The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 15, 1927, Page 9

Paris Protests Death of Sacco and Vanzetti (Continued from page 3) Numerous gatherings in the morning, enthusiastic meetings ond imposing demonstrations in the after- noon, in the evening a mammoth meeting at the Taris Pantheon. That is the record of this great day. Thursday, the 12th of August, L’Humanite an- nounced the news of the reprieve to the Paris «york- ers. “They Are Still Alive!” The huge headline of the Communist paper struck all eyes like a cry of ' victory, and so did the shouts of the crowd on the boulevards, at the halls in all the quarters an:} of the newsboys bearing the thousands of copies of L’Humanite which the workers of Paris were snatch- ing for. But a feeling of inexpressible anguish was min- gled with the joy of the masses. The grim attempt would re-commence tho the immense revolt fre mained. They could kill them yet. The reprieve was only a ghastly farce. Frem daybreak of the 12th of August this pre- sentiment haunted the spirit of the workers and from then on they were on guard. Now we know, alas, how greatly their presenti- ments were justified. Eight days later, the Massa- chusetts courts confirmed their verdict. It was followed by an outburst of fury from the. workers. Saturday, the 21st of August, fifty meetings were organized in Paris. Gther demonstrations took place in the provinccs, snd, the following Sunday, under a pouring rain more than 20,900 workers gathered at the Butte du Chapeau Rouge near Pr2.Saint- Gervais. With scaked eluthes, stamning around fer burs in the rain, their faces cut by che drops, the workers turned for the last time, while there was still a chance, to the leaders of the American Legion, the guests of Paris, and beyond the Atlantie to the American capitalists, the deniers of justice and con- trollers of the war debts But the hours passed. With the vrecisioa of clock- Wak the news from Bosten ecnfirmed the suspicions that tke worst was abeut to be accomp!'shed. The . G. T. U. without losing a soment, aalressed a proposal for common action to the C. T. G. The Communist Party made a similar proposal to the socialist party, for the purpose of organizing a monster demonstration in the heart of Paris. Then, five o'clock in the morning. Electrocuted! Two hours later, while in the rue Montmartre, the erowd cf workers waited breathlessly under the windows of L’Humanite, the Party’s paper made the following appeal to the workers: “Now that, the horrible class sentence has been executed, it is the duty of every class conscious worker in awaiting the final reckoning, to take just reprisals against the murderers, “But it goes without saying, that in accord with the Communist International, the undersignad or- ganizations in speaking of necessary reprisals do not in any way contemplate acts of individual terror which they have always refused to consider as a means of revolutionary action for the proletariat. “That which you must do is organize, prepare, put in motion those collective reprisals of the inter- national working class against the capitalism of the United States which is collectively responsible for the crime. “1.—Defy the American Legion by preventing the American fascists from parading insolently thru the city of the Sons of the Commune. The accomplices of the murder of Sacco and Vanzetti will he received as they deserve, and will learn that the proletariat cannot be defied with impunity. 2.—Boyeott Yankee Capitalism: Practical pnd effective boycott measures will be immediately un- dertaken, 38.--Demonstrate Tonight at 8 o’clock: Without waiting for enything further, at 8 o’clock t night let the immense crowd of workers from the old revolutionary faubourgs and from the red suburbs, descend on the boulevards and there give exopres- sion to their unanimous condemnation. They will maintain their coolness in the face of all provocations whatsoever and will give this de- monstration, which will usher in future justice, that great and calm quality that characterizes the inter- national working class. That night, at 9 o’clock, the workers were to march on the boulevards! In every red suburb, deep in mourning but seething with anger, the slogan ran like a lighted fuse! A meeting of the cabinet was hurriedly called. There was a conference at the police perfecture of police. The perfect of police, Chiappe, forbade the demonstration. ; But try to prevent the masses of workers from shouting their indignation! From 8 o’cleck on a seething crowd covered the sidewalks and the boulevards from the Rue Mont- martre to the Porte-Saint-Martin. On the streets there were frequent tie-ups caused both by the movement of the protesting workers and the lines which the police kept increasing. Mounted guards, foot-police and mere cops man- euvered in little bunches, their object was to see that the workers “kept moving” and to dam back the comrades in the streets crossing the boulevards. Police captains were arousing their followers. “Come on! Start that traffic there! Break all that up!” one of them shouted. A police whistle shrieked and, obediently, the cops began their man-hunt. Trouble was on from $ o’clock. At the corner of the Rue Montmartre the police started the first set- to, but a part of our cymrades took refuge in the cafe-bar which makes one side of the bouievard there, while several hundreds of others escaped along the Kue Montmartre. When they arrived in front of <’Humanite they shouted: “Long live Sacco! Long live Vanzetti! Down with Fuller!” ' Suddenly, still on the same side of the bouievard, a thick column of demonstrators spread into the Faubourg Montmartre, coming from the Rue Cadet. The guardes republicans hurled themselves on them with an indescribable brutality. The police brand- ished their clubs. The wounded fell. The terrace ef the cafe was invaded. A charge in the Place de ta Republique, ancther in the Rue de Lanery, ancther on the Boulevard Se- bastopol, another on the Rue Montmartre, another at the Gymnase, another at the Gare de L’Est! Women, children, men, sent rolling, beaten, trampled on, with unspeakable savagery. Arrests, then beatings, then firing, and blood flows. The cafes close. The terraces, the bars shut down, the boulevards empty. The police attack: in the midst of a tangle cf cars, taxis, busses. The