Reexamining the Sacco-Vanzetti Case,
Howard Zinn interviewed by Gabriel San Roman and Sonali Kolhatkar
In 1920, two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were charged with the murders of Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Their trial in 1921, riddled with anti-immigrant bias, was one of the most significant political events of the time. Many leading intellectuals, writers and artists such as Dorothy Parker, H.G. Wells, and Upton Sinclair mobilized to try and obtain a retrial citing their beliefs that Sacco and Vanzetti were targeted for their anarchist activities and Italian ethnicity, and hance did not receive a fair trial. Nevertheless, the two men were eventually convicted and executed on August 23rd, 1927. Their case inspired leading political writer, Upton Sinclair, to write a novel called “Boston”.
Sacco and Vanzetti are now back in the news. The Los Angeles Times reported in December 2005 that an Orange County man found a letter allegedly written by Upton Sinclair in which Sinclair wrote that an attorney for the two men, Fred Moore, had confided to him of his clients’ guilt. Many conservative commentators, such as Jonah Goldberg of the LA Times, have responded by issuing blanket condemnations of the left’s support for various political prisoners.
People’s historian, Howard Zinn, who wrote the introduction for the reissue of Sinclair’s novel “Boston”, spoke to us about the significance of the alleged Sinclair letter, and what it means for the left today.
This interview aired on Wednesday January 18th, 2006 on Uprising at KPFK, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, and is available on an audiostream at www.uprisingradio.org.
...
ZINN: I believe that the importance of the Sacco and Vanzetti case is that it took place very shortly after the end of World War I [when] the country was still living in an atmosphere created by the war. It was an atmosphere in which there was a government hunt for radicals. In 1919, right after the war the Palmer Raids took place and people who were not born in the United States were rounded up by the thousands and deported without trial, without due process, very much the kind of thing that is happening today where people are rounded up and if they’re are not citizens they can be detained and nobody will hear from them or about them. So it was a war-time atmosphere. At the time that they went on trial, there were still bodies coming back from Europe of the G.I.’s, soldiers who had died. Patriotism was still in the air. In fact, the trial took place just shortly after Memorial Day. Memorial Day was an occasion for patriotic fervor and in this case, a kind of wartime spirit. And so the important thing about their case is really not the question of their guilt or innocence - which certainly was not resolved by their trial, and I don’t know if it will ever be resolved - the important thing about it was that it revealed the nature of the justice system in the United States, a system of justice which has always been unfair to foreigners, unfair to poor people, unfair to radicals and which becomes especially notorious in times of war, in times of a Marshall atmosphere. So I would say that the importance of their case was that it was one of those many cases in American history. I’m thinking of the Haymarket affair 1886, I’m thinking of the case of Tom Mooney and [Warren] Billings which took place during the war. I’m thinking of what happened later after World War II, the Rosenberg case, which interestingly enough started shortly after the Communist victory in China, just as the Sacco and Vanzetti case started shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution. And then, coming down to our time, I’m thinking of the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. In other words, throughout American history there’s certain critical cases that come into the courts and are decided in an atmosphere which is not conducive to fair play for black people, for radicals, for non-citizens, for poor people. And I think that the Sacco-Vanzetti case takes its place in that line up.
...
In 1920, two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were charged with the murders of Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Their trial in 1921, riddled with anti-immigrant bias, was one of the most significant political events of the time. Many leading intellectuals, writers and artists such as Dorothy Parker, H.G. Wells, and Upton Sinclair mobilized to try and obtain a retrial citing their beliefs that Sacco and Vanzetti were targeted for their anarchist activities and Italian ethnicity, and hance did not receive a fair trial. Nevertheless, the two men were eventually convicted and executed on August 23rd, 1927. Their case inspired leading political writer, Upton Sinclair, to write a novel called “Boston”.
Sacco and Vanzetti are now back in the news. The Los Angeles Times reported in December 2005 that an Orange County man found a letter allegedly written by Upton Sinclair in which Sinclair wrote that an attorney for the two men, Fred Moore, had confided to him of his clients’ guilt. Many conservative commentators, such as Jonah Goldberg of the LA Times, have responded by issuing blanket condemnations of the left’s support for various political prisoners.
People’s historian, Howard Zinn, who wrote the introduction for the reissue of Sinclair’s novel “Boston”, spoke to us about the significance of the alleged Sinclair letter, and what it means for the left today.
This interview aired on Wednesday January 18th, 2006 on Uprising at KPFK, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, and is available on an audiostream at www.uprisingradio.org.
...
ZINN: I believe that the importance of the Sacco and Vanzetti case is that it took place very shortly after the end of World War I [when] the country was still living in an atmosphere created by the war. It was an atmosphere in which there was a government hunt for radicals. In 1919, right after the war the Palmer Raids took place and people who were not born in the United States were rounded up by the thousands and deported without trial, without due process, very much the kind of thing that is happening today where people are rounded up and if they’re are not citizens they can be detained and nobody will hear from them or about them. So it was a war-time atmosphere. At the time that they went on trial, there were still bodies coming back from Europe of the G.I.’s, soldiers who had died. Patriotism was still in the air. In fact, the trial took place just shortly after Memorial Day. Memorial Day was an occasion for patriotic fervor and in this case, a kind of wartime spirit. And so the important thing about their case is really not the question of their guilt or innocence - which certainly was not resolved by their trial, and I don’t know if it will ever be resolved - the important thing about it was that it revealed the nature of the justice system in the United States, a system of justice which has always been unfair to foreigners, unfair to poor people, unfair to radicals and which becomes especially notorious in times of war, in times of a Marshall atmosphere. So I would say that the importance of their case was that it was one of those many cases in American history. I’m thinking of the Haymarket affair 1886, I’m thinking of the case of Tom Mooney and [Warren] Billings which took place during the war. I’m thinking of what happened later after World War II, the Rosenberg case, which interestingly enough started shortly after the Communist victory in China, just as the Sacco and Vanzetti case started shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution. And then, coming down to our time, I’m thinking of the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. In other words, throughout American history there’s certain critical cases that come into the courts and are decided in an atmosphere which is not conducive to fair play for black people, for radicals, for non-citizens, for poor people. And I think that the Sacco-Vanzetti case takes its place in that line up.
...
posted by Alice at
Friday, January 20, 2006
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