The O.S.S. Manual for Simple Sabotage

 

 The latest viral hit is a public domain release. I've seen dozens, that's right dozens of posts and blogs on social media gushing over what they call the "CIA Sabotage manual". Well, it is a manual for a form of sabotage, only it was produced in 1944 by the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of Strategic Services OSS. 

Still, as errors go it's a small one, the main difference between the OSS and its child the CIA were their choice of targets. The OSS was concerned with the subversion and defeat of the Axis powers and co-operated with multiple Communist agents and leaders. 

This document was made to encourage acts of civil disobedience in the occupied territories of Europe. As such it is a little dated, see the references to candles and emery powder, but surprisingly much of its strategy and logic remains perfectly viable, and a modern version of the document could be produced by just find and replacing older gadgets and tools with their replacements. 

Much of the overall strategy and tactics advocated in this document will be familiar to many British Trade Unionist, entire sections could be repurposed for a document outlining the labour strategies known as "go slows" and "work to rule". In the former, the labour force work as slowly as is safe to do so, and in the latter you obey every single official guideline no matter how counterproductive it is.

It's a short and interesting read. And if you're curious how it's in the public domain, the United States government exempts work by and for the US government from copyright.  

Disclaimer: This reproduction is not an endorsement of any actions, reader discretion is advised.

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

 

OSS REPRODUCTION BRANCH
SIMPLE SABOTAGE FIELD MANUAL
Strategic Services
(Provisional)
STRATEGIC SERVICES FIELD MANUAL No. 3

Office of Strategic Services

Washington, D. C.

17 January 1944

This Simple Sabotage Field Manual Strategic Services (Provisional) is published for the information and guidance of all concerned and will be used as the basic doctrine for Strategic Services training for this subject.

The contents of this Manual should be carefully controlled and should not be allowed to come into unauthorized hands.

The instructions may be placed in separate pamphlets or leaflets according to categories of operations but should be distributed with care and not broadly. They should be used as a basis of radio broadcasts only for local and special cases and as directed by the theater commander.

AR 380-5, pertaining to handling of secret documents, will be complied with in the handling of this Manual.

William J. Donovan 

 

 

1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to characterize simple sabotage, to outline its possible effects, and to present suggestions for inciting and executing it.

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.

Where destruction is involved, the weapons of the citizen-saboteur are salt, nails, candles, pebbles, thread, or any other materials he might normally be expected to possess as a householder or as a worker in his particular occupation. His arsenal is the kitchen shelf, the trash pile, his own usual kit of tools and supplies. The targets of his sabotage are usually objects to which he has normal and inconspicuous access in everyday life.

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 noncooperative 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.

This type of activity, sometimes referred to as the “human element,” is frequently responsible for accidents, delays, and general obstruction even under normal conditions. The potential saboteur should discover what types of faulty decisions and the operations are normally found in this kind of work and should then devise his sabotage so as to enlarge that “margin for error.”

2. POSSIBLE EFFECTS

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, manpower, and time. Occurring on a wide scale, simple sabotage will be a constant and tangible drag on the war effort of the enemy.

Simple sabotage may also have secondary results of more or less value. 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.

3. MOTIVATING THE SABOTEUR

To incite the citizen to the active practice of simple sabotage and to keep him practicing that sabotage over sustained periods is a special problem.

Simple sabotage is often an act which the citizen performs according to his own initiative and inclination. Acts of destruction do not bring him any personal gain and may be completely foreign to his habitually conservationist attitude toward materials and tools. Purposeful stupidity is contrary to human nature. He frequently needs pressure, stimulation or assurance, and information and suggestions regarding feasible methods of simple sabotage.

(1) Personal Motives

(a) 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 Commissioner X and his deputies Y and Z will be thrown out, when particularly obnoxious decrees and restrictions will be abolished, when food will arrive, 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.

