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Literature and arts · International Workingmen's Association (First International) people 1

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Eugène Pottier

Eugène Pottier
Literature and arts International Workingmen's Association (First International) France France 1816–1887 ○ Natural causes

Textile designer and poet, a member of the Commune, who wrote the words of “The Internationale” in hiding after Bloody Week

After the Paris Commune's defeat, he wrote the words of “The Internationale” while hiding in Paris in June 1871. In exile in the United States, he organized solidarity for deported Communards.

Born to a Paris box-maker, he worked as a textile designer and wrote songs and poems from the 1830s, taking part in the June Days of 1848. He founded a designers’ union and joined the International. Elected to the Commune in an April 1871 by-election for the 2nd arrondissement, he wrote “The Internationale” in hiding in June after Bloody Week. Condemned to death in absentia, he fled to the United States and returned under the 1880 amnesty. He died poor in 1887; the next year Pierre De Geyter set “The Internationale” to music and it became the anthem of the world labour movement.

Career timeline
  • 1830Composed his first song, “Long Live Liberty.”
  • 1848Took part in the 1848 Revolution.
  • 1864Helped found the textile designers’ union, which later joined the First International.
  • 1871Elected to the Paris Commune, he served on its Public Services Commission and fought during Bloody Week.
  • 1880Returned to France after the amnesty.
  • 1887Chants révolutionnaires, the first collection to print the words of “The Internationale,” was published.