Are you or someone you know out protesting around the world right now? This thread is an effort to help build coordination for any efforts made by our members. Just please remember the comm rules:
- No Riot Porn
- Don't Dox yourself or comrades
Please discuss current events in your area, and share any news as it comes up here.
P.S. You are still allowed to post protest information elsewhere on the site.
I think a lot of valuable information could be gained from reading about tactics from when battles were fought shieldwalls. Applying those tactics would be difficult without more organization, but if a group of protestors could stand toe-to-to with riot cops, that would do a lot to draw more people to the streets.
Nah. In event of direct confrontation, the state will escalate. The second people start beating cops with shield-walls, the guard will mow them down with rifles. That's only going to scare people into their homes. These protests are a natural reaction to events, not a planned insurrection.
We're in no position to begin a war and if we were we would be better to start it at the highest level of violence rather than let the state shoot first. To get to this point, rather than trying to win battles like Hannibal, we should be organizing. Talk to people, join an organization or find some comrades and start your own. Figure out what people want and need and find a way to provide that to them as your organization.
Edit: The most useful thing you can do at these protests is to connect with people and direct them towards a socialist anti-racism rather than a liberal one
This is a really good point. We desperately need to organize and get cities on our side before the escalation in violence - guerrilla war is impossible without popular support.
I think that we can look to the tactics of the IRA for education on how to wage war; I believe that any guerrilla war waged by the left will have to be based in the cities, which will provide unique challenges. Reading Mao's and Guevara's works on warfare is useful, but ultimately we would have to cultivate our own strategy and methods - certain elements of those works are not applicable to America.
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The IRA also worked because of a very strong cultural divide. The IRA was made up of Irish, Catholic, Socialists. The RUC and British Intelligence and all the Nazi goons they hired were Protestants, English, and imperialists. A large part of the reason the IRA was so hard to dismantle is that ratting on an IRA man meant you were selling out your cousin or your neighbor or your classmate from school to the English, and no matter what people thought about the IRA they all hated the English. That pre-existing combination of Religious, racial, class, and economic solidarity gave the IRA a strong advantage against the colonial occupiers and settlers.
Unfortunately we don't have any equivalent in the US. Liberals would sell us out for free, there are plenty of minorities and people of color who would sell out for money or clout or advancement.
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If they start gunning down protestors, they will completely lose public support and the hope is that the military would step in to protect the people (lol).
Yeah I think you're right. The second protesters become effective at employing the phalanx, it will immediately become obsoleted by escalation to the use of rifles or armored vehicles. These tactics have been obsolete for a millennium and a half. The only reason we are seeing them being used to any effect is the state's reluctance to resort to mass murder on livestream. This reluctance is dwindling though. The reactionaries are working overtime to demonize the protests and make martyrs of the police and white nationalist paramilitaries.
IT's the "FINDING an ORGANIZATION " part. Like, how do I find one that is out doing actions?
This might be along the lines of what you are looking for. Not to sure how I feel about the host.
There is another video I'll look up later unless someone else finds it about a group of Japanese protestors beating up root police using blunt poles as pikes to break a police charge.
Edit: read dimmer06 above.
Depends on what you want to do with a shield wall. If you're just protecting from projectiles there's not much you need to know except "point the shield at the guy with the grenade lacunher".
But if you're going to actually form a shield wall and hold ground you need to train people. They need to learn how to move together, how to stay together when the situation gets chaotic, and they above all need to learn how to get hit by a charge without giving ground or breaking.
it's of limited use in the US because we're all pretty sure the police would open fire if a shield wall was just like "No fuck you you are no longer in control of this situation".