Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy, oppressor or employer through
subversion,
obstruction,
disruption, and/or
destruction.
The name derives from early in the
Industrial Revolution, when powered looms could be damaged by angry or disgruntled workers throwing their wooden shoes (known in French as
sabots) into the machinery. This is often referenced as one of the first inklings of the
Luddite Movement.
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. 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 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
WWI. Also see [
1].
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.
When disgruntled workers damage or destroy equipment or interfere with the smooth running of a workplace, it is called workplace sabotage. Some labor struggles include this activity. Sometimes called
monkeywrenching. Radical
trade unions, such as the
IWW, have advocated sabotage as a means of self-defence and
direct action against unfair working conditions. Most users of these methods easily justify their actions as righteous acts against oppression. In response, employers hire
security guards in the prevention and detection of sabotage.
Certain groups turn to destruction of property in order to immediately stop environmental destruction or to make visible arguments against forms of modern technology considered as 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. The image of the monkeywrench 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.
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.
"Sabotages" are
practical joke websites, in which the user is subjected to a scene or series of scenes, to lull the viewer into a false sense of security, only to have a scary or disturbing picture and/or screaming sound effect pop up, thus "sabotaging" them. They may also come under the name of
screamers.
On June 12th, 2006 the company Bergs, LLC announced its open casting call for a new reality show called Sabotage with a projected jackpot of $10 million (USD). The show appears to follow in the footsteps of previous reality shows such as
Survivor,
The Mole, and
Treasure Hunters. According to the press release, "
SABOTAGE will pit ten teams of agents against each other to win the grand prize. The twist is that on each team, an unknown saboteur, also a player, is trying to thwart their efforts and take the money for themselves."
The show apparently seeks to play off the popularity of the espionage/spy genre generated by recent films such as
The Davinci Code and
Mission Impossible 3 by offering an automatic semi-final interview to contestants who solve the string of puzzles posted on the show's official website, Real Sabotage[
2]
*
Emile 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 0898754593.
*
direct action*
guerrilla warfare*
terrorism*
partisan*
Kedyw*
Cichociemni*
Fifth column*
Norwegian heavy water sabotage*
Edmund Charaszkiewicz*
SOE*
Colin Gubbins*
SABOTAGE The New Musical Thriller*
Central Intelligence Agency sabotage manual*
Ozymandias Sabotage Handbook*
Employee Sabotage* Brian Martin,
Sabotage, Nonviolence versus Capitalism [PDF]
*
Accounts of workplace sabotage and organising - Sabotage, employee theft, strikes, etc.
*
Article on malicious railroad sabotage*
Elizabeth Gurley Flinn,
SABOTAGE, THE CONSCIOUS WITHDRAWAL OF THE WORKERS' INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY
