The French worker Eugène Pottier (1816–1887) wrote The Internationale after witnessing the bloody suppression of the insurrection of 1830 and participating in the establishment of the Second Republic in 1848.  After the bourgeoisie made Louis Bonaparte emperor in 1851, Pottier wrote a poem, "Who Will Revenge This?"

Pottier was deeply affected by the first workers' government, the great Paris Commune of 1871. 

In March 1871, the French government sent soldiers to take back cannons it had given Parisian citizens in the face of a Prussian attack.   Masses of women protested, and the soldiers mutinied.  They executed the general who insisted that his troops fire on the masses.

The Parisian masses rose up and took power as the Commune. Pottier became a leader, joining comrades from many countries.

After 72 days the French government at Versailles, aided by their Prussian rivals who released prisoners of war to help, massacred the communards.  Thirty thousand were slaughtered in cold blood and fifty thousand were tried, among them Pottier, who was  condemned to death.

Pottier fled to England, and then to America. He wrote the verses of the Internationale in  June, 1871, to impart the significance of the Paris Commune to workers worldwide.

Ten thousand, including many surviving communards, attended his funeral. His remains were carried to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where the executed Communards are buried. The police savagely attacked the crowd, trying to seize the mourners' red flag.

The Internationale became the anthem of the Soviet Union and of workers everywhere.  On May Day 1943, with the Nazis poised to liquidate the resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, The Internationale was sung.  A survivor wrote:

"The words and the song echoed from the charred ruins and were, at that particular time, an indication that Socialist youth was still fighting in the Ghetto, and that even in the face of death they were not abandoning their ideals."

Singing The Internationale connects us to a long, proud tradition of struggle for the emancipation of the world's  workers.

Now more than ever, amid heightened inter-imperialist rivalry and as bosses prepare for World War, we need to mobilize the masses for communism.   The Internationale can help to inspire this movement.

The original French lyrics declared that "the International shall be the human race." This referred to the International Working Men's Association, founded in 1864, which had adherents from many lands, mainly Germany, Britain and France.

For Pottier and his comrades this First International was the seed of a new and different society.  Nevertheless, the nationalist outlook of the socialist parties undermined internationalism.  Neither the First International nor its successors were an international Party.  In Britain and Germany, workers became part of the organization through national party committees or unions. In France, workers joined directly.

The lyrics of The Internationale have been altered in translation to  reflect different political perspectives among revolutionaries.  Eleanor Marx's first English version changed "The Internationale…will be the human race" to "The Internationale…unites the human race."  A liberal German version was "The International fights for human rights."

Today, some sing in Spanish "the people arise" while others sing "the [working] class arises." This reflects the difference between democratic populist politics versus communist politics.

Pottier and his comrades hoped every worker everywhere would join the International. However, they didn't understand the need for one mass international communist party organizing strategically in the bosses' industrial centers and military to mobilize the masses for communism.