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Welcome to the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society Webpage!


The year 2007 marked the 80th anniversary of the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The previous year, 2006, a dedicated group of activists carried out a parade from the Stony Brook Park in Jamaica Plain to the Forest Hills Cemetery where the bodies of Sacco & Vanzetti were cremated after their execution. (To watch a 5-min clip prepared by RAI TV Italy click here.)

We will be out on the streets of Boston every year around August 23 and besides marching and demonstrating we hope to establish the foundation for a monument to Sacco and Vanzetti in the North End of Boston.

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Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society Mission

The Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society exists to preserve the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti's struggle to radically change society. We want to educate our neighbors about Massachusetts' radical history, and draw connections between the struggles of Sacco and Vanzetti and similar struggles today. We stand against the death penalty and political persecution as well as the persecution and scapegoating of immigrants.

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Remember Sacco and Vanzetti

Sunday, August 27,2023, 2-4 PM at the Paul Revere Mall, North End, Boston. We will remember the lives, struggles and death of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, executed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the electric chair at the Charlestown State Prison on August 23, 1927.

Speakers, music and more!

To download poster click here.
To download Italian version click here.
To download Spanish version click here.





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Ricardo Flores Magon, Life and Death of a Mexican Revolutionary

Ricardo Flores-Magon was born September 16, 1873 in San Antonio Eloxochitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico. He dedicated his life to the causes of freedom and social change to favor the poor in Mexico. In that struggle he became an anarchist, and advocated for the elimination of capitalism and the state. He was a revolutionary writer and journalist. Flores-Magon spent a significant amount of his life in prison and died, probably murdered, in a prison in the United States, Leavenworth, Kansas. He died November 21, 1922.

Following the concept that a "dead anarchist is a good anarchist," the current progressive president of Mexico, Manuel Lopez Obrador, declared 2022 "the year of Flores Magon." At this event we will analyze his work and ideas from a revolutionary perspective and see how those ideas impact us today.

Get flier in English here.
Descargar volante en español aquí.

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Remembering Sacco and Vanzetti - Tue. 8/23/2022 7PM EST

Author Catherine Marenghi will be reading from her novel "Our Good Name" at this year's commemorative event sponsored by the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society, August 23rd at 7 pm (EST) held both in person at the Community Church of Boston and virtually on Zoom. Other speakers include Governor Michael Dukakis; Michele Fazio, Professor of English; Ed O’Keefe, member of the Anarchist Black Cross Federation; Virginia Pratt of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Sage Carbone of the Cambridge City Growers; and Jake Carman, founding member of the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society. David Rothauser will also read from his novel, The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti, and Leonard Lehrman will present excerpts from Marc Blitzstein's Sacco and Vanzetti. A memorial tribute to Fernanda Sacco is also planned.



To see full size graphic click here.

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Events coming up to commemorate Sacco and Vanzetti in 2022

Gathering on August 21st. and mixed in-person/virtual program August 23rd.


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Maria Fernanda Sacco (1932-2022)

07/29/2022 [NEWS] - Maria Fernanda Sacco, great-niece of Nicola Sacco, died on July 3, 2022. An active member of Amnesty International and an honorary member of the Sacco and Vanzetti Association located in Torremaggiore, Italy, she worked alongside activists, filmmakers, and scholars to preserve the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti. Her unwavering passion contributed to the development of both local and international events in the fight against the death penalty and the struggle for social justice, resulting in numerous appearances at conferences and community events. In 2010, she published I miei ricordi di una tragedia familiare (My Memories of a Family Tragedy). In her words, remembering Sacco and Vanzetti "can tell us about the ideals destroyed by an intolerant society" (213). She believed in a future where younger generations could raise their voices to live in a world without discrimination.

