Eugène Edme Pottier (1816, Paris - 1887) was a French revolutionary socialist, poet, and transport worker.
Pottier was elected a member of the Paris municipal council - the Paris Commune, in March 1871. During the Commune he wrote the poem L'Internationale which became the International Workingmen's Association anthem during its last years (1871–1876), and has been used by most socialist and leftist political internationals since.
Fifteen years after the Communards were crushed in blood by the Versaillais (1871), Eugene Pottier dedicated the following hymn to their revolution: (From a piece by Benoît Bréville and Dominique Vidal in le Monde Diplomatique,[1]>
On l'a tuée à coups de chassepot,
A coups de mitrailleuse,
Et roulée avec son drapeau
Dans la terre argileuse.
Et la tourbe des bourreaux gras
Se croyait la plus forte.
Tout ça n'empêche pas, Nicolas
Qu'la Commune n'est pas morte.
A very poor translation of which is:
They killed her with their chassepot,
With their machine guns,
And rolled her with its flag
In the clay.
And the mud of the fat hangmen
thought they had prevailed.
And with all that, Nicolas,
The Commune is not dead.
<http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/118/BREVILLE/20838 />