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Sabotage

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For other uses, see Sabotage (disambiguation).
"Saboteur" redirects here. For other uses, see Saboteur (disambiguation).

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Sabotage a form of political warfare, varies from highly technical coup de main acts that require detailed planning and the use of specially trained operatives, to innumerable simple acts which the ordinary individual citizen-saboteur can perform. Simple sabotage is carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection, and reprisal. There are two main methods of sabotage; physical destruction and the "human element." While physical destruction as a method is self-explanatory, its targets are nuanced, reflecting objects to which the saboteur has normal and inconspicuous access in everyday life. The "human element" is based on universal opportunities to make faulty decisions, to adopt a non-cooperative attitude, and to induce others to follow suit. [1]

Sabotage training for the Allies consisted of teaching would-be saboteurs the key components to working machinery on which to focus their destruction. "Saboteurs learned hundreds of small tricks to cause the Germans big trouble. The cables in a telephone junction box... could be jumbled to make the wrong connections when numbers were dialed. A few ounces of plastique, properly placed, could bring down a bridge, cave in a mine shaft, or collapse the roof of a railroad tunnel." [2]

In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is a saboteur. As a rule, saboteurs try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions. For example, whereas an environmental pressure group might be happy to be identified with an act of sabotage, it would not want the individual identities of the perpetrators known.

Etymology

Claimed explanations include:

  • That it derives from the Netherlands in the 15th century when workers would throw their sabots (wooden shoes) into the wooden gears of the textile looms to break the cogs, fearing the automated machines would render the human workers obsolete.[3]
  • That it derives from the French sabot (a wooden shoe or clog) via its derivative saboter (to knock with the foot, or work carelessly).[4]
  • That it derives from the late 19th-century French slang use of the word sabot to describe an unskilled worker, so called due to their wooden clogs or sabots; sabotage was used to describe the poor quality work which such workers turned out.[5]


Luddites and radical labor unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) have advocated sabotage as a means of self-defense and direct action against unfair working conditions.

The IWW was shaped in part by the industrial unionism philosophy of Big Bill Haywood, and in 1910 Haywood was exposed to sabotage while touring Europe:

The experience that had the most lasting impact on Haywood was witnessing a general strike on the French railroads. Tired of waiting for parliament to act on their demands, railroad workers walked off their jobs all across the country. The French government responded by drafting the strikers into the army and then ordering them back to work. Undaunted, the workers carried their strike to the job. Suddenly, they could not seem to do anything right. Perishables sat for weeks, sidetracked and forgotten. Freight bound for Paris was misdirected to Lyon or Marseille instead. This tactic — the French called it "sabotage" — won the strikers their demands and impressed Bill Haywood.[6][7]

For the IWW, sabotage came to mean any withdrawal of efficiency — including the slowdown, the strike, or creative bungling of job assignments.[8]

One of the most severe examples was at the construction site of the Robert-Bourassa Generating Station in 1974, when workers used bulldozers to topple electric generators, damaged fuel tanks, and set buildings on fire. The project was delayed a year, and the direct cost of the damage estimated at $2 million CAD. The causes were not clear, however three factors have been cited: inter-union rivalry, poor working conditions, and the perceived arrogance of American executives of the contractor, Bechtel Corporation.[9]

As environmental action

Main article: Ecotage

Certain groups turn to destruction of property in order to immediately stop environmental destruction or to make visible arguments against forms of modern technology they consider detrimental to the earth and its inhabitants. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies use the term eco-terrorist when applied to damage of property. Proponents argue that since property can not feel terror, damage to property is more accurately described as sabotage. Opponents, by contrast, point out that property owners and operators can indeed feel terror. The image of the monkey wrench thrown into the moving parts of a machine to stop it from working was popularized by Edward Abbey in the novel The Monkeywrench Gang and has been adopted by eco-activists to describe destruction of earth damaging machinery.

