From: Pallas Anonymous Remailer <athena@cyberpass.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 10:23:59 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: bears repeating, part 2
Message-ID: <b866346c384c1b913d357caccbc3670b@anonymous>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



another try:

An alternative to the pyramid form of organization is the cell system. In the past, many political
groups (both left and right) have used the cell system to further their objectives. Two examples will
suffice. During the American Revolution, "committees of correspondence" were formed throughout
the Thirteen Colonies. Their purpose was to subvert the government and thereby aid the cause of
independence. The "Sons of Liberty," who made a name for themselves by dumping government
taxed tea into the harbor at Boston, were the action arm of the committees of correspondence. Each
committee was a secret cell that operated totally independently of the other cells. Information on the
government was passed from committee to committee, from colony to colony, and then acted upon
on a local basis. Yet even in those bygone days of poor communication, of weeks to months for a
letter to be delivered, the committees, without any central direction whatsoever, were remarkably
similar in tactics employed to resist government tyranny. It was, as the first American Patriots knew,
totally unnecessary for anyone to give an order for anything. Information was made available to each
committee, and each committee acted as it saw fit.

A recent example of the cell system taken from the left wing of politics are the Communists. The
Communists, in order to get around the obvious problems involved in pyramidal organization,
developed to an art the cell system. They had numerous independent cells which operated completely
isolated from one another and particularly with no knowledge of each other, but were orchestrated
together by a central headquarters. For instance, during WWII, in Washington, it is known that there
were at least six secret Communist cells operating at high levels in the United States government (plus
all the open Communists who were protected and promoted by President Roosevelt), however, only
one of the cells was rooted out and destroyed. How many more actually were operating, no one can
say for sure.

The Communist cells which operated in the U.S. until late 1991 under Soviet control could have at
their command a leader who held a social position which appeared to be very lowly. He could be,
for example, a busboy in a restaurant, but in reality a colonel or a general in the Soviet Secret
Service, the KGB. Under him could be a number of cells, and a person active in one cell would
almost never have knowledge of individuals who were active in other cells; in fact, the members of
the other cells would be supporting that cell which was under attack and ordinarily would lend very
strong support to it in many ways. This is at least part of the reason, no doubt, that whenever in the
past Communists were attacked in this country, support for them sprang up in many unexpected
places.

The effective and efficient operation of a cell system after the Communist model is, of course,
dependent upon central direction, which means impressive organization, funding from the top, and
outside support, all of which the Communists had. Obviously, American patriots have none of these
things at the top or anywhere else, and so an effective cell organization based upon the Soviet system
of operation is impossible.

Two things become clear from the above discussion. First, that the pyramid form of organization can
be penetrated quite easily and it thus is not a sound method of organization in situations where the
government has the resources and desire to penetrate the structure, which is the situation in this
country. Secondly, that the normal qualifications for the cell structure based upon the Red model
does not exist in the U.S. for patriots. This understood, the question arises "What method is left for
those resisting state tyranny?"

The answer comes from Col. Amoss who proposed the "Phantom Cell" mode of organization which
he described as Leaderless Resistance. A system of organization that is based upon the cell
organization, but does not have any central control or direction, that is in fact almost identical to the
methods used by the committees of correspondence during the American Revolution. Utilizing the
Leaderless Resistance concept, all individuals and groups operate independently of each other, and
never report to a central head-quarters or single leader for direction or instruction, as would those
who belong to a typical pyramid organization.

At first glance, such a form of organization seems unrealistic, primarily because there appears to be
no organization. The natural question thus arises as to how are the "Phantom Cells" and individuals to
cooperate with each other when there is no inter-communication or central direction? The answer to
this question is that participants in a program of leaderless resistance through "Phantom Cell" or
individual action must know exactly what they are doing and how to do it. It becomes the
responsibility of the individual to acquire the necessary skills and information as to what is to be done.
This is by no means as impractical as it appears, because it is certainly true that in any movement all
persons involved have the same general outlook, are acquainted with the same philosophy, and
generally react to given situations in similar ways. The previous history of the committees of
correspondence during the American Revolution shows this to be true.

Since the entire purpose of leaderless resistance is to defeat state tyranny (at least in so far as this
essay is concerned), all members of phantom cells or individuals will tend to react to objective events
in the same way through usual tactics of resistance. Organs of information distribution such as
newspapers, leaflets, computers, etc., which are widely available to all, keep each person informed
of events, allowing for a planned response that will take many variations. No one need issue an order
to anyone. Those idealists truly committed to the cause of freedom will act when they feel the time is
ripe, or will take their cue from others who precede them. While it is true that much could be said
against this kind of structure as a method of resistance, it must be kept in mind that leaderless
resistance is a child of necessity. The alternatives to it have been shown to be unworkable or
impractical. Leaderless resistance has worked before in the American Revolution, and if the truly
committed put it to use themselves, it will work now.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -0777-- -export-a-crypto-system-sig -RC4-3-lines-PERL
@k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_
]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256;
&S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}