Anarchism, Sabotage, and Direct Action

by Larry Kerschner

Anarchism, sabotage, and Direct Action are terms that are generally misunderstood. The standard media propaganda would have you picture a wild-eyed bomb thrower when you see these terms.  Anarchism is actually based on the belief that it is not necessary to have a government, or any form of authority, in order for people to do the right thing and that the core elements of human nature include sentiments of solidarity, mutual support, sympathy, and concern for others.  Those who don’t believe that a co-operative society is possible need to take a closer look at our current society.  Most people co-operate in mutual aid on a daily basis.

Laws and regulations attempt to show a model of society which in our case happens to be a capitalist model. This society would not exist without the active and voluntary co-operation of the vast majority of citizens.  If the citizens, in order to form a more perfect union, decide that the current model is not relevant and antithetical to our well-being, they can through non-cooperation, direct action, sabotage, tax refusal, and many other forms of freedom create a new social structure.

Anarchism does not mean nihilism. It means eliminating any current coercive structure – be it government, bureaucracy, racism, militarism, poverty, sexism, or homophobia – that prevent our benevolent natural social impulses to flower.  The current relationship we have with the power structure is just a relationship. We can change our relationships any time we wish.

According to Noam Chomsky, “Anarchism, in my view, is an expression of the idea that the burden of proof is always on those who argue that authority and domination are necessary. They have to demonstrate, with powerful argument, that that conclusion is correct. If they cannot, then the institutions they defend should be considered illegitimate. How one should react to illegitimate authority depends on circumstances and conditions: there are no formulas.”

Sabotage is another term that carries dark, demonic, and nefarious overtones.  Sabotage hinges partially on the distinction between property rights and human rights.  It is a method that the 99% can use, in secret, to affect the plans, desires and social destructiveness of the 1%.

While forms of sabotage have likely been around since the first master told the first slave what to do, the modern form was recognized by the General Federation of Labor of France in 1897 as a legitimate tool in the fight between bosses and workers.  Although there are anecdotal stories about wooden shoes being thrown into machinery, sabotage primarily means the withdrawal of efficiency.  This was a response to the industrial efficiency of the “scientific management” being promoted at the time as the way to squeeze the last drop of profit from the labor of the cogs in the machine.

Sabotage can mean destruction of property but it can also mean indirect destruction of profits by deliberate inefficiencies. Sabotage can be as simple as railroad clerks misplacing bills of lading and freight handlers putting the wrong destinations on rail cars.  Sabotage can be “open mouth” when workers tell the truth about the products and services to potential consumers. Work slowdowns are a form of sabotage.

Sabotage can affect and possibly even stop a war.  Desertion is a form of sabotage. By 1970 during the American War in Vietnam, the U.S. Army had 65,643 deserters, roughly the equivalent of four infantry divisions. In an article published in the Armed Forces Journal, Marine Colonel Robert D. Heinl Jr., a veteran combat commander with over 27 years’ experience in the Marines, wrote: “By every conceivable indicator, our army that remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and non-commissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near mutinous.”  On May 26, 1970, the USS Anderson was preparing to steam from San Diego to Vietnam. But someone had dropped nuts, bolts, and chains down the main gear shaft. A major breakdown occurred, resulting in thousands of dollars’ worth of damage and a delay of several weeks.  In June of 1972 the USS Ranger was disabled by sabotage.

Direct action can be violent or non-violent.  The term was first used by the Industrial Workers of the World in reference to a 1910 Chicago labor strike.  From a pamphlet of the time, “The economic power of the capitalist class, used by that class for the oppression of labor … in the nature of things cannot be radically changed, or even slightly amended for the benefit of the working people, except through the direct action of the working people themselves, economically, and politically united as a class.”  Forms of direct action that may be considered violent are property destruction, direct assaults, bombing and other forms of destructive political actions. Non-violent direct action may include sit-ins, road blockades, boycotts, workers strikes, and many forms of civil disobedience.  Like sabotage, direct action is meant to interfere with or obstruct the action or intent of some political, social, economic, or other form of social authority.

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