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This article contains three lists: songs of the socialist parties and movements, anthems of self-proclaimed socialist states, and musical movements that feature prominent socialist themes. Not all national anthems of socialist states are necessarily explicitly socialist, and many were in use at other time in a nation's history.
| Song | Writer(s) | Date | Country of Origin | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le temps des cerises | Jean-Baptiste Clément | 1866 |  France | Music by Antoine Renard. Became strongly associated with the Paris Commune of 1871, and has become a major socialist song in Francophone countries. |
| Sir de Fisch-Ton-Kan | Joseph Aurnaud | 1870 | France | |
| The Internationale | Eugène Pottier | 1871 | France | Regarded as the international anthem of the socialist movement. First intended to be sung to the tune of "La Marseillaise", Pierre De Geyter composed original music in 1888. It was used as the anthem of the USSR from 1922 to 1944. |
| Les Dances des Bombes | Louise Michel | 1871 | France | |
| Semaine Sanglante | Jean Baptiste Clément | 1871 | France | |
| The Standard of Revolt | Paul Brousse | 1877 | ||
| Elle n'est pas morte! | Eugène Pottier | 1886 | France | |
| Workers' Hymn | Filippo Turati and Amintore Galli | 1886 |  Italy | It is considered one of the most significant historical songs of the Italian workers' movement, and was banned by successive governments of the Kingdom of Italy, including during the First World War and Fascist Italy. [1] [2] |
| Bella Ciao | Mondina Workers | Late 19th century | Italy | Originally sung by farm workers to protest harsh working conditions, it was adapted by Italian partisans as an anti-fascist song, and is widely used by anti-fascists today. |
| Bandiera Rossa | Carlo Tuzzi | 1908 | Italy | Uses a traditional folk melody. Primarily known as a song of the Italian labor movement. |
| Fischia il vento | Matvei Blanter and Felice Cascione | 1943 | Italy | Adapted from the Russian song Katyusha by Italian partisans as an anti-fascist song. |
| La Letanía De Los Poderosos | Gabino Palomares | 1978 |  Mexico | |
| Himno Zapatista | 1990s | Mexico | Anthem of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation | |
| Canción del Partido Comunista | Anthar Lopez | Unknown | Mexico | |
| Obreros y Patrones | José de Molina | Unknown | Mexico | |
| Manifesto Comunista | José de Molina | Unknown | Mexico | |
| Canto Campesino | León Chavez | Unknown | Mexico | |
| La Huelga | José de Molina | Unknown | Mexico | |
| Hold the Fort | Late 19th century |  United States | Adapted by the Knights of Labor from a gospel hymn written by Philip Bliss. It became famous as the song of the British transportation workers. It is now used by many union movements, especially in the Caribbean. [3] | |
| The Preacher and the Slave | Joe Hill | 1911 | United States | Written as an anti-religious, syndicalist song for the IWW. [4] |
| There Is Power in a Union | Joe Hill | 1913 | United States | Written for the IWW. Sung to the tune of Lewis E. Jones' 1899 hymn "There Is Power in the Blood (Of the Lamb)". [5] |
| Rebel Girl | Joe Hill | 1915 | United States | Written for Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. [6] |
| Bread and Roses | James Oppenheim | 1915 | United States | Multiple melodies have been composed, most famously by Mimi Fariña. [7] |
| Solidarity Forever | Ralph Chaplin | 1915 | United States | Written for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), it is widely used in the trade union movement. It is sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body". |
| Which Side Are You On? | Florence Reece | 1931 | United States | Written for the United Mine Workers in Harlan County, Kentucky from the melody from the traditional Baptist hymn, "Lay the Lily Low". |
| The Battle Hymn of Cooperation | Elizabeth Mead and Carl Ferguson | 1932 | United States | A popular song of the consumers' co-operatives movement, especially during the 1930s. Like "Solidarity Forever", it is also sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body". [8] |
| Joe Hill | Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson | 1936 | United States | Lyrics from a poem by Alfred Hayes. |
| This Land Is Your Land | Woody Guthrie | 1944 | United States | Guthrie wrote the song as a critical response to Irving Berlin's God Bless America. The stanza condemning private property is often omitted. [9] |
| If I Had a Hammer | Pete Seeger and Lee Hays | 1950 | United States | First performed for the CPUSA, successful versions were recorded by The Weavers, Trini Lopez, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. [10] |
| Love Me, I'm a Liberal | Phil Ochs | 1966 | United States | Mocks the insincerity of liberalism in the United States. [11] |
| Fortunate Son | Creedence Clearwater Revival | 1969 | United States | An anti-war song made to protest against the Vietnam War and the American establishment in the 1960's |
| The Revolution Will Not Be Televised | Gil Scott-Heron | 1971 | United States | |
| Ain't done Nothin If You Ain't Been Called a Red | Eliot Kenin | 1984 | United States | The most famous version was sung by Faith Petric. [12] [13] |
| ¡Ay Carmela! | Unknown | 1936 |  Spain | Sung by the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. [14] |
| Jarama Valley | Alex McDade | 1938 | Spain | Sung by the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. [15] |