As war tactic

In war, the word is used to describe the activity of an individual or group not associated with the military of the parties at war (such as a foreign agent or an indigenous supporter), in particular when actions result in the destruction or damaging of a productive or vital facility, such as equipment, factories, dams, public services, storage plants or logistic routes. Prime examples of such sabotage are the events of Black Tom and the Kingsland Explosion. Unlike acts of terrorism, acts of sabotage do not always have a primary objective of inflicting casualties. Saboteurs are usually classified as enemies, and like spies may be liable to prosecution and criminal penalties instead of detention as a prisoner of war. It is common for a government in power during war or supporters of the war policy to use the term loosely against opponents of the war. Similarly, German nationalists spoke of a stab in the back having cost them the loss of World War I.[10]

A modern form of sabotage is the distribution of software intended to damage specific industrial systems. For example, the CIA is alleged to have sabotaged a Siberian pipeline during the Cold War, using information from the Farewell Dossier. A more recent case may be the Stuxnet computer worm, which was designed to subtly infect and damage specific types of industrial equipment. Based on the equipment targeted and the location of infected machines, security experts believe it to be an attack on the Iranian nuclear program by the United States, Israel or, according to the latest news, even Russia.[11]

Sabotage, done well, is inherently difficult to detect and difficult to trace to its origin. During WWII, the FBI investigated 19,649 cases of sabotage and concluded the enemy had not caused any of them. [2]

There are many examples of physical sabotage in wartime. However, one of the most effective uses of sabotage is against organizations. The OSS manual provides numerous techniques under the title “General Interference with Organizations and Production”:

  • When possible, refer all matters to committees for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible- never less than five
  • Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible
  • Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions
  • In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines
  • Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least flaw. Approve other defective parts whose flaws are not visible to the naked eye
  • To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work
  • Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done
  • Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.
  • Spread disturbing rumors that sound like inside dope.

From the section entitled, “General Devices for Lowering Morale and Creating Confusion” comes the following quintessential simple sabotage advice: Act stupid. [12]

Value of Simple Sabotage in Wartime

The United States Office of Strategic Services, later renamed the CIA, noted specific value in committing simple sabotage against the enemy during wartime: "slashing tires, draining fuel tanks, starting fires, starting arguments, acting stupidly, short-circuiting electric systems, abrading machine parts will waste materials, mapower, and time." To underline the importance of simple sabotage on a widespread scale, they wrote, "widespread practice of simple sabotage will harass and demoralize enemy administrators and police." The OSS was also focused on the battle for hearts and minds during wartime; "the very practice of simple sabotage by natives in enemy or occupied territory may make these individuals identify themselves actively with the United Nations War effort, and encourage them to assist openly in periods of Allied invasion and occupation." [13]

Sabotage in the Bible

When Israel was conquered by Syria, Judas Maccabaeus led an uprising against the oppressor. Using sabotage, ambushes, and hit-and-run raid, he kept the enemy off balance, unable to use its full power against the rebels.[2]

Sabotage against infrastructure and industry

  • On 1 January 1984, the Cuscatlan bridge over Lempa river in El Salvador, critical to flow of commercial and military traffic, was destroyed by guerilla forces using explosives after using mortar fire to "scatter" the bridge's guards, causing an estimated 3.7 million dollars in required repairs, and considerably impacted El Salvadoran business and security.[14]
  • On 11 January 1917, Fiodore Wozniak, using a rag saturated with phosphorous or an incendiary pencil supplied by German sabotage agents, set fire to his workbench at an ammunition assembly plant near Kingsland, NY, causing a four-hour fire that destroyed half a million 3-inch explosive shells and destroyed the plant for an estimated at 17 million in damages. Wozniak's involvement was not discovered until 1927.[14]
  • In 1982 in Honduras, a group of nine Salvadorans and Nicaraguans destroyed a main electrical power station, leaving Tegucigalpa, the capital city, for three days without power. [14]
  • During WWII, the Allies committed sabotage against the Peugot truck factory. After repeated failures in Allied bombing attempts to hit the factory, a team of French Resistance fighters and SOE agents distracted the German guards with a game of soccer while part of their team entered the plant and destroyed machinery.[2]

As crime

Some criminals have engaged in acts of sabotage for reasons of extortion. For example, Klaus-Peter Sabotta sabotaged German railway lines in the late 1990s in an attempt to extort DM10 million from the German railway operator Deutsche Bahn. He is now serving a sentence of life imprisonment.