(b) Since the effect of his own acts is limited, the saboteur may become discouraged unless he feels that he is a member of a large, though unseen, group of saboteurs operating against the enemy or the government of his own country and elsewhere. This can be conveyed indirectly: suggestions which he reads and hears can include observations that a particular technique has been successful in this or that district. Even if the technique is not applicable to his surroundings, another’s success will encourage him to attempt similar acts. It also can be conveyed directly: statements praising the effectiveness of simple sabotage can be contrived which will be published by white radio, freedom stations, and the subversive press. Estimates of the proportion of the population engaged in sabotage can be disseminated. Instances of successful sabotage already are being broadcast by white radio and freedom stations, and this should be continued and expanded where compatible with security.

(c) More important than (a) or (b) would be to create a situation in which the citizen-saboteur acquires a sense of responsibility and begins to educate others in simple sabotage.

(2) Encouraging Destructiveness

It should be pointed out to the saboteur where the circumstances are suitable, that he is acting in self-defense against the enemy, or retaliating against the enemy for other acts of destruction. A reasonable amount of humor in the presentation of suggestions for simple sabotage will relax tensions of fear.

(a) The saboteur may have to reverse his thinking, and he should be told this in so many words. Where he formerly thought of keeping his tools sharp, he should now let them grow dull; surfaces that formerly were lubricated now should be sanded; normally diligent, he should now be lazy and careless; and so on. Once he is encouraged to think backwards about himself and the objects of his everyday life, the saboteur will see many opportunities in his immediate environment which cannot possibly be seen from a distance. A state of mind should be encouraged that anything can be sabotaged.

(b) Among the potential citizen-saboteurs who are to engage in physical destruction, two extreme types may be distinguished. On the one hand, there is the man who is not technically trained and employed. This man needs specific suggestions as to what he can and should destroy as well as details regarding the tools by means of which destruction is accomplished.

(c) At the other extreme is the man who is a technician, such as a lathe operator or an automobile mechanic. Presumably this man would be able to devise methods of simple sabotage which would be appropriate to his own facilities. However, this man needs to be stimulated to re-orient his thinking in the direction of destruction. Specific examples, which need not be from his own field, should accomplish this.

(d) Various media may be used to disseminate suggestions and information regarding simple sabotage. Among the media which may be used, as the immediate situation dictates, are: freedom stations or radio false (unreadable) broadcasts or leaflets may be directed toward specific geographic or occupational areas, or they may be general in scope. Finally, agents may be trained in the art of simple sabotage, in anticipation of a time when they may be able to communicate this information directly.

(3) Safety Measures

(a) The amount of activity carried on by the saboteur will be governed not only by the number of opportunities he sees, but also by the amount of danger he feels. Bad news travels fast, and simple sabotage will be discouraged if too many simple saboteurs are arrested.

(b) It should not be difficult to prepare leaflets and other media for the saboteur about the choice of weapons, time, and targets which will insure the saboteur against detection and retaliation. Among such suggestions might be the following:

(1) Use materials which appear to be innocent. A knife or a nail file can be carried normally on your person; either is a multi-purpose instrument for creating damage. Matches, pebbles, hair, salt, nails, and dozens of other destructive agents can be carried or kept in your living quarters without exciting any suspicion whatever. If you are a worker in a particular trade or industry you can easily carry and keep such things as wrenches, hammers, emery paper, and the like.

(2) Try to commit acts for which large numbers of people could be responsible. For instance, if you blow out the wiring in a factory at a central fire box, almost anyone could have done it. On-the-street sabotage after dark, such as you might be able to carry out against a military car or truck, is another example of an act for which it would be impossible to blame you.

(3) Do not be afraid to commit acts for which you might be blamed directly, so long as you do so rarely, and as long as you have a plausible excuse: you dropped your wrench across an electric circuit because an air raid had kept you up the night before and you were half-dozing at work. Always be profuse in your apologies. Frequently you can “get away” with such acts under the cover of pretending stupidity, ignorance, over-caution, fear of being suspected of sabotage, or weakness and dullness due to undernourishment.

(4) After you have committed an act of easy sabotage, resist any temptation to wait around and see what happens. Loiterers arouse suspicion. Of course, there are circumstances when it would be suspicious for you to leave. If you commit sabotage on your job, you should naturally stay at your work.

