Our Daily Bleed...
Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Some entries from the Daily Bleed database
The centuries have changed little in this art, |
1881 -- Jean Biso (1881-1966) lives, in Bastia, Corsica. Anarcho-syndicalist, Secretary of the Syndicat des Correcteurs in Paris, participant in support groups for Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Spanish Revolution of 1936.
http://www.ephemanar.net/avril14.html
1890 -- Katherine Anne Porter lives (1890-1980) Indian Creek, Texass. American essayist, short story writer, & journalist, whose best known & only novel is The Ship of Fools (1962). The title is from an old German satire
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kaporter.htm
1891 -- Nicolo (nee Ferdinando) Sacco lives, Torremaggiore, Italy. Italian-American anarchist accused of robbery & murder.
Daily Bleed Saint 2003, NICOLA SACCO
Italian-American anarchist executed with partner Bartolomeo Vanzetti, wrote stunning letters from prison.
On Aug. 23, 1977 Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis proclaims "Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti Day" on the 50th anniversary of their death.
Sacco's friend & associate, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, strapped into the electric chair, said,
"I wish to tell you that I am an innocent man. I never committed any crime but sometimes some sin. I wish to forgive some people for what they are now doing to me."
They both spoke nobly at the end, left a great heritage of love, devotion, faith, & courage, believing the time would come that no human being should be humiliated or be made abject.
Vanzetti further noted that for him, as for both, if it had not been for "these thing" he might have lived out his life talking at street corners to scorning men, died unmarked, unknown, a failure...
"Now, we are not a failure.
This is our career & our triumph.
Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of man as now we do by accident. Our words — our lives — our pains — nothing! The taking of our lives — lives of a good shoemaker & a poor fish peddler — all!
That last moment belongs to us — that agony is our triumph."
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/oj/porterf.htm
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsaccoN.htm
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcgYwTnBIIQ
1894 --
Raffaele Schiavina (1894-1987) lives. Schiavina collaborated on many anarchist newspapers (in Italian). He was imprisoned & later expelled from the "land of the free" in 1919 for anti-war activities. In Paris, he participated in the defense of Sacco & Vanzetti. Schiaviana was imprisoned (Italy) & harrassed (France) numerous times before returning to the US where he published, for 45 years, the weekly magazine "Adunata dei Refrattari" (longest lasting paper of the Italian-American anarchist movement). Among his noms de plume: Cesare; Nando; Michetta; Calibano; Max Sartin; Labor; Manhattanite; Bob; Juan Taro; X.Y.; R.S.; & M.S. See his Autobiographical Notes at the Kate Sharpley Library |
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1896 -- US: Rose Pesotta lives. Labor activist & an anarchist, the only woman on the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU), from 1933-1944, but returned to organizing, her real passion. She was disgusted that the Board was all men but her, while women comprised 85% of the union members. Active in the defense of Sacco & Vanzetti. Pitcher for baseballs' Armageddonia Anarchists 1998.
1898 -- France: Adrien Perrissaguet (1898-1972) lives. Founder of "L'association des fédéralistes anarchistes" & the weekly magazine "The Libertarian Voice", & "Combat syndicaliste." An activist in the Sacco & Vanzetti committee, he also fought in the Spanish Revolution of 1936 & was a member of the French Resistance during WWII.
http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/PerrissaguetAdrien.htm
1898 -- France: May Picqueray, militant anarchist, lives (1893-1983), Châteaubriant, Bretagne.
Editor of the newspaper "Le Réfractaire." Picqueray was sent to Moscow by her union, where she opposed the tightening Bolshevik grip & protested the repression (helping get anarchists, such as Senya Fleshin, out of prison).
She also received the famed anarchist guerrilla Nestor Makhno as a refugee in Paris, fought to save Sacco & Vanzetti, & founded the journal "Le Réfractaire."
1901 -- Argentina: Horacio Badaraco lives (1901-1946), Buenos Aires, y vivía en el barrio de Congreso dentro del seno de una familia que, de constructores de barcos, pasaron a formar parte del status de banqueros.
Interested in anarchist culture from an early age: at 11-years old his parents find him in the Perlado bookstore, leafing through anarchist literature.
... show details
1901 -- Severino di Giovanni lives, Chieti, Italy. Anarchist/typographer.
