When was sacco born

Errico Malatesta. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Max Stirner. Murray Bookchin. Noam Chomsky. Bright but Lesser Lights. Cold Off The Presses. Anarchist History. Worldwide Movements. First International.

If there is one that should know it, if it is right or if it is wrong, it is I and this man. You see it is seven years that we are in jail. What we have suffered during these seven years no human tongue can say, and yet you see me before you, not trembling, you see me looking you in your eyes straight, not blushing, not changing color, not ashamed or in fear.

We were tried during a time whose character has now passed into history. I mean by that, a time when there was a hysteria of resentment and hate against the people of our principles, against the foreigner, against slackers, and it seems to me - rather, I am positive of it, that both you and Mr. Katzmann have done all what it were in your power in order to work out, in order to agitate still more the passion of the juror, the prejudice of the juror, against us.

The jury were hating us because we were against the war, and the jury don't know that it makes any difference between a man that is against the war because he believes that the war is unjust, because he hate no country, because he is a cosmopolitan, and a man that is against the war because he is in favor of the other country that fights against the country in which he is, and therefore a spy, an enemy, and he commits any crime in the country in which he is in behalf of the other country in order to serve the other country.

We are not men of that kind. Nobody can say that we are German spies or spies of any kind. We believe more now than ever that the war was wrong, and we are against war more now than ever, and I am glad to be on the doomed scaffold if I can say to mankind, "Look out; you are in a catacomb of the flower of mankind. For what? All that they say to you, all that they have promised to you - it was a lie, it was an illusion, it was a cheat, it was a fraud, it was a crime.

They promised you liberty. Where is liberty? They promised you prosperity. Where is prosperity? I never committed a crime in my life - I have never stolen and I have never killed and I have never spilt blood, and I have fought against crime, and I have fought and I have sacrificed myself even to eliminate the crimes that the law and the church legitimate and sanctify.

This is what I say: I would not wish to a dog or to 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. I am suffering because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I was an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian; I have suffered more for my family and for my beloved than for myself; but I am so convinced to be right that you can only kill me once but 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.

Sacco is a heart, a faith, a character, a man; a man lover of nature and of mankind. A man who gave all, who sacrifice all to the cause of Liberty and to his love for mankind; money, rest, mundane ambitions, his own wife, his children, himself and his own life. Sacco has never dreamt to steal, never to assassinate. He and I have never brought a morsel of bread to our mouths, from our childhood to today--which has not been gained by the sweat of our brows.

His people also are in good position and of good reputation. Oh, yes, I may be more witfull, as some have put it, I am a better babbler than he is, but many, many times in hearing his heartful voice ringing a faith sublime, in considering his supreme sacrifice, remembering his heroism I felt small small at the presence of his greatness and found myself compelled to fight back from my eyes the tears, and quench my heart troubling to my throat to not weep before him--this man called thief and assassin and doomed.

But Sacco's name will live in the hearts of the people and in their gratitude when Katzmann's and yours bones will be dispersed by time, when your name, his name, your laws, institutions, and your false god are but a deem remembering of a cursed past in which man was wolf to the man. Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Nicola Sacco. Somehow I did get pieces about Sacco and Vanzetti into Avanti! I even managed to stir up a few socialist onorevoles , like Deputy Mucci from Sacco's native village in Puglia, and Deputy Misiano, a Sicilian firebrand at the extreme Left.

Mucci brought the Sacco-Vanzetti affair to the floor of the Chamber of Deputies, the first jet of foreign protest in what was eventually to become a pounding international flood. The trial started on 21st May, The main evidence against the men was that they were both carrying a gun when arrested.

Some people who saw the crime taking place identified Vanzetti and Sacco as the robbers. Others disagreed and both men had good alibis. Vanzetti was selling fish in Plymouth while Sacco was in Boston with his wife having his photograph taken. The prosecution made a great deal of the fact that all those called to provide evidence to support these alibis were Italian immigrants.

Vanzetti and Sacco were disadvantaged by not having a full grasp of the English language. Webster Thayer , the judge was clearly prejudiced against anarchists.

