Workers of the world, unite!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The political slogan "Workers of the world, unite!", one of the most famous rallying cries of communism, comes from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's The Communist Manifesto. A variation ("Workers of all lands, unite!") is also inscribed on Marx's tombstone. The actual translation is more normally given as "Working men," or "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" (Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch!).
This slogan was also the USSR State motto (Russian: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!) and used on the Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union and on 1919 Russian SFSR banknotes (also written in German, French, Japanese, English, and Arabic). It is still used by some socialist and communist groups around the world. Additionally, the slogan has entered pop culture, and is frequently referenced.
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[edit] Variations
In the first Swedish language translation of the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, the translator Pehr Götrek substituted the slogan for Folkets röst, Guds röst! (i.e. "Vox populi, vox Dei", or "The Voice of the People is God's voice"). Later translations have, however, included the original slogan.
Amongst Maoist-oriented groups a variation invented by Lenin, 'Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite!', is sometimes used. This slogan was the rallying cry of the 2nd Comintern congress in 1920, and denoted the anti-Imperialist and anti-Colonialist agenda of the Comintern.
[edit] Non-English usage
This phrase has been translated into many languages. All of the Soviet Socialist Republics in the Soviet Union had it as their motto translated into the local languages. An extensive list of such translations is available at Wiktionary.
