Morning Comrades.
It’s been two weeks, hasn’t it? As we started into 2025 I very explicitly wrote that in dealing with the new Trump administration that we should not fall into the same reactionary trap and yap about every single thing that media thirsty gangster dies and yet, it’s been two weeks. I had assumed that the first year of his term would be intense, in terms of pace and destructiveness but even I am taken aback at the speed at which his crook squad is doing what they are doing. There are smarter and more clued in people out there than me that can interpret their doings so will focus on a few other approaches this week. Granted, let’s see what happens but for today, a little pick me up in these increasingly dangerous times.
I absolutely realise that my own personal bias, based on experiences “out there” let’s call it is “quite” hands on, some even may call it violent, but that’s me. As said many times before, this approach is most definitely not for most of us and more importantly most definitely requires a positive and supportive infrastructure from which that approach becomes viable and logical. Again, random acts of individualism serve no real strategic purpose.
A few days ago, a declassified CIA document called the “Simple Sabotage Field Manual” made the rounds and I obviously had to read it and figured I would give you a run down of the essentials. It is a document written by the Office of Strategic Services in 1944 and was declassified by the CIA in 2008. The manual was distributed to OSS officers in foreign countries in order to help them train "citizen-saboteurs" in German-occupied Europe. Irrespective of the massive operational fuckery the CIA is known for, and they are terrible at their work, the OSS was extremely successful in sabotaging the German Nazi War Machine and with that, this operational manual bears some weight.
If you are wondering what there is to do, here is some helpful ideas.
The Simple Sabotage Field Manual was a guide designed to empower ordinary citizens in Nazi-occupied territories to disrupt systems and organisations through subtle, non-violent means. While originally intended for wartime sabotage, many of its tactics remain eerily relevant in the context of modern Western societies, particularly in critiquing bureaucratic inefficiencies, corporate culture, and systemic dysfunction.
Sabotage has played a key role in Western anti-capitalist movements, serving as both a tactic of resistance and a method of disrupting exploitative systems. The term itself originates from French workers in the 19th century, who allegedly threw their wooden clogs (sabots) into machinery to halt production. While this origin is debated, the concept of direct action against industrial capital took root in labour struggles.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, anarcho-syndicalist groups like the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) championed sabotage as a tool for labour resistance. The IWW, active in the U.S. and beyond, advocated for work slowdowns, deliberate inefficiency, and the destruction of machinery as means to fight capitalist exploitation. Meanwhile, European anarchists engaged in "propaganda of the deed," including targeted property destruction.
During the mid-20th century, sabotage was employed by anti-fascist partisans during World War II, often disrupting Nazi-aligned industries. Later, in the 1960s and ‘70s, leftist guerrilla groups such as the Weather Underground in the U.S. and the Red Army Faction in Germany carried out bombings and infrastructure attacks against corporate and state targets.
By the late 20th and early 21st centuries, environmentalist and anti-globalization movements embraced sabotage as well. Groups like Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) engaged in "ecotage," targeting logging, fossil fuel infrastructure, and animal testing facilities.
While state repression has criminalised sabotage, it remains a recurring tactic in anti-capitalist struggle, reflecting the ongoing tension between capital and those who resist its expansion.
Below are 10 clear and concise tactics employable by everyone that, you know, isn’t down with the fascism employed by our current crop of Capitalists:
Encourage Bureaucratic Inefficiency
1944 Context: Slow down decision-making processes by overcomplicating procedures, insisting on excessive paperwork, and requiring committee approval for minor actions.
Modern Application: Bureaucratic structures in governments, corporations, and institutions can be used to obstruct authoritarian policies by deliberately slowing their implementation through procedural delays and endless review cycles.
Disrupt Workplace Productivity
1944 Context: Work slowly, follow inefficient procedures, and create unnecessary steps in production to sabotage the enemy’s war effort.
Modern Application: Civil servants, tech workers, and employees in critical industries can use these tactics to delay or prevent the implementation of authoritarian measures, such as mass surveillance or discriminatory policies.
Mismanage Meetings and Decision-Making
1944 Context: Call unnecessary meetings, speak at length without saying anything meaningful, and refer matters to committees for further discussion.
Modern Application: Infiltrate far-right organising spaces, delay their initiatives through endless debate, and ensure that critical decisions are never made efficiently.
Foster Internal Divisions and In-Fighting
1944 Context: Play individuals against each other, encourage gossip, and sow distrust among colleagues.
Modern Application: Exploit the contradictions and factionalism within far-right movements to create fractures, preventing them from forming a unified front.
Encourage Waste and Inefficiency in Resource Management
1944 Context: Misallocate resources, delay deliveries, and encourage wasteful spending.
Modern Application: Bureaucrats and workers in logistics, supply chains, and infrastructure can subtly divert or delay resources that could empower reactionary movements.
Sabotage Public Morale and Institutional Trust
1944 Context: Spread misinformation, highlight leadership incompetence, and create confusion among the enemy’s ranks.
Modern Application: Undermine trust in authoritarian figures by exposing their contradictions, revealing corruption, and amplifying their failures.
Encourage Poor Leadership Decisions
1944 Context: Promote unqualified individuals, give bad advice, and insist on adherence to outdated rules.
Modern Application: Within reactionary spaces, support and elevate leaders who are incompetent, divisive, or prone to self-sabotage.
Disrupt Communication Channels
1944 Context: Delay message delivery, "accidentally" loose documents, and spread conflicting information.
Modern Application: Disrupt far-right digital organising spaces by spamming irrelevant content, creating confusion, or ensuring their infrastructure is unreliable.
Overcomplicate Everyday Tasks and Procedures
1944 Context: Introduce unnecessary forms, regulations, and requirements to slow down enemy operations.
Modern Application: Use legal and procedural barriers to obstruct the passage of authoritarian policies, leveraging bureaucracy as a tool of resistance.
Promote Passive Resistance in the Population
1944 Context: Encourage people to feign ignorance, comply with orders in a slow and inefficient manner, and quietly resist.
Modern Application: Train workers, students, and civil society groups to resist authoritarian policies by obeying them in ways that make enforcement impractical.
I know this all may sound overtly militaristic, possibly archaic and maybe even a little too common sense but this is how it all works. The fight against Capitalism is not one that Hollywood portrays, hero’s, epic battles, the boy gets the girl kind of bullshit, it is a billion little cuts, doing unsung work that often feels irrelevant and insignificant but none of it is. Everyone plays a part no matter how that part may feel. The above is a small example of what we all can do, day to day, to slow the authoritarian take over of the world we create, allows us time to organise and create spaces for those that need them more than I do.
A billion little cuts will fell any empire.
We serve the Revolution,
Yours, warmly,
V.
Okay officer Honeypot