His enemies say he wears white silk shirts & a black hat.
On June 6, 1925, a group of anarchists bursts in into Theater Columbus during an evening in tribute to the king of Italy, shouting "ladri" & "assassini." Di Giovanni is sought, unsuccessfully, by the police.
In South America Di Giovanni is violently active in the fight to save Sacco & Vanzetti.
He is killed in 1931, age 29, in Buenos Aires, on the orders of Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President Jose Uriburu to kill him & Paulino Scarfò. (See 1 February 1931).
Severino di Giovanni's life is recounted in the novel Un caffè molto dolce by Maria Luisa Magagnoli, which draws upon letters sent to Giuseppina America Scarfò who, after 68 years, had her letters returned by the government in a moving public ceremony.
See also Osvaldo Bayer, Severino Di Giovanni, l’idealista della violenza (Ed. Planeta).
Poesía 
Noche negra
de negros augurios
vigilia larga
pensamientos turbios.
Cayó la frase
de muerte, temible,
sacudió con golpe
de fuerza terrible.
Lo encontró de pie,
casi listo,
preparado en sus ideas.Lo fusilaron allí mismo,
ahogando su grito de guerra:
¡Viva la Anarquía!—excerpt, A Severino Di Giovanni
El anarquista José Arcadio Márquez
http://isole.ecn.org/elpaso/distro/libri/gratis/digiovanni.htm
http://www.topolin.it/topo/il_topo_special/topo_xene_articoli/saveri.html
http://www.margen.org/desdeelmargen/poesia.html
1918 --
US: At the height of the Red Scare, the office of the "Cronaca Sovversiva," an anarchist newspaper both Sacco & Vanzetti had written for & donated money to, is raided. The names Sacco & Vanzetti are for the first time linked by officials to anarchist activities. See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcgYwTnBIIQ
1919 -- US: During this month “Go-Head!” — a circular attributed to “The American Anarchists” — appears throughout New England. In it, the American Anarchists, presumably the Italian-American Anarchists, threaten to “dynamite” officials in retaliation for the ongoing deportations & repression the anarchists are enduring.
See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1919 -- US: Four men attempt to rob the payroll of the L.Q. White Shoe Company in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. One, later known as the “shotgun bandit,” fires at the moving payroll truck. They are unsuccessful & no one is hurt. The would-be bandits escaped. Part of a series of robberies in the area, which includes the Braintree robbery for which the anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti are tried & executed.
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1920 -- US: In South Braintree, Massachusetts, two men armed with handguns shoot & kill Frederick Parmenter & Alessandro Berardelli, employees of the Slater & Morrill Shoe Company. The thieves rob the men of the $15,776.51 payroll they were carrying. The thieves are picked up by a car carrying other men. The anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti will ultimately be blamed & railroaded to their deaths.
See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1920 -- US: Italian-American anarchist Feruccio Coacci is arrested in Bridgewater, Ma. for his activities supporting "Cronaca Sovversiva" & deported on the 18th.
This is during a period of a second series of "Palmer raids" which swept 33 cities throughout the US in January to suppress radicals, labor agitators, & in this case, is related also to the South Braintree hold-ups & the crime for which Sacco & Vanzetti were ultimately executed for.
1920 -- US: Sacco & Vanzetti learn of their comrade Andrea Salsedo’s death. Salseda plunged from the 14th floor of the Department of Justice offices while being secretly held & interrogated. Believing he was tossed to his death yesterday, Sacco & Vanzetti fear they will be implicated in a bomb plot. They are arrested tomorrow — accused instead of murder in a bank robbery.
[Details / context] 1920 -- Massachusetts: Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian-American anarchists, are arrested for murder & payroll robbery & eventually they are executed for a crime they quite possibly did not commit. Climaxes postwar anti-radical, anti-labor & anti-immigrant hysteria of the Wilson-Mitchell period.
Sacco & Vanzetti lie to police about their politics, their guns, why they were in Bridgewater, & deny knowing Coacci & Buda. They repeat these lies to the District Attorney.
1920 -- US: The anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti indicted for South Braintree crimes.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=passion+of+sacco...
1920 -- US: Bomb explosion outside the J.P. Morgan Company on NY's Wall Street kills 30, injures over 100, & does $2 million worth of damage in the ensuing fire which destroyed Morgan's offices. Authorities blame "anarchists," in the plural, many who subsequently flee to Russia.
