The pamphlets reprinted here were first published in the 1910s amid
great controversy. Even then, the tactics of direct action and sabotage
were often associated with the cartoonists' image of the disheveled,
wild-eyed anarchist armed with stiletto, handgun, or bomb--the
clandestine activity of a militant minority or the desperate acts of the
unorganized.
The activist authors of the texts in this collection challenged the
prevailing stereotypes. As they point out, the practices of direct
action and sabotage are as old as class society itself and have been an
integral part of the everyday work life of wage-earners in all times and
places. To the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) belongs the
distinction of being the first workers' organization in the U.S. to
discuss these common practices openly, and to recognize their place in
working-class struggle. Viewing direct action and sabotage in the spirit
of creative nonviolence, Wobblies readily integrated these tactics into
their struggle to build industrial unions.
Direct action is recognized as a valuable and effective tactic by many
movements around the globe and remains a cutting-edge tool for social
change. Whenever communities in struggle find more conventional methods
of resistance closed to them, direct action and sabotage will be
employed.
This new edition from the Charles H. Kerr Library contains "Direct
Action and Sabotage" (1912) by William E. Trautmann, "Sabotage: Its
History, Philosophy & Function" (1913) by Walker C. Smith, and Elizabeth
Gurley Flynn's "Sabotage: The Conscious Withdrawal of the Workers'
Industrial Efficiency" (1916), edited and with an introduction by
Salvatore Salerno.
