Movement & Small Unit Tactics

 Transport Union workers at Occupy Wall Street

What would a movement look like that was cooperative? It would be slow moving, which often doesn’t lend well to struggle, where rapid decisions have to be made. However, a movement that has clearly established objectives, priorities, & targets can act rapidly through small units & individuals.  Small unit tactics in war: giving objectives, priorities, targets, no-go zones, & areas of operation. These tactics offer movements a flexible & rapid decision-making process. In war, a small unit can run virtually on their own, reeking havoc behind enemy lines or finding, fixing & engaging the enemy until larger forces can join. In movement, small units & individuals who act based on the consensus can keep the target off-balance & unable to fix & destroy the movement.

How would this work in a people’s struggle? One way that this would work would be through consensus. The consensus of an organized movement would establish the priorities, the targets, the objectives, & the areas of operation. The movement would have to build consensus on the objective first. The simpler the objective, the easier the consensus would be. So in current times, the focus of the Occupy movement on the 1% was the target, but the objective was more amorphous & vague. If they had focused their objective as exposing inequality to create alternative ways to build a more equitable society, they might have maintained consensus & their actions would have continued past the destruction of the camps & the dissolution that came after the organized response to Sandy. The problem came when the consensus broke down around the objective. There were some who sought to end the fed, to apply a tax on the wealthy, to increase spending on the poor, & more. If the movement had remained around exposing inequality, it might have survived. 

This is where the consensus process must be aligned to reach a simple, tangible, & popular goal. The #blacklivesmatter movement has done a better job of staying focused on a singular & popular goal: exposing the violent responses of police forces to people of color. More importantly, by staying true to their objective of exposing & protesting this disparity in policing, they have enlarged their movement to include larger and larger populations of individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Not all their tactics have consensus, but they have remained focused on the objective of making Americans more & more aware of the divisive & racist policing policies that occur in our poorest neighborhoods & cities. 

When I speak of tactics & analyze how to use military tactics in a movement, I am not suggesting violent revolution. Quite the contrary. Only a peaceful movement will ever achieve a real revolution of the human society from government to governance. It will require active, informed, & critical thinking individuals who don’t become ensnared by the illusion of power. The last part will be the hardest to eliminate, the allure of power & control. This is at the heart of the human condition & the very part of our species that must be overcome, to use Nietzsche’s language of overcoming & achieving the Uberman. 

The tactics of small units however can be applied to maintain movement at the grassroots level. Let’s explore some of the ways that small unit tactics can be used in movement to achieve the goals of the movement. First, the objective must be established. In military tactics, the objective is a geographic feature, a hill, a river, a city. With a clear objective, the small unit can determine their individual route & methods to take & hold the objective. In movement, the objective is directly related to the target. Taking the #blacklivesmatter movement as a model, the objective is to bear witness, to shed light, & to make the policing practices overt & constantly in the eyes of the public, not letting these racist & misguided policies hide. The movement hasn’t necessarily arrived at an articulated consensus, but the fact that more & more videos of police actions find their way into social media, into mainstream media, & optimally into the courtroom shows that a consensus exists among a large & growing demographic. So the small unit tactic of identifying a clear objective allows small units of the movement, even individuals, to maneuver & engage in unique methods. What I see more & more consistently are people in neighborhoods stopping to watch the actions & policing of the police forces. The most recent case where a man recognized that a situation between police & citizens was escalating & began filming the engagement led to the arrest & arraignment of the policeman who shot Walter Scott in the back. This is successful small unit tactics to achieve the objective. 

Once an objective has found consensus, the next area of small unit tactics is priorities. In a military sense, priorities might include speed, minimizing friendly casualties, & conserving ammunition. In a movement priorities might include remaining peaceful, prevention or minimization of violence by the target against members of the movement, & exposure in the public eye. In the #blacklivesmatter movement, these priorities might mean bearing witness & videoing any & all engagements between the police & citizens, remaining peaceful, & preventing the police from perpetrating excessive force by exposing the situation to potential & proximate individuals. Priorities allow small units & individuals to take actions with the objective in mind & the priorities clearly established. Marches & demonstrations develop & organize based on the priorities. Tactics & intermediate objectives can be planned & pursued by small units or individuals. For example the groups that created & practiced the #blackbrunch tactic sought intermediate objectives & maintained the priorities of the larger #blacklivesmatter movement. They exposed the illegitimate policing policies & forced the public to take notice. They remained peaceful & videoed the actions to spread through social media. The success or failure of a particular tactic can be assessed & evaluated by the small unit & the whole movement for repeating or discarding. However any small unit action that focuses on the objective & the priorities of the larger consensus will benefit the movement & not damage the movement. 

Next post will discuss the other elements of small unit tactics. This is a rough work, & I welcome feedback & comments!