OTAS: operational thinking against the state
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trying to do the impossible task of thinking strategically and tactically about revolt against the ruling order

(for academic purposes only)
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(but also emergent strategy is a thing)
The truth is the US military doesn’t really care what you believe as long as you effectively comply with your orders and don’t disrupt operations or make them lose face. There’s a very real threat of people only joining the military to get training and bringing that experience back to their gang but that’s tangential to the above image.
Forwarded from Building Autonomy Ⓐ
"They want to stop the seasons. But today it's spring." 1977 Autonomia poster.
No police department has enough equipment or officers to effectively control the population of the area if enough of it’s population decide to rebel simply factoring in sheer numbers and will to act. But this is 10x as true for those that coordinates their efforts to stretch the police thin.
Seize opportunity yes. But be aware that some windows of potential are drawn out. And that patience that’s more in tune with the slower rhythms of the world rather than the bustle of the media landscape can pay off.
Forwarded from Strike Force
Some on the ground analysis from Minneapolis right now:

"The thing that's lacking from last year is the variety of roles and the participation of people from outside the leftist milieu. Namely, there needs to be a more tactical approach to this protest instead of just using the aesthetics of militancy (the shield wall) without the actions that back it up (light mages, ranged attacks, fire mages, barricades). I keep hearing on the stream "stop throwing shit" people don't realize that even sporadic projectile usage can make cops hesitant to move forward. When facing a long line of riot cops, your best friend is distance. It's what exhausted the police outside the 3rd precinct.

Also the sideshow crowd that came out to the uprising was very effective, the cars blocking streets and doing burnouts to generate smoke provided a diversion and helped boost morale, almost like a "mounted bloc" if you will

Bottom line is the uprising last year was effective because it was an incredibly diverse cross section of the south Minneapolis population representing many different walks of life and bringing many different tactical approaches, and the collective intelligence that was developed organically in the streets

This time around I fear there's been too much specialization of the role of "front line militant" and it's making it easier for the cops to drive a wedge between that militant frontliner identity and the "peaceful protester" and the complete isolation of the looters as being entirely apolitical and outside the insurgency entirely instead of active participants in it and its most avant garde section. The looters have taken the mantra "Be water" to heart and decentralized the action allowing it to spread into all corners of the metro area, never staying in one place long enough to be apprehended by police while still expropriating thousands upon thousands potentially millions of dollars in products and doing just as much if not more in financial damages.

We need to avoid specialized roles, we need to get ahead of the badjacketing and white washing, we need to continue articulating why looting is good, why barricades are good, why throwing stuff at police defensively is good, we need to remind people that "be water" means we don't stay stuck at one location but move and flow freely, staying out of reach of the law when we need to and crashing like waves on them when the opportunity strikes. We cannot possibly hope to defeat the largest police mobilization in Minnesota history with symmetrical warfare tactics, we must fight them on our terms. The state has nothing but time, we have nothing but numbers, we win by attrition. We exhaust them, we waste their time, we deceive them, we distract them."
Sun Tzu on "Be Water":
"Tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak."

"Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.

Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions."
A leaked document from the Chicago PD Crime Prevention & Information Center describes the potential for decentralized encrypted communications to defeat surveillance by law enforcement, citing goTenna Mesh devices in particular.

goTenna Mesh:
https://gotennamesh.com

similar projects you can build yourself:
https://disaster.radio
https://www.meshtastic.org
Forwarded from Updates from Israstine
Comparative infographics on the types of missiles used by Hamas fighters.
We are of the opinion that Israeli state leaders and media are being honest here. That there’s more of a threat to their settler project from dispersed popular riots like those that happened during the 1st intifada throughout Palestine than from Hamas et al’s rocket barrages or specialized military engagements concentrated in Gaza with increasing sectarian power concentration or even previous waves of suicide bombings etc.