Through Laurent REBOURS
Published on
–
–
–
Find on Actu Chartres, every Sunday, a Eurelian chronicle of History and stories proposed by Alain Denizet. Professor, historian, writer of Eure-et-Loir, he brings together for years all of his chronicles on his site.
You can also find his news and books there. Alain Denizet also chairs the Beauce and Dunois manuscript prize.
Who are Sacco and Vanzetti?
« Here’s to you Nicolas and Bart… ”. How to forget the song that Joan Baez devoted to Sacco and Vanzetti?
Accused of a fatal robbery, these two anarchists, executed on 23 Aug 1927 at Charlestown Prison at United States had proclaimed their innocence until their last breath. Their cause had aroused a wave of support on all continents, meetings had multiplied in all major cities.
Protest in Chartres against their execution
On August 22, 1927, in the conference hall of Chartres, the International Red Aid, the Libre Pensée, the anarchists and the Communist Party joined in the global protest.
The atmosphere was electric: the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti was scheduled for the next day. The police were there. In case.
Bailly, a Communist orator fromOrléans, spoke and made a speech so virulent that Commissioner Marteau and two police officers who were in the room “in bourgeois” made a report to their superiors.
Communist orator Bailly would he have called for murder?
Complaint was filed. The seriousness of the remarks brought its author to the bar of the Criminal Court of Chartres.
The trial was held on February 15, 1928 and had a national echo.
What had the communist said? “If Sacco and Vanzetti are executed, Thayer, Fuller and Poincaré will have to pay for their skin.”
The first was the judge who had convicted, the second, the governor who had refused pardon, the third was the head of the French government. Bailly was therefore charged with inciting murder “for the purpose of anarchist provocation.”[1] ».
The prosecution argued that the Communists waged a common struggle with the anarchists and that their representative sat alongside Bailly on the dais. Without saying a word during the fatal sentence.
Very different versions of the facts
But if we follow the communist newspaper The worker, Commissioner Marteau had distorted the words of Bailly “as befits a good servant of the safe” because never ever, he had never mentioned Poincaré, but only shouted the name of “Coolidge”, the President of the States -United…
The newspaper quipped about one of the plainclothes policemen, deaf of hearing, and who managed all the same, in the tumult, to spell correctly in his notebook American surnames. “Who could have dictated them to him,” the newspaper wondered.
Finally, Bailly’s lawyer denounced the ridiculousness of the accusation – his client was communist and not anarchist[2] – and, supporting statutes, argued that it was impossible to consider the Communist Party as an association of “brigands”. The truth was that from an insignificant news item – distorted words – the government intended to muzzle the workers’ party.[3]….
In court, the tone rose. Cries erupted during the prosecutor’s indictment – “It’s wrong, it’s wrong!” So that on several occasions the president threatened to evacuate the room.
At the end, as the judge refused to allow the accused to speak, Comrade Fessard shouted “Vive Bailly”. Two words too many: the audience was illico suspended and in the wake, the prosecutor unearthed against the troublemaker an article of law which could be worth to him until… two years of prison.
A judgment of Solomon
While the room was heated to white, the judges retired to rule on the Fessard and Bailly cases.
It took an hour. Fessard was acquitted, but had to be expelled from the tribunal, which, in a final provocation, he acquitted with “comic haste”.
As for Bailly, the court ruled that “a convinced communist, he was not part of the anarchist group” and, dramatically, declared his incompetence to judge the case …
But the prosecution appealed. The Paris Court of Correctional Appeals inflicted on the Communist orator three months in prison. However, as he had “had a fine conduct during the war, he was invalid and reformed one hundred per cent.[4], ”, The court applied the reprieve to him.
Humanity withheld the condemnation and saw in it the sign of a “prosecution” and “a blinding example of class justice”.
[1] With regard to the laws of 1894 taken against “propaganda by the fact”, in other words the attacks with political vocation claimed by the anarchists.
[2] An investigation was carried out in Orléans where Bailly had his domicile.
[3] The Communist Party, born at the Congress of Tours in 1920, was clearly revolutionary and loathed the “bourgeois”, radical and socialist left parties of the SFIO.
[4] Le Figaro April 5, 1928.
█ Find out more: Revue d’histoire, n ° 126, article by Pierre Milza and Ronald Creagh, L’affaire Sacco and Vanzetti, Lyon, Atelier de création libertaire, 2004.
Has this article been useful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Chartres in the Mon Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.
–
