Sabotage was adopted by the General Federation of Labor of France in 1897 as a recognized weapon in their method of conducting fights with their employers. But sabotage as an instinctive defense existed long before it was ever officially recognized by any labor organization. Sabotage means primarily the withdrawal of efficiency. Sabotage means either to slacken up and interfere with the quantity, or to botch in your skill and interfere with the quality, of capitalist production or to give poor service given the division of labor.

Sabotage is not physical violence- sabotage is an internal, industrial process.

It is something that is fought out within the workplace to affect the quality, the quantity and the service to target the profit of the employer for the purpose of forcing him into granting certain conditions, even as workingmen strike for the same purpose. It is simply another form of coercion, often the only one the worker has at their disposal.

Slights witnessed or heard about from stints in the deathcare industry:
  • Outrageously slow or recklessly inaccurate data-entry, usually while listening to your DiscMan, set to volumes that will irritate all co-workers within ten yards
  • Poking tiny little holes in the toner cartridge of all the photocopy and fax machines on the executive floor.
  • Mailing/faxing photocopies of the company's off-shore account and shell company structure to government regulators or local business press.
  • Misfiling: switching legal descriptions for property in Arizona with deeds from Alberta, or swapping funeral arrangements from Maine with contracts from Manitoba, or taking covers from appraisals for funeral homes in Bristol and putting them on surveys for cemeteries in Boston.
  • And finally, 'skimming' muffins, chocolate, strawberries and Perrier on a regular basis from the Managerial boardroom; paper, envelopes, file folders and boxes of Microball pens from the stationary room; blank CD-Rs from the Help Desk

  • Sources: Ozymandias' Sabotage Handbook : www.cafeunderground.com/Cafesite/Rooms/Ozymandia/sabotage_index.html