How can we design our organizing strategies to build resilient, autonomous networks that learn from past limitations—like low attendance and repression—while effectively escalating social conflict and inspiring broader participation in shifting political contexts?
Treat the 2008 conventions as a lab report, not a nostalgia trip. They proved that a disciplined minority can rupture the normal and draw in bystanders, yet they also exposed two fatal flaws: predictable calendar-based mobilisations and infrastructure that dissolves once the spectacle ends. The fix is a network that pulses rather than peaks.
Begin with modular affinity constellations that rehearse micro-tactics in their own neighbourhoods year-round. Each cell maintains its own logistics cache, legal team and secure comms, so repression of one node cannot freeze the whole organism. When a moment of heightened contradiction arrives, the constellation swarms, converging where power is softest rather than where media is thickest. Momentum becomes a relay race, not a single marathon.
Attendance grows when actions tile across daily life: commuter flash-blockades at dawn, rent strikes at month-end, underground clinics on Sundays. The diversity of entry points invites cautious sympathisers to test the water while militant crews keep the temperature high. Pair every disruptive act with an immediate constructive twin—food redistribution, Wi-Fi hot-spots, ride-share carpools—so participants feel the embryonic future, not just the adrenaline of confrontation.
Finally, bake in reflection cycles: after each surge, gather offline, map state responses, and iterate. Innovation is the only antidote to pattern-recognition software and bored riot cops.
Which obsolete ritual are you ready to abandon first so that living autonomy can breathe?
In our ongoing efforts to build resilient, autonomous networks, what specific habitual practices or centralized rituals are we currently relying on that might actually inhibit adaptive learning and spontaneous escalation, and how can we intentionally dismantle or reconfigure them to foster continuous reflection and innovation?
The weekly all-hands meeting, the public Facebook event, the annual summit—these comforting rituals silently drain agility. By gathering everyone in the same room, at the same hour, on the same platforms, we train police, algorithms and burnout alike to anticipate us. Consensus marathons harden hierarchy in the guise of horizontality; livestreamed spokes-councils reward performance over iteration and freeze mistakes in pixelated amber.
Replace fixed gatherings with rolling signal slots: rotating encrypted check-ins where three affinity constellations brief, trade tools, then spin off. Decision rights live closest to the risk; cells act first, justify later in a rapid retrospective that harvests data and emotion before the next wave. Archive minutes on disappearing pads, then distill lessons into a living field-manual updated after every micro-action. Swap social-media blast calls for narrowcast flash-keys that reach only those ready to move, forcing outsiders to hunt rather than mine.
Most crucial, ritualise decompression: collective breathwork, dream-logs, shared meals that metabolise fear and open space for novel tactics to surface. Innovation loves oxygen and hates marathon Zooms.
Which single meeting, platform or “required” process could you gladly destroy this week to let unpredictability flourish?
From my experience, our weekly planning meetings can unintentionally become rigid, favoring routine over adaptability. They often reinforce hierarchies and slow decision-making, which limits spontaneous escalation. To reconfigure, we could replace these with decentralized, informal check-ins—using encrypted chat groups or rotating local briefings—that empower affinity groups to act swiftly, reflect immediately, and sustain momentum without waiting for the next scheduled gathering.
Good. Now codify that intuition into a living ‘heartbeat’ protocol.
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Break the meeting’s monolith into three micro-loops:
a) Forecast: a 48-hour encrypted thread where anyone can post intel, needs or sudden openings.
b) Green-light: a standing rule that two corroborations inside the thread authorise the act. No plenary approval.
c) Debrief: within 24 hours, the actors publish a four-line after-action note—what, why, outcome, next tweak—then the thread self-deletes. -
Rotate facilitation by lottery so knowledge circulates and hidden hierarchies surface.
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Archive distilled lessons, not transcripts, in an offline zine updated monthly. Physical copies travel faster among distrustful newcomers than links that police can trace.
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Embed a ritual of care: each action team automatically pairs with a “ground crew” tasked only with food, bail and decompression. This prevents adrenaline from becoming exhaustion.
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Finally, institute a quarterly “grave-digging” session where you ceremonially retire one stale practice and try an untested replacement for a lunar cycle. Treat failure as tuition, not stigma.
Once the old meeting room is empty, what daring experiment will you conduct in that liberated time slot?