Community Defense 1/?: Basic OpSec
Why asking a handful of questions isn't antithetical to anarchism and can save your community.
**Quick Aside: With a new job and a rigorous schedule, writing these has become a little more scare than when I had a ton of time over the summer between jobs, however, I do plan to try and shift back to posting something at least every Sunday if I can swing it. Thanks for your patience and support.**
When we talk about community defense on PA, we spend a lot of time talking about things not related to guns/weapons/shooting because those are last resorts. And don’t worry, there will be some discussion on that front as well as it is a necessary part of defending your home and community from outside harm. But if you can establish good habits and strong relationships, it won’t come up as often.
Which is why today we need to talk a little about OpSec, or Operation(al) Security depending on who you ask. What it means in a practical sense is “Is your space safe from outside harm, do you know the potential risks and what to look for, and do you have the things in place to keep it safe?”
Is your space safe from outside harm?
Infiltrations are not entirely common, but they are starting to ramp up as both the system and fascist adorers of it realize that some organizations have very little OpSec and can be easily blown up from the inside. By that I mean, some member of group who is anti-thetical to your cause pretends to be one of you, joins your org, then starts a ton of either drama, other problems, or simply doxxes all your members to fash-org or the feds. The first being the most common way that orgs implode. In fact it’s such a common technique, the CIA has used it for decades and continues to do so even after people found out about it. It’s easy and requires little to no effort.
You may have seen a graphic like the one above float around places like twitter and Instagram, etc. It’s from a CIA feild manual on sabotaging political organizations from inside. So if you’ve built a small community and you’re seeing this stuff from the begining, it’s likely legitimate concerns, or people who are timid about the process. It’s your job as the organizer to push them left and help them get over those things. If you’ve been up and running a while and a new member shows up and begins this process, they should be immediately suspect. Red Flags should be flying everywhere and they should be openly grilled on their positions, beilefs, and motives. If they opt to leave, then good riddance.
Most anarchist communes have failed to be infiltrated by government orgs because the members all know each other and have read an extensive amount of theory together. So when a new person shows up they are simply asked a series of questions on theory, their motives, etc and they are always immediately outed as cops. Because cops don’t only not read, they struggle to understand the theoretical framework behind leftist movements. They are by nature reactionary and cannot sympathize with us. Here’s another page set from sabotaging a work place, which can easily be applied to your org as well if you’re active in the community and trying to build infrastructure:
It’s vital to take the very short amount of time to speak with people joining your organization to make sure your goals and beliefs align. If not, then your group simply isn’t right for them and they can move on.
Do you know the risks?
In addition to the potential for sabotage, as an either anarchist, communist, socialist, pan-africanist, etc you run the risk of being a target to white supremacist groups. Folks like the 3%ers, Groypers, Boogaloo, Patriot Front, Proud Boys, and more all actively target leftists at rallies and protests. You should know as much about these groups and what their beliefs/strategies are. Not knowing is walking into a fight blind and unarmed which is only going to result in failure.
It’s absolutely worth noting a lot of these groups have former and active police and military in them and spend a clear amount of time training on weekends in things such as feild communications, battle manuevers, hand to hand combat, marksmanship, etc. Which means, if your org isn’t ALSO doing that, you aren’t prepared to protect yourself or others from that threat. As a collective you need to find the time to train together for those able and be ready to rumble if that should come up.
I see regular debates online about whether or not the left should be well armed in protest situations given the cops and others will use that as an excuse to ramp up violence. I think the evidence over the last two years is pretty clear that they don’t need nor intend to rely on any excuses to use violence against left leaning groups, so you may as well be prepared and ready to make it home safely yourself. At the very least you should be at least as well armed as your opponent is. If they have knives and clubs, you should as well. Famous military strategists would tell you that you should always be more prepared than your opponent and it’s something I tend to agree with. Which of course leads us to our last question:
Do you have the ability to keep your community safe?
It’s one thing to talk about OpSec, weapons training, and more. It’s another to do it. Set up a plan. As some older organizers from the Rainbow Coalition days would say: Plan to work, then work the plan. For your OpSec, you should know these things about everyone in your org:
Who they are
How they found about your group
What their politics are
What skills and abilities they bring to the table
Any past orgs or groups they’ve been with (and reach out to them to vet the person)
Why they want to work with you
That should be the bare minimum you know about someone before you start letting them into meetings to plan or access data for your group. Additionally you should have a schedule by which each member can show up at least 1-2 times per month to work on:
Feild communications - How you alert and inform each other when shit hits the fan
Hand to Hand Combat - You should all be learning a collective martial art so you can defend youselves and others
Marksmanship - Learn how to use a gun/bow/paintball gun, etc. Anything really can provide aid to your group. Paintball guns that shoot mace balls can add cover to people while moving for example.
Battle Manuevers - Some things are 2,000 years old and still used because they work. Like the Phalanx. You can see videos of the Turtle Shell variety in PDX protests, etc. having a strategy for knowing terrain (ie what your downtown looks like) and how to corral or prevent being corraled.
Starting with these small steps and building up over time can be the deciding factor in your orgs success. Solidarity!
-EQ
Anarchism isn't left. Both wings are on same bird that jets the ruling bloodlines all around the globe.
Great stuff on the infiltration/clogging instructions. Anyone who talks about "making decisions" is dog-whistling in favor of fascism. Anarchy means each individual decides what he or she wants to participate in, and who is worth associating with. Either you participate or you don't. If you say no to some project that would necessitate use of the area where you grow crops, then everyone else will have to find a way around it. No imminent domain. No ownership of things that are not human-made products. No borders, no taxation, no central bank. Only community understanding, mutual respect, and the guts to serve justice where needed.