The following is the contents of the page on my website containing the lyrics of my version of the Internationale, with text at the end explaining why I have changed the official lyrics...

Galaxia

L’internaçionale

(Trad, lyrics modified and original tune by Steve Wallis)

Arise ye starvlings from your slumbers!
Servile masses, arise, arise!
We’ll change forthwith the old conditions
And spurn the dust to win the prize!

Then comrades come rally
And the final fight let us face!
L’internaçionale unite la classe travailleurs!

The Internationale unites the working class!

My version of this song is considerably shorter than the original, since I have removed some lines which I do not agree with. For example, asking people to abandon superstitions is not a good idea, because there is an element of truth in many superstitions.

I have also removed the lines “For reason in revolt now thunders, and at last ends the age of cant”, because few people know what “cant” means!

The most important change is at the end. The official ending is “The Internationale unites the human race”, but it is vital not to unite with Tories and fascists, and we should unite with good animals and birds. People who have had a pet, particularly a dog or cat, realises that they are intelligent – and I have sometimes communicated with birds, particularly pigeons and seagulls! The animal rights song “Dominion”, on Latin Quarter’s brilliant “Swimming Against the Stream” album explains that animals and birds “suffer man’s dominion”.

Since “class” does not rhyme with “face” and the Internationale is the international song of the working class, it seemed a good idea to sing the final line in French! The official lyrics include that line twice, so if I am at a socialist gathering, such as a Scottish Socialist Party conference, at which it is traditional to chant the song at the end, I can chant it first in French and then in English. I have recently started shouting out the last line in English when singing it, so that people who do not understand French well enough know what I am on about.

I have also come up with an original tune for the song, so that it sounds better!