diff --git a/i18n/execute.py b/i18n/execute.py
index 1ff439ef38..8e7f0f52de 100644
--- a/i18n/execute.py
+++ b/i18n/execute.py
@@ -4,28 +4,24 @@ from config import CONFIGURATION, BASE_DIR
 
 LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-def execute(command, working_directory=BASE_DIR, log=True):
+def execute(command, working_directory=BASE_DIR):
     """
     Executes shell command in a given working_directory.
     Command is a string to pass to the shell.
-    log is boolean. If true, the command's invocation string is logged.
     Output is ignored.
     """
-    if log:
-        LOG.info(command)
+    LOG.info(command)
     subprocess.call(command.split(' '), cwd=working_directory)
 
 
-def call(command, working_directory=BASE_DIR, log=True):
+def call(command, working_directory=BASE_DIR):
     """
     Executes shell command in a given working_directory.
     Command is a string to pass to the shell.
     Returns a tuple of two strings: (stdout, stderr)
-    log is boolean. If true, the command's invocation string is logged.
 
     """
-    if log:
-        LOG.info(command)
+    LOG.info(command)
     p = subprocess.Popen(command, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, cwd=working_directory)
     out, err = p.communicate()
     return (out, err)
@@ -36,7 +32,7 @@ def create_dir_if_necessary(pathname):
         os.makedirs(dirname)
 
 
-def remove_file(filename, log=LOG, verbose=True):
+def remove_file(filename, verbose=True):
     """
     Attempt to delete filename.
     log is boolean. If true, removal is logged.
@@ -44,8 +40,8 @@ def remove_file(filename, log=LOG, verbose=True):
     Logging filenames are releative to BASE_DIR to cut down on noise in output.
     """
     if verbose:
-        log.info('Deleting file %s' % os.path.relpath(filename, BASE_DIR))
+        LOG.info('Deleting file %s' % os.path.relpath(filename, BASE_DIR))
     if not os.path.exists(filename):
-        log.warn("File does not exist: %s" % os.path.relpath(filename, BASE_DIR))
+        LOG.warn("File does not exist: %s" % os.path.relpath(filename, BASE_DIR))
     else:
         os.remove(filename)
diff --git a/i18n/extract.py b/i18n/extract.py
index c517de3b51..c28c3868e2 100755
--- a/i18n/extract.py
+++ b/i18n/extract.py
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@ BABEL_OUT = BASE_DIR.relpathto(CONFIGURATION.source_messages_dir.joinpath('mako.
 
 SOURCE_WARN = 'This English source file is machine-generated. Do not check it into github'
 
+LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 def main ():
-    log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
     logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stdout, level=logging.INFO)
     create_dir_if_necessary(LOCALE_DIR)
     source_msgs_dir = CONFIGURATION.source_messages_dir
@@ -63,7 +64,7 @@ def main ():
     execute(make_djangojs_cmd, working_directory=BASE_DIR)
 
     for filename in generated_files:
-        log.info('Cleaning %s' % filename)
+        LOG.info('Cleaning %s' % filename)
         po = pofile(source_msgs_dir.joinpath(filename))
         # replace default headers with edX headers
         fix_header(po)
diff --git a/i18n/generate.py b/i18n/generate.py
index 48470796a2..65c65c00d6 100755
--- a/i18n/generate.py
+++ b/i18n/generate.py
@@ -17,9 +17,11 @@ import os, sys, logging
 from polib import pofile
 
 from config import BASE_DIR, CONFIGURATION
-from execute import execute, remove_file
+from execute import execute
 
-def merge(locale, target='django.po', fail_if_missing=True, log=None):
+LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+def merge(locale, target='django.po', fail_if_missing=True):
     """
     For the given locale, merge django-partial.po, messages.po, mako.po -> django.po
     target is the resulting filename
@@ -28,8 +30,7 @@ def merge(locale, target='django.po', fail_if_missing=True, log=None):
     If fail_if_missing is False, and the files to be merged are missing,
     just return silently.
     """
-    if log:
-        log.info('Merging locale={0}'.format(locale))
+    LOG.info('Merging locale={0}'.format(locale))
     locale_directory = CONFIGURATION.get_messages_dir(locale)
     files_to_merge = ('django-partial.po', 'messages.po', 'mako.po')
     try:
@@ -71,13 +72,12 @@ def validate_files(dir, files_to_merge):
             raise Exception("I18N: Cannot generate because file not found: {0}".format(pathname))
 
 def main ():
-    log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
     logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stdout, level=logging.INFO)
 
     for locale in CONFIGURATION.locales:
         merge(locale)
     # Dummy text is not required. Don't raise exception if files are missing.
-    merge(CONFIGURATION.dummy_locale, fail_if_missing=False, log=log)
+    merge(CONFIGURATION.dummy_locale, fail_if_missing=False)
     compile_cmd = 'django-admin.py compilemessages'
     execute(compile_cmd, working_directory=BASE_DIR)
 
diff --git a/i18n/tests/test_validate.py b/i18n/tests/test_validate.py
index 7d970c8de2..bef563faea 100644
--- a/i18n/tests/test_validate.py
+++ b/i18n/tests/test_validate.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def validate_po_file(filename, log):
     raise SkipTest()
     # Use relative paths to make output less noisy.
     rfile = os.path.relpath(filename, LOCALE_DIR)
-    (out, err) = call(['msgfmt','-c', rfile], log=False, working_directory=LOCALE_DIR)
+    (out, err) = call(['msgfmt','-c', rfile], working_directory=LOCALE_DIR)
     if err != '':
         log.warn('\n'+err)