SECURITY CULTURE 101: How Activists Resist State Repression

What is security culture, and why does every activist and organizer need to learn it? In this video, I break down the basics of security culture: assessing risk, protecting your community, and understanding how the state surveils and represses social movements. From COINTELPRO to Stop Cop City, we explore how movements have survived government targeting—and how you can start building better practices today.

#DirectAction101 #SecurityCulture #EP6

WELCOME TO DIRECT ACTION 101: HOW ACTIVISTS STAY SAFE UNDER SURVEILLANCE. EPISODE 6

------------------------------------------------

Resources on Security Culture…

📘 Security Culture: A Handbook for Activists: https://mutualaiddisasterreliefsite.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/security-culture-a-handbook-for-activists.pdf

🔍 Threat Modeling for Activists — Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Understand how to assess your risks and build digital security practices that match your reality. https://ssd.eff.org/

🕵🏽 CrimethInc’s Security Culture Primer https://crimethinc.com/2004/11/01/what-is-security-culture

🛡️ Riseup: Digital Tools & Privacy for Organizers: https://riseup.net/en/security

📘 A Bridge Too Far: An article on how federal agents infiltrate and entrap radicals: https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/the-read/articles/a-bridge-too-far

EFF — Threat Modeling 101: https://ssd.eff.org/module/your-security-plan

COINTELPRO 101 (Free Documentary) | Overview of the FBI’s covert campaign to infiltrate and destroy liberation movements.

🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0_DqtKVWIs

Rolling Stone — The Cleveland 5 Case | Analyzes FBI tactics of coercion and entrapment and their long history of targeting leftists.

🔗 https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/the-plot-against-occupy-187832/

—---------------------------------------------

EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

05:37 What is SECURITY CULTURE for activists?

10:13 STEP 1 is RISK ASSESSMENT

14:04 On the necessity of VOUCHING in political spaces

18:20 The importance of the BUDDY SYSTEM

20:10 Only sharing NEED TO KNOW info and security culture in undocumented families

21:41 Practicing SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

25:11 Interview with SAM on MUTUAL AID and SECURITY CULTURE

32:18 TIME TO TEST YOUR SECURITY CULTURE

40:06 STEP 2 - Analyzing and shifting communication practices

43:23 How to communicate but not default to transparency

45:04 DIGITAL HYGIENE - encryption, strong passwords, using SIGNAL, and more

55:19 STEP 3 - How To Deal With State Repression

01:00:04 CASE STUDY: How the state went after STOP COP CITY

01:10:48 CASE STUDY: DisruptJ20 and collective legal strategies

01:19:19 Outro

—---------------------------------------------

Stay connected with The Dugout