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Upcoming Presentations of the Opera Sacco and Vanzetti

05/30/2022 [NEWS] - On Sunday, June 12 at 11AM EDT, Community Church of Boston will host a program of songs in memory of Sacco, Vanzetti and the Rosenbergs. Soprano Helene Williams and tenor Christopher Remkus, will be accompanied by Leonard Lehrman. Included in this program there will be excerpts from what Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964) called his magnum opus, the opera SACCO AND VANZETTI.

The opera will receive its orchestral premiere, directed by Bronx Opera General Director Benjamin Spierman, at Lehman College in the Bronx, Saturday, September 10 at 7PM, and Sunday, September 11 at 3PM.

Excerpts that have been cut from the opera, for reasons of length, will be featured in a Zoom concert Tuesday, June 21 at 5PM EDT, presented by Court Street Music and the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library in Valley Stream, NY. For an invitation please write to hwmlcontact@hotmail.com

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REMEMBERING SACCO & VANZETTI: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE


Monday, August 23rd at 7PM
On-line round table discussion with:
Stephanie Schorow, Stephanie E. Yuhl, Michele Fazio, Adrienne Naylor

Co-sponsored by The Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society and The Community Church of Boston
Live broadcast: CCB YouTube Channel
Request Zoom link at info@saccoandvanzetti.org

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Video Recording of Memorial Celebrating the Life of Bob D'Attilio

04/06/2021 [NEWS] - For those who couldn't attend the memorial for Bob D'Attilio, here is the video recording of the nearly 2 hour event. Some of the participants include Gov. Michael Dukakis, Judge Peter Agnes, writer Luigi Botta, novelist Joseph Torra, musicians Jake Carman and Charlie King, Dean Stevens from CCB, labor organizer Pasqualino Colombaro, Pat Zoffreo, Prof. Michele Fazio, playwrighter David Rothauser, and Leonard Lerhman.

The memorial event took place on March 7, 2021

Click here.

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We Remember Robert D’Attilio: Sunday, March 7, 2 PM ET

03/01/2021 [NEWS] - W
e invite you to a virtual celebration of Bob’s life, Sunday, Mar. 7, at 2 PM, EST. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAVE MOVED THE TIME UP 2 HOURS from previous announcements, to accommodate those joining us from numerous time zones: Italy, Spain and California, Mexico, and more.

To see/download flyer click here.

We are encouraging all of you, to write up your memories, condolences, thoughts, and send them to commchurch@gmail.com, where we will compile them and have them in our “In Memoriam” archives, available for any of you to come by and see.

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Song "For Ines and Dante" by Joe DeFilippo

01/17/2021 [MUSIC] - To listen to the song in Soundcloud click here.

"For Ines and Dante" was composed by Joe DeFilippo and performed by the R.J. Phillips Band, a group of Baltimore musicians. The band includes Joe DeFilippo: vocals, piano, bass guitar; Patrick McAvinue: fiddle; Bill Pratt: drums, organ. Orchestral arrangement by Bill Pratt. The song was produced and recorded by: Bill Pratt @ the Bratt Studio, Baltimore, Maryland.

Ines was Sacco's daughter, and Dante his son.

The song was posted to Soundcloud on January 15, 2021.

Pictured: Nicola Sacco, son Dante, wife Rosina

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Bob D’Attilio and the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society

12/05/2020 [DOCUMENTS] - Bob D’Attilio’s (*) name was so closely associated with the names of Sacco and Vanzetti and the Italian anarchists of Boston that anyone doing serious research on the subject was almost obligated to get in contact with him. His vast knowledge of the case was only surpassed by his devotion to collecting and preserving everything related to the case and the Italian anarchists to which the two men were so closely connected. This knowledge and devotion made Bob an invaluable resource in exploring every facet of the history surrounding Boston at the time. It was natural that when the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society was forming, Bob was asked to join.