skeletons of barricades rise. The crowd of workers reacts and counter-attacks. Driven back into the adjacent streets, it forms again, shouts its anger, hoots American capitalism. And suddenly the inspiration of the masses breaks forth sportaneously: “To Montmartre! To Mont- martre! hunters!” The British Trade Union Congress (Continued from page 2) Since the desertion of the rank and file during the general strike there has taken place mass victimiza- tions, defcat of the miners, attacks upon the unem- ployed and local government, the anti-trade union bill, the onslaught upon the political levy, dispatch of troops to China, and preparations of war against Soviet Russia, etc. With each new attack of the employers, and with each retreat of the leaders, it is the workers who suffer. This explains why the alert rank and file are diseontented, and why they are raising their voices against the present leadership of the trade unions. Their discontent finds its organized expression in the minority movement. When the old leaders were asked at the Trades . Union Congress to wake up, and face the situation created by the new conditions of the struggle, their only answer was to indulge in a fury of abuse against the minority movement and other militants of the left wing. » When challenged by the Russian Trade Union lead- ers for refusing to meet the capitalist attack upon the wages, hours and organization of the workers, . the general council replied by smashing the Anglo- Russian Committee. Such an act was an indication ef their impotence and their inability to reply to the Russians by outlining a policy of action. That the minority movement and the Russian, trade union leaders had correctly summed up the position of the bureaucratic office-holders of the T. U. ©. may be seen in the praise given to the genera! council by such open enemies of the labor movement as Joynson-Hicks and Winston Churchill. The need for a new leadership is one of the most pressing problems now confronting the labor and trade union movement. This is one of the tasks being faced by the minority movement, and it is the basic question being dealt with at the left wing conference which opened recently in London. Fragments of pain— Fragments of torture: Glaring wounds—- - Red gaping mouths— Pools of blood: On the brink of insanity— Wild lavghter— Horror— - Fear: f A whole world gone mad: WAR. —ANNA KOHN, ei ees The capital of the millionaire pleasure The columns of demonstrators climb towards the place Clichy, the place Blanche, the place Pigalle. Up there, it is a night of pleasure, the nightly night of pleasure which is reaching its height—jazz, charleston, champaigne at a hundred francs a bot- tle, and gambling de luxe. The gay rioters affected to smile behind the sprang open. The Moulin Rouge, the headquarters of the “Amer- ican Legion,” smiles and shines with all its lights, under its thousand bulbs. The window-panes crash. Sacco! Vanzetti! Pardon! And, buried in the depths of its cabarets, while the anger of the masses rolled on, these interna- tionalists in orgies made the acquaintance of the real Paris, the Paris of the Sons of the Commune, on the very ground where its last barricades were raised. One hundred and twenty-four police were wounded during the set-to. Two hundred and eleven arrests were made. The accused appeared before the courts the next day and were given severe sentences. The same day in spite of government ban, huge demonstrations marched in Lyons, Rouen, Marseilles and Nimes. Everywhere the slogan of a boycott was acclaimed. The labor municipalities refused to vote the credits for the reception of the American Legion. The just fury of the masses was the signal for an intense reactionary offensive. Forty-eight hours later the perfect of the Seine announced his desire to increase the police effectives. It is clear, however, that the disorders which trans- pired on Thursday were entirely the result of the police brutalities. It is enough to read the appeal, which we reproduced above, to determine the char- acter which the Party and the C. G. T. U. intended to give to this demonstration. Even several social- democratic papers, under pressure from the masses, were constrained to admit the police brutalities. But the reactionary press was let loose. It de- manded the immediate arrest of Vaiilant-Couturier. The masses of Paris were master of the pavements on Thursday night. They would not permit the American legionnaires, the accomplices of the mur- derers, to come to insult the workers who had felt such profound solidarity with Sacco and Vanzetti. Here is the text of the letter addressed to the president of the Chamber of Deputies by Cachin, Doriot and Marty, the Communist deputies imprison- ed at the Santé: “Mr. President: We have the honor to advise you that it is our intention to interpellate the gov- ernment on the impossibility of holding the projected national fete on the occasion of the convention of the American Legion on Sept. 19. _ “The emotion of the masses, aroused by the execution of the unfortunate and innocent workers, Sacco and Vanzetti, is so profound that the organiza- tion of such a celebration in a period of mourning may, with reason, be considered as an insult to the workers of this country. “With Communist wishes, “M. Cachin, A. Marty, J. Doriot, the deputies im- prisoned at the Santé.” The French workers know that the dollar slaves, the representatives of the French Republic, bound to the almighty dellar, have deserved well of the Wall Street bankers. But, after the demonstration on the 2ist of August, it was clear that Paris on the 19th of Sept., the national fete day and the day of American Legion Convention, Paris would not dance on the bodies of Sacco and Vanzetti, (Men and Women of Steel} (Dedicated to the Young Workers). Out of the crucible let them be poured, white hot and bubbling, into great ingots, Let them be hammered on the anvil of the years and of experience into long, straight bars. Let them be flung like straws to the raging winds of the revolution. . . They will form skyscrapers, dedicated to Labor, _ jatting up among the stars. They will be beaten into plowshares and swords of righteousness. They will be battering rams knocking down the jails. They will be mighty girders supporting the structure of a New World! HENRY REICH, JR.