---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'Building Security Culture, Coalitions, & Tactics'

---

# Building Security Culture, Coalitions, & Tactics

- Ruckus in the Rainforest's [*Security Culture for Activists*](https://ruckus.org/training-manuals/security-tips-resources/)
- **Activist InfoSec**: ["Security Culture: A handbook for activists"](https://web.archive.org/web/20201028005845/https://old.deepgreenresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/security-culture.pdf) (3rd edition, 2001, based on the notes from the Coalition Opposed to Police Brutality-Mtl, by [Security.tao.ca](https://web.archive.org/web/20020903102527/http://security.tao.ca/) & the [Resist Collective](https://web.archive.org/web/20020824010010/http://resist.ca/) / [security@tao.ca](https://web.archive.org/web/20011201103201/http://security.tao.ca/))
 For many years, this infosec site was also mirrored at [security.resist.ca](https://web.archive.org/web/20071001232458/http://security.resist.ca:80/) and available [en français](https://web.archive.org/web/20071017110014/http://security.resist.ca/francais/index.html) and produced an email [security news bulletin](https://web.archive.org/web/20020903193239/http://resist.ca/pipermail/security-news/2002/000006.html) (<--in this issue, #5, from 2002, via [The Wayback Machine](https://archive.org/web), find  [How-to: Recognize and Counter Police Harassment in Your Community](/cSbVtxwWQHONVikYl-2M-g)).  Also carried links to other digital security resources, such as the [Participating with Safety Project](https://web.archive.org/web/20020903102527/http://secdocs.net/manual/lp-sec/) from the *Association for Progressive Communications* (Paul Mobbs, 2002: [Introducing Information Security](https://web.archive.org/web/20020903193220/http://secdocs.net/manual/lp-sec/scb1.pdf))
- CrimethInc's 2004, ["What is Security Culture"](https://crimethinc.com/2004/11/01/what-is-security-culture)
- [GENDER OPPRESSION, ABUSE, VIOLENCE: COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN THE PEOPLE OF COLOR PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT](https://www.incite-national.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cmty-acc-poc.pdf) (July 2005) Report from **INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence** Ad-Hoc Community Accountability Working Group Meeting
- ["*Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements"*](https://incite-national.org/2010/07/15/why-misogynists-make-great-informants-how-gender-violence-on-the-left-enables-state-violence-in-radical-movements/) July 15, 2010. Courtney Desiree Morris
- [*"Basic Politics of Movement Security"* text](https://annas-archive.org/md5/d75f535eb85753ad6915b6bbce8eb9ac) and a [PDF here](https://redyouthnwa.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/basic-politics-of-movement-security.pdf), from 2013, a collaboration of J. Sakai and Mandy Hiscocks after the 2010 anti-g20 movement infiltration (order the publication from [Kersplebedeb](https://kersplebedeb.com/posts/basic-politics-of-movement-security/), & also at [AK Press](https://www.akpress.org/basic-politics-of-movement-security.html) & [Left Wing Books](https://www.leftwingbooks.net/book/content/basic-politics-movement-security)) 
{Another reflection from that time: [*Unmasked: Searching for lessons in Toronto's 2010 G20 debacle*](https://maisonneuve.org/article/2013/03/6/unmasked/), by Andrea Bennett, 2013}
- [*"No More Rock Stars: how to stop abuse in tech communities"*](https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/21/no-more-rock-stars/) (2016)
- ["Activist Information Security"](https://fugitive.keybase.pub//Zines/Security/activist-info-sec-IMPOSED.pdf) (Imposed A4 booklet version) October 2016, by Anarchist Black Cross Dresden
- memesurrection thread: [things that ought to raise a red flag in your head](https://kolektiva.social/@The_cumming_memesurrection/107107448339941365)
- [the 'P2P Left code of conduct'](https://gist.github.com/wolfhesse/ae607b5cd7d140dd445150fca590a470) (~2018)
- The [kolektiva.social code of conduct](https://kolektiva.social/about) (2021) including statements regarding their collective's approach to moderation on their Mastodon instance, comments on "SAFETY AND DANGER ON THE FEDIVERSE"
- ["Mobile Phone Security for Activists and Agitators"](https://opsec.riotmedicine.net/static/downloads/mobile-phone-security.pdf) by Håkan Geijer (2022)
- *Autistici-Inventati [A/I]* [Manifesto](https://www.autistici.org/who/manifesto) (2023)
--see also their [Anonymity Howtos](https://www.autistici.org/docs/anon/) and their [Anonymous Remailer](https://remailer.paranoici.org/index.php)
- Pineapple Proxy's list of [Manifestos we like to sing](https://pnproxy.org/Undystopian-manifesto.html)
- [RiotMedicine.net](https://riotmedicine.net) Free manuals and zines on security culture and [OpSec](https://opsec.riotmedicine.net)
- No Trace Project (Spain): [Handbook for Exposing an Undercover Cop](https://www.notrace.how/resources/read/handbook-for-exposing-an-undercover-cop.html) (2025)
## Organizing
### Horizontal Processes:

