##Counter-insurgency and Surveillance
###Background
This conversation was initially centered around surveillance, but as that conversation evolved to include a historical context as well as the present-day stalker-state, we decided that ultimately this is a conversation about counterinsurgency.
What Is The Purpose of Counterinsurgency/Surveillance? In short, it's to disempower. A longer description of purpose includes intentions to discredit, disrupt, neutralize, & dismantle social movements or traditionally marginalized communities.
Often, the purpose of counterinsurgency (debilitation of movements) is abetted by nonprofits whose definitions of safety and reform are at odds with dismantling violent elements of the state. We have seen in both Los Angeles and Chicago grassroots movements suffer setbacks due to professionalized nonprofits engaging institutions of power to make side-deals based in reform rather than abolition.
###What Would We Like To See? We want abolition of all state interventions that prevent communities from being able to take power.
A starting point would be shifting money from counterinsurgency-cum-policing to programs such as longer library hours, community selected gang-intervention workers, job programs for anyone seeking employment, food programs which are sensitive to the cultural pathways of communities, and towards the building of community first responders trained in mental health and violence de-escalation.
###What About Federal Surveillance? While federal law enforcement entities are the principle collectors and aggregators of data used for counterinsurgency, our experience is that local law enforcement is the "edge of the knife". This means that while we are concerned with and committed to abolishing federal counterinsurgency/surveillance, our immediate commitment, capacity, and desire is to defend local communities.
This focus manifests itself by working on holistic initiatives for community security and defense which are not centered on technologies used but on what the community seeks to accomplish. All our conversations about technology must reaffirm that power is within community, not within the tools we use.
###How Do We Build Power? We build power by being clear in our demands that instruments of state violence be abolished, not reformed or refined.
We build power by centering Native and Black experience with counterinsurgency over that of other communities, not to diminish the experience of others, but to recognize the historic resistance of Black and Native communities to counterinsurgency.
We build power by challenging our notions of privacy and rights by learning the histories of communities who constantly have to fight for theses "inalienable" rights such as Native, Black, queer, and poor communities. It is our commitment to be critical even when using the human rights framework.
We also build power by reassessing our language when speaking about counterinsurgency to make sure our language is appropriate for the communities we are in relationship with.
###Lessons Learned
- Never trust nonprofits blindly
- Never trust politicians
- Avoid legislative process
- Model legislation often legitimates bad legislation
- Community safety efforts take time and substantial effort
- Digital security conversations should be framed within "power, not paranoia"
- The need for operational security should never block the need to bring people into organizing efforts
- In an environment of dragnet surveillance, digital tools are suspect but so are the facilities we use to meet.
- Speaking about infiltration must be done in a way that raises awareness but also creates greater community rather than suspicion.
- Cooperation with law enforcement is dangerous
###Action Items
- Conduct digital security trainings using the "power, not paranoia" framework
- Educate communities regarding the historic disruption of liberation movements
- Explore local and practicable alternatives to 9-1-1 for emergencies
- Identify an event or geography which could become a cop-free zone
- Conduct cross-skills training within the Counterinsurgency working group with the goal of building capacity for training interested communities
- Evaluate data we collect and communication practices in this work to identify how we can improve our practices for greater safety/security