The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 3, 1927, Page 10

Sacco and Vanzetti Killed For Being Agitators The following article, written during the last ciages of the fight to save Sacco and Vanzetti, was distributed to working class publications thruout the world by the International Correspondence. By its latest action regarding the carrying out of the death sentence the American bourgeoisie is continuing its old, cruel game. The tortures of Saeco and Vanzetti are increased. We are familiar with the capitalist justice of all countries, but the case of Sacco and Vanzetti stands apart by itself. Press If in the free World Soviet Republic of the future, by. some miracle, all memories and records of the vanquished capitalist world were annihilated and there remained over only the records of the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, these would completely suffice in order to reconstruct the true nature of bourgeois society. For in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti there is reflected as in a “dew drop” the svorld-embracing struggle between labor and capital, the entire lying fraud of bourgeois democracy, all the cruelty of bourgeois class justice and, not the least, the role of the social democracy as confederate and saviour of the bourgeoisie. In the,period of intensified class struggle, in the period of imperialjsm, the most ruthless means are being employed by the bourgeoisie to maintain its rule in face of the attack of the working class. The thousands and thousands of workers corpses in Hungary, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Rou- ’ mania, China, Austria etc. are a bloody proof of this. But the case of Saceo and Vanzetti_ un- doubtedly deserves a “place of honor” in the history of bourgeois class terror. What is the real political import of this Trial? Sacco and Vanzetti were condemned to death not because they “have committed a murder”’—the workers of all countries, in fact everybody knows that Sacco and Vanzetti are absolutely innocent,— ; but because they are revolutionary class fighters, because, -during the imperialist war, they agitated against the war-makers, distributed anti-imperialist leaflets; because, after the war, they worked in the ' American trade union movement as active revolu- tionaries. They were denounced as “Reds,” and as such are to be got out of the way. The condemnation of Sacco and Vanzetti did not at the beginning arouse that response among the working class which it ought to have aroused. In the wave of Communist persecutions prevailing in America at that time the case of Sacco and Vanzetti appeared to be of little importance. Gradually, however, broader strata of the workers became alive to the meaning of the trial. In the whole world there set in a powerful pro- test movement, the like of which is not to be found in the history of protest movements. The workers protested against the intended judicial murder at thousands of meetings; hundreds of thousands of protest telegrams were sent to the American judicial authorities; even a section of the liberal bourgoisie joined the protest movement of the workers. The American -hourgeoisie was several times obliged to draw back, to postpone repeatedly the date of the execution; but it did not release its vic- tims. The workers, on their part, recognized more and more that the cause of Sacco and Vanzetti was their own cause, that it was a question of their own vital interests. Thus the fight for the release of the two revolutionary fighters developed into a sort of trial of strength between the working class and the bourgeoisie, which possesses the greatest importanee in the present situation of the increased offensive of capital and the threatening war on the Soviet Union. That is the reason why the Ameri- can bourgeoisie is so obstinately defending its post- tion in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, why it wishes to save at all costs its soiled prestige, why it ignores the new evidence which the Defense Com- mittee have obtained to save Sacco and Vanzetti and which proves beyond all doubt the innocence of _ the two accused. The news of the refusal to grant a new trial, which meant the_final confirmation of the death sentence, aroused the excitement and indignation of A PORTRAIT Surer in the singular flower of his obeisance to futilities, the hour of his renascence dimmed. And as his timid past took refuge in grey anonymity (without the censure of the vast of his mistakes), sterility was born. He did not. weep because he did not know: Because he could not see that ships, to learn the steep and battering waves, must go not once, but many ‘times, —LEBARBE. to sea. ‘bounds the on every field. By PAUL STEIN (Berlin). the workers of the whole world. Protest demonstra- tions were held in every escntry, In Argentina a boycott movement was instituted against American goods. In France the government prohibited protest demonstrations on behalf of Sacco and Yanzetti, but - in spite of this tremendous demonstrations were held which were attended by hundreds of thousands. The reactionary press on its part increased beyond ail incitement ‘against the ‘“Bolsheviki” Sacco and Vanzetti. Thus we see on the one side the rallying of the workers, withouf distinction of Party, and on the other side the rallying of the whole reactionary bourgeoisie. How does the Social Democracy behave in this fight? The American reformist leaders sabotage