this song.
 
 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.999
 And for us, it was a big
 deal to repeat this song,
 
 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.999
 more and more.
 
 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.999
 [music]
 
 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.999
 The first time I met the
 international was as a young boy,
 
 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.999
 13 years old, in Tel Aviv.
 
 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.999
 I recall (inaudible) where
 thousands and thousands of
 
 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.999
 members of our movement (inaudible) marched
 throughout the city with red flags
 
 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.999
 and banners singing songs of work and labor
 
 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.999
 and members of our kibbutz fought the… the
 exploiters and participated in strikes
 
 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.999
 and there were occasions
 to sing the international
 
 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.999
 and hopefully to build a homeland
 
 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.999
 and a country where the workers
 would be the people who would share
 
 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.999
 the wealth of the country.
 So the international
 
 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.999
 spoke to me as a Jew, as a Jewish person.
 
 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.999
 I woke up into this world and I knew the words of
 this song. It was sang to me actually like a lullaby.
 
 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.999
 And, you know, I was a baby, I didn’t know
 the difference between Brahms’ lullaby
 
 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.999
 and internationale. And
 somehow I loved the…
 
 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.999
 the internationale better
 than Brahms’ lullaby.
 
 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.999
 My father name is Van Feleo.
 
 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.999
 And he was a titser(ph) and he
 used to speak to the landlord
 
 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.999
 in behalf of the farmers. And eventually,
 
 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.999
 he had about 60,000 farmers, who
 would come and listen to him
 
 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.999
 and bring their grievances.
 But he was all by himself.
 
 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.999
 And then he heard internationale.
 And then he decided
 
 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.999
 that he would translate it into Pilipino
 so that everybody would understand
 
 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.999
 that there is hope, that there is a way
 
 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.999
 out of this bondage,
 
 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.999
 that there is a way for the
 farmers to organize and be heard.
 
 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.999
 And I could not understand
 
 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.999
 why my father was arrested
 and eventually killed
 
 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.999
 for this song?
 
 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.999
 But this song is a song
 
 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.999
 that can be heard in rice fields. Young
 boys riding atop their carabaos,
 
 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.999
 going down the river,
 women washing clothes,
 
 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:15.000
 famers doing harvest,
 this song will be sung.
 
 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.999
 I dropped out of high
 school in my senior year
 
 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.999
 to go work in a cannery in San Jose to
 help organize a union, which we did.
 
 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.999
 And a strike was called, which was totally
 
 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:49.999
 destroyed as a result of
 extraordinary police terror,
 
 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
 every meeting was broken up, every outdoor
 demonstration was attacked and broken up.
 
 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
 And then I went to the
 Imperial Valley in 1934
 
 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.999
 to help organize the migratory
 lettuce pickers at that point.
 
 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
 I was arrested and spent 180 days
 in the Imperial Valley jail.
 
 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
 And one of the ways in which I passed the
 time was teaching my fellow prisoners
 
 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
 how to sing radical songs.
 
 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
 The strikers were prouder that the
 generation of Mexicans who had grown up
 
 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.999
 with the Mexican revolution so that both
 the strikers and then the women prisoners
 
 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.999
 also knew the international in Spanish.
 It was just kind of a…
 
 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.999
 an immediate means of communication, of
 identification across language barriers,
 
 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:45.000
 across country barriers, this song that…
 that bridged all the countries of the world.
 
 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:58.000
 [music]
 
 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
 People everywhere were suffering from the depression.
 There was real starvation everywhere in the world.
 
 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
 In some countries like in
 Germany fascism began.
 
 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
 It was ruled by brute military force.
 And based on this demagoguery,
 
 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
 it was possible to achieve not
 only power within Germany
 
 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
 but strength within fascist elements all over
 the world. In Spain, they tried the same thing.
 
 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.999
 The military called for the overthrow
 
 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
 of the Republican government
 of Spain and staged a coup.
 
 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
 [music]
 
 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
 And from over 40 countries
 volunteers began to arrive in Spain.
 
 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
 Men and women could come and pick
 up arms and fight the fascists.
 