 The rest of the manual can be found at Gutenberg.

 

 

 

The Poetry of Phillis Wheatley

 

I've been dipping my toes into poetry. I'm currently working through the poems of Phillis Wheatley. Phillis Wheatley was brought to the American Colonies in 1761 when the slave ship Phillis docked in Boston Harbour. Phillis was named after that ship, and she got the name Wheatley from her purchasers, the Wheatley family. Naming an enslaved person in this manner was a common practice. The Wheatley's were a wealthy Quaker family, they instructed Phillis who showed she had a talent for languages, reading and writing. In 1773 Phillis succeeded in getting a book of poetry Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral published in London. The book, which I am working through, won her praise in high society and shortly after led to her emancipation by the Wheatley's who had enslaved her.  

During the years of the American revolution she sent a poem to George Washington, the following words were written in 1775.

 

Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and the veil of night!

   The Goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel binds Her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.

   Muse! Bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or think as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honors—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!

   One century scarce perform’d its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! Cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.

   Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the Goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! Be thine.

Washington was an admirer of Phillis's talents and invited her to visit his estate, I do not know if she took him up on that offer. She married a fellow freed slave John Peters, sadly their attempts to build a family did not work out, none of their three children survived and Phillis herself would die in 1784 aged 31.

 The book is an interesting collection, overall it gives an impression of a sincere convert to Christianity, though the poem "On Being Brought From Africa to America" was somewhat disturbing.

Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

"Their colour is a diabolic die."

Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,

May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

 

It's a bit like reading a poem by an Irishman in 1865 praising the famine because it prompted his conversion to a Protestant church*. Still, it's her life and her experience, and as sanitised as her retelling of the slave trade is it does still chastise racial prejudice, albeit along sectarian lines. 

Much more to my tastes is "Ode to Neptune"

Ode to Neptune

On Mrs. W⁠⸺’s Voyage to England
I

While raging tempests shake the shore, While Aelus’ thunders round us roar, And sweep impetuous o’er the plain Be still, O tyrant of the main; Nor let thy brow contracted frowns betray, While my Susanna skims the wat’ry way.
II

The Pow’r propitious hears the lay, The blue-ey’d daughters of the sea With sweeter cadence glide along, And Thames responsive joins the song. Pleas’d with their notes Sol sheds benign his ray, And double radiance decks the face of day.
III

To court thee to Britannia’s arms Serene the climes and mild the sky, Her region boasts unnumber’d charms, Thy welcome smiles in ev’ry eye. Thy promise, Neptune keep, record my pray’r, Not give my wishes to the empty air.

Boston, October 10, 1772.

 

It's an interesting book, written by a very interesting author. Though, it forces me to reflect on how many others fine and interesting works and lives were taken and wasted in the pursuit of power and profit. And I also wonder how many lives are still being ground down in the illegal slave economy today.

 And I think Phillis Wheatley exposes Washington and the other enslaving rulers of the society of the time for the self-interested charlatans that they were.  Much ink was spilt convincing society that the people of Africa were backward, primitive, not quite full human beings, in need of tutelage and direction. All to distract from the casual and yet brutal violence necessary to reduce a human being to property. But many of these same purchasers of humans were willing to praise and enjoy the works of one of their number while still owning many more and subjecting them to hyper economic exploitation.

 The cover of Wheatley's first printings of her book of poems explicitly mentioned her legal status as a subject of the Wheatley family, and it includes a letter from her owner describing her conditions. Washington et al. knew she was enslaved when she wrote the words they admired, and this did not lead to an epiphany regarding their own treatment of their property either in emancipation nor in reforms to how they treated their enslaved and captive labour forces.

*During the great potato famine, several religious relief organisations would only give aid to protestants.

Much ado about Tariffs

 A cartoon about tariffs from Puck magazine in 1908. History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme sometimes. I remember learning about Tariff reforms in History class. In the 1900s, the British Empire was concerned over increased competition from other industrialised rivals and cheaper imports within the Imperial and domestic markets. One solution favoured by the Conservative party and some Liberal Imperialists* favoured a regime of tariffs on foreign goods.