In revenge for the prosecution of Sacco & Vanzetti, Mario Buda, Galleanist anarchist (practitioners of "propaganda by the deed"), detonates a horse-&-buggy bomb at the corner of Wall & Broad streets in Manhattan.
1920 -- US: Boston radicals, including Sacco, Vanzetti, Mario Buda (aka Mike Boda), Aldino Felicani, & others meet to discuss support for Roberto Elia & Andrea Salsedo & to plan a protest against their illegal imprisonment. Salsedo is killed in custody tomorrow.
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~robina/Sacco%20and%20Vanzetti%20Timeline.htm
1921 -- US: Beginning of the trial of Sacco & Vanzetti, anarchist labor organizers, in Massachusetts. Their execution is the culmination of a five-year government campaign to crush political dissidents (particularly socialist & anarchist workers) in the Land of the Free. (See April 9 & 22; May 5; Aug 21.)The prosecution leaves a trail of doctored eyewitness accounts, altered testimony & false ballistics reports.
That trail appears to exonerate the victims while convicting the executioners.
Here's to you, Nicola & Bart
Rest forever here in our hearts
The last & final moment is yours
That agony is your triumph"Here's To You"
(Lyrics by Joan Baez, Music by Ennio Morricone)See also: Woody Guthrie, Ballads of Sacco & Vanzetti
http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/vanzettipoem.htm
http://www.msu.edu/course/mc/112/1920s/Sacco-Vanzetti/
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/SaccoVan/saccovanlinks.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcgYwTnBIIQ
1921 -- US: Sacco & Vanzetti trial begins."Both Nick [Sacco] & I are anarchists — the radical of the radical — the black cats, the terrors of many, of all the bigots, exploitators, charlatans, fakers & oppressors. Consequently we are also the more slandered, misrepresented, misunderstood, & persecuted of all. After all we are socialists, as the social democrats, the socialists, the communists, & the IWW are all Socialists. The difference — the fundamental one — between us & all the other is that they are authoritarian while we are libertarian; they believe in a State or Government of their own; we believe in no State or Government."
— Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1927)
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=passion+of+sacco...http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/SaccoVan/SaccoVan.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, after several days of voir dire, only seven jurors have been selected & the entire panel of 500 people exhausted. The Court directs the Sheriff to bring in 200 more potential jurors to try "those anarchist bastards."
See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the defense challenges the way in which the additional potential jurors (200 of 'em) were arbitrarily rounded up. Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Judge Thayer denies the challenge.
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, eyewitnesses Carrigan, Bostock, & Wade testify they are unable to identify any of the bandits they had seen at the crime.
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, Mr. Pelser testifies Sacco was the “dead image” of the man in the getaway car. He admits in cross-examination that he earlier told the police that he had not witnessed the robbery & had run away because he was scared.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, Lola Andrews testifies she had spoken to a man working under a car in front of the shoe factory the day of the robbery & identifies Sacco as the man. She denies stating during an interview that a picture of Sacco did not resemble the man she had seen.
[Sacco-Vanzetti Sources]
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, The final identification witness, Goodridge, testifies he had seen Sacco shooting from the car. The defense tries to impeach his testimony by implying a larceny charge had gone unpunished in return for his testimony. Judge Thayer refuses to allow the defense to introduce its impeaching evidence.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, Connolly, the officer who arrested Sacco & Vanzetti on the train, testifies that Sacco & Vanzetti reached for their guns when they were arrested.
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, a ballistics expert testifies shells found at the scene & taken from the bodies of the decedents were "consistent with" having been fired by Sacco’s pistol.
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, the defense began to present their case on June 22. Today Mr. Kurlansky testifies that Mrs. Andrews had told him she could not identify the defendants but a government agent was forcing her to do so. Defense expert witnesses testify that Sacco’s gun did not fire the bullet that killed Berardelli.
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti trial, during cross-examination, Sacco, too, is questioned at length concerning his political views.
1921 -- US: Sacco & Vanzetti case goes to the jury. At 7:30 in the evening the jury returns its verdict: both are both found guilty of murder in the first degree. Their long years of appeals & massive protests world-wide, begins.The emotional & highly publicized case of Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti became a touchstone & rallying cry for American radicals.
