Today is the anniversery of the Sacco-Vanzetti execution, events I was turned on to through Vonnegut’s Jailbird (-thanx Kurt). These events are relevant not only as part of a lesser know darker side of US histroy, as well as the history of the Anarchist experience in America, but with a little reading, parrallels quickly become obvious with the current political climate of the country and potential dangers relative innocents may face.

Contrary to the usual practice of Massachusetts courts, Vanzetti was tried first in the summer of 1920 on the lesser of the two charges, the failed Bridgewater robbery. Despite a strong alibi supported by many wit nesses, Vanzetti was found guilty. Most of Vanzetti’s witnesses were Italians who spoke English poorly, and their trial testimony, given largely in translation, failed to convince the American jury. Vanzetti’s case had also been seriously damaged when he, for fear of revealing his radical activities, did not take the stand in his own defense.

The arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti had coincided with the period of the most intense political repression in American history, the “Red Scare” 1919-20. The police trap they had fallen into had been set for a comrade of theirs, suspected primarily because he was a foreign-born radical. While neither Sacco nor Vanzetti had any previous criminal record, they were long recognized by the authorities and their communities as anarchist militants who had been extensively involved in labor strikes, political agitation, and antiwar propaganda and who had had several serious confrontations with the law. They were also known to be dedicated supporters of Luigi Galleani’s Italian-language journal Cronaca Sovversiva, the most influential anarchist journal in America, feared by the authorities for its militancy and its acceptance of revolutionary violence.

Sacco and Vanzetti were executed on August 23, 1927, a date that became a watershed in twentieth-century American history. It became the last of a long train of events that had driven any sense of utopian vision out of American life. The workings of American democracy now seemed to many Americans as flawed and unjust as many of the older societies of the world, no longer embodying any bright ideal, but once again serving the interests of the rich and the powerful.

Read the entire page from which these various quotations are taken here. Technology and globalization have changed the game to some extent, but in terms of what Burroughs might have called CONTROL - the enemy excercies the same tactics. If this knowledge interests you at all, I urge you to make the effort to continue your research.

“Same as it ever was” - D. Byrne

“Same same, but different” - unusual but appropriate Thai expression