- [Anarchic Rules: A guide to the process of constitutionalising and group forming](https://anarchyrules.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Anarchic-Agreements-Seeds-for-Change-and-Anarchy-Rules-1.pdf)
- [Anarchic Rules #2: A guide to the process of forming coalitions and networks](https://anarchyrules.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Anarchic-Agreements-II-2019.pdf)
- [Indigenous Anarchic Hierarchy](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/eepa-indigenous-anarchic-hierarchy) as referred to in this helpful article of [Creeker Zine](https://creekerzine.wordpress.com/) 4, called ["Water Falling on Granite: Deference Politics, Indigenous Leadership, and Anarchist Relationality"](https://creekerzine.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/water-falling-on-granite-1.0-web-clean.pdf) (2020) see also ["The Dawn of Everything"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_of_Everything) (2021, Graeber, Wengrow - [free pdf](https://blackbooksdotpub.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/david-graeber-david-wengrow-the-dawn-of-everything_-a-new-history-of-humanity-farrar-straus-and-giroux-2021.pdf))
- [Full Spectrum Resistance](https://fullspectrumresistance.org/the-book/) Aric McBay (2018)
- *Seeds for Change* [Consensus Decision Making](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/seeds-for-change-consensus-decision-making) this also refers to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, whose original "Great Law of Peace" united many nations and was counted as a key inspiration for the US constitution. 
- On this Great Law/agreement, the Kayenere:kowa, here are some notes on preliminary best practices in trying to sit down together... particularly see the section: "Sewatohkwat – The Dish with One Spoon / Beaver Bowl Treaties" in the [Kanyen’kehá:ka handbook **Tsi niyonkwarihotens (Customary Law and Practice) Regarding Economy and Medicine**](https://web.archive.org/web/20190307015853/http://www.dustingoffthepath.com/index.php/2019/02/12/kanyenkehaka-tsi-niyonkwarihotens-customary-law-and-practice-regarding-economy-and-medicine/#h.832it4654uv4) from [DustingOffThePath.com in 2019](https://web.archive.org/web/20190307015853/http://www.dustingoffthepath.com/index.php/2019/02/12/kanyenkehaka-tsi-niyonkwarihotens-customary-law-and-practice-regarding-economy-and-medicine/): "Many of the protocols within Sewatohkwat have an ancient history stretching back to the foundation of the Kayenere:kowa, the constitution developed by the Rotinonhsonnitonh (they who have built the house)." See also NEFAC's Stephen Arthur's, [Anarchist Study of the Rotinonshón:ni Polity: “Where License Reigns With All Impunity”](https://web.archive.org/web/20080720013941/http://nefac.net/anarchiststudyofiroquois)
- *It's Going Down*: [On the Need for an Anarchist Federation](https://itsgoingdown.org/on-the-need-for-an-anarchist-federation/)
- a classic, from 1971, [Jo Freeman's, *"The Tyranny of Structureless"*](https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm), then read Cathy Levine's excellent response *[The Tyranny of Tyranny](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/cathy-levine-the-tyranny-of-tyranny)* Originally published in “Black Rose”, number 1, Spring/1974 (Rising Free Collective)
- [ABC's of Organizing](https://www.rlmartstudio.com/product/abcs-of-organizing/), 1993 poster by Ricardo Levins Morales:
 ![](https://i.imgur.com/PfBMvWK.jpg) 


