Pages 40 to 48 of "The New Unionism," by Tridon, furnish us with some more barbarous examples of sabotage:
"We may distinguish three forms of sabotage:
"1. Active sabotage which consists in the damaging of goods or machinery.
"2. Open-mouthed sabotage, beneficial to the ultimate consumer, and which consists in exposing or defeating fraudulent commercial practices.
"3. Obstructionism or passive sabotage, which consists in carrying out orders literally, regardless of consequences.
"If you are an engineer you can, with two cents' worth of powdered stone or a pinch of sand, stall your machine, cause a loss of time or make expensive repairs necessary. If you are a joiner or woodworker, what is simpler than to ruin furniture without your boss noticing it, and thereby drive his customers away? A garment worker can easily spoil a suit or a bolt of cloth; if you are working in a department store, a few spots on a fabric cause it to be sold for next to nothing; a grocery clerk, by packing up goods carelessly, brings about a smashup; in the woolen or the haberdashery trade a few drops of acid on the goods you are wrapping will make a customer furious ... an agricultural laborer may sow bad seed in wheat fields," etc.
"With two cents' worth of a certain stuff, used by one who knows, a locomotive can be made absolutely useless."
"The first thing to do before going out on strike is to cripple all the machinery. Then the contest is even between employer and worker, for the cessation of work really stops all life in the capitalists' camp. Are bakery workers planning to go on strike? Let them pour in the ovens a few pints of petroleum or of any other greasy or pungent matter. After that, soldiers or scabs may come and bake bread. The smell will not come out of the tiles for three months. Is a strike in sight in steel mills? Pour sand or emery into the oil cups."
"The electrical industry is one of the most important industries, as an interruption in the current means a lack of light and power in factories; it also means a reduction in the means of transportation and a stoppage of the telegraph and telephone systems. How can the power be cut off? By the curtailing in the mine the output of the coal necessary for feeding the machinery or stopping the coal cars on their way to the electrical plants. If the fuel reaches its destination what is simpler than to set the pockets on fire and have the coal burn in the yards instead of the furnaces? It is child's play to put out of work the elevators and other automatic devices which carry coal to the fire room. To put boilers out of order use explosives or silicates or a plain glass bottle which thrown on the glowing coals hinders the combustion and clogs up the smoke exhausts. You can also use acids to corrode boiler tubes; acid fumes will ruin cylinders and piston rods. A small quantity of some corrosive substance, a handful of emery will be the end of oil cups. When it comes to dynamos or transformers, short circuits and inversion of poles can be easily managed. Underground cables can be destroyed by fire, water or explosives," etc.
"The New Unionism," the book from which the above quotations were taken and which was purchased by the author of "The Red Conspiracy" at the I. W. W. headquarters, 1001 West Madison Street, Chicago, in the latter part of the spring of 1919, also informs us on page 123:
"As far as sabotage is concerned, all the I. W. W. speakers and the I. W. W. press countenance it although they steadily warn the workers against the indiscriminate and unsocial use of that weapon of warfare."
CHAPTER IX
INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IN ACTION
Members of the I. W. W. and Socialists who advocate sabotage or get into trouble in one way or another, especially in strikes, are often put into prison for their revolutionary talk or their violent methods. The One Big Industrial Union and, of course, the Socialist Party then proclaim their innocence, collect funds for their defense, and urge all the working men of our country to strike in behalf of amnesty for "poor, persecuted, noble protagonists of the cause of labor jailed because freedom of speech and liberty of action are no longer tolerated by the government." Thus on page 409 of the February, 1918, edition of the "International Socialist Review," which was suppressed by the United States Government, we read:
"Socialists Demand Fair Trial for Indicted I. W. W.--In a declaration adopted by its National Executive Committee the Socialist Party calls for a fair and unprejudiced trial for the indicted members of the Industrial Workers of the World. The demand says:
"'The Socialist Party repeats its declaration of support of all economic organizations of the working class and declares the lynching, deportation, prosecution and persecution of the Industrial Workers of the World is an attack upon every toiler in America, and we now call attention to the fact that the charges of incendiarism, the burning of crops and forests and of vicious destruction of property, made by the public press against the I. W. W., have been proven pure fabrications when put to legal test. The Socialist Party has always extended its aid, material and moral, to organized labor wherever and whenever it has been attacked by the capitalist class, and this without reference to form of organization or special policies; therefore we pledge our support to the Industrial Workers of the World now facing trial in Chicago and elsewhere, and demand for them a fair and unprejudiced trial and urge our members to use every effort to assist the Industrial Workers of the World by familiarizing the public with the real facts, to overcome the falsehoods and misinformation with which the capitalist press has poisoned and prejudiced the public mind and judgment against these workers, who are now singled out for destruction, just as other labor organizations and leaders have been singled out for destruction by the same capitalist forces in the past."
The Socialist Party, in pledging its support to the Industrial Workers of the World, pledges its support to a revolutionary organization like itself. "The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, page 4, under the caption, "The Red Tidal Wave," says:
"With great satisfaction we record the fact that the red revolutionary wave is encircling the globe, sweeping away the last remnants of feudal rubbish from the body social, and some of the capitalistic. The world war acted like a vigorous laxative on the stomach of the nations."
"The Rebel Worker," an I. W. W. paper of New York City, in its issue of April 15, 1919, after printing the word, "Revolution" in the heaviest type all the way across the paper, publishes an article on the first page entitled "Terrible Days Ahead in the United States."
"'The United States is in the grip of a bloody revolution! Thousands of workers are slaughtered by machine guns in New York City! Washington is on fire! Industry is at a standstill and thousands of workers are starving! The government is using the most brutal and repressive measures to put down the revolution! Disorganization, crime, chaos, rape, murder and arson are the order of the day--the inevitable results of social revolution!'
"The above is what we may expect to see on the front pages of what few newspapers survive the upheaval. No one who has the interest of the working class at heart wants to see such a revolution. But whether those interested in the working class want to see such a revolution or not, there are powerful forces in the United States that are making for just such a catastrophe. The Industrial Workers of the World has in the past and is now using all of its energies to avert such a cataclysmic debacle. It is not yet too late to avoid this terrible and sanguinary strife--provided that the I. W. W. is allowed to carry out its program of organizing and educating the workers for the purpose of taking control of, and operating industry and giving to those who work the full social value of the product of their labor."
"The New Solidarity," the Chicago organ of the I. W. W., in its edition of April 19, 1919, publishes on the editorial page an article entitled, "When We Are Ready," part of which is hereby quoted:
"Frequently the question is asked how the proletariat is to know when they are ready for the revolution, how it would be possible to know a sufficient number were class conscious enough for the revolutionary change. This question is asked with the idea that there must be a periodical counting of noses, and that little or nothing may be done except educate until an absolute majority has been obtained....
"It matters not how many members of the working class do or do not stand up to be counted for or against capitalism, just as soon as the organized workers can overthrow that system of industry they will do it and not wait to be counted....
"To wait for majorities at all times is to enervate and emasculate the working class movement. To constantly attack, and attack for the purpose of taking and administering industry for the workers by action on the job and in the Union halls, is to strengthen and encourage the workers in their task, and is the plan that must ultimately win the age-long struggle against exploitation."