A Post-Cold War Musical Call to Arms : Politics: Billy Bragg sees an opening for his brand of socialism. He brings his act Sunday to the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Communist governments were toppling like dominoes in Eastern Europe, along with the Berlin Wall.

The Cold War was rapidly defrosting, and Billy Bragg decided it was time to update the “archaic” English lyrics to “The Internationale,” for decades a rallying call to the world’s socialists, communists and anarchists, and the Soviet Union’s national anthem until 1943.

The Bragg revision, which anchors his latest EP named after the anthem, begins: “Stand up, all victims of oppression / For the tyrants fear your might,” an appropriate ode to the peoples of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, et al.

The British rocker then adds a warning to the overthrowers of communism, to whom capitalism now looks so enticing: “Don’t cling so hard to your possessions / For you have nothing if you have no rights.”

While capitalists of the Western world are dancing on Wall Street over the collapse of communist empires, Bragg, the socialist troubadour-activist, more than ever is priming for the great leap forward.

Wielding his electric guitar as a weapon against the Establishment in the tradition that Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger have brandished acoustic guitars, Brag believes the smashing of ideologies during 1989 may have chiseled a pathway to the socialist vision outlined in much of his music.

“The problem (with socialism) is so much cold, calculated dogma has been entered into it,” Bragg said during a recent interview from Pittsburgh, Pa., where his current U.S. tour had arrived. “The way I see it, socialism is another word for caring--allowing someone else into your life. And the most basic example of this is when you love someone. To let a complete stranger into our lives and care for them, that, multiplied by xxx million, is what socialism is all about.”

Consequently, the juxtaposed love songs and political anthems that run through Bragg’s work are not disparate sides of an artistic schizophrenia, but evocative, symbiotic facets of a cohesive humanitarian world view.

The theme and passion evoked in Bragg’s tender, romantic ballad “Must I Paint You a Picture” directly parallels that of his inspiring call to activism, “Help Save the Youth of America.” On occasion, the comingling of the two subjects is more overt, as in “Tender Comrade,” an a cappella ode of soldiers torn by the horrors of war but inevitably bound together in brotherhood.

Bragg’s intertwining of love and politics as reciprocal metaphors helps elevate his music beyond soapbox posturing. Perhaps not coincidentally, his creative influences are rooted much deeper than the traditional folk lords.

William Blake and Bertolt Brecht are among his writing models. He reveres Phil Ochs above Bob Dylan. His folk heroes hail from nations beyond the United States and Europe and often date back to the 19th Century.

Although few radio programmers or record buyers have shown much curiosity about Bragg’s music, he is making his mark as a songwriter. Kirsty MacColl’s 1985 rendition of his “A New England” broke into the British Top 10, and a cover of his 1988 song, “She’s Got a New Spell,” has been a hit in Spain this year.

Obviously a firm believer in the power of the song as a vehicle for social change, Bragg nonetheless reflects no delusions of self-importance.

“I like to think that my job is to provoke,” he said. “I don’t claim to enlighten anybody. I want to throw down a challenge--a challenge, for example, to the American people, whether they want to be reduced to Ramboism or . . . to be a force of good in the world.

“And, having an outsider’s perspective, I can pitch that in a way that is a bit annoying. I don’t want people to sit back and think, ‘Ah, Bill’s gonna save the world for me.’ Because I’m not. I have no illusions that any (musician) is capable of that.”

The four LPs and three EPs released over the last seven years represent two sides of his musical career, he says. His LPs are the works he puts forth as the true measure of his art. He sees the intermittent EPs more as responses to the headlines of the day than well-rounded Billy Bragg records.

“The Internationale” EP, released this summer, combines the title track, which he wrote over several months at the suggestion of Seeger, and six other songs, mostly varied cover tunes. All of the unabashedly political numbers were inspired by last year’s wave of political uprisings, he said.

To underscore his point of the record, Bragg earlier this year performed the songs before audiences in East Berlin and Prague, as well as in Glasgow. He said his rendition of the familiar socialist anthem received mixed reviews, illustrating the divergent interpretations of the song, and of socialism in general.

When he played “The Internationale” before an enthusiastic throng in East Berlin, “they responded with a stomping ovation,” he said.

But in Prague, where the memory of Soviet tanks rolling over the borders 22 years ago remains a vivid nightmare for many of its citizens, the familiar anthem was greeted by angry jeers.

This weekend, Bragg brings that number, some revived songs from his early records and about a half dozen tunes from his next album to Southern California to begin a three-show stint. He is scheduled to perform, both solo and with his longtime sidekick guitarist, Wiggy, tonight at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, Sunday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and Monday at Bogart’s in Long Beach.

As for his new material, which he plans to begin recording after the tour ends next month, Bragg is hardly talking. “It’s different,” he said. “But in a way it’s the same. You’ll just have to hear it.”

As usual, his shows promise plenty of Bragg speeches interspersed. Since his last full-scale U.S. tour, he has continued working in support of Britain’s Labor Party, launched a new record label for struggling young artists and served as one of the United Nations observers who monitored the Nicaraguan elections in February.

Of course, there will also be talk about current events, most notably the crisis in the Persian Gulf. “It’s inevitable, isn’t it?” he says.

Even in a discussion about censorship, Bragg’s thought strayed toward his anger over the presence of Unites States and allied forces in the region.

“My idea of pornography is building weapons and the war machine. And the actions of your country and my country in the Persian Gulf is the ultimate pornography.”

Billy Bragg plays Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. Tickets: $12.50. Information: (714) 496-8930.