One of the earliest known references to the flying squad is by Friedrich Engels, who in his comments upon the June Revolution in Paris notes how the main columns of insurgents were backed up by “numerous flying squads which, operating independently alongside and between the columns, were to build barricades, occupy the smaller streets and be responsible for maintaining communication”. The connotation, of a small, mobile band of insurgents operating spontaneously and autonomously within a larger formation, is still mostly consistent with contemporary incarnations of the tactic. In the early twentieth century the Wobblies adopted the tactic as a means of helping to organize and radicalize workers, especially those who had spontaneously begun some kind of action at the point of production. IWW activists rode the rails all over early twentieth century North America, appearing wherever they thought their services might be of use. Since then, flying squads have begun to form at the fringes of the Canadian labour movement, with the first ones being formed by several locals of the Canadian Auto Workers in Windsor in 1995-6. These groups function both internally to the union structure, pushing for democratization and a more militant defense of workers, and externally, lending their support to strike support, social justice protests, and direct action across a wide spectrum of issues, including homelessness, refugee claims, and social services advocacy (Levant 2003). The concept has since taken root in CAW locals across Ontario, and the York University contract faculty and graduate students (CUPE Local 3903) formed a flying squad in 2000. They have since been joined by the Toronto Teachers and the City of Toronto Inside Workers.
York University Contract Faculty, Teaching Assistants, Graduate Assistants,
and Research Assistants
http://www.cupe3903.tao.ca/info/
Alex Levant: Flying Squads and the Crisis of Workers’ Self-Organization
http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=04/04/14/1252232&mode=nested&tid=4
Jeff Shantz: Developing Workers’ Autonomy: An Anarchist Look at Flying
Squads
http://www.ufcw.net/articles/docs/2004-01-22_developing_workers_autonomy.html