SABOTAGE AND THE “COMMITTEE OF ONE.”

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 18, 20 November 1913, Page 2

SABOTAGE AND THE “COMMITTEE OF ONE.”

WHAT WAS DONE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. To make Sabotage effective it should be handled with intelligence. Furthermore, to avoid victimisation, etc., the saboteur obeys the

maxim, “ Never let thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth.” The successful saboteur generally forms himself into a close committee

of one.” Sabotage is a most remarkable and powerful weapon; most unerring and effective; most natural and direct. Moreover, there is hardly a branch or backwash of industry where it cannot be used any time; and has this advantage. one individual, by one act of Sabotage, can often inflict more injury on “ Fat,” through his profits, than a regiment of C ossacks, a force of police, or shipful of naval men can inflict on us. Sabotage hits out straight for “Fat’s’ cheque book, and it “ touches ” Fat more than the loss of a hundred of his badged or uniformed tools —because it touches his pocket. The following exerpts from “ Sabotage,” by Emile Pauget, and its introduction by A. Giovannitti, will give some idea of what workers are thinking and doing in France, America, and England “ Sweatshop girls, when their wages are reduced, instead of sewing one hundred pairs of pants, can sew (say) seventy; or, if they must return the same number, sew the other thirty imperfectly —with crooked seams or use bad thread or doctor the thread with cheap chemicals so that the seams rip open a few hours after

sewing. “In 1889 the Glasgow dockers went on strike, asking an increase of two cents an hour. The contractors and stevedores flatly refused, and imported at great expense a considerable number of farmhands to take the place of the strikers, with the conclusion that the dockers had to give up the fight and return to work on the same conditions. Just before resuming work their general secretary gathered them once again and said : ‘ Boys, you must go back today on the sin ale scale of wages prevailing before. The contractors have expressed and repeated all their satisfaction for the work done by the farmers who have scabbed on us during these last weeks. We have seen them at work, and know well what kind of satisfactory work was theirs —we saw, indeed, that they could not even keep their balance on the bridges, and saw how they dropped in the sea half the cargo they loaded and unloaded. In one word, we have seen that two of them could not do as much work as one of us. Nevertheless, the bosses said they were satisfied with their labour. Work, then, just like the farm hands did —they often pushed their incapacity to the point of falling overboard, but it is not necessary for you to do this, of course.’ “ These instructions were scrupulously followed, and the dockers applied the ‘ Go Cannie ’ theory to the point. After a few days the contractors called the general secretary of the longshoremen, and begged him to induce the dockers to work the same as before, declaring themselves ready to grant the two-thirds increase.” “In 1889 the National Railwaymen’s Union of France was engaged in a campaign against the Merlin-Trarieux Railway Bill, which aimed at depriving the railway workers of their right to unite. The question of answering with the general strike to the passing of the Bill was being discussed. Guerard (Secretary of the Railway men’s Union) delivered a categorical and precise speech. He affirmed that the Railwaymen would not stop at any means to defend their syndical liberty, and made allusion to an ingenious and cheap method of combat.

“ £ With two cents’ worth of a certain ingredient utilised in a peculiar way ’ —he declared —‘ it will be easy for the Railwaymen to put the locomotives in such a condition as to make it impossible to run them.’ ” “ Towards 1881, the operators of the Central Telegraph Office, dissastisfied with the wage scale for night overtime, sent up a petition to the Minister of Post and Telegraphs of that time, M. Cochery, asking for fen francs instead of five, which they were then paid for work ranging from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. “ They vainly waited a few days for an answer from the administration, and having been informed that it would never come, a sullen agitation and anger began to circulate amongst them. A strike being impossible, they resorted to a trick. One fine morning Paris awoke to find out that all telegraphic connections were cut off (telephones had not yet been installed). This continued for four days. WThe higher personnel of the administration, with engineers and numerous squads of foremen and mechanics invaded the central office to inspect minutely every apparatus, battery wire, etc., from the front door to the cellar, but, strangely enough, they could not find the

cause of trouble. “ Five days after this memorable and wonderful 4 accident ’ a notice from the administration informed the operators that from that day on the night service would be paid ten francs instead of five. “They had not asked for more. 4 The next day all the lines were again buzzing as if by magic. The authors of the miraculous trick were never found out by the administration which, if it guessed the motive, was never able to guess the means employed.” 44 Sabotage is not a new tactic. The capitalists practice it any time they find that it pays. It is sufficient to mention the private and public contractors, who never keep their agreements, 'to furnish first-class material. Besides, are not the reductions of wages that the bosses from time to time impose on their employees a sabotage on the stomachs of the workers? We have already demonstrated how the workers instinctively answers to the heartless capitalist by reducing production, that is, rendering a work proportionate to the scarcity of wages.'’ 44 Fraud, sophistication, lie, theft, fake, and humbug are the warp and woof of capitalist society; to suppress them would be equal to the killing of society itself. 4 4 4 We may state ’ —writes Bousquet— 4 that the simple stoppage of work is not sufficient to realise the aims of a strike. It is necessary, indeed, indispensible, to ensure a good result of the conflict —that the tools, instruments, utensils, machines, and other means of production of the shop, mill, factory, oven, etc., etc., also go on strike —or in other words, that they be put in a 4 non-running condition.’ The scabs often go to work and find these machines, tools, ovens, etc., in good condition, and this through the supreme mistake of the strikers who, having left in 4 good health ’ these means of production, have fatally left behind them the first reason of their failure.”

4 4 Some years ago the billposters—having had their wages cut, retaliated by increasing the paste used for their work, and by adding to it a tallow candle. The work proceeded marvellously. The placards and bills were posted in as fine and careful a way as never before. Only after two hours, when the }3aste dried, they fell to the ground.” 44 It is the avowed intention of both Socialists and Industrial Unionists alike to expropriate the Bourgeoisie of all its property, to make it social property. Now, may we ask if this is right? Is this moral and just? Of course, if it be true that labour produces everything, it is both moral and just that labour should own everything. But this is only an affirmation —it must be proven. We Industrial Unionists care nothing about proving it. We are going to take over the industries some day for three very good reasons: Because we need them, because we want them, and because we have the power to get them.” The above quotations are not consecutive in the book 44 Sabotage ” (on sale for 1/-). They are selected. The workers everywhere to-day are developing this powerful weapon, Sabotage; but use it with that caution and tact which ensures no victimisation. The I rench Itailwaymen used it very effectively indeed, and in spite of an army of spies and 44 good fellows ” with a ready dollar and a smile, in the cafes, not one single case of victimisation was recorded, because each individual was a 44 committee of one.”