The Militant Few (was Re: Covering Dissent)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>>*****   ...[T]he process of union building [in the auto industry]
>>rested in the hands of a relatively atypical nucleus of militants who
>>waged shop-floor warfare with management for the allegiance of the
>>large majority of still timid, deferential workers.  Much tactical
>>finesse -- even outright bluff -- was needed in this battle, for the
>>union rarely enrolled more than a committed minority when it came to
>>a showdown with the auto corporations.[8]  The sit-down strikes were
>>a brilliantly successful gambit, in large part because they enabled
>>the militant few to stop production and demonstrate union power to
>>those uninvolved in the struggle.  To many workers, the formal
>>recognition of the UAW finally won at General Motors (GM) and other
>>corporations early in 1937 provided a protective shield that gave
>>them some sense of liberation from older factory hierarchies and a
>>visible link to their more forceful shopmates.  It was a powerful
>>symbol of the fact that the supervisor and the foreman were not
>>omnipotent and that the union cadre represented an alternative nexus
>>of legitimate authority in the plant.
>>
>>Given this social context, it is not surprising that the spectacular
>>growth of the new CIO unions came only after collective bargaining
>>contracts were signed....
>>
>>[8]  This process is aptly described in Peter Friedlander's _The
>>Emergence of a UAW Local, 1936-1939: A Study in Class and Culture_
>>(Pittsburgh, 1975), 3-53.  Roger Keeran highlights the role played by
>>the Communist cadre in _The Communist Party and the Auto Workers
>>Unions_ (Bloomington, 1980) 28-59.
>>
>>(Nelson Lichtenstein, _Labor's War at Home: The CIO in World War II_,
>>Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982, p. 12)   *****
>>--
>>Yoshie
>
>Yes- and how is the "militant few" going to demonstrate their power outside
>the realm of production?  That line of thought led to the Weathermen and
>other anti-majoritarian absurdities of strategies by the New Left.
>
>Nathan Newman

Outside the realm of production, you can take examples from 
unemployed councils, neighborhood relief committees, the Poor 
People's Movement, etc. from the 30s, the 60s, and beyond.  Occupying 
a building, as a tactic, isn't unique to sit-down strikes.  The point 
is that any movement -- including union organizing -- begins with 
"the militant few" as core organizers who find effective tactics to 
announce their existence, demonstrate the power of collective 
actions, etc.
-- 
Yoshie

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