Pierre Chrétien De Geyter Belgian socialist and
composer, best known for writing the music of the revolutionary Internationale Socialist anthem The Internationale,was born 4th October 1848 on Kanunnik
Street in Ghent, Belgium.
The living conditions of the Ghent working-class family in which Pierre
De Geyter was born were far from rosy. Poverty, hunger, overpopulation
and contagious diseases took their toll in the Flemish proletarian
neighbourhoods in the middle of the 19th century. When to compound, the
disastrous state of affairs the Flemish textile and metal industry was
hit by crisis because of rapid industrial development, many breadwinners
lost their job. Longing for better economic circumstances the De Geyter
family, like many other Flemish textile workers, moved in 1855 to the
North of France, which in that period was also known as ‘Petit
Belgique’.
Both father and
son found work there, despite child labour being outlawed since 1841.
Pierre became a thread maker at Fives Locomotive Works. He learned to
read and write at the workers' evening classes, taking drawing
classes at Lille Academy and, from 1864, also music lessons. He even won
first prize in woodwinds and played a number of instruments, including
the saxophone! In 1887, Pierre became the conductor of La Lyre des Travailleurs, the socialist choir that met at the premises of La Liberté in the Rue de la Vignette, founded by Gustave Delory, who later became the Socialist mayor of Lille. Pierre joined the musical society of the French Workers' Party (POF) in Lille, which would march through the workers' neighbourhoods playing music during strikes,and election campaigns .
On 15 July 1888, Delory contacted De Geyter to compose music for several
"Chants révolutionnaires" that were often sung at popular events with
Lille socialists. He gave him a copy of the Chants Révolutionnaires poetry collection by Eugène Pottier. Within it it contained The Internationale. The lyrics had been written by Eugène Edine Pottier
during the "Semaine Sanglante" (the "bloody week," May 22–28, 1871)
marking the brutal end and severe repression of the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2021/03/150th-anniversary-of-paris-commune.html by the conservative French government in Versailles,
cheered on by the ruling classes of the world.
It took Pierre one Sunday morning to compose his music on
a harmonium. According to one source, he then asked his brother Adolphe
to play it on the bugle, and subsequently made some minor changes to
the music. The rousing new composition was first played by the Lyre des
Travailleurs at the yearly fête of the Lille trade union of newspaper
sellers in July 1888.The song was a success and the workers’ party branch in Lille decided to print 6,000 flyers of the song.
To protect his job, only "Degeyter" was named
as the composer but Pierre was dismissed regardless and was subsequently
blacklisted by Lille employers.He encountered financial difficulties and moved to the Parisian suburb
of Saint-Denis in 1901. He also became embroiled in painful legal
proceedings with his younger brother Adolphe over his copyright, which
was only settled in his favour in 1922. To make matters worse, Delory
even took Adolphe's side during those proceedings.
Pierre became a
communist and his music was relegated to obscurity in France. He worked
as a lamplighter for the township of Saint-Denis from then on. He was soon reduced to performing odd
jobs, such as making coffins. In 1902, he left Lille with his wife and
daughter and moved to Saint-Denis, near Paris and worked as a lamplighter for the township of Saint-Denis from then on.
The poem preaching the unity of workers to conquer a free and common
land and denouncing the system that covers up the crimes of the rich,
was reproduced in other congresses of communist, socialist and workers’
parties and took the world by storm.The Second International alliance of socialist organizations around the
world--which created International Women's Day, for one thing--adopted
the song as an official anthem. The Internationale was also
incorporated as the official hymn by the Second International, founded
in 1889.The Third International, formed after the Russian Revolution of 1917,
carried on the tradition. "The Internationale" was the anthem of the
USSR after the revolution, until it was dropped in favor of a more
explicitly nationalist anthem during the Stalin era.
If the workers were quick to realise that The Internationale
was a song that captured the essence of their conditions and
aspirations, the authorities were equally quick to realise the threat it
represented to status quo.
In 1894, a teacher by the name of Armand Gosselin released a new version of The Internationale
and the government immediately put him on trial accused of encouraging
military insubordination (verse five). He was sentenced to a term of
imprisonment of one year. This attempt to suppress the song had exactly
the opposite effect. The trial against Gosselin intensified the interest
in the song. By now, nothing could stop The Internationale.
Pottier's words and Pierre De Geyters rousing militant anthem has since been sung and honoured by various Labour parties, anarchists,
socialists, Trotskistes, Leninists, Communists and all those seeking a radical, fundamental change in society, many who have been jailed, even executed, for the mere singing of it.but it has continued to be translated into hundreds of languages across the globe, with
billions of covers on youtube alone. It has been hailed as the most
dangerous song on the planet, a rousing song.of continuing universal
struggle, the call to the final battle against the tyranny of the world.
A few years before De Geyter’s death an employee of the Soviet Embassy in Paris noticed that the composer of the Internationale was still alive (at that moment the Internationale was
the national anthem of the Soviet Union). In 1927 De Geyter was invited
as a guest of honour for the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of
the October revolution. It is said that tears rolled down his cheeks while his anthem was played. The Soviet Union was also instrumental in
providing De Geyter towards the end of his life with some amenities: he
received a Russian state pension and the town of Saint-Denis offered him
accommodation for free.