| No Pasaran | Leopoldo González | 1936 | Spain | Titled after Dolores Ibarruri's famous speech during the Spanish Civil War. [16] |
| A las Barricadas | Valeriano Orobón Fernández | 1936 | Spain | Used by the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Civil War. |
| Freiheit | Gudrun Kabisch and Paul Dessau | 1936 | Spain | Written by German volunteers of the Thälmann Battalion serving in the Spanish Civil War, it became popular among Communists in the United States and Germany. [17] |
| Nanniwan | He Jingzhi and Ma Ke. [18] | 1943 |  China | Nanniwan celebrates a victory of the Communist Eighth Route Army during the Second World War. The lyrics, written by He Jingzhi, were set to a traditional folk melody of northern Shaanxi. [19] |
| Osmanthus Flowers Blooming Everywhere in August | China | The song is based on a folk melody from the Dabie Mountains, where the Eyuwan Soviet was based. The song was very popular during the Cultural Revolution. [20] | ||
| Ode to the Motherland | Wang Shen | 1950 | China | Dedicated to the Chinese Revolution and the CCP. [21] |
| The East Is Red | Li Youyuan | 1960s | China | Written by a Chinese peasant from Shaanxi to celebrate Mao Zedong and the CCP. It became the de facto anthem of the PRC during the Cultural Revolution. [22] |
| Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman | Wang Shuangyin | 1964 | China | Popular among the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. [23] |
| Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China | Cao Huoxing | 1943 | China | Written as a response to a Kuomintang slogan. [24] |
| Socialism is Good | Li Huanzhi and Xi Yang | 1958 | China | Popular during the Cultural Revolution. [25] |
| The Voice of the Masses | Mohammed Abdel Wahab | 1960 |  United Arab Republic | Pan-Arab song about uniting the Arab world through its people |
| Sar Oomad Zemestoon | Saeed Soltanpour |  Iran | Used by the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas | |
| El Pueblo Unido | Sergio Ortega | 1973 |  Chile | Lyrics by folk group Quilapayún. It was adapted from chants used during Salvador Allende's presidential campaign, and after he was deposed, it became a common protest song worldwide. [26] [27] |
| Venceremos | Sergio Ortega | 1970 | Chile | The anthem of Salvador Allende's presidential campaign. [28] |
| Solidaritätslied | Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler | 1929–31 |  Germany | Written during the Great Depression and popular among socialists in the late Weimar Republic. [29] |
| Der heimliche Aufmarsch | Wladimir Vogel | 1930 | Germany | Lyrics are from a 1929 poem by Erich Weinert. The most famous version was arranged by Hans Eisler. In 1957, the words were rewritten in East Germany for the Cold War, renamed as "Der offene Aufmarsch". [30] [31] |
| Einheitsfrontlied | Hanns Eisler | 1934 | Germany | Also known as the "Song of the United Front". Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. |
| Whirlwinds of Danger | Wacław Święcicki | 1879 or 1883 |  Poland | Music composed by Józef Pławiński. The anthem of the Polish workers during the Russian Revolution of 1905, it has been translated into many languages and sung worldwide. |
| You Fell Victim to a Fateful Struggle | Anton Arkhangelsky and Nikolay Ikonikov | 1878 |  Russia | |
| Di Shvue | S. Ansky | 1902 | Russia | Written for the Jewish Labor Bund. |
| Dublin City 1913 | Donagh MacDonagh |  Ireland | Written about the Irish worker's struggle (1913-1916) against British occupation. [32] | |
| The Red Flag | Jim Connell | 1889 |  United Kingdom | Written by Irish-born socialist Jim Connell, it is used as the party anthem of the British and Irish Labour parties. It is sung to the tune of "O Tannenbaum" or "The White Cockade". [33] |
| The Manchester Rambler | Ewan MacColl | 1932 | United Kingdom | Written by the English folk singer Ewan MacColl, inspired by his participation in the Kinder trespass, a protest by the urban Young Communist League of Manchester. [34] |
| Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards | Billy Bragg | 1988 | United Kingdom | Reflects on the disappointments of the Cold War in the aftermath of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 1987 re-election. [35] |
| Hasta Siempre | Carlos Puebla | 1965 |  Cuba | Written as a response to Che Guevara's farewell letter to Cuba, it became the most famous song of the Nueva Trova movement. |
| Padaj silo i nepravdo | 1922 |  Yugoslavia | Inspired by the Hvar Rebellion. It is based on "Slobodarka", a 1908 song written by Josip Smodlaka. [36] | |
| The Red Army is Strongest | Samuel Pokrass and Pavel Gorinshtejn | 1920 |  Soviet Union | |
| The Partisan's Song | Yuri Cherniavsky and Peter Parfenov | 1915-1922 | Soviet Union | A popular Red Army song from the Russian Civil War and World War I. [37] |
| Tachanka (song) | Mikhail Ruderman and Konstantin Listov | 1937 | Soviet Union | Glorifies the Tachankas (machine gun carts) used by the Red Army during the civil war. [38] |
| March of the Defenders of Moscow | Alexey Surkov and Boris Mokrousov | 1941 | Soviet Union | Used by the Red Army beginning at the Battle of Moscow. [39] |
Nueva canción is a left-wing social movement and musical genre in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, characterized by folk-inspired styles and socially committed lyrics. Nueva canción is widely recognized to have played a profound role in the pro-democracy social upheavals in Portugal, Spain and Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s, and was popular amongst socialist organizations in the region.