The two were accused of murder & although the evidence against them was flimsy, they were readily convicted, in large part because they were immigrants & anarchists. They were executed, despite international protests, on August 23, 1927.
1921 -- Massive demonstrations all over Europe in support of the anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti. In Paris 10,000 police & 18,000 soldiers attempt to control the crowds.'The prosecution left a trail' of doctored eyewitness accounts, altered testimony & false ballistics reports. That trail appears to exonerate the victims while convicting the executioners. http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.html
1921 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the Ripley motion for a new trial is made.The defendants argued that it was reversible error for the the jury foreman, Ripley, to have had brought into the juryroom 38 caliber cartridges, presumably to show the other jurors what they looked like. The defense also produces an affidavit stating that Ripley had responded to a comment that the defendants might not be guilty by saying,
“They ought to hang anyway.” See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1922 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the Gould & Pelser motions are made.
1922 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, following the trial, the Goodridge motion for a new trial is made. It is based on the lack of credibility of prosecution witness Goodridge, a known felon who testified under a false name. Other motions for similar reasons have previously been filed & others follow in the next year.See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
1922 -- US: In the Sacco-Vanzetti Case, the Andrews motion for a new trial is made. It is based upon Mrs. Lola Andrews’ retraction.See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1923 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the Hamilton motion for a new trial for the anarchists is filed. It is based upon criminologist & gun case expert Hamilton who signed an affidavit stating that said the bullets at the scene & in Berardelli did not come from Sacco’s gun.Similarly, on Nov 5, 1923, the Proctor motion for a new trial is made. Prosecution expert witness Proctor admitted that the use of the ambiguous phrase “consistent with” was prearranged by the District Attorny to allow the jury to believe he was testifying that Sacco’s gun was the gun that killed Berardelli.
See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1923 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the Proctor motion for a new trial is made.Prosecution expert witness Proctor admitted the use of the ambiguous phrase “consistent with” was prearranged by the District Attorny to allow the jury to believe he was testifying that Sacco’s gun was the gun that killed Berardelli.
Previously, on April 30, 1923, the Hamilton motion for a new trial was filed, based upon criminologist & gun case expert Hamilton who signed an affidavit stating the bullets at the scene & in Berardelli did not come from Sacco’s gun.
See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
anarchist http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1924 -- US: In the case of the anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti case the highly prejudiced Judge Thayer ("Did you see what I did to those anarchist bastards?") denies all motions for a new trial.
"Give flowers to the rebels who failed."
— Bartolomeo Vanzetti
See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
1926 -- US: Massachusetts Supreme Court upholds the death sentences of "those anarchist bastards" Sacco & Vanzetti & denies their motion for a new trial.The prosecution left a trail of doctored eyewitness accounts, altered testimony & false ballistics reports. That trail appears to exonerate the victims while convicting the executioners.
1926 -- US: A motion is filed for a new trial for the anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti case based upon Medeiros’ confession & information about the Morelli gang, an Italian gang that robbed freight cars in Providence, R.I. & New Bedford, Mass.The prosecution left a trail of doctored eyewitness accounts, altered testimony & false ballistics reports....
1926 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, Judge Thayer denies the Medeiros motion, presented before him on Sept 13-17. Jan. 27-28, 1927 Appeal from the denial of Medeiros motion is argued before the Supreme Judicial Court, but on April 7, 1927 the denial of the Medeiros motion is affirmed.See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn. http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
1927 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the denial of the Medeiros motion is affirmed.See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
<http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
http://www.infoshop.org/sacco_vanzetti.html
1927 -- US: Massachusetts: Death sentences for "those anarchist bastards" (quote from the trial Judge Thayer during the trial) Nicolas Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti are upheld.excerpt...AMERICA
...America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they're all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die . . .— Allen Ginsberg
1927 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, after being interviewed for several hours by Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Governor Fuller, Vanzetti writes a letter to him providing more complete answers to the Governor's questions & asking him to stop the scheduled executions. Fuller announces his refusal to intervene on Aug. 3rd.See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
1927 -- US: In the Sacco & Vanzetti case, Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Gov. Fuller announces he will not intervene to stop the scheduled executions.
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1927 --
US: Massachusetts high court hears final plea from "those anarchist bastards," Sacco & Vanzetti. Protest bombs hit homes of Baltimore mayor, & Boston.
