International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Anarchists have tended to view the tactic of sabotage more favorably than orthodox Marxists . This category of political behavior is usually associated, as the sociologist Pierre Dubois (1979: 21) describes, with three types of industrial action: the deliberate destruction of the machinery of production; the disruption of the labor process; or the cessation of productive labor. It consequently takes many forms, from arson and vandalism, through to go-slows and working without enthusiasm, to strikes and occupations. For the former radical syndicalist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1993), it is any action in which the worker deliberately attempts to reduce the economic efficiency of their labor. Flynn's more libertarian definition of sabotage is wider than that associated with Friedrich Engels . It is Engels' more critical appraisal of sabotage that has influenced orthodox Marxism, and forms the basis of the division between them and anarchists on this issue. Engels, in The Condition of the Working Class in England , associates sabotage primarily with just one part – machine breaking – and this is more commonly associated with the Luddites ( Thompson 1991 : 604). The Luddites were largely artisans opposed to the destruction of their livelihoods and communities as a result of the introduction of mechanical manufacture of textiles. For Engels, sabotage is at the lower end of a hierarchy ... log in or subscribe to read full text