The OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual a short 20 page read. There's a cleaned up version on Wikisource. It was written by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the second world war for propaganda and subversion.
OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual
It might help you make the right decision if you're put in a tight spot. 😬
It might help you see your co-workers in a new light. 😄
Good luck.
#Politics #Sabotage
I've been posting extracts every now on then on fedi.
Sabotage varies from highly technical *coup de main* acts that require detailed planning and the use of specially trained operatives, to innumerable simple acts which the ordinary individual citizen-saboteur can perform. This paper is primarily concerned with the latter type. Simple sabotage does not require specially prepared tools or equipment; it is executed by an ordinary citizen who may or may not act individually and without the necessity for active connection with an organized group; and it is carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection, and reprisal. -- OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Introduction
OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Introduction
It think it is important to place a premium on minimizing the dangers. There's no point in becoming a casualty in the fight against fascism. There's no point in losing your job or your life to a fascist.
A second type of simple sabotage requires no destructive tools whatsoever and produces physical damage, if any, by highly indirect means. It is based on universal opportunities to make faulty decisions, to adopt a non-cooperative attitude, and to induce others to follow suit. Making a faulty decision may be simply a matter of placing tools in one spot instead of another. A non-cooperative attitude may involve nothing more than creating an unpleasant situation among one’s fellow workers, engaging in bickerings, or displaying surliness and stupidity. -- OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Introduction
OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Introduction
Sometimes you read this manual and start wondering about the people you meet, co-workers, customers, human resources departments, the whole chain of command.
Here's to hoping that you and your team are exempt. 😁
Acts of simple sabotage are occurring throughout Europe. An effort should be made to add to their efficiency, lessen their detectability, and increase their number. Acts of simple sabotage, multiplied by thousands of citizen-saboteurs, can be an effective weapon against the enemy. Slashing tires, draining fuel tanks, starting fires, starting arguments, acting stupidly, short-circuiting electric systems, abrading machine parts will waste materials, man-power, and time. Occurring on a wide scale, simple sabotage will be a constant and tangible drag on the war effort of the enemy. -- OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Possible Effects
OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Possible Effects
To be part of the constant and tangible drag is the point.
Widespread practice of simple sabotage will harass and demoralize enemy administrators and police. Further, success may embolden the citizen-saboteur eventually to find colleagues who can assist him in sabotage of greater dimensions. Finally, the very practice of simple sabotage by natives in enemy or occupied territory may make these individuals identify themselves actively with the United Nations war effort, and encourage them to assist openly in periods of Allied invasion and occupation. -- OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Possible Effects
OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Possible Effects
I'm not sure who our allies are but one thing's for sure: in times of trouble we should be looking for allies at all levels of organisation. And that means doing the work of maintaining relationships.
The ordinary citizen very probably has no immediate personal motive for committing simple sabotage. Instead, he must be made to anticipate indirect personal gain, such as might come with enemy evacuation or destruction of the ruling government group. Gains should be stated as specifically as possible for the area addressed: simple sabotage will hasten the day when … and … deputies … will be thrown out, when particularly obnoxious decrees and restrictions will be abolished, … and so on. Abstract verbalizations about personal liberty, freedom of the press, and so on, will not be convincing in most parts of the world. In many areas they will not even be comprehensible. -- OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Motivating the Saboteur
OSS Simple Sabotage Manual, Motivating the Saboteur
It’s a stark reminder to read that “personal liberty, freedom of the press, and so on, will not be convincing” but I think I see it at work, now.
Perhaps this is because the people around me don’t depend on “personal liberty” for anything. They are free to do as they want because they want what the new regime is doing. If you want what you are told there is no need for liberty.
Similarly, if your means are so constrained and everything around you requires money and power, then personal liberty is so constrained that you don’t fear it’s loss.
And for people to want the free press, it’d be nice if the press didn’t already tow the party line of money and power.
I guess in a roundabout way I am trying to say that all dictatorship requires a large part of the population to acquiesce to it. The movies might make one think that most people are in the resistance but in fact they are not. Many are just interested in Ruhe und Ordnung, silence and order.
Sadly, when I first heard about the US sliding into fascism thirty years ago, I thought it impossible. Unthinkable. And yet here we are.
Perhaps it helps to think about a sliding scale from zero to Hitler. The US is not yet invading Poland. But they seem to be ready to divvy up Ukraine; or take Greenland. So where are we: 60%? 70%?
I'm not saying don't do it. I'm not saying to be insubordinate and get fired so that you could be replaced by a fascist.
I'm saying do it slower and with more hand holding.
Do it in a way that requires more approvals, and reviews, and "oops we need to roll that build back because we made a mistake".
Don't be good at your job when your job is supporting fascism.
– zzzzBov, in a comment
I’m just hoping that when the orders come, I too will be able to stall and drag.