Anniversary of Sacco & Vanzettis execution

[Forward Union]

"This man, (Vanzetti) although he
may not have actually committed the crime attributed to him, is nevertheless
culpable, because he is the enemy of our existing institutions." - Judge Webster Thayer,

Just thought I'd bring it up, as it's the anniversary. Interestingly I learnt a fair bit about them in History at GCSE many years ago, before I was as political as I am now. It highlights in many ways the nature of the state and it's brutal relationship with the working class.

RIP you lot!

"I would not wish to a dog or a snake, to the most low and misfortunate creature of the earth — I would not wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for things that I am not guilty of. But my conviction is that I have suffered for things that I am guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical, and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I am an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian… If you could execute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already". - Vanzetti

A short video about the Trial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3SuTTcj2u8)
Libcom Article (http://libcom.org/history/1916-1927-the-execution-of-sacco-and-vanzetti)

(Anarchist protest in Trafalgar square)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Save_Sacco_and_Vanzetti.jpg

[RedCommieBear]

Woody Guthrie wrote a song about 'em (http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Two_Good_Men.htm).


Two Good Men

Two good men a long time gone,
Two good men a long time gone
(Two good men a long time gone, oh, gone),
Sacco, Vanzetti a long time gone,
Left me here to sing this song.

Say, there, did you hear the news?
Sacco worked at trimming shoes;
Vanzetti was a peddling man,
Pushed his fish cart with his hands.

Sacco was born across the sea
Somewhere over in Italy;
Vanzetti was born of parents fine,
Drank the best Italian wine.

Sacco sailed the sea one day,
Landed up in Boston Bay;
Vanzetti sailed the ocean blue,
Landed up in Boston, too.

Sacco's wife three children had,
Sacco was a family man;
Vanzetti was a dreaming man,
His book was always in his hand.

Sacco earned his bread and butter
Being the factory's best shoe cutter;
Vanzetti spoke both day and night,
Told the workers how to fight.

I'll tell you if you ask me
'Bout this payroll robbery;
Two clerks was killed by the shoe factory
On the street in South Braintree.

Judge Thayer told his friends around
He would cut the radicals down;
Anarchist bastards was the name
Judge Thayer called these two good men.

I'll tell you the prosecutors' names,
Katsman, Adams, Williams, Kane;
The judge and lawyers strutted down,
They done more tricks than circus clowns.

Vanzetti docked here in 1908;
He slept along the dirty streets,
He told the workers “Organize”
And on the electric chair he dies.

All you people ought to be like me,
And work like Sacco and Vanzetti;
And every day find some ways to fight
On the union side for workers' rights.

I've got no time to tell this tale,
The dicks and bulls are on my trail;
But I'll remember these two good men
That died to show me how to live.

All you people in Suassos Lane
Sing this song and sing it plain.
All you folks that's coming along,
Jump in with me, and sing this song.

I don't know what song that is in the beginning of that video, though, is.

[hajduk]

give me more informations comrades about this man

[spartan]

these two guys were italian anarchists who later went to america. they were falsely accused and later executed of murder. anyhow they didnt do it they were simply picked on because old uncle sam didnt like their version of a true democracy. fuck capitalists.

[Marion]

I think there was something recently about a letter being found from one of the two that suggested that at least one of them may have been guilty. Does anyone have any further info?

[CornetJoyce]

The letter is probably Fred Moore's- the defense lawyer. His word is not exactly golden. But it's generally believed that Sacco was guilty and Vanzetti was not. Nor, apparently did many people think the latter was guilty. The assistant prosecutor wept at the announcement of the verdict.

[An archist]

joan baez also wrote a beautiful song about them, all the words are apparently taken from letters Vanzetti wrote.


Father, yes, I am a prisoner
Fear not to relay my crime
The crime is loving the forsaken
Only silence is shame

And now I'll tell you what's against us
An art that's lived for centuries
Go through the years and you will find
What's blackened all of history
Against us is the law
With its immensity of strength and power
Against us is the law!
Police know how to make a man
A guilty or an innocent
Against us is the power of police!
The shameless lies that men have told
Will ever more be paid in gold
Against us is the power of the gold!
Against us is racial hatred
And the simple fact that we are poor

My father dear, I am a prisoner
Don't be ashamed to tell my crime
The crime of love and brotherhood
And only silence is shame

With me I have my love, my innocence,
The workers, and the poor
For all of this I'm safe and strong
And hope is mine
Rebellion, revolution don't need dollars
They need this instead
Imagination, suffering, light and love
And care for every human being
You never steal, you never kill
You are a part of hope and life
The revolution goes from man to man
And heart to heart
And I sense when I look at the stars
That we are children of life
Death is small

[CornetJoyce]

"Sacco's name will live in the hearts of the people when your name, your laws, institutions, and your false god, are but a dim remembering of a cursed past in which man was wolf to man."- Barto to the court

"If it had not been for this thing, I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have died unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. -Barto to his son

[RedStaredRevolution]

May these men be remembered and the fucked up system that killed them destroyed!

[Forward Union]

In the 70s the mayor pardoned them. Not sure of the details though, a bit late though!

[bcbm]

Originally posted by [email protected] 23, 2007 08:49 am
Woody Guthrie wrote a song about 'em (http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Two_Good_Men.htm).
Actually, he wrote an entire album for them.


I think there was something recently about a letter being found from one of the two that suggested that at least one of them may have been guilty. Does anyone have any further info?

As mentioned, the lawyer thought as much but I think it is pretty unlikely. It seems more likely the payroll robbery was the work of a gang in the area that had pulled off similar crimes previously. I don't have the exact details, but its talked about in "Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist History."

Speaking of, there seems to be a trend among people discussing S and V to make them out as some sort of innocent saints. Their trial was a complete farce, that is absolutely certain, but as individuals they were hardly non-violent in any sense. The milieu they worked with in the US were violent insurrectionary anarchists, and it seems pretty likely at least one of them was directly involved in one or more of the bombing campaigns they undertook.

[Marion]

Originally posted by Urban [email protected] 23, 2007 10:53 pm
In the 70s the mayor pardoned them. Not sure of the details though, a bit late though!


Have I got thing horribly confused, or was it Michael Dukakis who ended up delivering the pardon?

There's some pretty interesting recollections about S and V in Avrich's oral history of Anarchism in America.

[RedCommieBear]

Have I got thing horribly confused, or was it Michael Dukakis who ended up delivering the pardon?

According to this source (http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/~hou01789), and this source (http://www.wbur.org/news/2007/69780_20070822.asp), he technically didn't


Originally posted by Second Source+--> (Second Source)"Obviously I couldn't posthumanously pardon them," Dukakis says today. "But at least I could issue a gubernatorial proclamation which addressed the issue and set the record straight as I saw it."[/b]


Originally posted by First [email protected]
On August 23, 1977, Michael S. Dukakis, Governor of Massachusetts, issued a proclamation that did not pardon Sacco and Vanzetti but declared "that any stigma and disgrace should be forever removed from the names of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, from the names of their families and descendants..."


black coffee black metal
Actually, he wrote an entire album for them.

Didn't know that. I guess I'd just heard the song. Thanks for the heads up. Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti (http://www.amazon.com/Ballads-Sacco-Vanzetti-Woody-Guthrie/dp/B000001DJ0), to anyone else who's interested.