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As a green term, monkey wrench arises from Abbey's 1975 novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang. Here's what Wiki has to say about it: "The novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the American Southwest, and was so influential that the term `monkey wrench' has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any violence, sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems." Hence, the appropriately named radical bookstore in Austin, Texas.
The general definition of monkey wrench is simple: "something that disrupts." Of course, people have been using monkey wrenches long before the expression became linked to sabotage. The tool itself was invented by none other than Charles Moncky in 1858. The corruption of his last name resulted in "monkey."
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