text: InFocus: Anarchist militants publish “street warfare” manualA Portland, Oregon-based revolutionary anarchist website earlier this month published a “street warfare” manual that applies military doctrine to anarchist direct action demonstrations. The manual lists three military objectives that can be applied to street-level fighting with police: neutralization of enemy personnel, area denial, and resource denial.Neutralization of enemy personnel is flipped around as a defensive objective: to keep one’s own side from being arrested, killed, or wounded. The manual dissuades an “active shooting war” because the Far Left lacks the capability. Instead, the manual points out that wounding of law enforcement has been common in Portland, and suggests that this is a minor reason for law enforcement officers leaving the force. The manual points out that this is a strategic victory, and encourages anarchists to find ways to cause disloyalty or loss of morale among the police.Area denial is used as a teaching point for defending anarchist territory from law enforcement incursion. The manual explains that holding territory should not be an anarchist objective, as forcing police into a retreat often leads to military involvement if police cannot retake an area. Typically, police have been able to push back anarchists in Portland, as the anarchists are ‘poorly armed, relatively few in number, and too disorganized’ to hold out against a deliberate police assault. According to the manual, it would then be better to use guerrilla tactics against an occupying force. One popular tactic in Portland has been misdirection, where an anarchist direct action will draw a large police presence in one area, while another contingent of anarchists will attack or loot in another area. As a teaching point, the “Whose streets? Our streets!” chant has been used to gauge a mob’s morale, as a louder response signals the mob is ready to take on police while a less enthusiastic response means the mob is not willing. Attempts to change this chant are discouraged.Resource denial most often means stealing or ruining the supplies of an adversary, e.g., the police. The same principle that applies to armed guerrilla conflict — stealing resources most often means equipping your own guerrilla force — still applies to low-intensity street warfare, according to the manual. In addition to stealing resources, vandalizing and setting fires to buildings forces the police to waste resources — time and money — with virtually no monetary cost to the anarchists. The manual points out that militant anarchist bands are generally poor at operationalizing this third objective. Instead of attacking police by throwing bricks and glass bottles, the manual encourages anarchists to attack more strategic targets, as in one case, while police were distracted elsewhere, anarchists cut through a fence at a police parking lot and disabled police vehicles.The manual calls for the development of a grand strategy, although the author(s) admits that there is no longer a strategic opening for anarchist revolution following the end of the 2020 Floyd riots. Ultimately, the end goal — abolishment of police — is at least for now a lost cause, according to the manual, because support for police has increased since last year. While the manual calls for continued low-intensity street warfare against police, there are other avenues the militant anarchist movement should pursue, such as ecological terrorism or fighting back against eviction and immigration enforcement.Analyst Comment: This fall, I pointed to this shift in strategy, away from street level warfare to eco-sabotage, mutual aid, and intelligence gathering. For some background, see the 28 September 2021 Early Warning report entitled “Climate action groups to expand sabotage” and the 09 November 2021 Early Warning report entitled “Far Left activities through 2021.”