Chuck Turner's speech at the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Day 2010

Let me read this Resolution of the Boston City Council and then I just have a few brief remarks.

The City of Boston City Council resolution regarding Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Commemoration Day offered by Chuck Turner on behalf of the Boston City Council.

Whereas: On August 23,1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed after being found guilty for the murder of Alesandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter by a clearly prejudicially biased judge of the Commonwealth; and

Whereas: Sacco and Vanzetti were outspoken critics of the federal government and self-professed anarchists and many historians and other have contended that the Sacco and Vanzetti prosecution, trial, and death sentences displayed a lack of respect for political civil liberties and the right to dissent; and

Whereas: Some critics have alleged the conviction and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, who were first generation Italian immigrants, were at least partially influenced by racism, and anti-Italian prejudice, and discrimination against immigrants in the United States; and

Whereas: August 23, 1977, Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation acknowledging the fiftieth anniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti and asking everyone to "resolve to prevent the forces of intolerance, fear, and hatred from ever again uniting to overcome the rationality, wisdom, and fairness to which our legal system aspires"; and

Whereas: These historical events are an integral part of the history of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and constitute a nefarious precedent that we must strive not to repeat; and

Whereas: On August 23, 2010, the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society is holding a gathering in Copely Square and a march to the North End ending with a rally there. Therefore be it

Resolved: That the Boston City Council extends its admiration and congratulations to the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society, and in honor of its many contributions, does hereby declare August 23, 2010, Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Day in the city of Boston. This resolution being dualy signed by the President of the City Council and will be made part of the Official City Record, attested to, a copy, thereof, transmitted to the work of the city of Boston

and it is signed by Michael Ross, President of the City Council, Rosaria Salerno, Clerk of the City of Boston and myself, Chuck Turner, Boston City Councillor.

So let me just make two brief remarks.

One is that we have to keep constantly not only in our minds but in the minds of everyone that an injury to one is an injury to all. We have to understand that we are one world-wide community who has to stand together in the pursuit of justice. It's also tremendously important, tremendously important, that we try to wake our brothers and sisters citizens up. Unfortunately the media and the oligarchy have worked to create confusion, tremendous confusion, in the minds of the people of this country. It was a confusion in the minds of the people eighty four years ago that led to the horrific deaths of Sacco and Vanzetti. It wasn't in the interest of the people of that time to have their lives taken, and yet while there were thousands in the streets supporting justice supporting their liberation, supporting their being free, there were others - others who didn't understand that they were pawns, that they were being used by those who were controlling the system. To confuse people, to confuse the people of Boston, to confuse the people of Massachusetts, to prevent them from understanding who the real enemy is.

Brothers and Sisters, the immigrants in this country aren't the enemy. The reality is, from my perspective, immigrants are the victims. Why are the immigrants here? The immigrants are here in this day and age, the immigrants are coming into this country, because our country, our military forces are enabling the business community of this country - of this country and other countries - to go throughout the world raping and pillaging the economies of those countries. We have to understand that the immigrant "problem" is not an immigrant problem. It is a problem of imperialism. It's a problem of the unjust use of force to control the economies of other countries.

When I was a young man, I remember gasoline at thirty five and forty cents a gallon, because of the control this country had of the pipelines throughout the Middle East. As hard as it is, we have to speak the truth to our people. We have to help them understand that we, the American people, have perpetrated atrocities throughout the world and particularly in the Muslim world. We have to understand that we have created the hate. We have created the hate that in fact came back to us on September 11, 2001. We have to understand that we are - we are as a country - responsible for the terrible destruction that happened on September 11 because the reality is we can't go around the world raping and pillaging and robbing and expect no consequence.

Brothers and sisters we have to wake the American people up. We have to help all of us understand that as long as we support an economy that exploits people not only in this country but throughout the world, as long as we don't challenge, challenge an economy that says that some will rise and others will fall, we will continue to have an immigrant problem. We will continue to have a racial problem. We will continue to have a labor problem. We will continue to have a gender problem.

Brothers and sisters - it is time for us to unite and return to bring sanity to this country. To help us all understand that we are our brothers and sisters' keepers and that what we see here in this country as a functioning economic and social and political system at this point is an abomination - is an abomination and a disgrace - and the reality is that the only people who can see that justice is done is us. We are the ones - we are the ones - who have to speak the truth, who have to continue to stand up and counter the lies and hypocrisy that are spread by the oligarchy that is trying to keep control of not only the wealth, but the minds of the people of this country and world.

Thank you very much.