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NEWS

2012 Sacco and Vanzetti Seventh Annual March and Rally

PRESS RELEASE / PSA



Contact: Sergio Reyes
617-290-5614
info@saccoandvanzetti.org

Boston, Massachusetts.- On Sunday, August 26th, Boston will remember the 85th anniversary of the execution of anarchist Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti whose trial is widely regarded as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history. Calling attention to the continued repression of immigrants and radicals, the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society (SVCS) invites all to attend and participate on the seventh annual march and rally. We will begin by gathering at the Boston Common Visitor Center, on Tremon Street across from West Street, at 2PM, followed by a march to the North End at 3PM, and conclude with a rally at 4PM at the Greenway on Hanover Street and Cross Street featuring a number of speakers, including Boston City Councilor Charles Yancey. The Boston City Council has proclaimed August 23 as Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Day for the last 6 years. The first proclamation was presented by Councilor Felix Arroyo, Sr., followed by Chuck Turner and Charles Yancey.

For the seventh year in a row, the SVCS has sought to bring public attention to the wrongful execution of these two Italian immigrant workers in 1927. We invoke our local history not only out of reverence for Sacco and Vanzetti, but to demonstrate how little things have changed in the 85 years following their execution. Nationalist fearmongering and repression of dissidents is as prevalent today as it was during the Red Scare years in the early 20th century. The way in which immigrants workers continue to be rounded up, detained and deported today under the pretext of a War on Terror, a War on Drugs or simply securing our borders, is eerily similar to the Palmer Raids which targeted radical immigrants in the 1920s. And whereas the overwhelming majority of developed nations have abolished the death penalty, the retention of capital punishment in the United States keeps the U.S. in alarmingly poor company with other countries notorious for human rights abuses.

Furthermore, this year we also want to protest FBI attacks on muslims, among them a resident of Massachusetts, Tarek Mehana recently convicted of aiding terrorists and sentenced to 17.5 years in prison. We demand and end to holding political prisoners on the U.S.

More information about the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society and upcoming events can be found at http://saccoandvanzetti.org

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