 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
 The first time that happened
 in the history of fascism.
 
 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
 And in the United States,
 
 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
 the cry went up, “What about us?
 Why can’t we go to Spain?”
 
 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
 There was no way I was going to
 stay out of this conflict in Spain.
 
 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
 I saw action as an infantry man and
 was wounded in the cause of it.
 
 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
 And as a result of being wounded wound up in
 a hospital at (inaudible). In the hospital,
 
 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
 what we did for entertainment, of
 course, was have entertainers come out
 
 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
 and sing and a couple will do flamencos and things
 like that. One day when they ran out of entertainers,
 
 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
 and we had a fall back on our own resources.
 The chief of entertainment called on us all
 
 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
 to come up on the stage one at a time and
 sing the international in whatever language
 
 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
 was our own language. And
 well over 40 languages
 
 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
 were represented on the stage. Each one would
 sing a few words in their own language
 
 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
 and then go on to the next one or we
 would have been there whole night.
 
 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
 And then finally everybody sang the
 song together in their own languages.
 
 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
 So that we heard it sung in… in Javanese,
 and we heard it sung in Tamil,
 
 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
 and we heard it sung in Hindi and English and
 French and German and Russian and Spanish,
 
 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
 in every which language you could think of in more
 and many, many more. It was sung in Yiddish as well.
 
 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
 (inaudible), “Arise you…
 
 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:25.000
 those of you who are slaves.”
 
 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
 At least through the ‘20s, anarchists,
 socialists, and communists,
 
 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
 and perhaps other trade unionists
 simply sang the international.
 
 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
 But at some point, motion picture newsreels
 
 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
 and then ultimately television began to
 show Red Army parades in… in Moscow.
 
 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
 Somehow in my mind
 
 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
 the international lost
 its early association
 
 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
 of a general radical song and somehow
 became a Soviet song. And for people
 
 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
 who rebelled in the tanks in Red Square
 and the Mausoleum and Lenin’s Tomb
 
 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
 and the scowling Stalin, you
 know, the great father,
 
 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
 I’m sure that the international was
 very stirring. But for non-communist,
 
 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
 the international began to
 pick up pejorative overtone.
 
 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
 One trouble making something official,
 I think, is worse than banning it,
 
 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
 it tends to cramp its style.
 It was sung briskly first.
 
 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
 Then they slowed it down to make
 it ponderous. Phom… phaphom…
 
 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
 Phom… phaphom… Phom…
 
 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
 becomes very much an
 establishment kind of a song.
 
 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
 Well, I remember once I was at a (inaudible)
 committee meeting of the Communist Party.
 
 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
 And someone brought in a Jamaican reggae
 
 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
 version of the (inaudible)international with all the beats, with
 a little Bob Marley, with a little Jim and Cliff and so forth.
 
 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
 [music]
 
 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
 And I quite frankly duck it.
 
 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
 But I can remember some of the
 comrades, some of the older comrades
 
 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:25.000
 and just could not understand how
 this song could be best at us.
 
 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
 There is considerable tension
 
 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
 within the international
 
 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
 based on a portion of the text. You know,
 when Pottier wrote the international,
 
 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
 he used the lines at least in
 French roughly translated,
 
 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
 ”No more traditions change shall bind us.”
 
 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
 The notion was that working people in
 breaking with capitalism or imperialism
 
 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
 would wipe the tablets clean. That is what,
 
 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
 ”wipe away the superstitions of the
 past, the religions of the past,”
 
 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
 and as free men and women, “in what
 hale are you dawn, a red dawn.”
 
 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
 But interestingly, you
 cannot get your act together
 
 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:30.000
 function with any passion if you
 don’t believe in certain traditions.
 
 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
 I have an ambivalent feeling
 
 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
 about the words of the song. On one hand,
 
 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
 I… I still remain as moved as I was
 when I was a youngster emotionally
 
 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
 by hearing a stirring called a fight, a
 struggle to challenge. On the other hand,
 
 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
 uh… there is a sentence in that
 song, “no more traditions change
 
 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
 shall bind us,” that I had a
 kind of ironic double-take on,
 
 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
 because I felt one of the problems with the movement
 was that precisely traditions change (inaudible),
 
 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
 and that all too often
 
 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
 uh, concepts were accepted, went unchallenged
 simply because it has always been accepted.
 
