So, another comrade posted this: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8471

You don’t need to be in the direct line of fire, and while any support for a revolution is risky if the government becomes aware of your aid, following basic OpSec principles and being privacy aware will help mitigate a lot of that risk.

Revolution and insurgency occurs in stages, so what kind of non-combatant support you should and can provide will depend largely on what stage the revolution is in.

Most places are in a pre-insurgency stage, also referred to as a planning stage. During this stage, a revolutionary movement is beginning to organize. Leadership is emerging, and the revolutionaries are establishing a grievance and a group identity, beginning to recruit and train members, and stockpiling arms and supplies.

During this phase it is important to organize. Fund your favored organizations, volunteer time with them, help with planning, receive and provide training, assist with recruiting, familiarize yourself with the principles of asymmetric warfare and insurgency, and learn the techniques you and your comrades will be using to conduct this form of warfare, even you don’t plan to engage in the violent aspects yourself because you’ll be supporting comrades who are. I highly advise you establish your nomme-de-guerre (your revolution name, which you should keep separate from your real identity as much as possible and keep your legal documented name out of your comrade’s reach. Some comrades will be captured and tortured in later stages, and if you wish to stay out of harm’s way you don’t want a raid on your home all because someone spilled your real name).

Some examples of these sorts of activities include joining your preferred party and union, becoming active in those groups, start or join a mutual aid effort, read books like the Anarchist Cookbook, Mao Zedong’s On Guerrilla Warfare, Che Guevara’s Guerrilla Warfare, Sun Tsu’s Art of War, books written by and for revolutionaries in other movements like the Irish Republican Army or the Kurdish Worker’s Party. And don’t leave out other revolutionary movements like that of Al-Qaeda or the Taliban just because they are reactionary. There are lessons to be had there as well, both for the application toward helping the worker’s revolution as well as for defending against the counter-revolutionary reactionaries who’ll oppose it. Again, even if you don’t intend to be a combatant yourself there is much to learn and apply. Last thing about this stage of revolution is that it is often the safest stage for the revolutionary because government forces are usually unaware of the movement or are mischaracterizing it at this stage, possibly deeming it “safe” or “tolerable enough”.

The next stage after the pre-insurgency stage is the incipient stage. This is the point when the revolutionaries make their first move and is the most dangerous for the revolutionaries and in a sense, for the government as well. Many movements perish in this stage. This is the first assassination, kidnapping, or violent attack. The revolutionaries will still be in a weak position and if they aren’t careful, they risk easy extermination at this point. However, it is also dangerous for the government as they can risk overreacting and harming people who aren’t involved or taking actions that are unpopular, such as making mass arrests, initiating martial law, shooting into crowds, etc. Such actions could increase support for the revolutionaries thereby strengthening them or if not that, at least reduce support for the government.

During this stage, if you are a formal member of the involved revolutionary group the best thing you can do is stay low and follow instructions, always remember OpSec and CyberSec, and if you are in a position of influence, be mindful of your messaging and activities. You can assist by passing along information to comrades like patrol schedules and sightings (when it happened or happens, what are they equipped with, how many in a patrol, what is their route, what questions do they ask people and how do they engage people, if you see them engage in violence, what do they do and how do they do it), providing a safe house for revolutionaries or supplies, moving supplies, acquiring supplies (remember the three B’s: Bullets, Beans, Bandaids, as in ammunition, food, and medical supplies), and continuing to engage in many of the same activities as before such as engaging in mutual aid.

The next stage is the Open Insurgency stage. By this point, the revolutionaries will have the strength and support to maintain a consistence pattern of action and conflict. The activities you could perform in the previous two stages still apply, but the intensity of your actions and which actions are most necessary will depend on your local conditions. After all, it’ll be hard to report on enemy troop movements if the revolutionaries are in control of your area and government patrols aren’t happening (which btw also means your local revolutionaries are doing a great job, in part because of your support!), but then you may need to report on counter-revolutionary activity in your area as an alternative.

The final stage is the resolution stage, and by this point if your revolution is successful, the revolutionaries will likely have taken the role as “government forces”, having replaced the old regime. You’ll be able to operate more openly, but you’ll still need to be mindful of your safety since those that support the old regime will likely be insurgents now, and may engage in more clandestine activities to hinder your movement, which may include physical harm to you. So be mindful of that.

In all revolutions, the ratio of “security activities” (as in, violent activities) to “civil activities” (peaceful activities), is about 1-9, or 10% violence, 90% peace. Most revolutionary activity needs to be directed toward meeting the needs of the people, because the goal of a revolution is to replace the government with your own, and that means proving to the people that you are better capable of doing that than the existing government. This means the revolution’s activities should be focused on improving infrastructure, providing food, healthcare, aid, public safety, putting out fires, running a bureaucracy, establishing fair labor policy, etc. and doing it better than the existing government. At first this’ll be difficult because you’ll find that you’ll only have a limited time to make an impact before government forces force you out.

The revolutionaries will take control of an area, maybe deliver food, build a clinic, then have to flee because a military unit has begun patrols. But during that time the people who received food and medicine will be grateful and those actions will increase support for the revolution. But as the revolution experiences more successes, their ability to make an impact will increase as well. Exponential growth.

IEDs, bombs, and bullets don’t increase support, food does. The violent things are to force the government out, but you need to be ready to take their place. That means providing for the people which is 9x more important than the violent parts.

So don’t fret too much about having to engage in violence, comrade. Working for the Party’s Ministry of Health or Ministry of Agriculture is more impactful anyway.

Supporting the revolution isn’t necessarily participating in armed struggle! Just by refusing propaganda and preventing your closed ones from joining the counter-revolutionaries you are doing your part!

Organize and write essays from A salty bathtub! Like that one French revolutionary :)

You have a role to play. You are valuable to a revolution. No doubt about it.

Are you scared because you’re in America? Are you afraid of being persecuted? That’s understandable. I would like to know more about this fear of yours.

maybe that’s why marx insisted on having weapons…