See also: especifismo, platformism, direct action

### Direct Action 

- ***Libertarian Labor Review*** (later the *Anarcho-Syndicalist Review*). This magazine started in 1987. The table of contents of all issues are online at the ASR website, but only scattered articles have been digitized so far. 
Harald-Beyer Arnesen, ["Direct Action: Towards an Understanding of a Concept,"](https://syndicalist.us/2012/08/01/direct-action-towards-an-understanding-of-a-concept/) *Anarcho-Syndicalist Review*, #29, Summer 2000.

- ***Ideas and Action:***
This magazine began in 1982. It was published by the *Workers Solidarity Alliance*. Here again, the contents of the issues are online at their website, but only scattered essays have been digitized. Here is one about direct action, but from a later date:
["The Bay Area Direct Action Network -- A Postmortem,"](https://www.dropbox.com/s/si3kvlb93ix5lz9/issue%2016%20Bay%20Area%20DAM.pdf?dl=0) *Ideas and Action*, No. 16, Fall, 1991, by Mike Kolhoff

- Mitchel Cohen, *What is Direct Action?* A famous **Red Balloon Collective** pamphlet from 1988 (out of Brooklyn) [republish link](http://news.thoughtcrimespress.org/node/11)

- ***The Freedom Press*** newspapers, including those from the '70s and '80s, have now been digitized and are available at:
https://freedomnews.org.uk/archive/

### Theatre of the Oppressed

- Theory: Theatre of the Oppressed in the [Beautiful Trouble](https://www.beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/#/tool/theatre-of-the-oppressed) Toolbox 
“The theatre itself is not revolutionary: It is a rehearsal for the revolution.” ~ Augusto Boal (here's some [links to resources about his work](https://hemisphericinstitute.org/en/hidvl-collections/itemlist/category/393-boal.html) and [Boal's Institute](http://acervoaugustoboal.com.br/) in Brazil)
- [What is the Theatre of the Oppressed?](http://actingnow.co.uk/what-is-theatre-of-the-oppressed/)
![image: tree of the Theatre of the Oppressed](https://i.imgur.com/qEZ2ao0.jpg)
For further details on the [specific methods above, including the Rainbow of Desire](https://imaginaction.org/media/our-methods/theatre-of-the-oppressed-2)
- [Praxis Makes Perfect](https://www.beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/#/tool/praxis-makes-perfect) "Organizers should have the praxis cycle spinning in their heads all the time. We are always learning from what’s going on around us. The point of building a culture of praxis in your group, however, is so your whole group can learn, not just a couple of organizers. When you develop your theory (your plan and your goals) with your group, and then have a real debrief after, the lessons are available to all."

### Affinity Group - based

-Crimethinc's (2017) "[How to form an Affinity Group](https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/06/how-to-form-an-affinity-group-the-essential-building-block-of-anarchist-organization)"

### Tactics and Strategy - Labour

***Processed World***
This was one of my favorite anarchist magazines of the '80s. The whole run is now online. I read through the table of contents for the 12 issues that I own but didn't see any articles with "direct action" in the title. Still, there is a lot of good stuff on labor. Their focus was on the workplace. (review via James Herod, but also obviously one of Gidget Digit's favourites)
http://www.processedworld.com/index_covers.html

#### Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
- IWW [note on tactics](https://archive.iww.org/about/official/StJohn/8/)
- "Strategy and tactics" [tagged articles](https://ecology.iww.org/taxonomy/term/1788) from the Environmental Unionist Caucus of the IWW (including "a [Just Transition and Extractive Industry Workers"](https://ecology.iww.org/node/4153)
- An IWW pamphlet from 1974 [How To Sack Your Boss: A Workers Guide to Direct Action](https://libcom.org/files/How%20to%20sack%20your%20boss%20A%20workers%20guide%20to%20direct%20action.pdf)
- some [notes on the contradictions](https://organizing.work/2020/12/the-problem-with-1199s-advice-to-rookie-organizers/) in the SEIU's "Advice to Rookie Organizers"