 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
 [sil.]
 
 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:35.000
 Arise the prisoners of starvation.
 
 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
 You have been naught, you shall be all.
 
 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:10.000
 ‘Tis the final conflict.
 
 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
 Shall be the human race! Bhum… phum…
 
 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
 That’s my jazz to it.
 
 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
 The words that this would be the last battle, the
 last war, something so many people have wished,
 
 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
 does not come to like it.
 
 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
 Many times when I sang this song,
 I really hoped, I really believed
 
 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
 that there would be a time
 that there would no wars.
 
 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
 That’s something maybe
 
 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:55.000
 when we were young we could
 sing without thinking twice.
 
 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
 You know this song remind
 me of my childhood
 
 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
 when we believed in the
 words of international.
 
 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
 And you can understand me
 
 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
 when we remind of our childhood,
 
 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
 it’s very important for our heart.
 
 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
 [music]
 
 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
 That is why when I hear now, international,
 
 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
 [music]
 
 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
 I feel the beautiful
 melody again and again,
 
 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
 but I feel the tragedy too. It’s a tragedy
 
 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
 of my father.
 
 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
 He was communist.
 
 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
 And when he was very young,
 he believed in this.
 
 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
 But he understood
 
 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
 that all this story, this is a false story.
 
 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
 And he told me about it.
 
 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
 That is why when I hear now,
 international, the international,
 
 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
 my feelings is very complicated.
 
 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
 I feel in this my childhood,
 
 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
 but I feel in it the
 tragedy of all our life.
 
 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:58.000
 [music]
 
 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
 The tragedy is that people
 sang the international
 
 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
 went 1936 for Spain and many
 have given their lives.
 
 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
 [music]
 
 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
 A tragedy is that
 
 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
 the people who were in power
 in Russia, in Soviet Union
 
 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
 were not worthy of the cause
 that people gave their lives to.
 
 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
 [music]
 
 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
 I know that
 
 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
 it’s almost mission impossible
 
 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
 to try to
 
 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
 teach younger people all over the world
 
 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
 something about a time
 
 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
 that workers all over the world really believed
 that they could stretch out their hands
 
 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
 for one another and work
 together for a better world.
 
 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:18.000
 [music]
 
 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
 Arise, you prisoners of starvation!
 
 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
 Arise, you wretched of the earth!
 
 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
 For justice thunders condemnation.
 
 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
 The first time I heard it, I was thinking to myself, this is kind of corny. We have a… a group
 song, you know, that’s… that’s the first thing that went to my mind. Second time I heard it,
 
 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
 I… I heard the words and understood what
 was going on and what the thoughts were.
 
 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
 And now when I hear it, I have 50 different
 images that runs through my mind.
 
 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
 I may be thinking about the Abraham Lincoln
 brigades fighting fascists in Spain.
 
 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
 I may be thinking about the people in Chiapas.
 I may be thinking about people in Virginia
 
 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
 or elsewhere that are fighting for justice.
 That song, you know, gave them strength.
 
 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:10.200
 It gave them a feeling of being connected with generations before
 them and with their brothers and sisters in… in other countries.
 
 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
 I don’t think any students who sang
 internationale on Tiananmen Square
 
 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:25.000
 were thinking about communism or socialism.
 
 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
 I think we’re singing internationale
 to reassure ourselves
 
 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
 to feel that we are a part of a greater,
 
 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:45.000
 larger, propitious human
 movement to us for friendship.
 
 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
 I never paid much attention to
 the word of internationale,
 
 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
 but the melody of the song always
 caused me into a very special mood.
 
 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
 And for a long time, I was thinking
 what it is, and I think I…
 
 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
 I sort of know it now. I think it captures
 
 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
 the essence of the traditional Chinese
 thought, which was Confucianism
 
 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
 and their convictions of fighting
 for what you believed in,
 
 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
 and if necessary they also
 need to sacrifice themselves
 
 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
 and their sacrifice will
 be rewarded in history.
 
