A young Attilio Bortolotti
From ‘Man!: A Monthly Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement’, December 1939, Los Angeles, edited by Marcus Graham
There are still people who believe that a so-called democratic government will wage a war against fascism. These people are the victims of shrewd politicians who cultivate and try to perpetuate a great and convenient illusion.
That both fascism and nazism have been nurtured and abetted by the “democratic” powers of both hemispheres is a fact known to even the cold curbstones. However, now that the conflict of interests has provoked a war between the “democratic” and the totalitarian states, the cunning politicians and the pious souls of democracy are trying to dish out to the people the stale and rancid balderdash of a democratic war against fascism. Meanwhile, the politicians, with the complicity of the pious and democratic souls, begin their holy crusade by instaurating fascism at home. This substantiates our contention that war, with its inevitable onslaught on civil rights, brings only fascism upon the workers of any country involved in it.
The black pall of reaction is bearing heavily upon the revolutionary and peace-loving elements of the “democratic” countries of Europe. The victims are already too numerous. But, in this note, we wish to speak particularly of our neighboring sister country, Canada. It seems that the over zealous liberal politicians of the Dominion are out to get first place in the infamous contest of instituting fascist methods and ways at home to make… the world safe for democracy.
The decrees of the Public Order enacted with the War Measures Act are all sweeping. In their all inclusiveness they empower the police force to wipe out every vestige of civil rights. And the police force is certainly using, misusing and abusing these extraordinary powers.
In British Columbia, the offices of Technocracy Inc. are raided and wrecked because of that organization’s opposition to the sending of expeditionary forces to Europe. In Toronto, a young militant socialist, Frank Watson, is arrested and sentenced to a year in jail for an anti-war speech. However, the most spectacular feat came with the attempted wholesale frame up of some comrades.
In the early morning of Oct. 4th, the home of Arthur [AKA Attilio] Bortolotti was raided by a number of Mounted Police and Toronto Red Squad. Bortolotti, Ruggero Benvenuti, Ernest Gava and Marco Joachim — the last three named boarding with the first — were aroused from their beds and taken into custody. The house was then ransacked from attic to cellar and a large number of books and pamphlets confiscated. Two old broken revolvers, found in a box of old rusty tools, were also triumphantly confiscated. One of the men was released that same evening, but the others were held incommunicado for 24 hours.
On Oct. 5th, they were taken into court and remanded for a week without bail. No charges were made at that time. However, on Oct. 12th, charges were laid under the special War Measures Act, and the men were accused of printing, circulating and distributing books, pamphlets, etc. which might cause disaffection for His Majesty’s forces, etc. The stupidity and impudence of the frame-up can best be judged by the following facts: the men were charged with the “attempt to print, etc.” on the evidence of a toy printing set 4″x5″; the books and pamphlets confiscated were neither for sale, nor for distribution, they were instead, the private library of the home. When the Crown was asked by the defense to substantiate the charges, the prosecution answered that to do so would entail too much work and time and that it was advisable to “deal swiftly” with these cases. After two weeks, bail was set at $10,000 each for two of the men. It was denied to Bortolotti who had no citizenship papers.
After five weeks, during which the men had various hearings in court, all charges against them were dismissed when the attorney in the case, Mr. J. L. Cohen, brilliantly proved their inconsistency and reactionary bias.
Comrade Bortolotti, however, is still detained by Canadian Immigration Authorities who are trying to deport him to Italy on a specious technical pretext. Bortolotti has resided in Canada for 20 years. He has been active and outspoken in anti-fascist work. This fact clearly marks him for dangerous persecution if he will, finally, be delivered to the very same fascist Terror against which His Majesty’s politicians claim to be waging a war of annihilation.
The Canadian capitalist press has entered into a conspiracy of silence about the infamous attempt to persecute and prosecute these workers and to, thereby, relegate all civil rights into the limbo of war time reaction. Canadian and American defenders of freedom must, therefore, not fail to take up an impressive agitation for the preservation of civil rights and of the quick and complete liberation of Arthur Bortolotti.
Walter Brooks
Also
Fascism, by Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1923)
Rampant Fascism in America, by Marcus Graham (1935)
Remembering Federico Arcos, by David Watson (2016)
One Last Victory for the Most Dangerous Woman in the World, by Adam Bunch (2018)
“In 1917, during the First World War, we saw an Italian soldier hanging by the thumbs from a tree as punishment, so we cut him down. I became an antimilitarist and have remained so since. At the same time I remain strongly antireligious: how can ‘God’ allow such tragedies to occur? I was fourteen, a born rebel.”
Attilio Bortolotti, interviews with Paul Avrich, 1988/1990, Anarchist Voices (1995)
Attilio Bortolotti, Federico Arcos, David Watson, and Fredy Perlman (Michigan, June 8, 1985)