The domestic and international intelligence agencies from the capitalist/imperialist countries – from the FBI/CIA to the Israeli Mossad – are well known for their terrorist tactics against freedom fighters over the previous several decades. Common techniques like badjacketing – where honest organizer/activists are labeled by intelligence agencies as corrupt, dishonest and/or police informants. This particular tactic has worked extremely well resulting in internal (surrogates of the state) murders against trusted activists like the Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, Maurice Mpolo, and Thomas Okoto, or the American Indian Movement’s Anna Mae Pictoh Aquash, or the Black Panther Party’s Alex Rackley.
In 2024 and beyond, these same tactics will continue to be utilized against us, but look for more digitally based tactics. The digital world is a much more desirable arena for intelligence agencies to exert their terrorism because they can do so behind the cloak of the internet, being thousands of miles away from their intended targets. Since plausible deniability has been a go to response by these terrorist agencies forever, the digital approach offers them ample opportunities and space to sabotage our efforts to build effective social movements.
Their pathway to internet based terrorist tactics is of course aided by the fact there are many newer activists on the scene who have little to no guidance and direction. Take the outpouring of support for the Palestinian people for example. This is excellent conscious raising and action oriented work designed to help people see the immorality of how the zionist movement oppresses the Palestinian people while zionism continues to use the religion of Judaism as shield for their criminal program. More people are aware of these contradictions today than ever before, but at the same time, most of the seasoned voices who first articulated this problem (while providing strong analysis to define the problem) are quiet now. For example, much of the anti-zionist fervor within the U.S. today can be directly credited to the work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s, but the architects of their anti-zionism – Ethel Minor, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) etc., have all made their physical transitions so these younger organizers are left to their own devices. And those devices often include a ton of energy and passion surrounded by inexperience and a lack of knowledge. These are fertile ingredients for imperialist intelligence agencies to take root and there are plenty of signs that this is happening. With many of these newer activists having little to no hesitation expressing everything online from their distrust and dislike of activists to their wildly underdeveloped and flat-out wrong analysis about social issues, intelligence agencies are using this lack of discipline and inexperience to discover the weak spots within movements. With that knowledge they can then use informants to prick those weaknesses causing schisms to develop that often have the potential to rip a lot of effective work too pieces. And, the most insidious element to all of this is all of that sabotage can happen without anyone being targeted by this devious work having the slightest clue where the sabotage is originating from.
With the capitalist world in a continued state of perpetual decline we are observing all of these capitalist states moving farther and farther to the right. This strategy from them is designed to consolidate control over resources for the capitalist multi-national corporate world by squeezing any possible opportunities for working people to achieve justice out of existence. Consequently, the need for mass movement is more relevant today than ever and we will continue to see these movements develop with clear anti-oppression foundations. What will be necessary within this work is for activists and organizers to consider new ideas for how to effectively engage the work in ways that are inclusive because mass strength is our only true defense. As Kwame Ture often said “only the masses of people make history, not individuals!” So to build this strength we will have to commit to:
Once we begin to build this capacity, we develop much more steeled and skilled organizers/activists/ People who cannot be derailed just by a random person no one really knows coming into our circles generating acts of confusion and sabotage. In circles developing and practicing the revolutionary principles laid out here, the rise in collective consciousness will make it much more difficult for one or two persons acting to disrupt the work to sway everyone. We have seen many organizational models where this has proven to work. The work/study process of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) being one. Much of the ideological training being developed within the A-APRP comes from the work of our older and more experienced sibling parties in Africa like the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC) or the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG). On a consistent basis since imperialism and neo-colonialism acted in the summer of 2023 to illegally refuse to seat the democratically elected president and National Assembly of the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau, we are seeing the police and military engage in continuous harassment and sabotage against the PAIGC, but we are also seeing the PAIGC demonstrate its ideological commitment to its revolutionary path by its militants refusing to be intimidated and thrown off their mission. Imagine consistent police raids against U.S. activists to the same magnitude. It would probably only need to happen once to completely dismantle any potential for positive work. What’s the difference? The ideological commitment to all of the principles identified here within PAIGC structures like the General Union of Guinea-Bissau Women
(UDEMU), Amilcar Cabral African Youth (JAAC), the A-APRP workstudy circles there, etc.
True progress is never easy. In truth, nothing in life worthwhile is easy, but for those serious about change, this approach is absolutely necessary if we intend to continue to build capacity to fight empire while keeping ourselves as safe as we possibly can. You can always find out more detailed analysis of this approach in my 2021 book – “A Guide for Organizing Defense against White Supremacist, Patriarchal, and Fascist Violence.”
