Mussolini, Sacco-Vanzetti, and the Anarchists: The ... - Libcom

Mussolini, Sacco-Vanzetti, and the Anarchists 59
In Italy the underground anarchist and communist movements reacted to
these events by distributing leaflets attacking the "complicity" of the Fascist
regime with "American capitalism" and blaming Mussolini for not registering
a formal protest with the U.S. government. Letters, newspaper articles, songs,
and other propaganda materials were smuggled into Italy by anarchist
comrades in the United States, although much of this material was confiscated
by the police. In large industrial cities like Turin and small rural villages,
printed handbills and handwritten leaflets were distributed calling for "Death
to Governor Fuller," and one handbill purportedly quoted a letter from
Vanzetti to Mexican anarchists saying, "I am convinced that any other man at
the head of the Italian state would be enough to save us."'103
Until now, the Italian press, kept under tight control by Mussolini, had been
carefully restrained in its reporting of the case. But in a deliberate effort by
Mussolini to pressure the Americans, major newspapers began to express what
Eugene Lyons called "a curiously muffled excitement." I1 Popolo d'Italia
even sent a reporter to Torremaggiore, where he interviewed Sacco's father
and brother Sabino and found the village "confident that Mussolini and the
Fascist Government would do all possible to save the condemned men." La
Stampa of Turin published a favorable interview with a childhood friend of
Vanzetti and, while visiting Vanzetti's home in Vallafalletto and Sacco's
family in Torremaggiore, the American anti-Fascist journalist Gertrude
Winslow found that "we need have no fear of Fascism as far as our errand was
concerned-all factions were one in their sympathy for the two condemned
Italians." While I1 Giornale d'Italia printed a statement by Giuseppe
Andrower, who had testified that he had seen Sacco in the Italian consulate in
Boston on the day he was supposed to have taken part in the South Braintree
crime, La Tribuna did an interview with Count Ignazio Thaon di Revel, head
of the Fascist League of North America. Di Revel asserted that while Fascists
were ready to fight to the death against the political ideas of Sacco and
Vanzetti, he too had appealed to Governor Fuller. Statements of support also
appeared in I1 Tevere and I1 Messaggero. In the United States, an unnamed
source revealed to the New York Times that Mussolini had written a personal
letter on behalf of the defendants, but the embassy "denied emphatically" that
it had been instructed to make a formal protest against the execution.104
103
Arturo Bocchini to prefects, August 13, 1927, and the material and prefect
reports in MI, 1927, Cat. C-2, "Pro Sacco e Vanzetti," ACS, esp. the leaflets
"Salviamo Sacco e Vanzetti!" "Lavoratori Milanesi!" "Operai," "Confederazione
Generale del Lavoro," "Lavoratori!" "Al popolo italiano perche sappia ed agisca,"
and "I sette anni d'orribile agonia di Sacco e Vanzetti."
104 Eugene Lyons, The Life and Death of Sacco and Vanzetti (New York, 1927),
pp. 176-77; John F. Martin to Kellogg, August 24, 1927, RG 59, 311.6521 Sa 1/841,
NA; Vanzetti, Autobiografia e lettere inedite (n. 50 above), pp. 119-20; Gertrude L.
Winslow, "A Glance at Fascism," Lantern (March-April 1928), pp. 21-22; Joughin