 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
 “Let no one build walls to divide us,
 
 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
 Walls of hatred nor walls of stone.
 
 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
 Come greet the dawn and stand
 beside us, We’ll live together
 
 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
 or we’ll die alone. In our world…” I came to
 write a new version of the internationale
 
 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
 after being encouraged by Pete Seeger
 at the Vancouver Folk Festival.
 
 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
 This was in 1989, just after
 the Tiananmen Square episode.
 
 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
 And we were all aware that the Chinese students
 had sang the internationale in Tiananmen Square
 
 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
 and that’s why we wanted to sing it at the… the folk festival.
 So I said, well, I’d love to come and sing with you people.
 
 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
 I know the British lyrics which are different.
 And also so they’re very archive to sing.
 
 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
 So comrades, come rally, And
 the last fight let us face,
 
 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
 The Internationale
 
 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
 unites the human race. I mean, it’s
 an out song, it’s a very out song.
 
 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
 It has picked up a lot of baggage in the way. You know the
 baggage of state communism. But I’ve… I have argued with people
 
 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
 that it’s the baggage that we need to get rid of
 and not the actual spirit of the song itself.
 
 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
 So with this idea, I… I
 wrote a few more versus.
 
 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
 ”Stand up, all victims of oppression,
 
 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
 For the tyrants fear your might!
 Don’t cling
 
 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
 so hard to your possessions, For you
 have nothing if you have no rights!
 
 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
 Let racist ignorance be ended…”
 
 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
 I think we’re at a time in now in our politics where we in a…
 in an interesting position where it stands to this generation
 
 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
 to redefine what socialism and what
 communism means in a post-Marxist sense.
 
 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
 And I think reevaluating the old
 culture is important. And when we find
 
 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
 something that still has meaning as a…
 almost as an icon, the internationale,
 
 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
 I think it’s a good time to… to perhaps
 take it away from being an icon and…
 
 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
 and put some new lyrics on it and see… see if it… if
 it can translate into the… into the 21st century.
 
 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
 ”So comrades, come rally,
 
 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
 For this is the time and place!
 
 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
 The international ideal
 
 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
 Unites the human race.”
 
 00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
 [music]
 
 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
 All one has to do
 
 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
 is look around the world today, not
 only economy that is in crisis
 
 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
 everywhere in the world. To know that
 those struggles haven’t stopped,
 
 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
 that the shape of those
 struggles continues as a…
 
 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
 as a fierce struggle for justice. And
 as long as that struggle is there,
 
 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
 and it will be there,
 the… the dream of a world
 
 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
 in which man’s exploitation
 of man will end,
 
 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
 when the inhumanity of humans to humans will…
 will cease, when oppression will disappear,
 
 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
 is the strongest dream.
 And unless one dreams
 
 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
 beautiful dreams, one
 lives a very dismal life.
 
 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
 But that there will someday be again
 a movement throughout the world
 
 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
 that stands up and says, we are for a world
 in which the exploitation of human beings
 
 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
 can no longer take place, that dream I
 am sure will be revived and relived.
 
 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
 And if there is a world here,
 
 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
 a hundred years from now,
 I’m not sure there will be.
 
 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
 If there is a world here, this
 song will be part of that world.
 
 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
 And the socialist dreams
 of making one world
 
 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
 out of many peoples,
 
 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
 in some way will have to come to pass. When
 we fight, provoked by their aggression,
 
 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
 Let us be inspired by life and love.
 
 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
 For though they offer us concessions,
 
 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
 Change will not come from above!
 
 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
 So come brothers and sisters,
 
 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
 For the struggle carries on.
 
 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
 The Internationale
 
 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
 Unites the world in song.
 
 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
 So comrades, come rally,
 For this is the time
 
 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
 and place!
 
 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
 The international ideal
 
 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
 Unites the human race.
 
 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:38.000
 [sil.]
 
	 
		 
		