Olgin paints the picture as thousands gather in vigil at New York’s Union Square on August 22, 1927 waiting for word as Sacco and Vanzetti’s final moments approached.

‘August 22’ by Moissaye J. Olgin from The Daily Worker Magazine. Vol. 4 No. 193. August 27, 1927.

The date of August 22 we commit to our memory. It becomes an historic. Capitalism got its pound of flesh. The working class got its lesson. August 22nd becomes a clarion call to struggle. August 22nd becomes our banner.

Capitalism is strong enough in America to deal the working class a brazen blow. But capitalism is not sure enough of its powers to be magnanimous. If there were a wave of revolutionary unrest in America, they would not dare to murder Sacco and Vanzetti. If there were no revolutionary unrest in the world at large, they would have been shown “clemency” and “fairness.” As it is, their murder was decided as a lesson and a warning to the working class. Sacco and Vanzetti were placed in jail in 1920 in consequence of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.

Sacco and Vanzetti were murdered in 1927 in consequence of the peasant and workers revolution in China. American capitalism says to the American workers, “Beware!. If you are influenced by revolutionary ideas, you will have many Saccos and Vanzettis.” American imperialism says to the imperialists of the world, “Look up to me! The thing you are afraid to do at home I do before the eyes of the whole world. Follow my example!”

American imperialism is a leader of world imperialism. (The world rulers are envious of their American brethren, though ostensibly protesting against the murder of Sacco and Vanzetti—in the interests of national rivalry!) American imperialism has more means to bribe the Socialists and the union leaders who, at the crucial moment, came to its aid by rejecting the general strike, and by a weak-kneed demeanor. But the tens of thousands who quit work on that memorable day of August 22nd to crowd Union Square, the tens of thousands who struck and demonstrated in other cities,—they understand the meaning of the murder, they have accepted the challenge, they, on their side have given a strong and solemn warning*,

***

Shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm they stood at Union Square. It had not been so easy to quit work at 3 o’clock. One risked one’s job, one risked one’s bread. The watchful eye of the official union machinery followed every striker, noted the names of the rebels, put them on the blacklist. Tomorrow they may find themselves on the street. Today they could not withstand the call to strike. Today they are burning in feverish anguish at Union Square.

And what are the words that meet with the greatest acclaim? What are the slogans that kindle the hottest flames? It has long been known that the victims are innocent. One has learned to see the guilt of the Thayers and Fullers, the Lowells, Brandeises, Holmeses. One has paid them the tribute searing contempt. One has not the slightest hope of favorable action on the part of the State. One is tried of compassion, exhausted by pain, poisoned by hate. What else can be said? Where is the way out?

But something has happened. Relief has come. An avenue of release has been opened: a line of work appears to beckon!

“We shall build up the labor organizations,” the speakers says, “in the first line the labor unions; we shall turn them into instruments of struggle against capitalist exploitation; we shall turn them into instruments of power to be able to halt the hand of the assassin in cases like that of Sacco and Vanzetti.

“We shall build up a labor party to represent the laboring masses. We shall utilize the labor party as a united front of all the toiling and the exploited against the power of their exploiters. We shall create a political weapon to frustrate such attacks as the frame-up on Sacco and Vanzetti.

“We shall build up a mass Communist Party to march at the head of the entire labor movement and to unify all its activities by one clear aim along a deary defined road—the abolition of capitalism.”

There is a new meaning to those familiar words, New sparks kindle in the eyes of the assembled. stone weights melts in their souls. “We shall work.” “We shall struggle.” “We shall build today and to-morrow.” “We shall strengthen our ranks and steady our wills,” the speakers say, and it is in the hearts of the masses that they read those words. It is like an oath. But still, the most wonderful, the actually liberating word has not been uttered. Now it comes.

“Only when the working class will hold the power of state will such trials against working class fighters become impossible.” With power in the hands of the working class just punishment will be meted out for such crimes.” “Proletarian justice will secure freedom for the working class!”

Waves of approval are surging from the human sea. Eyes sparkle. The ideology of class struggle, hitherto a set of thoughts, becomes a live emotional experience. Every drop of the workers’ blood feels that they need working-class courts, working class laws, working class rule, a working class state! They life their eyes and see mounted policemen above their heads, machine guns on the sidewalks, armed motorcycles ready for action, revolvers and clubs everywhere, and they say to themselves, “This is the same power that has already dressed Sacco and Vanzetti in the garb of death. This power is a servant of our masters, it has been created to secure their domination. We cannot rely on it. We must have our own power in order to live like human beings.”

The future has touched the assembled thousands with the finingers of a message. They felt clearly that it is there, that it is not a work of imagination. Thousands of workers of a sudden realized that they were citizens of a new world, for which they must fight, for which it is worth to suffer. In the light of this new world the death of Sacco and Vanzetti assumed in a new aspect. They do not die in vain. Their work is not lost. Their spirit lives. We will march on to that goal where they were driven by their impetuous souls. We shall arrive.

***

And that evening in front of the Freiheit,—was it not an oath of class unity, a merging of thousands of spirits in one spirit of revolt?

Nobody had called, nobody had organized the vigil. They came in thousands, many-tongued, many voiced; Italians, Greeks, Russians, Yanks. They stood in the dark while their spirits glowed. They stood in silence while cries pierced the dark sky overhead.

They lived with Sacco and Vanzetti. They went with them through the last hours of their lives, through the last agonies. A miracle happened. Fifteen—twenty thousand became like one as if in a prayer,—but not to god. Fifteen—twenty thousand vowed something which they will carry in their souls to the very grave,—but not a word was uttered. Only eyes spoke in the dark. Only hearts hammered in a heavily laden atmosphere. There was pain akin to a curse. There was sadness as gripping as trumpets. Tears in the eyes—steel in the blood. A lump of suffering in the throat—lightnings overhead.

Night vigil. Night light. Union square trees made heavy with dew. Night-cool iron railings. Broken up figures in the Freiheit windows. Engine throb of armed motorcycles nearby. White light over the news sheet in the Freiheit window, like a lone, forgotten tear. Green, red, yellow and blue auto lights in the streets. Black, thick serpents of human bodies—one line, another, a third. Closeness of strangers, mutual understanding without words, glances of friends who are afraid to speak lest they burst in a howl. Dark building walls all around.

The sky sinking lower, heavier, darker, almost touching our heads. Tension, bated breath. Uncontrollable tremor. Then the news in the Freiheit window:

SACCO MURDERED.

A wail, a shout. A storm-tossed forest. Sharp cries are cutting the thick howl, knife-like. Man weep. Old, hardened men weep. Thousands curse.

VANZETTI MURDERED.

The Square is a storm-lashed ocean. Human waves rise, clash, wind, thunder. Lights flare. Horns shriek, engines vibrate. The walls sway. The ground underfoot shakes. Everything moves in a circle, around and around. Only the forlorn light in the Freiheit window shines in vain. There is nothing more to say.

Out of the chaos, the “International” is born.

The song grows. The song gains momentum. This is the answer.

“ARISE YE PRISONERS OF STARVATION”

We will come. We will not forget. We have gained something on the date of August the 22nd.

We will make it bigger, deeper. Sacco is alive, Vanzetti is alive—in us, with us.

We will come.

We write down the date: August 22, 1927. We write down the names: Sacco and Vanzetti.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1927/1927-ny/v04-n193-new-magazine-aug-27-1927-DW-LOC.pdf