A NEGLECTED WEAPON

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 4, 1 May 1913, Page 2

A NEGLECTED WEAPON

It is useless to admit, tacitly, the value of Sabotage as a weapon for Labour, and at the same time declare that its use need not be advocated, on the strength of the assumption that the workers, having practised Sabotage for ages, are fully aware of its value, and will use it when occasion arises.

The fact is that the great bulk of the workers of Australasia are not alive to the value of this form of direct action, simply because its use has not been advocated to any extent, and we may as well recognise that they have failed to use it, and that it never will be used until it has been advocated, more or less boldly, as circumstances permit.

True, many workers will “ go slow” with the conscious intention of spinning out the job so as to keep in employment, and a worker here and there will, out of personal spite against an employer, do something on a job to reduce profits, but this powerful weapon, well-directed Sabotage, has not yet been handled much by Militant Labour in Australasia.

Erstwhile purely political Socialists are being forced by the logic of facts, and by everyday happenings, to give lip-service to Industrial Unionism, and the idea of the Social General Strike, as a means of expropriation, is gaining ground among intelligent and rebellious workers. In the preliminary conflicts—the guerilla warfare —leading up to the General Strike: the partial general strikes, local general strikes, etc., Sabotage bids fair to become the most powerful auxiliary weapon to the strike proper, as well as a shield to be held in protection over men on strike by their fellows, in other districts or in allied industries, who have not actually downed tools.

Of course we are aware that labour politicians and other alleged friends of the worker will picture conditions under which reckless acts of Sabotage might re-act injuriously on the workers, and that sapient Socialist philosophers will split straws over its economic aspect; but we are considering Sabotage now as an intelligently-di-rected weapon to be used bv industrial workers to enable them to win, and win quickly, and as such the value of Sabotage is beyond dispute.

Then why not advocate the use of “ militant tactics?” The value of a good thing is not widely realised unless well advertised. Here is a priceless weapon running to rust in Labour’s Armoury.