Dynamics of Sabotage: Antonio Orendain, Cesar Chavez, and Union Politics in the Rio Grande Valley, 1965-1982

This paper provides a structuralist account of how instances of sabotage, purging, and the defeat of defecting and rival factions occurs within movement organizations. I draw on Michels’ notion of competing leadership, along with insights from social movements to develop the notion of tactical sabotage as a structural mechanism that explains sabotage, purging, and the elimination of rival leaders’ careers, in particular rank-and-file leadership. This case study draws on the history of the Texas Farm Workers Union, led by Antonio Orendain in the 1970s, and its conflict with the United Farm Workers led by Cesar Chavez. This paper explores three key mechanisms that enabled UFW leadership to 1) actively block resources such as money and supplies to Orendain, 2) leverage political connections to ignore Orendain’s campaign for collective bargaining, and 3) obviate Orendain out of the UFW narrative and memory in Texas. These moments provide an opportunity to reveal political and structural processes that can explain incidents of repression, purging, and elimination of organic leadership in both labor and social movements writ large both historically, and contemporarily. Working paper presented at the 2022 Mobilization Conference in San Diego, California. Please check with the author for updates or corrections before citing the paper.