The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 15, 1927, Page 7

Paris Protests Death of Sacco and Vanzetti " WAS at daybreak of the 23d of August that Paris léarned of the crime. Hope had ebbed during the last few hours. A few minutes after five. o’clock it was “no longer pos- sible to doubt. The deed had been done. By 6:30 the wild course of the horrible news had crossed Paris and the suburbs. Electrocuted! That terrible word made the faces of the workers blench. They grew pale. Emotion governed them. They hesitated. Then, suddenly, the indignation burst forth: “The dirty beasts! the dirty beasts!” For a moment a movement stirred the huge in- credulous throng of workers. Then anger flashed from their eyes. On the subway stations, which vomited their daily torrent of proletarians into the gray day, the same scenes were repeated. Doubt, hesitation, stup- or. And this cry of reprobation repeated a thousand times: “The dirty beasts! The dirty beasts!” The news of the execution passed from mouth to mouth, flew from house to house, ran from street to street. A rumor rapidly took form. The people muttered protestation. Since 1921 the French working class had made the case of the two martyrs its own. From now on the campaign for Sacco and Van- zetti will count as one of the most significant epis- odes in the struggle of labor in France. In days to come it will be necessary to disentangle the lessons of this gigantic international combat against the most rapacious and most aggressive capitalism. Now let us limit ourselves to retracing for the American workers the last incidents of that struggle. On August 3 while the social democratic papers were piling up the protests of the intellectual and political circles, the Communist Party decided to appeal directly to the shops, to the offices, to the factories. “Let Sacco-Vanzetti demonstrations be organized everywhere at closing time in order that protests against the crime may be. voted by hun- dreds of thousands,” such was the slogan of the Communist Party. That night, the proletariat of Lyons, marshalled in a huge war front, gave its true class significance to the struggle for Sacco and Vanzetti. Even in NICOLA SACCO By GABRIEL PERI Foreign Editor of Humanite. . that town, of which M. Herriot is the chief magis- trate, the workers of all opinions organized two splendid meetings. Obeying the orders of the pre- fect of the Rhone, the police resorted to unheard of provocation and charged the demonstrators, using arms. But the Lyons meeting found its echo thru- out the whole of France. On the day following that tragic night, the news of the decision of the governor of Massachusetts reached Paris. Fuller ‘had ordered the crime. On the same evening the ‘Parisian workers were in- formed of it in the course of a meeting called by the trade union organizations of the Paris district. “Only an immense demonstration of strength can prevent the crime,” declared Racamoni, the secretary of the C. T. G. U., and amidst reverberating ap- plause he read the Manifesto of the C. T. G. U. calling for a general strike. This decision was enthusiastically approved. At the close, as the crowd of workers demanding a pardon and liberation for the imprisoned men broke up, the police hurled themselves on the work- ers and with ferocious brutality assaulted Jacques Duclos, the Communist deputy from Paris, who had to be taken to a hospital, The strike was to_take place on Monday. Sunday a new demonstration rallied 100,000 workers around the red flags. In compact ranks, the Parisian work- ers filed along the streets of the great city. Huge placards carried the following inscriptions: “Justice for Sacco and Vanzetti, condemned to be electrocuted because they are friends of the peo- ple and enemies of the American capitalists.” “Sympathizers, without reference to opinion, you must intervene against the crime which is being prepared.” “In America the seat of justice is the electric chair.” “A general strike to save Sacco and Vanzetti!” : ‘1887-1927! Dates which illustrate American justice!” “The Chicago tragedy must not be repeated! Long leave Saceo and. Vanzetti!” Several times, loaded automobiles, carrying the American flag, were greeted with cries of “Pardon! Pardon!” repeated a thousand times. Thereupon the tourists from the new world made known their presence and replied: “Long Live Sac- co and Vanzetti!” Luigia Vanzetti, who arrived in Paris the same morning was the object of an endless ovation, Twen- ty meetings shouted to the echo cries which seemed to be uttered from the very depth of the proletarian crowd. “Down with Fuller! A pardon! A pardon!” The same day all France responded to the dem- onstrations in Paris. A united front meeting took place at Roubaix, demonstrations at. Havre, Dieppe, Sotteville, Tours, Toulouse, Oran. Finally on Monday, the 8th of August, came the general strike. The C. G. T. U. had thus accom- plished its slogans: “Tf, in spite of the universal condemnation, the American plutocrats effect their frightful crime, it will be necessary to get at them by any means whatever: That is why, if the horrible sentence is maintained in spite of everything, the C. G. T. U. announces that the twenty-four-hour strike action must be prolonged in the following way: “1.—Boycott by the consumers of all products, commodities, and merchandise, imported from America and of products made in American factories in France; “2.—-Refusal by the organizations of sailors, har- bor-workers, railway workers to transport these products; “3.—In the same way, boycott of the represen- tatives of Yankee plutocracy and in particular of the members of the American Legion; “4.Boyeott of every exhibition, play or attrac- tion of American origin.” The order to strike was everywhere followed with an admirable discipline. Centers like Lyons, St. Etienne, Cette, Alais, Le Boucauv, Avignon, Beziers, Dunkerque, Cyonnax, Marseilles, Montpellier, Dou- ai, Havre, etc., gave themselves completely and saw the workers rise and demonstrate their will to tear from the murderers the two martyrs who sym- bolize the ferocious repression unchained by the imperialists. In the Paris district, the movement gave similar proofs that the laboring masses of the Faubourgs and the suburbs were stirred with the universal condemnation. (Continued on page 5) a a BARTOLOMEO VANZETTI