In addition to the Internationale De Geyter composed mainly light music and militant songs, a large part of which is conserved in the city library of Lille.
De Geyter died on 26 September, 1932 in Saint-Denis followed by 50,000 people to the tune of The Internationale. There is a Pierre De Geyter street in Ghent and there are Pierre Degeyter squares both in Lille and in Sant-Denis. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth date, an
exhibition about De Geyter was organized in 1998 by the Masereel Fund
and the Archive and Museum of the Socialist Workers’ Movement (AMSAB) in
Ghent. In 1999 he received late posthumous recognition by his native
city, more specifically a bronze statue in the front yard of the Museum for
Industrial Archaeology.
There is an eternal message in Pottier 's words and De Geyter;s song's
that is still worth remembering. As bleak times lie ahead, however down-
hearted you may feel right now, remember the international ideal unites
the human race. De Greyter's anthem's power to move people, continues to play a role in inspiring and reminding us to keep standing in solidarity, against the injustices of the world and keep singing out loud, as we struggle on in our attempt to build a better society.The following is the original song as Pottier wrote it
The Internationale Original Verses
Debout, les damnés de la terre / Arise, damned of the earth
Debout, les forçats de la faim / Arise, prisoners of hunger
La raison tonne en son cratère, / Reason thunders in its volcano
C’est l’éruption de la fin / This is the eruption of the end
Du passé faisons table rase, / Lets make a clean slate of the past
Foule esclave, debout, debout, / Enslaved masses, arise, arise
Le monde va changer de base / The world is is going to change its foundation
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout / We are nothing, we will be all
Chorus:
C’est la lutte finale / This is the final struggle
Groupons-nous, et demain, / Group together, and tomorrow
L’Internationale, / The Internationale
Sera le genre humain. / Will be the human race
Il n’est pas de sauveurs suprêmes, / There are no supreme saviors
Ni Dieu, ni César, ni tribun, / Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune
Producteurs sauvons-nous nous-mêmes / Producers, let us save ourselves
Décrétons le salut commun / Decree the common salvation
Pour que le voleur rende gorge, / So that the thief expires
Pour tirer l’esprit du cachot, / To free the spirit from its cell
Soufflons nous-mêmes notre forge, / Let us fan the forge ourselves
Battons le fer tant qu’il est chaud / Strike while the iron’s hot
Chorus
L’État comprime et la loi triche, / The State oppresses and the law cheats
L’impôt saigne le malheureux; / Tax bleeds the unfortunate
Nul devoir ne s’impose au riche, / No duty is imposed on the rich
Le droit du pauvre est un mot creux. / The right of the poor is an empty phrase
C’est assez languir en tutelle, / Enough languishing in custody
L’égalité veut d’autres lois: / Equality wants other laws
«Pas de droits sans devoirs, dit-elle, / No rights without duties she says
Égaux, pas de devoirs sans droits!» / Equally, no duties without rights
Chorus
Hideux dans leur apothéose, / Hideous in their apotheosis
Les rois de la mine et du rail, / The kings of the mine and the rail
Ont-ils jamais fait autre chose, / Have they ever done anything
Que dévaliser le travail? / Than steal work?
Dans les coffres-forts de la bande, / Inside the strong-boxes of the gangs
Ce qu’il a créé s’est fondu. / What work has created is melted
En décrétant qu’on le lui rende, / By ordering that they give it back
Le peuple ne veut que son dû. / The people only want their due
Chorus
Les Rois nous saoulaient de fumées, / The kings made us drunk with fumes
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans / Peace among us, war to the tyrants
Appliquons la grève aux armées, / Let the armies go on strike
Crosse en l’air et rompons les rangs / Stocks in the air, and break ranks
S’ils s’obstinent, ces cannibales, / If these cannibals insist
A faire de nous des héros, / On making heroes of us
Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles / They will know soon enough that our bullets
Sont pour nos propres généraux. / Are for our own generals
Chorus
Ouvriers, Paysans, nous sommes / Workers, peasants, we are
Le grand parti des travailleurs; / The great party of laborers
La terre n’appartient qu’aux hommes, / The earth belongs only to men
L’oisif ira loger ailleurs. / The idle will go reside elsewhere
Combien de nos chairs se repaissent / How much of our flesh have they consumed
Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours, / But if these ravens, these vultures
Un de ces matins disparaissent, / Disappear one of these days
Le soleil brillera toujours / The sun will shine forever
Chorus
The first verse and refrain of the American version goes like this:
Arise ye prisoners of starvation
Arise ye wretched of the earth
For justice thunders condemnation
A better world's in birth!
No more tradition's chains shall bind us
Arise, ye slaves, no more in thrall
The earth shall rise on new foundations
We have been naught we shall be all.
'Tis the final conflict
Let each stand in their place
The international working class
Shall free the human race.
The late Alistair Hulett was inspired to create the following.
Billy Bragg recently rewrote the song in an attempt to remind us what we are still fighting for, Whether you like Bragg's music or not, there is a message at this song's
core that is worth remembering.
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