The militant minority - Walker C. Smith

A few men control the industries of the world. A few men manage the affairs of every fraternal body. A few men direct the business of every labor organization. This is as true of today as it is of the past. Whether or not it is desirable does not alter the fact. From this fact proceed two ideas – the building of a machine and the natural formation of a militant minority. Many believe the two to be identical, but the distinction is a deep one.

The capitalist machine is identical with all other machines in that it rules for its benefit without regard for the wishes of the whole body, and, like other machines, it justifies itself on the plea that it is acting for the benefit of all concerned. No machine is open to the whole of those whom it rules and its movements require secrecy between the members composing it.

But the militant minority is quite another matter. It is composed of active, alert, aggressive spirits and is open to all who possess the mental, moral and physical stamina to carry out the more imperfectly expressed desires of the whole body. Its whole keynote is action toward the ends for which the whole body strives, and all who are willing to act are eligible. Expulsion is automatic when vigilance and efforts relax.

The militant minority is the visualizing of the hopes and aspirations more crudely held by the mass, and it can no more escape the limitations of the body within which it operates than a social order can rise above the average level if intelligence of its members. Where the machine tries to retain knowledge so as to be more secure in its hold upon the body, the militant minority seeks to spread knowledge so as to add to its forces.

In every growing body the bulk of the membership are the new recruits who have not yet fully assimilated the ideas of the organization to which they have attached themselves and the inactivity of these recruits is the one thing that prevents immediate reaction. The militant minority seeks to first convert and then draw unto itself these new members, knowing that this in turn will bring additional recruits to the whole body.

Although a militant minority within the working class cannot be confined to one organization still it may today safely be said that the I.W.W. is to all intents and purposes the militant minority of the wage workers.

Transcribed by Juan Conatz