- Arise! ye workers [starvelings], from your slumbers;
- Arise! ye prisoners [criminals] of want.
- For reason in revolt now thunders
- And ends at last the age of cant.
- Away with all your superstitions
- Servile masses, arise! arise!
- We’ll change henceforth [forthwith] the old tradition [conditions]
- And spurn the dust to win the prize.
- Chorus
- So comrades, come rally
- And the last fight let us face
- The Internationale
- Unites the human race.
- No saviour from on high delivers;
- No faith have we in prince or peer.
- Our own right hand the chains must shiver:
- Chains of hatred, greed and fear.
- E’er the thieves will out with their booty [give up their booty]
- And give to all a happier lot.
- Each at his forge must do his duty
- And strike the iron while it’s hot!
- 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.
- No more deluded by reaction
- On tyrants only we’ll make war
- The soldiers too will take strike action
- They’ll break ranks and fight no more
- And if those cannibals keep trying
- To sacrifice us to their pride
- They soon shall hear the bullets flying
- We’ll shoot the Generals on Our Own Side.
- We peasants, artisans, and others
- Enrolled among the sons of toil,
- Let’s claim the earth henceforth for brothers,
- Drive the indolent from the soil!
- On our Flesh too Long has fed the Raven;
- We’ve too long been the vulture’s prey.
- But now farewell the spirit craven:
- The dawn brings in a brighter day.
Here’s a chord chart for The Internationale. I play it in DADGAD using D shapes, capoed at the 3rd fret, so it’s in the key of F.
Intro: D3 / A7 / | Gsus2 / / / | G3 / Gsus2 / | D5 / / / | x2
Verse:
D / A7 / | Gsus2 / / / | A / / / | D / / / |
D / A7 / | Gsus2 / / / | A / / / | D / / / |
Gsus2 / A7 / | D / / / | Gsus2 / Em / | A7 / / / |
A7 / / / | D / / / | A7 / / / | A7 / / / |
Chorus:
D / / / | Gsus2 / / / | A7 / / / | D / / / |
D3 / A7 / | Gsus2 / A7 / | Em7 / / / | A7 / / / |
D / / / | Gsus2 / / / | A7 / / / | D / / / |
D / A7 / | Em7 / Gsus2 / | D / /A7 / | D / / / |
With the strings tuned DADGAD, the shapes required are:
D – 000200, D3 – 004200, D5 – 050200
A7 – X02002 or A7sus4 – X02000 or A5 – XO2202
Em7 – 222020 (barre the two lowest strings with 1st finger)
Gsus2 – 550000, G3 – X20020
You can also play it in Drop D tuning (DADGBE) or simply use standard tuning with a normal G instead of a Gsus2.
Up to you. DAGAD is the easiest option I think.
There’s a wee bass run I use in bar 3 of the intro. It sits in and around the two inversions of G I’ve indicated above, and you can see Alastair Hullett play it via the YouTube video link