This post is a placeholder. Even more than usual, I mean. I’ve been at the conference of the Working Class Studies Association the past two days, and will be the next two (then finally five days at home without being away and having them pre-filled, except they are pre-filled with union stuff, jobhunting, apartment cleaning, etc etc etc dammit, then 9 days away again for two weddings then blissful july with no travel - nomad schnomad, I choose immobility!). Here’s some stuff in relation to that. I’ll return to this when I get time.
First, this.
Second, review the UK and US versions of the Internationale (traditionally) and the Billy Bragg version (lyrically: ugh).
traditional US version, translated by Charles Kerr and included in the IWW songbook:
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.Refrain
‘Tis the final conflict, Let each stand in his place,
The Industrial Union Shall be the human race.We want no condescending saviors
To rule us from a judgment hall;
We workers ask not for their favors;
Let us consult for all.
To make the thief disgorge his booty
To free the spirit from its cell,
We must ourselves decide our duty,
We must decide and do it well.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 the strong coffers of a few;
In working for their restitution
The men will only ask their due.
(via.)
traditional UK version
Arise ye workers from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We’ll change henceforth the old tradition
And spurn the dust to win the prize.So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.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.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
And give to all a happier lot.
Each at the forge must do their duty
And we’ll strike while the iron is hot.
(via.)
Billy Bragg version
Stand up, all victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might
Dont cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing, if you have no rights
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and allChorus:
So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on
The internationale
Unites the world in song
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place
The international ideal
Unites the human raceLet no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
Well live together or well die alone
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken, now they must give
And end the vanity of nations
Weve but one earth on which to liveAnd so begins the final drama
In the streets and in the fields
We stand unbowed before their armour
We defy their guns and shields
When we fight, provoked by their aggression
Let us be inspired by like and love
For though they offer us concessions
Change will not come from above
(via.)
[The wikipedia entry on this is good, review it.]
Also:
Lenin writes in State and Revolution that during the transition to communism “The whole of society will have become a single office and a single factory, with equality of labor and pay. But this “factory” discipline, which the proletariat, after defeating the capitalists, after overthrowing the exploiters, will extend to the whole of society, is by no means our ideal, or our ultimate goal. It is only a necessary step for thoroughly cleansing society of all the infamies and abominations of capitalist exploitation, and for further progress.” Part of the argument here is that, in a sense, society will become a social factory. In the post-operaismo version of the idea of the social factory, where the factory becomes social in the era of real subsumption, there is a sense of historical progress when the factory becomes a social factory. Real subsumption is part of the transition to communism, in a sense, as new and radical possibilities open up with the passage to real subsumption. In the version I prefer, the factory was already social (so it’s not a matter of being close to communism in the present but rather we need to carry out communist projects within the present, as was required during every moment when it was the present).
Comment by Nate — June 16, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Nate,
So, forms of discipline articulate with modes of production (is there a necessary relationship?). The modes of discipline that Foucault talks about in D&P, for example, organize time and space in such a way that socializes workers to industrial production. In this sense, the transition from “discipline” to Deleuze’s “societies of control” is not a progression…seems more of a repetition of the “social factory” as it corresponds to new phases in sectors of the mode of production (immaterial labor, communicative labor, stuff like that). What do you think about trying to reconcile the operaismo-post-operaismo story with the MF-GD account of social production? Interesting post, btw, as always!
Comment by Matt — June 16, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
hi Matt,
Thanks for the kind words. It’s been a long time since I looked at the control society stuff. I remember not finding it convincing. In a nutshell, here’s my take - the factory was always-already social, because the capital relation is social, in the sense that the life-time and energy (more succinctly, the labor) commanded by the wage is always larger than the time counted as waged time. The specifics of how this occurs does vary historically (and by geographic, social, labor process [etc,] position). More soon, I have to go to bed, I’m naerly falling over with tiredness.
take care,
Nate
ps- out of curiousity, have you read Jason Read’s book The Micropolitics of Capital? It’s _excellent_. I’m less enthusiastic about the post-operaismo stuff in it than I was, but yeah, still, excellent. I think you’d like it - there’s also a lot on Althusser.
Comment by Nate — June 17, 2007 @ 4:30 am
thanks for the suggestion…I’ll check it out.
Comment by Matt — June 17, 2007 @ 10:05 pm
Listen to the song “Workers of the World- Unite!” by The Last Internationale
Comment by Jo — October 20, 2009 @ 9:08 pm