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Bob D’Attilio is gone: The American "memory" of the Sacco and Vanzetti case

11/26/2020 [DOCUMENTS] - The news came suddenly and contained the rituality of those compassionate words that leave a lump in your throat and prevent you from going further: Bob D’Attilio is dead. He left suddenly, in silence and solitude, found lifeless in the apartment where he lived alone, in a town on the outskirts of Boston. This was news that leaves you speechless, communicated almost in a whisper by a mutual friend, Jerry, one of the members of the "Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society" of Boston, with which I maintained collaboration, fruitful and constant, which has lasted since the foundation of the Society in 2007, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the execution of Nick and Bart. No other details of Bob’s death are known.




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Music Dedicated to Sacco and Vanzetti

We are glad to present (space permitting) music dedicated to the memory and the struggle of Sacco and Vanzetti. We encourage musicians to send us their original work regarding this matter. In the case of published and available material for distribution we might include a few representative songs from the album and point the reader to the place where they can obtain the album, if available. The struggle and the ultimate assassination by the state of Sacco and Vanzetti on August 23, 1927 has inspired musicians to write songs about them throughout the world. We know that they continue to inspire musicians today.

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Finally Placing Sacco and Vanzetti in the Public Memory of Boston

08/18/2020 [MEETINGS] - A live video conference presentation, Sat. Aug. 22, 2020 at 7 PM

On the 100th anniversary of the arrest of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, we at The Community Church of Boston, as part of our own One Hundredth Anniversary Celebration, present a commemoration of these two men. We present a panel of scholars and dedicated devotees concerned with keeping alive the public memory of these, our "patron saints". We will feature speakers, musicians, a film clip of the funeral procession, and an excerpt of a film documentary about the case.



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The crime that began the Sacco-Vanzetti case

04/19/2020 [DOCUMENTS] - It’s a tough time in America right now. No one’s disputing that. But it was a tough time a hundred years ago as well, especially for immigrants and civil liberties.

Today, April 15, marks the 100th anniversary of the crime that began the notorious Sacco and Vanzetti case in which two Italian immigrants who professed anarchist beliefs were accused without a shred of real evidence of committing a heinous crime, tried in a prejudiced courtroom, convicted by a nativist jury, and ultimately executed seven years later, by which time their case had become an international cause de celebre.

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The Crime of the Century: Remembering Sacco and Vanzetti 100 Years Later

04/19/2020 [DOCUMENTS] - April 15th marks the 100th anniversary of the crime that propelled Italian immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti into the international media spotlight: the robbery and double murder at the Slater & Morrill Shoe Company Factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Arguably the most famous criminals tried in the 20th century, in a trial that incited a flurry of debates over the manipulation and use of insufficient evidence, questionable testimony, and ethnic bias against defense witnesses, Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty and spent seven years in jail until their execution on August 23, 1927.

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ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019



Friday, August 23, 2019 - 7PM-9PM
at Encuentro 5, 9 A Hamilton Place, Boston


A look at the case that rocked Boston and the world from 1920-1927 and the remarkable impact of the lives and death of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti until this very day.

revolutionary music inspired
by the history of Sacco and Vanzetti
Jake and the Infernal Machine

rare film footage of the funeral of Sacco and Vanzetti
La Marcia Del Dolore (The March of Sorrow)

"On the Road.from Palermo to Plymouth:
Woody Guthrie's Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti."
Prof. Michele Fazio

readings from his "Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti"
David Rothauser

the journal that inspired Sacco and Vanzetti
Cronaca Sovversiva


The poster can be downloaded here.

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ON MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019



Monday, August 26, 2019 - 7PM-9PM
at the Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St., Boston


Another look at the case that rocked Boston and the world from 1920-1927 and the remarkable impact of the lives and death of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti until this very day.

rare film footage of the funeral of Sacco and Vanzetti
La Marcia Del Dolore (The March of Sorrow)

Readings from his Sacco-Vanzetti novel, Suosso’s Lane
Robert Knox

Readings from his “Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti”
David Rothauser

The journal that inspired Sacco and Vanzetti
Cronaca Sovversiva

The monument that has not yet found its place in Boston
The Gutzon Borglum Sacco Vanzetti Memorial Plaque

The poster can be downloaded here.