(see August 21).
siml/library/vanzettipoem.htm
anarchist_archives/bright/SaccoVan/SaccoVan.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1927 -- US: Supreme Court Justice Brandeis refuses to hear request for stay of execution in the case of the anarchists Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti. (see August 23).
http://www.courttv.com/archive/greatesttrials/sacco.vanzetti/
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/SaccoVan/SaccoVan.html
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1927 -- US: Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-born anarchist labor militants, executed in the electric chair, in Boston, despite unprecedented protests worldwide. (see August 24). Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay is arrested outside Dedham Prison, Mass.
This is our career & our triumph.
Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man's understanding of man as now we do by accident. Our words — our lives — our pains — nothing! The taking of our lives — lives of a good shoemaker & a poor fish peddler — all!
That last moment belongs to us — that agony is our triumph."
http://www.crimelibrary.com/sacco/saccomain.htm |
Four incidents a good many years apart are somehow sharply related in my mind. Long ago a British judge was quoted as saying he refused clemency at popular demand to uphold the principle of capital punishment & to prove he was not to be intimidated by public protest.
During Hitler's time, Himmler remarked that for the good of the state, popular complaints should be ignored, & if they persisted, the complainers should be punished. Judge Webster Thayer, during the Sacco-Vanzetti episode, was heard to boast while playing golf, "Did you see what I did to those anarchistic bastards?" & the grim little person named Rosa Baron ... who was head of my particular group during the Sacco-Vanzetti demonstrations in Boston snapped at me when I expressed the wish that we might save the lives of Sacco & Vanzetti: "Alive — what for? They are no earthly good to us alive." These painful incidents illustrate at least four common perils in the legal handling that anyone faces when accused of a capital crime of which he is not guilty, especially if he has a dubious place in society, an unpopular nationality, erroneous political beliefs, the wrong religion socially, poverty, low social standing — the list could go on but this is enough. Both of these unfortunate men, Sacco & Vanzetti, suffered nearly all of these disadvantages. A fearful word had been used to cover the whole list of prejudices & misinformation, & in some deeply mysterious way, their names had been associated with it — Anarchy. The Never-Ending Wrongby Katherine Anne Porter http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/oj/porterf.htm |
What's all this fuss they're making about them guys?
Darned if some people ain't kickin' because they got
What was comin' to 'em;
Sayin', be Jesus,
It's cause they're reds.
That's bad enough,
But that ain't all —
Not by a damn sight.
Why, man alive,
They're only a couple o' God damn dagoes!...
Now me: I'm an American, I am ...
Send 'em up, say I,
Show 'em that our courts is American.
We don't get our law from Italy.
We don't care whether they done it or not.
To hell with 'em!
They're dagoes.
— Jim Seymour, 1921
See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn
http://www.msu.edu/course/mc/112/1920s/Sacco-Vanzetti/index.html
The execution of Sacco & Vanzetti inspired Upton Sinclair's novel Boston & Maxwell Anderson's play Winterset, as well as songs & poems over the years.http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/saints/StBenShahn.htm
[Sources]
1927 -- Paris: Thousands turn out in violent protests over deaths of Sacco & Vanzetti.
Aldino Felicani (1891-1967)
In 1918, Aldino Felicani, Italian-American anarchist, typographer, editor, publisher, settled in Boston & became friends with Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
With the arrests of Vanzetti & Nicola Sacco, Felicani organized a support group with the two & created, for their defense, the newspaper "l'Agitazione" (1920-1925) & "The Lantern" (1927-1929). Resources for the Sacco & Vanzetti Case, see Bright Lights page, the Mid-Atlantic Info-Shop page at http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti, Al Filreis' page at http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.html
1927 -- US: Ashes to Ashes?: Sacco-Vanzetti funeral from North End to Forest Hills Cemetery. The anarchists are cremated. In September all Hollywood newsreels on Sacco & Vanzetti are ordered destroyed by Will Hayes, movie czar.
1927 --Canada: Memorial meeting for Sacco & Vanzetti (in Toronto?). Speakers include Emma Goldman, who has spent the summer trying to research & write a new lectures for her fall series despite the impending executions, & had addressed a meeting on the case in Toronto on Aug. 18, a few days before their execution on Aug. 23.