The previous year, he rebuked a jury for acquitting anarchist Sergie Zuboff of violating the criminal anarchy statute. It was clear from some of the answers Vanzetti and Sacco gave in court that they had misunderstood the question.

During the trial the prosecution emphasized the men's radical political beliefs. Vanzetti and Sacco were also accused of unpatriotic behaviour by fleeing to Mexico during the First World War. Eugene Lyons has argued in his autobiography, Assignment in Utopia : "Fred Moore was at heart an artist. Instinctively he recognized the materials of a world issue in what appeared to others a routine matter When the case grew into a historical tussle, these men were utterly bewildered.

But Moore saw its magnitude from the first. His legal tactics have been the subject of dispute and recrimination. I think that there is some color of truth, indeed, to the charge that he sometimes subordinated the literal needs of legalistic procedure to the larger needs of the case as a symbol of class struggle.

If he had not done so, Sacco and Vanzetti would have died six years earlier, without the solace of martyrdom. With the deliberation of a composer evolving the details of a symphony which he senses in its rounded entirety, Moore proceeded to clarify and deepen the elements implicit in the case. And first of all he aimed to delineate the class character of the automatic prejudices that were operating against Sacco and Vanzetti. Sometimes over the protests of the men themselves he cut through legalistic conventions to reveal underlying motives.

Small wonder that the pinched, dyspeptic judge and the pettifogging lawyers came to hate Moore with a hatred that was admiration turned inside out. In court Sacco claimed: "I know the sentence will be between two classes, the oppressed class and the rich class, and there will be always collision between one and the other. We fraternize the people with the books, with the literature.

Vanzetti and Sacco meet in Boston at a meeting of Galleanist Anarchists. At the height of the Red Scare, the office of the Cronaca Sovversiva , an anarchist newspaper both Sacco and Vanzetti had written for and donated money to, is raided. A bomb plot is discovered. In another round of bombings Carlo Valdinoci who had been in Mexico with Sacco and Vanzetti two years earlier blows himself up outside the home of Attorney General Palmer. The Justice Department begins rounding up anarchists.

Four men attempt to rob the payroll of the L. Roberto Elia and Andrea Salsedo, anarchists who worked for the Cronaca Sovversiva, are taken into custody by the Department of Justice without a warrant or being arrested. Stewart talks to Simon Johnson, owner of the Elm Square Garage, and sets a trap for Boda by instructing Johnson to call him when anyone comes for the car.

Andrea Salsedo--perhaps acting out of guilt--commits suicide by jumping out of the fourteenth-floor room. Vanzetti--despite having no previous criminal record--is indicted for the Bridgewater hold-up. Sacco and Vanzetti are indicted for the South Braintree murders. After several days of voir dire, only seven jurors have been selected and the entire panel of people exhausted. The defense challenges the way in which the additional potential jurors were arbitrarily rounded up. Assistant Prosecutor, Harold Williams, delivers the opening statement for the State.

Eyewitnesses Carrigan, Bostock, and Wade testify that were unable to identify any of the bandits they had seen at the crime. Lola Andrews testifies that she had spoken to a man working under a car in front ofthe shoe factory the day of the robbery and identified Sacco as the man.

Vanzetti is identified by Michael LeVangie, the gate-keeper at a railroad crossing, as being the driver of the bandit car. Harry Dolbeare testifies that Vanzetti is the man who was in the back of the get-away car.

The final identification witness, Goodridge, testifies he had seen Sacco shooting from the car. Testimony is given concerning the finding of a Buick touring car near West Bridgewater.

Connolly, the officer who arrested Sacco and Vanzetti on the train, testifies that Sacco and Vanzetti reached for their guns when they were arrested. Kurlansky testifies that Mrs. Vanzetti takes the stand. Sacco takes the stand. During cross-examination, Sacco, too, is questioned at length concerning his political views.

The case goes to the jury. The Ripley motion for a new trial is made. The Gould and Pelser motions are made. The Goodridge motion for a new trial is made.