What is a Flying Squad?
Most of the union activists at this action were organized in flying squads. A flying squad is an association of union activists who confront our bosses and their lackeys by disrupting the normal operations of their organizations, much like during a strike. When workers go on strike we do not only withdraw our labour, but we also disrupt the functioning of our workplaces. Flying squads take this tactic beyond their own workplaces, challenging the effects of capitalism and the forms of oppression that capitalism mobilizes. Supporting striking workers, as well as unorganized, unemployed, and unpaid workers, stopping deportations, challenging abusive landlords, and mobilizing for mass protests against capitalist globalization are some of the activities that flying squads in Canada have engaged in. Recent History There is no definitive answer to when flying squads first emerged. According to Joanne Beck of CAW 598 Flying Squad in Sudbury, flying squads first formed in the early 1900s in the