1927 -- France: Générale à l’appel de la C.G.T.U. pour protester contre la menace d’exécution de Sacco et Vanzetti.
1927 -- France: Violentes manifestations, Paris, pour protester contre l’exécution de Sacco et Vanzetti.
http://libertaire.org/article133.html
1929 -- Ronald Creagh (May 1968-2023) lives. French historian of the American anarchist movement. Professor at l'université de Montpellier, author of Histoire de l'anarchisme aux USA (1981), Laboratoires de l'utopie, les communautés libertaires aux Etats Unis (1983), Sacco et Vanzetti (1984), etc. Also moderates the Internet "Research on Anarchism" discussion list.
http://raforum.info/
http://raforum.info/article.php3?id_article=1579&var_recherche=Creagh
1930 -- Indochina: Two killed in riots on third anniversary of Sacco & Vanzetti execution (see August 23, 27).The Sacco & Vanzetti prosecutors left a trail of doctored eyewitness accounts, altered testimony & false ballistics reports in the judicial murder that aroused millions around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
1931 -- Severino Di Giovanni dies in a shoot-out with the police.Typographer. He fled to Argentina in 1923 to escape Italian Fascism, where he joined the Anarchist Circle (Renzo Novatore) in Buenos Aires & printed & published the review "Culmine".
He organizes a demonstration for the release of Sacco & Vanzetti, but when they are executed on August 23, 1927, Di Giovanni turns to violent actions with the Scarfo brothers (Alejandro & Paulino); many bombs are set off, especially aimed at North American interests. For example, on December 25, 1927, the National City Bank was bombed, & on May 3, 1928, the Italian consulate.
This spiral of violence is condemned by the anarchists of FORA (Fédération Ouvrière Régionale Argentine) & "La Protesta." See Osvaldo Bayer, Severino Di Giovanni, the idealist of violencia (1970).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6AgtgLbaTw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severino_Di_Giovanni
1932 -- US: Judge Thayer’s house is bombed (presumably for his prejudiced role in the Sacco & Vanzetti case).See Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, & the Revolutionary Struggle, an audio CD by Howard Zinn.
http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
http://www.torremaggiore.com/saccoevanzetti/storia.html
1933 -- US: Italian labor organizer, Giovanni Pippan, age 35, is murdered during his campaign to organize the Italian bread wagon drivers of Chicago.The "well-known" Giovanni Pippan was shot & killed by unknown assailants on a street corner in Cicero, Illinois.Within his short career, Pippan did a great deal to promote the plight of workers in his homeland of Italy as well as in the US. At the age of 25 he became the secretary of the Italian Federation of Coal Miners in the Albona region of Italy. However, Pippan fled his native country during the 1920s with the rise of fascism.
Pippan was also active in the campaign for Sacco & Vanzetti & the struggle against pro-fascist forces in the Italian immigrant community in the US, &, shortly before his death, he organized the Italian Bread Drivers' League.
See E. Miller & G. Sommi-Panofsky, L'organizzazione sindacale radicale italiana negli Stati Uniti: Il contributo di Giovanni Pippan, 1924-1933
http://www.istrianet.org/istria/illustri/martinuzzi/vidal.htm
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/1983.htm
1934 -- Canada: Emma Goldman presides over a poorly attended meeting at Hygeia Hall organized by the Libertarian Groups of Toronto to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the executions of Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti; Heiner also speaks at the meeting.http://infoshop.org/page/Sacco-Vanzetti
The prosecution left a trail of doctored eyewitness accounts, altered testimony & false ballistics reports. That trail appears to exonerate the victims while convicting the executioners.
1939 -- Canada: Emma Goldman addresses two long-promised, though poorly attended meetings, in Windsor, on the 27th & today.At a dinner to honor Emma & to launch the Emma Goldman Spanish Refugee Rescue Fund, labor leader Rose Pesotta (ILGWU,) is guest speaker & attracts the attendance & financial support of many of Emma's closest friends & family.
Rose Pesotta (1896-1965), American radical, active in the labor organizing movements especially in Los Angeles, California during the 1930s. She was also active in the defense of anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti.