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Sacco & Vanzetti: Storie d'immigrazione italiana negli Stati Uniti.

"Sacco & Vanzetti: Stories of Italian immigration in the United States." Documentary screening, panel discussion, and songs & music, May 11, 2019 from 3-8 p.m. at the Dante Alighieri Cultural Center, 41 Hampshire St., Cambridge. Free admission.












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Two documentaries by Peter Miller to be shown at the Somerville Library: Sacco & Vanzetti and The Internationale.

"Sacco and Vanzetti" and "The Internationale", two films by director Peter Miller. Saturday, February 23, 2019 - 1:00 PM, at the Somerville Library, 79 Highland Avenue, Somerville.

This event is sponsored by the Boston Labor Solidarity Committee and the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society.

The poster can be downloaded here

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2018: Sacco and Vanzetti Remembered in Cambridge, Massachusetts

This year’s event was co-sponsored by the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society and the Dante Alighieri Society of Cambridge and featured former governor Michael Dukakis, who spoke on the challenges immigrants have faced throughout American history, Professor Michele Fazio, who spoke on mining archives for materials related to the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti, and David Rothauser, who read selections from his own and Vanzetti’s writings. A short film of the funeral, narrated by Bob D’Attilio, was also shown. Music was provided by Jake and the Infernal Machine.


A radical commemoration of Sacco and Vanzetti at e5, Sat. August 25

Sacco and Vanzetti, a radical commemoration at encuentro5, saturday, August 25, 7pm. 9A Hamilton Place, Boston (near Park St. T station)

Please join encuentro5 community and friends in honoring Sacco and Vanzetti on Saturday, August 25, 2018 at 7:pm. The program will include presentations from on-the-ground activists in Chile (our own Sergio Reyes), India and material from the forthcoming “A People's Guide to Greater Boston”. 9A Hamilton Pl. Boston (across from Park Street train station *Green/Red lines)

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Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration 2018


The Sacco Vanzetti Commemoration Society
With
The Dante Alighieri Society of Cambridge
Present
We Still Remember…
A look at the case that rocked Boston and the world from 1920-1927.


Wednesday, August 22, 2018 7:00pm
Dante Alighieri Auditorium
41 Hampshire St. Cambridge, MA 02139



PRESENTATIONS:

LA MARCIA DEL DOLORE (The March of Sorrow)
rare film footage of the funeral of Sacco and Vanzetti

Public discussion and commentary led by
Gov. Michael Dukakis

Readings from the only fiction of Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Events and Victims edited by Jon Curley

Mining the Archives: in the Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti
Prof. Michele Fazio

Readings from a new novel
The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti by David Rothauser

Music inspired by the story of Sacco and Vanzetti
Jake and the Infernal Machine

Download flyer here.

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On the 90th Anniversary of their Execution: We Remembered Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston!

Wednesday, August 23, 2017 - 6PM-8PM
At encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston


90 years ago the Commonwealth of Massachusetts committed judicial murder by executing Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The men were Italian immigrants, workers, and anarchists. The perfect combination to be accused of a crime they didn't carry out. We don't forget this injustice. You shouldn't either.

Featuring:

  • Author David Rothauser - speaking on the completion of his historical novel "The Diary of Sacco and Vanzetti".

  • Musician and historian, Stephen Sanfilippo - musical performance of Woody Guthrie's "Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti".

    Download flyer here.

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    Sacco and Vanzetti Slide Show

    07/20/2017 [PHOTOS] - In 2016, the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society discontinued its traditional march and rally. We held our first indoor event instead. The venue allowed us to have an on-going slide show of a series of 50 pictures, from the past and the present, depicting the trial and execution and resulting solidarity for Sacco and Vanzetti. The slide show is set to advance by itself every 15 seconds. If you would rather have a static pdf file, we also include it here. The selection and captions were made by SVCS member, Jerry Kaplan.

    To view on your browser click here.

    To view/download pdf click here.