In 2024 and beyond, these same tactics will continue to be utilized against us, but look for more digitally based tactics. The digital world is a much more desirable arena for intelligence agencies to exert their terrorism because they can do so behind the cloak of the internet, being thousands of miles away from their intended targets. Since plausible deniability has been a go to response by these terrorist agencies forever, the digital approach offers them ample opportunities and space to sabotage our efforts to build effective social movements.
Their pathway to internet based terrorist tactics is of course aided by the fact there are many newer activists on the scene who have little to no guidance and direction. Take the outpouring of support for the Palestinian people for example. This is excellent conscious raising and action oriented work designed to help people see the immorality of how the zionist movement oppresses the Palestinian people while zionism continues to use the religion of Judaism as shield for their criminal program. More people are aware of these contradictions today than ever before, but at the same time, most of the seasoned voices who first articulated this problem (while providing strong analysis to define the problem) are quiet now. For example, much of the anti-zionist fervor within the U.S. today can be directly credited to the work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s, but the architects of their anti-zionism – Ethel Minor, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) etc., have all made their physical transitions so these younger organizers are left to their own devices. And those devices often include a ton of energy and passion surrounded by inexperience and a lack of knowledge. These are fertile ingredients for imperialist intelligence agencies to take root and there are plenty of signs that this is happening. With many of these newer activists having little to no hesitation expressing everything online from their distrust and dislike of activists to their wildly underdeveloped and flat-out wrong analysis about social issues, intelligence agencies are using this lack of discipline and inexperience to discover the weak spots within movements. With that knowledge they can then use informants to prick those weaknesses causing schisms to develop that often have the potential to rip a lot of effective work too pieces. And, the most insidious element to all of this is all of that sabotage can happen without anyone being targeted by this devious work having the slightest clue where the sabotage is originating from.
With the capitalist world in a continued state of perpetual decline we are observing all of these capitalist states moving farther and farther to the right. This strategy from them is designed to consolidate control over resources for the capitalist multi-national corporate world by squeezing any possible opportunities for working people to achieve justice out of existence. Consequently, the need for mass movement is more relevant today than ever and we will continue to see these movements develop with clear anti-oppression foundations. What will be necessary within this work is for activists and organizers to consider new ideas for how to effectively engage the work in ways that are inclusive because mass strength is our only true defense. As Kwame Ture often said “only the masses of people make history, not individuals!” So to build this strength we will have to commit to:
- Building mass movements/organizations. This is a hard pill to swallow, especially for the white left which has a history of elitist organizing approaches which feed directly into this false narrative that people cannot be trusted. Imagine attempting to build a mass movement while believing that you are the only person who can be trusted? This model clearly does not work and African and other colonized people who operate within this sphere would do well to Return to the Source as Amilcar Cabral advised us. Begin to build collective organizing circles where revolutionary consciousness and development is heightened and individualistic based perceptions of people are de-emphasized.
- Number one happens by building structures within our organizing circles designed to strengthen our commitment to the work. This includes regular and consistent political education processes that are collective and designed to build collective consciousness and cadre leadership, not individual decision makers.
- Instituting strong criticism/self criticism processes that are designed to build and strengthen our abilities to hold ourselves and each other accountable to our vision and our work thus decentralizing bourgeoisie idealism which is so prevalent today while emphasizing collective consciousness and work.
Once we begin to build this capacity, we develop much more steeled and skilled organizers/activists/ People who cannot be derailed just by a random person no one really knows coming into our circles generating acts of confusion and sabotage. In circles developing and practicing the revolutionary principles laid out here, the rise in collective consciousness will make it much more difficult for one or two persons acting to disrupt the work to sway everyone. We have seen many organizational models where this has proven to work. The work/study process of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) being one. Much of the ideological training being developed within the A-APRP comes from the work of our older and more experienced sibling parties in Africa like the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC) or the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG). On a consistent basis since imperialism and neo-colonialism acted in the summer of 2023 to illegally refuse to seat the democratically elected president and National Assembly of the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau, we are seeing the police and military engage in continuous harassment and sabotage against the PAIGC, but we are also seeing the PAIGC demonstrate its ideological commitment to its revolutionary path by its militants refusing to be intimidated and thrown off their mission. Imagine consistent police raids against U.S. activists to the same magnitude. It would probably only need to happen once to completely dismantle any potential for positive work. What’s the difference? The ideological commitment to all of the principles identified here within PAIGC structures like the General Union of Guinea-Bissau Women
(UDEMU), Amilcar Cabral African Youth (JAAC), the A-APRP workstudy circles there, etc.
True progress is never easy. In truth, nothing in life worthwhile is easy, but for those serious about change, this approach is absolutely necessary if we intend to continue to build capacity to fight empire while keeping ourselves as safe as we possibly can. You can always find out more detailed analysis of this approach in my 2021 book – “A Guide for Organizing Defense against White Supremacist, Patriarchal, and Fascist Violence.”
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