Labor activist, the only woman on the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU) from 1933-1944, but returned to organizing, her real passion. Selected as Pitcher for baseballs' 1998 Armageddonia Anarchists.
http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/98aar.html#pesotta
1943 -- US: Assassination of anarchist militant Carlo Tresca, New York City.Murdered by an unknown assailant. Gentle & courtly in person, Tresca was an outspoken foe of Fascism in Germany & Italy & of Communism in the Soviet Union. The FBI accumulated a mere 1,358 pages on this outstanding citizen, they revealed on February 25, 2000, under the Freedom of Information Act.
Coppola describes his opera as "a presentation of the circumstances & the characters involved in a dramatic tragedy."In Sacco & Vanzetti, the characters in the prologue are Carlo Tresca, a Protestant Minister, a Roman Catholic Priest & a congregation of worshipers. Carlo Tresca was a leader of the Italian Anarchist Movement in America. His ghost functions as the narrator throughout the entire opera, introducing & commenting on characters & situations as they arise... We are shown the suspicion, hatred, & fear of those already in America toward those newly arrived. This darkness of humanity stands in contrast to the seeming piety of the religious faithful. Those 40 years have not changed anything. Tresca forewarns us that they will be no different in the 1920s & beyond, saying (in French),
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Carlo Tresca edited a number of papers which stood up for workers rights & denounced the hypocrisy & corruption of those in power. One of his favorite targets was the clergy, whom he attacked relentlessly. Tresca was a skilled labor agitator, leading strikes & urging workers to stand up for their rights. Served on the famed John Dewey Commission, which declared Trotsky "not guilty" of the charges presented at the Moscow Purge Trials. Once Tresca took such positions, the Communists conducted a campaign of character assassination aimed at destroying his influence in the antifascist movements. See Gallagher's All the Right Enemies.
See also H. L. Mencken article on Tresca, http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/11610/
From left, Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, & Bill Haywood at Paterson, 1913
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Tresca
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtresca.htm
1959 -- The playwright most known for his verse tragedy, Maxwell Anderson dies in Stamford, Connecticut. His tragedy Winterset (1935), a poetic drama inspired by the Sacco & Vanzetti anarchist case is his most famous, but Anderson also wrote musicals, such as Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) & Lost in the Stars (1949).
1959 -- US: Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Rep. Alexander Celia introduces bill for posthumous pardon for the anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti to Massachusetts Legislature. The petition is denied. It is only 50 years after their execution, when Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Mass. Governor Michael Dukakis proclaims August 23, 1977, Sacco & Vanzetti Day, that any stigma is removed from their names.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcgYwTnBIIQ
1965 -- Rose Pesotta dies. Dressmaker, anarchist & labor activist, the only woman on the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU) from 1933-1944, engaged in a 10-year fight to organize workers, running up against the opposition of the communist faction. Her face was lacerated during a strike in 1937 with a razor.Rose Pesotta met Sacco & Vanzetti & collaborated on the anarchist newspaper "Road to Freedom."
Rose Pesotta became close a friend of Emma Goldman, with whom she traveled to Europe & England.
See her autobiography Bread Upon the Waters, which appeared in 1946 & reprinted with a new introduction by Ann Schofield (ILR Press, 1987); & Elaine Leeder, The Gentle General: Rose Pesotta, Anarchist & Labor Organizer (State University of New York, 1993); To Do & To Be: Portraits of Four Women Activists, 1893-1986 Gertrude Barnum, Mary Dreier, Pauline Newman, Rose Pesotta by Ann Schofield (Northeastern University Press).
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/pesotta/biblio.html
http://www.shmooze.com/lilith/books/9902tobe.shtml
1966 -- Jean Biso (1881-1966) dies. Anarcho-syndicalist, Secretary of the Syndicat des Correcteurs in Paris, participant in support groups for Sacco & Vanzetti, Spanish Revolution of 1936.
1967 -- US: Aldino Felicani (1891-1967) dies. Italian-American anarchist, typographer, editor, & publisher of many papers. Friend & supporter of Sacco & Vanzetti, founding their Defense Committiee. Published, until his death, the Italian-American paper "Controcorrente / Countercurrent".
1972 -- France: Adrien Perrissaguet (1898-1972) dies.Founder of "L'association des fédéralistes anarchistes" & the weekly magazine "The Libertarian Voice" & "Combat syndicaliste." An activist in the Sacco & Vanzetti defense committee, he also fought in the Spanish Revolution of 1936 & was a French Resistance partisan during WWII.http://struggle.ws/spain/pam_intro.html
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8195/blasts/pointblank/spanishrevolution.htm
1977 -- US: Beloved & Respected Comrade Liberal Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis proclaims "Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti Day" on the 50th anniversary of their deaths.