Anonymous pro-Tariff Reform League image produced around 1911

 

The issue? Well aside from aiming at preserving national dominance and a literal Empire running there were very real dangers of mass starvation. 

Anti Tariff reform poster produced by the Liberal Party in 1905

 

Malnutrition was a major blight of the British population, with unimaginable levels of poverty. And this was with the cheap imported foods the poor could obtain. A price increase on these food stuffs would turn malnutrition into fatal starvation. I remember one statistic relating to the Second Boer War, malnutrition was so severe that in Manchester during one call up for volunteers the majority of men who answered had to be turned away on medical grounds, and three quarters of the men they did take were too weak to pass the bare minimum of official physical standards. The Liberals and the Labour Party eventually won the struggle over tariff reforms, a dispute that lead to a constitutional crisis and pushed the Liberals into an alliance with Labour and to shift away from laissez-faire economics to accept limited welfare provisions including the introduction of the first state pensions.

I like this pro-Tariff poster by the Tariff Reform League, published in 1909. It makes free trade sound great.

 

 

*This was how the split defined themselves, the rest of the Liberal Party and the young Labour Party were equally in favour of preserving the British Empire along with the Conservatives.

 

Cheap pump and dumps - About Horror Cash ins

 

It finally happened, I finally watched the Winnie the Pooh murder flick. The public domain has a reputation issue, especially in the United States of America, the registration and renewals system meant that a large proportion of the content in public domain were the works that were no longer commercially viable and forgotten. While that included some fantastic pieces of art like It's a Wonderful Life, it also included its fair share of cash ins and low budget-low effort schlock. Of course, the copyrighted material also included its fair share of rubbish too. 

Well, recent news hasn't done much to improve that reputation.

When Winnie the Pooh went public domain it was big news, and then news of a horror movie coming out, capitalising on the publicity and the lack of need to go past Disney for approval. I am of course speaking of Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey (BH). BH premiered in 2023, I've only just gotten around to watching it. The reason for the delay? It looks interesting enough to pay for and Whinnie the Pooh wasn't a big part of my childhood, I had one of the books, and I'd seen and been bored by some of the Disney cartoons. I wasn't offended by the idea of a homicidal yellow bear, I just wasn't that interested.

In fact, I'm not that interested in the film on its own merits, so I'll use BH as a springboard to a wider discussion on the film industry. A common question on film forums is simply, "why are only getting exploitation horror movies of characters that come into the public domain?" And the answer is simply capitalism. Film is art, but it is art created within a business, the reason we're getting so many horror movies is the same reason the Friday the 13th et al. are in their double digits. Movies cost money and investors expect that money back and with profit, horror is a genre that can be done quickly and cheaply and has a good track record of returning the invested funds and at least some profit. There are exceptions of course, there are horror movies that flop hard and movies that are expensive and take time to craft, but there is a blueprint for a quick return on investment. 

BH is just an excellent example of that blueprint with the added bonus of timeliness, lots of people were talking about Pooh Bear and friends and a solid marketing hook. It was quite controversial when it was announced and released, that raise attention and improved the odds of financial success dramatically. The film did so well it has a sequel and led to the greenlight of several other projects and the copying of the formula by other filmmakers. 

Reliable information on movie financials are hard to find, but the figures I did find are that BH had a $100,000 budget and made $7.3 million in profit so far. That's an excellent ratio and after watching I'm a little surprised the budget was that low. Technically speaking, BH is a perfectly competently made movie and doesn't look particularly cheap. It doesn't look expensive either, you can see the shortcuts, but I've seen movies with more budget look worse. There's location shooting, some practical effects work, the scenes have multiple angles to make them more interesting, the night scenes are well lit etc. There's even a short sketchbook style animated introduction that is genuinely creepy and does a good job of establishing the Why of the film. The actors aren't anything special, but they're all competently working with what little material they have before being beaten to death by two big thugs in masks. 

