The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-01-10

ocate fighting" Revolutionary" VIC
ence. but when pressed for defiui.
ions, they define It as q goody-goody
harmless thing that should offend no.
iody, When The international So.
'ialist Review began to advocate sabo-
age, Austen Lewis wrote for the Re.
view explaining the doctrine. "sabo.
age he says, "is in brief the des.
.ruction of the property of employers
by emploles in pursuance OF a defn-
ate revolutionary policy" "Sabo-
tage," he says, in another place, lis |
a cool preconcerted and organized |
destruction of property in the pursu-
ance of a definite end, as a means OF |
war and for specific purpose"
THAT WAS THE FIGHTING Def.
NIT1ON OF SOBOTAGE IN OCTO-
BIER, 1910.
However, after Debs, Hillquist and
various others bitterly condemned
that sabotage, and after the party
convention had adopted it's new con
stitution went to the membership for
referendum, the editor was much
troubled to find some inoffensive def
milton of sabotage that would brighten
nobody He didn't consult the pages
of his own magazine. No, he "fortu-
nately,"-but let him speak. "The
word is too new for the dictionaries"
he says, but it FORTUNATELY hap
pens that the Boston Globe, a lead
ing capitalist paper, thought it's read
ers needed enlightment on this word,
ruary 90, 1922:
Nor does Sabotage" from the word
meaning shoe or boot, and hence "giv-
ing the boot" necessarily include VIC
lence or force. 1t may mean only the
prevention of work, without involving
the destruction of property. If, for
instance, work in factory could not
be resumed because a striker had
locked the door and thrown away the
key, that would be case of "sabot-
age" On the other hand, the term
is also applied to comparatively mild
acts which cause financial loss to EN-
ployers. But sabotage and violence
are not synonymous.
That is the innocent definition Of
sabotage June, 1912.
Now, to say the least, this is miser-
able cowardice, intended for no other
purpose than to deceive the party.
Austin Lewis gave correct definition
of sabotage when the Review began
to discuss this question. And it was
that sabotage that the Review en-
dorsed and that Haywood and the
other editors of the Review have since
advocated. 1t was Pouget and Dele
sale, two anarchists, who induced the
French trade unionists to adopt sa-
botage as a weapon. And Pouget, in
his little book on sabotage, says that
it is Gin the class war what guer1llas
are in national war" Concretely, it
1t means the same individual warfare
against individual capitalists or groups
of capitalists or even against the
state, that has at least three times in
the history of labor given its enemies
pretext for utterly crushing the
labor movement and then for casting
- dc &c 1ichn1rt-
ened fragments.
There is nothing personal in this
fight. Those who believe in direct
action and sabotage belong in the In
dustrial Workers of the World, not in
the socialist party. The socialists
have a big job on their hands which
is to build up zone big" political union
of the working class. They have been
at the job for over half century and
it moves slowly; but that is chiefly
due to the fact that the physical fore
lists, the anarchists and the other di-
rect actionists have several times IN
the past smashed the work of years
W
the job all over again. To unity and
strengthen the working-class move
ment, the socialists created by their
labor and patronage every dollar of
the Kerr company; the American Fed
Grafton of Labor and the socialist
party contributed $4,000 to save
Haywood's life and the socialist party
has furnished most of the funds for
the recent strikes of the Industrial
Workers of the World And no so
cialist begrudges the Industrial Work
ers of the World, the Review or Hay
wood the money. If they will honest
ly and sincerely work to organize the
unskilled, no one will regret thing /
that has been done. But if it is the I
belief of the Industrial Workers of
the World that their ONE big union
can only begin to form after they
have smashed the socialist party and
the trade unions, they will find that
for some years to come they must