The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-03
By LANES P. CANNON.

of the Labor Defender).
CACCO and Vanzetti were victims of
y the frame-up system which is an
established part Of American police
methods insofar as labor prisoners are
concerned. In all of it's main features,
the case was a repetition of the many
legal lynchings Of labor leaders that
have taken place in the past and a
fore-runner of others which will in
evitably follow in the future. 1t was
not simply an extraordinary "miscar-
riage of justice" as many apologists
Of the capitalist order attempt to
maintain.
1t was neither a criminal" case nor
a Massachusetts" case, but class
frame-up with the United States gov
eminent behind the prosecution all the
time.
1t was clear from the beginning that
the stage was being set for another
Haymarket. This was understood by
the militant and conscious workers,
and their insistence on policy based
on this point of view brought them
into constant conflict with those ele-
ments who sought to blur the class
character of the case and conduct it
in an orderly and respectable" man
ner which would not offend the Judge
and the governor and other execution
ers of the capitalists. The infamous
SANDER regarding funds hurled
against the l. L. D. by the Boston
committee in the columns of the CAPT
talist press, was a reflection of this
basic conflict over policy and was in
reality an attempt to demoralize and
break up the protest movement.
In spite of the bourgeois liberal in
fluences that dominated the official
defense committee at Boston, the mill
tants would not allow the defense to
be confined merely to the narrow
groove Of Massachusetts legal techni-
calities. With indefatigable work and
sweeping vision they painted the
whole monstrous frame-up on a can
vas big enough for the workers of
all the world to see.
The l. L. D. devoted much of it's
resources and energies to the work of
organizing the protest mass move
ment in America and throughout the
world. 1t was due to the work of the
militants that the crucifiXion of Sacco
and Vanzetti was not prepared and
carried out in a quiet and orderly"
way in whispered consultations be-
hind closed doors, but became a tu-
multuous issue, storming through the
streets and factories of the world.
The industrial masters of America,
through their legal hirelings, plotted
and carried out the execution of Sacco
and Vanzetti with the aim of dealing
thereby blow to the labor movement.
But in summing up the case now, and
drawing the lessons for the future,
it must be plainly said that they were
not without allies, both conscious and
unconscious, in the camp of the work.
ers themselves.
We will only do justice to the mem
DRY Of Sacco and Vanzetti and to the
cause of labor which they lived and
died for, if we speak openly about
all these questions. Sacco and Van
zetti will have died in vain if the real
meaning and the causes of their mar
tyrdom are not understood in all their
implications.
In the front ranks of the allies of
the executioners of the heroic rebel
workers, the official leaders of the
American labor movement, Messrs.
Green, Woll and company took their
place. Their role was to rush up the
protest movement of the workers and
to frown upon all talk of demonstra-
tions or strikes. Under cover of an
appeal for "clemency," Mr.. Green pro-
posed to the governor that Sacco and
Vanzetti, who were innocent of any
crime, should be imprisoned for life
in the Massachusetts penitentiary.
Never have these black-hearted trail
tors exposed themselves more clearly
than in the Sacco-Vanzetti case.
Unlike Debs, who played his part
in the fight nobly till the day of his
death, certain elements of the social
list party were behind Mr.. Green and
company only to the extent that their
influence was smaller. First, by re-
fusing to participate IN any kind of
united front action with the left wing
and the Communist workers and, sec
ond, by trying to discredit and sabo-
tage all protest activities undertaken
independently by the left wing, these
office boys for the big labor takers
did their bit to hamper and demoralize
the organization Of the mass protest
movement Of the workers which was
the only possible salvation for Sacco
and Vanzetti. The baseless attacks on
the International Labor Defense, the
organizer of the protest movement,
on the ground of misuse Of funds"
were merely part Of the game of
Generalization.
In appealing to the workers for SOL