The fish rots from the head down

The main issue with BH is that it was created solely for making some money and exploiting a favourable market environment. Everyone is doing a fine job, but that's the problem, it's clearly just a job. If you've watched much horror, then you'll know where each scene will end shortly after starting. Once the creepy animation ends, it's a series of character encounters the murderers for some reason and will either be killed or chased a bit first and then killed. Repeat a few times until the credits roll. In principle this isn't an inherent issue, there are location slashers that are fun, creative and chilling, the issue again in the lack of interest beyond making a complete product. I'll give a spoiler free example of the problem here: the opening establishes that the reason Pooh and friends do not talk is so they can pay the actors a lesser rate is because they have sworn to cut off all vestiges of there humanity and become truly animal. That is an interesting premise and could make for an inventive film. Sadly, the execution is just that they don't talk. They wear clothes, use weapons and power tools and cars, they are just bad guys in masks. Retool the introduction to Christopher Robin was imagining his friends and years later a gang of sadistic killers escape to the woods and find the masks and other toys and you'd only have to change one flashback scene to get the same film.

The cast is fine, but it's quite clear that they're just doing their jobs, this is a pay cheque, a credit and something for their reels, nothing more. The nuts and bolts of filming is competent, everything that needs to be in frame is in frame, but there's a lifeless efficiency that never disappears, it feels like an assembly line production.

The only sparks of something beyond a business plan, this movie displays, are the aforementioned animation at the start and a repeated streak of meanness. That may sound strange, and It's difficult to describe without watching the film, but this film has multiple sequences where the killer has the victims at its mercy and then takes their time enjoying their helplessness before violently dispatching them. For the Christopher Robin character, this makes a certain narrative sense as the premise of the film is that Pooh and Piglett hold him personally responsible for their bad fortune and have deep personal grievances, but for the rest it's just violent cruelty for the sake of violent cruelty. I'm not sure if that's a hint at a darker theme, or just another marketing ploy to generate further controversy. 

I've seen cheaper films, I've seen less technically competent films, and enjoyed them a lot more than what BH is offering. Still, at least now the dam has been broken maybe we can get better material using Milne's creations, I'm not opposed to another horror movie so long as that movie has something actually worth making a movie about.

Part II - The Banana Splits Horror movie

No, the Banana Splits movie isn't in the public domain, nor to my knowledge are the original Banana Splits. The reason I'm discussing them here is:

1. It's the best example I can think of at present of a Blood and Honeyesque movie made out of a copyrighted franchise
2. It also exposes the failings of Blood and Honey in comparison

In 2019 the world was graced by frankly extremely odd news. The Banana Splits were back! You remember the Splits, right? Well, I did remember the Splits, a cable channel I sometimes watched in the 90s re-ran that show during its kids block. So I knew for a fact I was in the minority who remembered that show, and I was in the even smaller minority who was interested in seeing the movie based on the premise, they go crazy and attack people. It was such a strange sequence of events and frankly quite a rare and bold usage of an IP.

Despite remembering roughly who the Splits were like Pooh they weren't a cornerstone of my youth, I remembered the song, La la la, la la la lah, One Banana Two Banana Three Banana Four, etc. But that was just a fresh enough idea to intrigue me. If this seems hypocritical regarding what I've been saying about BH, well I'll admit that there are similarities especially around the desire to use controversy and media buzz to promote both movies, but, the Banana Splits were a completely dead and forgotten IP so the decision to move forward with the project wasn't a cash grab, though of course money was a goal. 

More importantly, it also had more going on than just exploiting marketing trends and reactive social media. The movie had things to say about fame and the entertainment industry and the disconnect between the image of media and the reality. By no means is it earth-shattering, but it was enough material to give the characters something to work on and conflict and tension at some points. I think the best way to explain the differences between the two movies is in this way; the killers of BH are animal/human hybrids who act like souless machines, the killers in the Splits are robots who act like animal/human hybrids.

They found a way to make a movie about the goofy Banana Splits costumed animals interesting to watch, Blood and Honey was just tediously mean.