Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

you respect their judgment and are wilhng to adjust your plans according to their perspectives. Inevitably, some individuals will have more experience in a given field than others, and will be able to offer more pragmatic advice. At the same time, avoid a dynamic in which everyone in the group counts on one or two members to get the dirty Sabotage work done; this centralizes skills that are better developed by all, and can result in your 438 group developing an unhealthy, hierarchical structure.

Planning and carrying out acts of sabotage requires tight security; before even considering such an action, a group should be thoroughly versed in Security Culture (pg. 461). From the very beginning, you'll need to establish safe meeting places to lay plans. Ideally, these will be outside, or at least in a safe space not under any kind of surveillance or connected to any knovra activists. You may want to develop a cipher for communicating about the action, or a pretext for getting together; but beware, a clumsy code is worse than none at all, and saying you're going to a wedding when no wedding is taking place can arouse more suspicion than it dispels. Keep your interactions vidth long-term companions in illegal activity to a minimum; go to see them in person when necessary, so there is no record of your association. It can be surprisingly easy to keep certain relationships and meetings secret simply by never mentioning them over email or telephone lines.

If everyone is really concerned about information leaks and has great confidence in a small team of organizers, this team can withhold the identity of the target until the last possible point in the planning phase. The drawback to this approach is that it centralizes important information, which can unbalance group dynamics, increase risks, and put off possible participants. It is most useful for low-risk actions that are open to many participants, or high-risk actions to be carried out by a tight-knit team; for newer groups carrying out actions of mid-level risk, it can be important that everyone involved participate in every stage of the discussion and planning.

Security

As soon as the core group of participants is established, you can begin holding meetings. Make sure everyone is happy with the format you choose for these (see "Facilitating Discussions" in Affinity Groups, pg. 28), and that it is efficient and goal-oriented. At the first one, you should estabUsh the target, goals, security culture, and maximum level of risk, and work out how you will continue to get together. In the following meetings,

Planning

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scouts can share intelligence, and individuals can make tactical proposals for the group to amend until they comprise a plan with which everyone is comfortable.

Such a plan must cover the full range of scenarios from best to worst case; the group should establish in advance under what circumstances they will call off the action. Don't underestimate your power?^small numbers of people with litde funding can accomplish tremendous objectives?but be realistic. You should also establish structures to meet the needs of the action group; these can include communications, scouting, legal support, supplies, food and housing, and media work. Individuals can choose roles within this framework, and sub-groups can form to focus on bottomlining specific tasks. Avoid letting routines develop in which the same individuals always take on the same tasks; the more skills each participant develops, the better.

If the group organizing the action is composed of people from different regions, the locals will bear a larger portion of the responsibility to carry out reconnaissance; it may consequently be easier for them to compose plans, as well. Locals should be conscious of the potential imbalance of power this can create, and take care to extend to others whatever information and control they can. For security reasons, it can be wise to establish an exchange program, in which one group organizes an action in its local area for another to carry out, and vice versa. Repression will be directed at those activists closest to the target area, but they can have airtight alibis in place.

Action Camp

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In the last few days before a serious action, there is often a lot to do. This is particularly challenging when security concerns dictate that you and your companions should not be seen together during this period, especially not hard at work on some mysterious project; it may even be necessary to hide the presence of participants who have arrived from far away. To solve these problems, you can organize an action camp: in a secure

location, such as the private lands of a trustworthy individual w^ho can be counted on not