As political action

Sabotage in a Coup d'Etat

Sabotage is a crucial tool of the successful coup d’etat, which requires control of communications before, during, and after the coup is staged. Simple sabotage against physical communications platforms using semi-skilled technicians, or even those trained only for this task, could effectively silence the target government of the coup, leaving the information battle space open to the dominance of the coup’s leaders. To underscore the effectiveness of sabotage, “a single cooperative technician will be able temporarily to put out of action a radio station which would otherwise require a full-scale assault.” [15]

Railroads, where strategically important to the regime the coup is against, are prime targets for sabotage- if a section of the track is damaged entire portions of the transportation network can be stopped until it is fixed. [16]

The term political sabotage is sometimes used to define the acts of one political camp to disrupt, harass or damage the reputation of a political opponent, usually during an electoral campaign. See Watergate.

Derivative usages

Sabotage Radio

A sabotage radio was a small two-way radio designed for use by resistance movements in World War II, and after the war often used by expeditions and similar parties.

Counter-sabotage

Counter-sabotage, defined by Webster's dictionary, is "counterintelligence designed to detect and counteract sabotage." The United States Department of Defense definition, found in the Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, is "Action designed to detect and counteract sabotage. See also counterintelligence"

Counter Sabotage in WWII

During WWII, British subject Eddie Chapman, trained by the Germans in sabotage, became a double agent for the British. The German Abwehr entrusted Chapman to destroy the British de Haviland Company's main plant for the manufacture of heavy bombers, but required photographic proof from their agent to verify the mission’s completion. A special unit of the Royal Engineers known as the Magic Gang covered the de Haviland plant with canvas panels and scattered paper mache furniture and chunks of masonry around three broken and burnt giant generators. Photos of the plant taken from the air reflected devastation for the factory and a successful sabotage mission, and Chapman, as a British sabotage double-agent, fooled the Germans for the duration of the war.[17]

See also

2

References

  1. ^ "Office of Strategic Services Simple Sabotage Manuel" (PDF). 17 January 1944. p. 1–2. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d Marrin, Albert (1985). The Secret Armies : Spies, Counterspies, and Saboteurs in World War II. New York: Atheneum. p. 77. ISBN 0-689-31165-6. Cite error: The named reference "SA" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Hodson, Randy and Teresa A. Sullivan, The Social Organization of Work, Chap. 3 pg. 69
  4. ^ Partridge, Eric (1977). Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English. Routledge. p. 2843. ISBN 0203421140. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ Donald, Graeme (2008). Sticklers, Sideburns & Bikinis: The Military Origins of Everyday Words and Phrases. Osprey Publishing. p. 230. ISBN 1846033004. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 152.
  7. ^ Jimthor, Stablewars, May 2008
  8. ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, pages 196-197.
  9. ^ Rinehart, J.W. The Tyranny of Work, Canadian Social Problems Series. Academic Press Canada (1975), pp. 78-79. ISBN 0-7747-3029-3.
  10. ^ Dokumentarfilm.com
  11. ^ Markoff, John, "Malware Aimed at Iran Hit Five Sites, Report Says", New York Times, 13 February 2011, p. 15.
  12. ^ "Office of Strategic Services Simple Sabotage Manuel" (PDF). 17 January 1944. p. 28-31. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  13. ^ "Office of Strategic Services" (PDF). 17 January 1944. p. 2. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  14. ^ a b c McGeorge II, Harvey J. (1983–1984). "Sabotage: A Strategic Tool for Guerilla Forces". World Affairs. 146 (3). World Affairs Institute: 249. JSTOR 20671989. {{cite journal}}: More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "GF" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  15. ^ Luttwak, Edward (1968). Coup d'Etat, a Practical Handbook. London: The Penguin Press. p. 119. ISBN 0-674-17547-6.
  16. ^ Luttwak, Edward (1968). Coup d'Etat, a Practical Handbook. London: The Penguin Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-674-17547-6.
  17. ^ Marrin, Albert (1985). The Secret Armies. New York: Atheneum. p. 24. ISBN 0-689-31165-6.
  • Émile Pouget, Le sabotage; notes et postface de Grégoire Chamayou et Mathieu Triclot, 1913; Mille et une nuit, 2004; English translation, Sabotage, paperback, 112 pp., University Press of the Pacific, 2001, ISBN 0-89875-459-3.
  • Pasquinelli, Matteo. "The Ideology of Free Culture and the Grammar of Sabotage"; now in Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons, Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2008.
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