the protest campaign of the working class for Sacco and Vanzetti. Their friends in Europe do the same. The Paris Congress of the International Federation of Trade. Unions, it is true, approved in principle the proposal of Fimmen to carry out a boycott of American goods, but it is clear that this resolution, if it depends for its carrying out upon Jouhaux and Leipart, will merely.remain on paper. The German General Federation of Trade Unions and the Social Democratic Party of Germany rejected a proposal for common action of the German proletariat in WILL THEY BE REMEMBERED? By HELEN BLACK How many times during the past seven years have we raised “the slogan, “Sacco and Vanzetti Must Not. Die”; yet-now they are gone. In spite of all the determination of the workers to stop this criminal murder, it was accomplished. The workers were not yet strong enough, not yet organized to make the Fullers, Thayers, Lowells listen to their demands and fear to oppose them. Today, as we cry “Long Live Sacco and Ven- zetti,” we are apt to say confidently “They Will Never Be Forgotten”; but if this is to prove true it must be said with grim determination and a bitter hatred of those class forces which defied the workers of the whole world and lightly dismissed their pleas for justice. Sacco and Vanzetti will be forgotten unless their memory serves as’ an inspiration for greater and greater organization of the workers Tt is easy for an emotion even as tremendous and wide-spread as that which has heen roused by the death of these two martyrs, to ' die down. We ourselves will not be here forever, and to those who come after us Sacco and Vanzetti may not be living realities. ' Last Monday night, some of us waited for the approach of the death hour, one comrade argued that there was a danger that Sacco and Vanzetti would be forgotten. The rest of.us denied F od emphatically; but the comrade said: “Tom Mooney and Warren Billings are still in San Quentin prison. . They have been rotting the since 1916 as a result of a frame-up as deliberate _and fiendish as the one against Sacco and Vanzetti.” It was ture; and just so easily can Sacco and Vanzetti be forgotten and their great martyrdom fade into a dim memory, unless their example in- spires organization, and more persistently for a la- bor party which, will be a real menace to the rulers of Massachusetts and the rest of the country. This has been said a hundred times before, but it cannot be said too often. Workers of America unite; join hands with the workers of the world. Then the memory and example of Sacco and Vanzetti will never die. Meals ppl order to wrest the victims from their murderers at the last moment. That is not all. With the plea “not to injure the whole movement on behalf of the two victims” the reformist C. G. T. in France for- bade its members to take part in the 24 hours pro- test strike which had been called by the revolu- tionary C. G. T. U. The result of, the life and death struggle for Sacco and Vanzetti depends to a great extent upon how far it will be possible to intensify the struggle in the last hour, to draw-the broadest masses of workers into the, battle-front and to mobilize them not only in protest demonstrations, but for the application of more effective means, such as the strike, boycott ete. There are signs at hand that the working masses are prepared pond to the call of the Communists who stand at the head of the fight to rescue Sacco and Vanzetti. This is the only guarantee that the American bourgeoisie will even yet shrink before the powerful and growing protest movement and release Sacco and Vanzetti. BEET WORKER (Continued From Page Four). man. And later, when they went in the stores—they were watched like thieves and people would mutter, behind their hands, and shake their heads. No peon- age—equality—how those dreams had died in the years Emanuel had been in the land of the Amer- ieano. Not much work, Jong winters, and short summers. He knew now that there was something wrong with that. The first year work had started in April and continued thru-a cold wet Fall, almost until the Christmas time. Last year it was the same and working in the wet fields pulling beets and knock- ing them together in an attempt to shake off the heavy sticky dirt had kept them busy for days that again extended into December. And the Winters had left him chilled from the first snowfall to May’s warmth. The beet wagons that were their homes had large chinks in the walls and the wintry winds seeped in and came up thru the loosely laid floors. Even the small stove could bring no sem- blance of warmth, though it smoked a great deal. At night he! shivered himself to sleep and in the _day he huddled close to the stove. How he Wished he were back fiona. Back among his own people and with his family once more. These days seemed endless; filled with tired backs that shook one, made one quiver. And insults were hurled by the bosses. Big, Americans with, profane outbursts and talk of lazy greasers. Emanuel stopped’ to clear his eyes—to shake the dizziness. from his head. But the field boss was watching and he went to work again: Well, it would only be a few months now—then he would be home again. Home again to start. anew—to take up his life where he had left it off those few years before. No better than it had been. He coughed and the sound carried with hollowness over the field, above the swing of the short-handled hoes. —Drawing by WM. GROPPER — ——