Direct Action & Sabotage: Three Classic IWW Pamphlets from the 1910s

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.

“"This is an exhilarating collection of texts, which will delight anyone who faces the managerialist oppressions and humiliations of daily life. As these texts joyfully identify, sabotage is (possible) everywhere and provides the basis for richer, freer humane relations." --Benjamin Franks, Anarchist Studies”

"This is an exhilarating collection of texts, which will delight anyone who faces the managerialist oppressions and humiliations of daily life. As these texts joyfully identify, sabotage is (possible) everywhere and provides the basis for richer, freer humane relations." --Benjamin Franks, Anarchist Studies

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). She was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union; a visible proponent of women's rights, birth control, and women's suffrage; and the author of The Rebel Girl. Walker C. Smith was a leading member of the IWW who wrote and edited socialist newspapers, philosophical tracts, pamphlets, satirical plays, and even verse. He is the author of The Everett Massacre. William E. Trautmann was founding General-Secretary of the IWW and one of six people who initially laid plans for the organization in 1904. He is the author of the novel Riot. Salvatore Salerno is the author of Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the Industrial Workers of the World and has contributed articles to the Haymarket Scrapbook anthology and many other publications. He is a professor on the community faculty staff of Metropolitan State University. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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