Breaking infrastructure: Acts of sabotage against privatization in Colombia

From a state-and-capital-centered perspective, sabotage has often been viewed as a destructive force driven by seditious individuals. However, scholars, such as E.P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, Timothy Mitchell, and Andreas Malm, have highlighted the political motivations behind sabotage and the efforts to create alternative futures through disruptive actions. This article examines the opposition to the privatization of the state-owned telecommunications company in Colombia during the early 1990s, arguing that sabotage can be a tool to effect change in policymaking. Drawing from critical geography, political economy, and labor history, the article discusses the 1992 attempt to privatize Colombia's Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Telecom) and how it prompted a response from below, conceptualized here as a strategy of “collective bargaining by sabotage.” Through a national strike that halted communications for seven days, the labor movement executed a techno-political strategy that successfully delayed the privatization of this state-owned company for a few years. The article delves into this narrative in Colombia through archival research, testimonies from former workers, and secondary sources. Furthermore, it underscores the political implications of sabotage, suggesting that it is not merely a destructive tactic but has radical and tangible effects: it can reshape public policies, politicize society, organize a new labor subject, and raise awareness about state issues. Overall, the article aims to understand the uneven neoliberal transition of recent years and reflect on how workers can, through sabotage, turn infrastructure into “technologies of dissent” to defend public ownership.