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    Recently published book on the Sacco and Vanzetti Case

    Lorenzo Tibaldo has written three books on the Sacco and Vanzetti. His most recent one, just published, is Mussolini e il case Sacco-Vanzetti put out by Claudiana publishing. The book details Mussolini’s attitude towards the anarchists using unpublished documents and correspondence from the Italian Embassy in Washington to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome from November 1921 to August 1927. The book includes photographs and copies of documents, including a handwritten letter from Mussolini to the American Ambassador in Rome regarding the Sacco and Vanzetti case. All three books are in Italian.

  • Mussolini e il Caso Sacco Vanzetti
  • Soto un Cielo Stellato
  • Lettere e Scritti dal Carcere

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    2016: Sacco and Vanzetti Remembered at Event in Boston

    In 2016, in spite of our difficulties we still managed to remember and honor the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti. Instead of our traditional march and rally, we held an indoor event, featuring Robert Knox, author of “Suosso’s Lane” (2015). Bob D'Attilio, from our Society made a historical introduction, and we enjoyed music by Jeffrey Panettieri and Jake and the Infernal Machine. In the pictures from top to bottom, Jake, Bob, two pictures of writer Knox and lastly, Jeff performing music from Italy. Our thanks to Encuentro5 for providing the venue for this event. The struggle continues.

    To view the pictures click here.

    To view the 2016 Boston City Council proclamation presented by Councillor Tito Jackson click here.




    2016 - WE REMEMBER SACCO AND VANZETTI!

    Tuesday, August 23, 2016 – 7PM
    Encuentro5 – 9A Hamilton Pl., Boston, MA (Near Park St. T)

    Featured Speaker: Robert Knox, author of “Suosso’s Lane” (2015)
    Music by J.P. Provenzano and Jake and the Infernal Machine

    A free event sponsored by the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society

    To download the flyer in pdf click here.
    To download the flyer in jpeg click here.




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    Justice Denied In Massachusetts - Short film adaptation in YouTube



    In 1947 modern dancer Judy Job composed and performed a dance to mark the 20th anniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. Danced to the music of Ernest Bloch (here performed by Marian Conti, but in 1947 for Judy Job by the late pianist Naomi Sparrow) combined with a reading of Edna St Vincent Millay's poem, "Justice Denied in Massachusetts." With only two still photos from the 1947 performance surviving, this montage uses those two photos, as well as photos supplied by the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society.


    Sacco and Vanzetti Bibliography

    The primary sources for this bibliography have been the WorldCat database, Anne Folger Decker's extensive bibliography, and the Anarchist Archives Project collection. Other sources have included bibliographies from a number of books and searches on the internet. Source(s) for entries are available upon request.

    As a general rule, I have included only the earliest edition of an item in the original language and country in which it was published, as well as the earliest translation in each country in which it was published. If an item was published in the same language in two different countries, e.g., the U.S. and England or Spain and Argentina, I have included both. Where it was not clear where an item first appeared, e.g., an article appearing in two monthly magazines in the same month, I have included both. Reprints have been included only if new material has been added.

    To view the full document in pdf format click here.

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    The Monument to Sacco and Vanzetti that Never Saw the Streets of Boston

    Boston, July 15, 2007. In 1997 (exactly August 23) a 10-years younger Thomas Menino received as Mayor of Boston a relief of Sacco and Vanzetti sculpted by the famous author of the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial depicting the first 150 years of independent history of the U.S. with the likeness of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. The artist's name was (John) Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum. The massive project in Mt. Rushmore sharply contrasts with the 7-foot size of the Sacco and Vanzetti relief that reads:

    "What I wish more than all in this last hour of agony is that our case and our fate may be understood in their real being and serve as a tremendous lesson to the forces of freedom, that our suffering and death will not have been in vain."

    What happened to that monument?

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  • SVCS Postal address: P.O. Box 381323, Cambridge, MA 02238-1323
    Email: info[@]saccoandvanzetti.org
    Visits: 471217