I want to learn how to manage in a potential future with extreme political suppression of communists / socialists, like making it impossible to work anywhere, arbitrary arrests, physical abuse, potential torture etc Are there any Marxists that wrote about that?
My country, especially the village I’m from and the village I live in are severely surveilled and attacked by the Zionist settler-colonial entity. While it’s less physical (on the ground interactions), it’s still important to watch out what you say online on questionably encrypted, mainstream social media. In addition, MK surveillance drones are a constant worry for resistance members, as well as other targets.
So, I’ll try to address how to avoid those:
First, online:
Try avoiding proprietary software as much as possible. Use Searx instead of Google, a secure, open source, and private browser, etc…
If you are going to use proprietary software, try running it in a closeted, separate environment separate from the rest of the system and generally be cautious.
Next, operating system:
If for some reason you already aren’t, use GNU+Linux. Try to avoid distros with clear links to corporations or/and governments, but even those are better than windows or macOS.
Phone:
If you can, try replacing the default OS with a private and secure alternative.
Take batteries out when not in use.
Irl:
Hide face
Change clothing or small stuff that you had in another place. A lot of people police search for are caught because of a minor detail.
Ps:
I’m speaking in being hunted type of situations. I don’t follow all of these and don’t expect you to do unless you have to.
Also, not an expert on this, so take it with a grain of salt. This is just from my basic knowledge and experience.
Stay safe comrade o7
On the technological side I have already been doing all of that for several years now. I use 4get for searching and deleted all social media accouts, Google and Amazon. I even plan to use Linux on my phone in the coming weeks.
A few old Bolsheviks wrote biographies that will give you clear, concrete details of underground activity. See “Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik” by Cecilia Bobrovskaya
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bobrovskaya/twenty-years/index.htm
Tyvm 👍
Russian Empire
HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION (BOLSHEVIKS) by Commission of the C.C. of the C.P.S.U.(B.) and Joseph Stalin.
China
FIFTEEN YEARS OF STRUGGLE FOR THE INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE by Wang Ming
A Concise History of the Communist Party of China by Hu Sheng
Thanl you very much, also for the video link. Much appreciated
The Imperialist Aggressors Can Never Enslave The Heroic Vietnamese People by Ho Chi Minh works well. “ACHIEVEMENTS RECORDED BY THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM” has some info during a repressive colonial regime.
Also From General Strike to Uprising, Part 1 | Lessons of the Moscow Uprising (1906) by Lenin. Audiobook has some clarifying commentary. Has information about swaying the opinions of soldiers, and how to move forward from protests.
There were these guys called the bolsheviks, might wanna look into them
Read about the First Red Scare (1917-1920) and the Second Red Scare (1940s-1950s) in the US. Heavy suppression can be so subtle that most people don’t even notice. Trump is currently threatening to invoke the Sedition Act; most USans don’t even know what it is even though its been around for 100 years.
Jakarta Method is not exactly that, but it’s adjacent enough to warrant mentioning.
Oh! Forgot to tell you. There’s also this video.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Maybe minimanual of the urban guerilla has some information (on prolewiki). It’ll be more tangential but the tactics are similar - operate underground in a way that if you are arrested and searched, they can not find anything on you. Total Resistance comes to mind too, unfortunately the only english PDF was scanned weird and some of the smaller text in the graphics doesn’t display. https://mega.nz/file/HrA1gYQT#fkwvQxea0jg5yAWM-pzgSGotAG0Syw8oZ_K1wdpLr3I
Safe houses that you know you can go to, hidden spaces in your home, decentralized infrastructure and cell-system on the structure - each cell is linked to a cell leader and they operate mostly independently, so that if one cell gets taken down the other cells can still operate. In the age of the cell phone and internet this means no online presence and digital for you.
It starts off as a book club, either overt or underground depending on what is allowed or not (iirc Capital was initially allowed in Russia because they felt it wouldn’t be a threat). Underground means underground - you have to be patient, cautious and not let complacence take in. People get vetted into the book club piecemeal. Out of those you recruit promising members and hold even more secret book clubs and agitation work with them. This is where safe houses come in; you have to store material and produce it somewhere, and it can’t be at your house. Don’t use your home printer, the origin is easily traceable. They used to get their own printing presses (there were presses of all sizes) and print in safe houses. Also one thing people used to do, and this is in Total Resistance (which is funny because it’s allegedly not a communist book at all but so much of it fits with revolutionary activity that I have to wonder what the author truly believed), was type out their agitprop on typewriters and add instructions at the end to type out your own copies and pass them on. You never keep anything too long; burn instructions when you receive them and stir the ashes.
Complacence is how Ho Chi Minh slipped out of France and back to Vietnam. For months he had the exact same daily routine, to the point the police (he was being followed all the time by 2 officers) eventually started getting complacent. One day after work instead of going to the library as usual, he quickly hopped on a different bus and went to the train station where someone was waiting for him with tickets out of the country.
