DMW, this is a work of art worth realizing in practice. Practical advice for weekend warriors or full-time activists. Street fighting is a military operation and has to be treated as such. As someone's tagline says: "Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat".

The worst way to attack is a frontal attack. Yet that's all these disorganized ruffians on BOTH sides are doing. Defenders usually have prepared positions of strength. Attackers have to leave places of their own strength to enter the enemy's strength. Unless you outnumber them at least 3 or 4 to one AND are willing to sustain heavy casualties, this is not the way to go--especially as DMW points out.

Two battles famous in history come to mind. The Battle of Hastings in 1066 is THE classic battle of shield walls. Harold's Housecarls made a magnificent defense, repulsing at least four of William's charges with little loss of their own. But when William's troops feigned a withdrawal in disarray, the Housecarl's smelling victory broke formation. Then William's cavalry turned the Saxon flank--the rest is history as they say.

The second Battle coming to mind is the Battle of Cannae. In this battle, Hannibal's forces were greatly out numbered the Roman legions. But he turned their numerical advantage against them by performing a double envelopment, in effect completely surrounding the Romans, giving them no place to go--and they were slaughtered like pigs in a pen.

Now this tactic again requires training, rather than a flash mob of ruffians (no matter what their cause). Training requires discipline, a very unlikely thing for mobs to achieve, especially anti-authoritarian mobs like antifa. This tactic also requires close quarters fighting, hand-to-hand AND the ability to receive heavy casualties.

Thus it appears that these unruly counter-protests are doomed to failure, fighting the battle the neoNazis wish to fight.

Give the neoNazis a way out, and they will take it. Then adopt a siege mentality--starve them out. Deprive them of funds, respite, sustenance. It takes longer to prevail but the victory will be more complete.

The problem with sieges is that the besieged can often rally reinforcements. But this too requires the reinforcers to be numerous. But even the arrival of reinforcements does not guarantee victory as the Battle of Alesia demonstrated. The crux of the issue is that for more complex military maneuvers such as double envelopment amongst others once again requires discipline, training, clear chain of command and willingness to accept losses.

Should we ever come to the point that such strategically well-planned battles occur on our streets, then the Revolution will have started.

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
-Sun Tsu

This is all so fucking stupid.

A local club of fancifully dressed civil war buffs decides to protest the removal of an old statue and everybody is treating the non-event like the second coming of Adolph Hitler.

This isn't the 50's where people rightly protested governmentally sanctioned racism. In this case it was the government itself that was on the anti-racist side. The antifa has already won the fucking war. Protesting just gave the defeated side credibility when they deserve none.

And let's be honest, all this 'anti-protest' really tries to accomplish is a groupthink witch hunt of unreconstructed non-believers. It's just as authoritarian (and creepy) as the ideology it is meant to counter. It's simply not possible to mau-mau racism into oblivion, no matter how superior it makes people feel to try.

The best solution: stop trolling other peoples' protests. Ignore the idiots (or simply laugh at them), and everyone else will too.

fighting amongst themselves while the fat ass rulers sit in their castles with their servants shoving grapes down their throats. Those racist whatever they are, are gnats, they're nothing and if they would have been ignored, none of this would have happened and no one would have even known they were there. Which makes me think this was all manufactured in some manner to keep the peasants barefoot and pregnant.

can result in any sort of strategic victory. Pitched battles between opposing groups of protesters will not serve to weaken the far-right extremist cause. On the contrary, such displays of civil violence are more likely to publicize it, and broaden its influence -- an influence which is as of yet, still relatively minor.

Strategically, these kinds of scuffles, protests, and demonstrations are important only to the extent that they can influence or define public perception of the protagonists. We are essentially engaged in a war of perception, not in a war of arms. The "antifa" belligerents would do well to keep in mind that they are playing to a mass audience, and that their actions serve a primarily dramatic purpose, far more than a military purpose.

Furthermore, demonizing the police who are tasked with keeping two opposing sides at bay, is a very poor strategic decision. Even if some, or perhaps many of the cops are sympathetic to the right-wing cause, they are not the enemy. Or rather, they should not be cast in the role of "the enemy", when in fact that is not what they are, for the most part.

Strategically, the best tactic for the Left to use at this time would be strict non-violence. We can ill afford to be widely perceived as aggressors -- as window-breakers, rock-throwers, epithet-screamers, and so on. On the other hand, the American far-right, given enough rope, will surely hang itself. Those clowns who assembled in Charlottesville, dressed up in quasi-military combat gear and bearing Nazi symbols, are their own worst enemies, dramatically speaking.

@lizzyh7

...with coordinated banners of ridicule as a weapon that demoralized the opponent and made them appear small and weak. Unworthy of engagement. I imagine a sea of banners that read "Witnessing the Pathetic" or "Witnessing America's Shame." OWS used posters to great effect.

Coming to blows occurs when strategy fails and the goal is forgotten.

What one wants to capture here is "minds."

#7.1.2 While I always love to see any pushback against KKK types, I do agree that confronting them is just stupid and for TV. Why not just outnumber them and keep peacefully standing there, doing nothing? Not exciting that way, and I'm sure it would be hard not to want to scream at them, but then again, why engage? You're not going to change their minds, so then it DOES become about the spectacle. One that you've created by engaging with such idiots. But hey, makes a really cool FB post.