[Timeline, links, details, references on Sacco-Vanzetti]
1983 -- May Picqueray, French militant anarchist, dies.Editor of the newspaper "Le Réfractaire.". Sent to Moscow by her trade union, Picqueray opposed the tightening grip of the Bolsheviks & protested the repression of the anarchists (obtaining the release of Senya Fleshin & others from prison). She also fought to save Sacco & Vanzetti (including sending a mail bomb to the American embassy) & founded the libertarian journal "Le Réfractaire."
Les premiers mai 1920 et 21 furent particulièrement sauvages. En sortant de la Bourse du Travail, place de la République, les gardes à cheval nous chargèrent à coup de plat de sabre, et l'un deux me claqua la face de telle manière que je crus avoir la tête décollée. Je conservai longtemps la trace de son sabre sur mon visage."
— May la refractaire, couverture de la réédition du livre (Editions Traffic 1992)
http://biosoc.univ-paris1.fr/actu/VidCin/bio5.htm
http://www.agrorede.org.br/ceca/edgar/May.html
1987 --
Max Sartin, 97, dies, Salt Lake City, Utah. True name Raffaele Schiavina, born April 8, 1894. Schiavina collaborated on many anarchist newspapers (in Italian). He was imprisoned & later expelled from the "land of the free" in 1919 for anti-war activities. In Paris, he participated in the defense of Sacco & Vanzetti. Schiavina was imprisoned & harrassed numerous times before returning to the US where he published, for 45 years, the weekly magazine "Adunata dei Refrattari" (longest lasting paper of the Italian-American anarchist movement). See his Autobiographical Notes at the Kate Sharpley Library, from "Bollettino Archivio G. Pinelli" (Milan). No 13, August 1999. |
 |
1997 -- The ARMAGEDDONIA ANARCHISTS created today & begin competing in the "Cosmic Underleague" during the 1998 baseball season. The anarchist players consist of men & women who particpate within the anarchist social & political movements of the 19th & 20th Centuries.
The dream of a stateless society, devoid of any authority...The anarchist movement believes the demolition of the patriarchal/matriarchal system of authority is necessary to set things right. Abolish government, abolish private property, & let individuals live according to their own self-imposed, freely arranged moral codes. Bakunin claimed religion & government were the eternal enemies of freedom. Kropotkin advocated the destruction of all government & the liberation of the worker from the employer. Proudhon, an early "father" of modern anarchism claimed: La propriete c'est le vol ("property is theft").
Pitchers: Ba "Humbug" Jin , "Big Mike" Bakunin, Ulrike Heider, Joey Hill, Pete "Petie" Kropotkin, Ricky "Floors" Magón, Nestor "Bird" Makhno, "Petie-Joe" Proudhon
"Whoever lays his glove on me is a tyrant..."
"To Govern the Basepaths is to be ...
/siml/library/anarchQuotes.htm#ProudhonQuoteFielders: Alex "The Assassin" Berkman (center), Marie Louise "Bernie" Berneri (shortstop), Murray "Anarchos" Bookchin (Catcher), Voltairine "Juice" de Cleyre (Catcher/Infield), Sammy "Whiner" Dolgoff (First), Buenaventura "Lucky" Durruti (Infield), Liz Gurley Flynn (Outfield), "Red" Emma Goldman, "Big Bill" Haywood (Outfield), Errico "Rico" Malatesta (Outfield), Nicky "Nick'em" Sacco (Third) & Bart Vanzetti (Second). Staff: Elisee "Clu" Reclus (Field Manager), Louise "Looey" Michel (Coach), Al "Preacher" Parsons (Coach), Dana "Mad Dog" Ward (Coach), Giuseppe "Fanny" Fanelli (General Manager)
2001 -- World Premiere of Anton Coppola's opera, "Sacco & Vanzetti," Tampa Opera (-18, 2001). Based on music he wrote for a film his nephew Francis Ford Coppola had planned to make about the anarchists but never did.
http://raforum.info/article.php3?id_article=509&lang=en
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