Struggle has many faces. But no two faces look alike. Like the Cubists, we must look at things from many sides. The problem is to find ways of creating space for ourselves. The tendency now is toward two-sidedness which is embedded in every aspect of our lives. Our language poses questions by making us choose between opposites. The imperialist creates the anti- imperialist. Before 'cool' there was hot and cold. 'Cool' was the first attempt to break out of two sidedness. Two-sidedness always minimises the dimensions of struggle by narrowly defining the situation. We end up with a one dimensional view of the enemy and of ourselves.
Learn to be shrewd. Our first impulse is always to define our position. Why do we feel the need to tell them? We create space by not appearing to be what we really are.
Shrewdness is not simply a defensive tactic. The essence of shrewdness is learning to take advantage of the enemy's weaknesses. Otherwise you can never win. The rule is: be honest among yourselves, but deceive the enemy.
There are at least three ways of dealing with a situation. You can neutralise, activate, or destroy. Neutralise is to create space. Activate is to gain support. Destroy is to win. What's more, it is essential to learn how to use all three simultaneously.
Struggle on many levels begins with the activation of all the senses. We must be able to conceive of more than one mode of acting for a given situation. The response, i.e. method of struggle, should contain three elements:
The fundamental tendency of corporate liberalism is to identify with social change while trying to contain it. Wouldn't it be ironic (and even a relief) if we could turn the threat of co-option into a means of survival?
The fear of co-option often leads people to shun the challenge of corporate liberals. Some of the purest revolutionaries prefer not to think about using the co-opter for their own purposes. Too often the mentality of the 'job' obscures the potential for subversion.
The existence of corporate liberalism demands that we not be sloppy in our own thinking and response. The strength of the position is that it forces us to acknowledge our own weaknesses - even before we engage in struggle against it. The worst mistake is to pretend that this enemy does not exist.
Urban struggle requires a subversive strategy. Concretely, working 'within the system' should become for us a source of money, information, and anonymity. This is what Mao means when he says, "Move at night." The routine of daily life is night-time for the enemy - when he cannot see us. The process of co-option should become an increasingly disquieting exercise for them.
Exploiting splits within the enemy camp does not mean helping one segment defeat another. The basic aim is to maintain the splits. There are significant differences among the oppressors. These have the effect of weakening them. Under certain circumstances these splits may provide a margin of manoeuvrability which may be strategic for us. The main thing is not to view the enemy monolithically. Monolithic thinking condemns you to one way of acting.
There is a tendency to see the most degenerate forms of reaction as the primary enemy. The corporations are consciously pandering to such ideas through films like Easy Rider which also attempts to identify with young males. The function of analysis is to break down and specify the different forces within the enemy camp.
The spaces created by these splits are of crucial importance to the preparation of a long range strategy. It will be increasingly difficult to survive with the visibility that we are accustomed to. The lifestyles which declare our opposition are also the ones which make us easy targets. We must not mistake the level of appearances for new cultures. The whole point is not to make a fetish of our lifestyles. In the psychedelic atmosphere of repression, square is cool.
Always keep part of your strategy underground. Just as analysis helps to differentiate the enemy so it should provide you with different levels of attack. Mao says: "flexibility is a concrete expression of initiative."
Going underground should not mean dropping heroically out of sight. There will be few places to hide in the electronic environment of the future. The most dangerous kind of underground will be one that is like an Iceberg. The roles created to replace our identities in everyday life must become the disguise of the underground.
An underground strategy puts the impulse of confrontation into perspective. We must fight against the planned obsolescence of confrontations which lock us into the time-span of instant revolution. Going underground means having a long range strategy - something which plans for 2004. The Iceberg strategy keeps us cool. It trains us to control our reflexes and calculate our responses.
The underground strategy is also necessary to maintain autonomy. Autonomy preserves the organisational form of the collective, which is critical to the sharpening of its politics. Nothing will be achieved by submerging ourselves in a chaos of revolutionary fronts. The principle strategy of the counterfeit Left will be to smear over differences with appeals to a class unity that no longer exists. An underground strategy without a revolutionary form of organisation can only emerge as a new class society. To destroy the system of oppression is not enough. We must create the organisation of a free society. When the underground emerges, the collective will be that society.