[lbo-talk] Internationale

robert mast mastrob at comcast.net
Sat Apr 17 14:09:40 PDT 2004



> Googling on "The Interionale" (I've got a playlist with 14 versions,
> so I was curious to find out its history) brought me to a website
> that claimed that Stalin dropped it as the anthem of the USSR during
> WW2 because the troops wanted to die for Mother Russia, not the
> international working class. Is that true?
>
> Doug

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Don't know the answer to your question, but I wouldn't be surprised if something about nationalism were found in the answer.

I can offer some contemporary anecdotal evidence closer to home that, given half a chance, "The Internationale" is acceptable in principle to many working class progressives. In 2000-2001 some of us in Albuquerque, NM put together a rag-tag group called the Labor Party Singers which performed (usually for a free meal) at labor, progressive, and holiday events. What we lacked in quality we made up in enthusiasm. In my opinion, our crowning achievement was a semi-mastery of "The Internationale" and its performance at events commemorating May Day. Audiences were invited to sing along and we passed out copies of the words: "Arise, you prisoners of starvation! Arise you wretched of the earth!---Seemed to me that there was a genuine appreciation for the sense of the message; for the concept that "The international working class shall be the human race." I was sent a video of my wife's memorial service in 12/01. Lo and behold, the attendees ended the service with singing "The Internationale," and they were liberals, Greens, labor bureaucrats, communists, anarchists, and all kinds of POC.

Bob Mast



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