I remember that I had promised to do this. If Jim is right then the song below is the one that was wanted.

I have seen this song attributed to MacColl or to MacColl/Seeger in other places, but in Peggy Seeger's songbook she doesn't credit MacColl at all (she usually does in other songs). The tune she writes is "traditional Scots Gaelic".

She writes too that this song "can be constantly updated". The names below are the names she was singing "at the time of writing". So you may have heard other versions with other names.

Most of the names are known to me but I'll restrict comments to the German names guessing that these names are not well known to many of you. Two of the German names mean nothing to me. I'd appreciate comments who might be meant. It would be fine collective job to make notes to each of the names in this song. I have made a start.

Wolfgang

WE REMEMBER (alt. title: NAMING OF NAMES)
(Peggy Seeger/ tune. trad.)

Name the comrades
Still in prison!
Name the comrades
Dead and gone!
Gone, vanished,
Name our comrades!
I remember
We remember!

Kazim Arli
Still in prison!
Karen Silkwood
Dead and gone!
Juan Hernandez
Gone, vanished!
Don't forget them
We remember.

Nelson Mandela
Long in prison!
Joe Hill
Long gone!
Murielita
No one knows!
Don't forget them
We remember!

Ernst Thälmann (1)
Died in prison!
Bobby Sands
Died in prison!
John MacLean
Died in prison!
Nameless millions
Died in prison!

Wallace hung and
Drawn and quartered!
Carmen Quintana
Set on fire!
Scholl and Scheer and Schwartz (2)
Beheaded!
Victor Jara
Died singing!

Patrice Lumumba
Garçía Lorca
Kobayashi
Mother Jones
Karl and Rosa (3)
All murdered!
Don't forget them
We remember!

Sing with pride
Sing with joy
Sing today
Sing tomorrow
Sing them down
Sing them down
Brave comrades
We remember!

We remember
Cesar Sandino
We remember
Manuel Quisquina
We remember
The Birmingham Six
And Tom Mooney
We remember

Sing their names
Eduardo Mondlaine
Sing their names
James Connolly
Sing their fame
The nameless comrades
I remember
We remember!

We remember
Those in prison!
We remember
Those who died!
Don't forget them
We remember -
They died for us
They live forever.!

Notes: The parts in italics are sung by a small group, the other parts by a solo singer.

(1) Ernst Thälmann: 1886-1944, chairman of the German communist party, presidential candidate in 1932 (third place behind von Hindenburg and Hitler), shot by order of Hitler in Buchenwald concentration camp. Seeger's spelling Taelmann is incorrect, Thaelmann would be an acceptable variant.
"Ich träumte von Teddy Thälmann
Die Nacht einen schönen Traum.
Er war entfloh'n aus dem Kerker,
die Nazis schrien wild..."
(W. Biermann, Ernst Thälmann)

(2) Scholl is a kind of generic name. Hans and Sophie Scholl were siblings beheaded by the Nazis on Feb 22, 1943. They were members of the Weiße Rose (white rose) movement. Their crime: writing and distribution of anti-Nazis pamphlets. I don't know who is meant by the other two names. Both names are not known to me as members of the Weiße Rose. Seeger's spelling Shehr is definitely incorrect, Scheer is the most probable spelling, Scher is remotely possible. Schwartz could also be spelled Schwarz, but both names don't ring a bell.

(3) Karl and Rosa are Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) and Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919), communist leaders, members of the Spartacus League, tortured and murdered without trial by right-wing militia on Jan 15, 1919. When the murderers, German officers, were on trial the public prosecutor started his speech with the words: "When on January 16th the papers brought the news of the violent death of Dr. Karl Liebknecht and Ms. Rosa Luxemburg, many may have thought and many even spoken the words: Thank God for that." No wonder that the highest sentence for one of the accused was 2 years and four months.
"Karl Liebknecht und Luxemburg, Rosa,
so muss es den Menschen ja geh'n,
lebendig und totgeschlagen
hab' ich sie noch beide geseh'n..."
(W. Biermann, Hugenottenfriedhof)