Sacco and Vanzetti: Heroic Fighters Against the Ruling Class

 “All my life I had struggled to rid the earth of the rich man’s crimes.”

— “Two Good Arms” by PL singers
Revolution Disc 2

The graphic novel Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti by Rick Geary dramatically presents the case of two Italian immigrants who were arrested for a 1920 murder and robbery. Nicola Sacco, a shoemaker, and Bartolemo Vanzetti, a fish peddler, both pleaded innocent and after seven agonizing years of controversy were finally executed. The trial attracted international attention because the real reasons for it was to carry on racist attacks on immigrants. The two men were anarchists who fought for workers rights and supported socialism.

The 1917 Russian Revolution had caused panic among capitalist rulers all around the world.  A Seattle general strike in February 1919 showed U.S. capitalists the strength of the working class with radical leadership.

In November 1919, a fire bomb went off at the house of Attorney General Palmer in Washington, D.C.and bombs also exploded in Philadelphia, Cleveland and  New York. Palmer used the bombs planted by a small group of anarchists to conduct raids to deport immigrants who were political radicals and socialists. About 10,000 immigrant workers were deported as a result of the Palmer Raids.  These “Red Scare” attacks were led by a 24-year-old Department of Justice official, J Edgar Hoover!

Vanzetti learned that a friend, the editor of an anarchist newspaper, had been arrested and detained by the Justice Department.  Two months later, his friend, still in custody of the Justice Department, mysteriously fell out of a 14th floor window and died. After hearing the news, Sacco and Vanzetti decided to warn their comrades to get rid of any anarchist literature and stay out of sight. 

The police learned that they were meeting with two anarchist friends, but the cops arrived too late to arrest all four anarchists. Only after seeing Sacco and Vanzetti on a street car, were they arrested on the flimsiest excuses because of the Red Scare.  Their trial was a thinly disguised frame-up that relied more on racist and political attacks on Sacco and Vanzetti as immigrant radicals than on any direct evidence.

Widespread hatred for capitalism and substantial support for revolutionary responses around the world led to many demonstrations and rebellions in support of Sacco and Vanzetti by workers in Germany, France, Switzerland, Portugal, South Africa, Mexico,  Argentina, Japan and Australia. There were fewer worker demonstrations demanding the release of Sacco and Vanzetti in the United States, possibly due to the intimidation of Atty. Gen. Palmer and the Red Scare raids deporting immigrant workers.

In March, 1927, Felix Frankfurter, a Harvard Law Professor and later a Supreme Court Justice, wrote an article in the Atlantic Monthly discussing the blatant prejudice of  the trial including:

1) The suspects were identified without a lineup;

2) The jurors were rounded up late at night;

3) The prosecution concealed an exonerating witness;

4) Atmosphere around the Red Scare and armed guards in the courthouse caused bias; 

5) Trial Judge Thayer made comments that Sacco was not patriotic;

6) The jury foreman made a statement before the trial that he already thought Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty; and

7) The stolen money was never recovered.

Sacco and Vanzetti’s case was appealed to the Supreme Court. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes refused to hear the case, replying, “We practice law and not justice.” The ruling class did not care about railroaded workers — they only cared about keeping workers from rebelling.

It was not until August 26, 1977, fifty years after their executions, that Governor Michael Dukakis stated the Sacco and Vanzetti were unfairly tried and convicted and “any stigma or disgrace should forever be removed from the names of Nicola Sacco and Bartolemo Vanzetti,” but Dukakis also never proclaimed their innocence.

Anarchists, leftists, socialists and communists all around the world have held up Sacco and Vanzetti as martyrs to the cause of fighting for workers’ rights and against capitalism. This graphic novel is easy to read and will be interesting to many middle school and high school students. It is well worth reading and discussing, especially about the racist and anti-working class nature of the laws and courts of the capitalist rulers.

Fighting against capitalism and racism and fighting for workers’ rights frightens the ruling class. This case shows the ruling class will use all of its state power to crush workers’ rebellions. Only a communist working-class revolution will smash the bosses’ injustice system and bring a real, if belated, recognition of the brave workers who have given their lives in the fight against capitalism.