The State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus, better known as "We Belarusians", is the national anthem of Belarus. It was originally written in the 1940s and adopted in 1955 for use in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. The music of the Belarusian SSR anthem was composed by Niescier Sakałowski and the lyrics were written by Michas Klimkovič. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the music composed by Sakalowski was kept and the lyrics were discarded. New lyrics, which were written by Klimkovič and Uładzimir Karyzna, were adopted by a presidential decree issued on 2 July 2002.
The national anthem of Bolivia, also known by its incipit "Bolivians, the Propitious Fate" and by its original title "Patriotic Song", was adopted in 1851. José Ignacio de Sanjinés, a signer of both the Bolivian Declaration of Independence and the first Bolivian Constitution, wrote the lyrics. The music was composed by an Italian, Leopoldo Benedetto Vincenti.
"The Internationale" is an international anthem that has been adopted as the anthem of various anarchist, communist, socialist, democratic socialist, and social democratic movements. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since the late nineteenth century, when the Second International adopted it as its official anthem. The title arises from the "First International", an alliance of workers which held a congress in 1864. The author of the anthem's lyrics, Eugène Pottier, an anarchist, attended this congress. Pottier's text was later set to an original melody composed by Pierre De Geyter, a Marxist.
The State Anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the national anthem of the Soviet Union and the regional anthem of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1944 to 1991, replacing "The Internationale". Its original lyrics were written by Sergey Mikhalkov (1913–2009) in collaboration with El-Registan (1899–1945), and its music was composed by Alexander Alexandrov (1883–1946). For a two-decade interval following de-Stalinization, the anthem was performed without lyrics. The second set of lyrics, also written by Mikhalkov and in which Stalin's name was omitted, was adopted in 1977.
Revolutionary songs are political songs that advocate or praise revolutions. They are used to boost morale, as well as for political propaganda or agitation. Amongst the most well-known revolutionary songs are "La Marseillaise" and "The Internationale". Many protest songs can be considered revolutionary - or later become canonized as revolutionary songs following a successful revolution. On the other hand, once a revolution is established, some of the aspects of protest song may be considered counter-revolutionary.
Filippo Turati was an Italian sociologist, criminologist, poet and socialist politician.
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¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido! is a music album released by the Chilean folk group Quilapayún in 1975.
"Ode to the Motherland" is a patriotic song of the People's Republic of China, written and music composed by Wang Shen during the period immediately after the founding of the People's Republic of China (1949–1951). It is sometimes honoured as "the second national anthem" of the PRC. The song has been performed in major sporting events in the opening ceremonies during China's entry in the parade of nations, such as the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2019 Military World Games, the 2021 Summer World University Games as well as the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2022 Asian Games.
The Italian Workers' Party was a socialist political party in Italy.
Osmanthus Flowers Blooming Everywhere in August is a Chinese Red Army folk song from Sichuan province, and is among the best-known revolutionary songs from the wartime and Maoist periods in China.
The Central Military Commission Political Work Department Song and Dance Troupe, formerly known as Chinese People's Liberation Army General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe, is the official army choir of the Central Military Commission. Founded during the Chinese Civil War, the troupe consists of a song and dance ensemble, an opera troupe, and a repertory theatre.
Costantino Lazzari was an Italian politician. He was one of the founders and main leaders of the Italian Socialist Party.
Amyntor "Amintore" Flaminio Claudio Galli was an Italian music publisher, journalist, historian, musicologist, and composer.
El aparecido is a Chilean song originally written and recorded by Víctor Jara which was included in the 1967 album Victor Jara. The lyrics tell the story of a man who was persecuted for his political ideologies, often the man in the song is attributed to Che Guevara, an Argentine guerrilla fighter. Because of this, the Communist Party of Chile criticized Jara, as the party was trying to establish a socialist government via democratic means, and not through armed guerrillas.
The Workers' Hymn or Workers' Song, also known as the Hymn of the Italian Workers' Party, is an Italian socialist anthem written by Filippo Turati, and set to music by Amintore Galli.
Xiang Xuan was a Chinese colonel in the People's Liberation Army and the nephew of He Long, a marshal of the People's Republic of China. Following the death of his mother and aunt, Xiang joined the Chinese Red Army in 1933 and in 1935, at the age of nine, took part in the Long March, making him the youngest soldier to take part in it.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)The readers should compare this with the former leading song 'Socialism is good' introduced in 1957 with words by Xi Yang