Sacco and Vanzetti: 80 Years After Their Execution, A Look At The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment

[pnorman]

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/22/1421237

(I missed posting this two days ago)

pnorman

[glitch]

1. Wow K & R - this quote from Vanzetti:

"“I champion the weak, the poor, the oppressed, the simple and the persecuted. I maintain that whosoever benefits or hurts a man benefits or hurts the whole species. I sought my liberty and the liberty of all, my happiness and the happiness of all. I wanted a roof for every family, bread for every mouth, education for every heart, light for every intellect. I am convinced that human history has not yet begun, that we find ourselves in the last period of the prehistoric. I see with the eyes of my soul how the sky is diffused with the rays of the new millennium.” – Bartolomeo Vanzetti."

[pnorman]

2. Yes, that quote caught my eye too.

I had read much about Sacco and Vanzetti over the years, but hadn't seen that in print until now. Here's the DVD mentioned in that interview: http://www.amazon.com/Sacco-Vanzetti-Tony-Shalhoub/dp/B000QJLQE4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1562466-1319948?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1188009257&sr=1-1

I just now ordered it from Amazon.

pnorman

[acmavm]

3. And that quote defines their true crime, that of being an anarchist. Of wanting

for everyman that which the rich man takes for granted.

Although I am of the opinion that Sacco was most likely a party to the robbery in which the watchman lost his life, I am definitely of the opinion that Vanzetti was an innocent man.

Here's an EXCELLENT essay on the case.

http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sacvan.html

[NYC]

4. Worldwide protests.

Union Square, New York. I've seen several old photographs of protests in Union Square. This is the only one I found online.


Thanks for posting the interview.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. NYC forbade a protest vigil in Union Square the day the Rosenbergs were executed.

A crowd of thousands gathered in 17th Street. There should have been more. People were less likely to protest in 1953, the height of the McCarthy era, with J. Edgar Hoover in his prime. Fear ruled.

[pnorman]

5. Here's another quote by Vanzetti, probably more familiar to most than that other:

"If it had not been for this thing, I might have lived out my life talking at street corners to scorning men. I might have died, unmarked, unknown, a failure. Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Never in our full life can we hope to do such work for tolerance, 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 and a poor fish peddler -- all! That last moment belong to us -- that agony is our triumph." -- Bartolomeo Vanzetti, comment to a reporter before his execution (1927)"

http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/yates211206.html

pnorman

[glitch]

6. Brilliant. I really didn't know much about this, thank you for posting. nt

[pnorman]

7. More yet.

Ben Shahn's "Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti" mural: http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/281586/

Somewhere, I have (had?) a paperback collection of those Ben Shahn prints. I also had a post card of those eternal words of Vanzetti, and in Ben Shahn's handwriting. I'll start looking. You might find a copy of the latter in the postcard rack at the Left Bank Bookstore (by the entrance to the Pike Street Market).

pnorman

[pnorman]

8. On that Eightieth Anniversity:

http://saccoandvanzetti.org/

And here's that Left Bank Books mentioned above: http://www.leftbankbooks.com/store/History

pnorman

[glitch]

9. COOL! Thanks for the bookstore tip. nt

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Thanks for posting this! I'm glad I came here

today to post my thread about the Rosenbergs because I missed the Sacco and Vanzetti thread before.