Do you think that people have started to change for the better? Also, what do you think about protest tactics?

I found one such tactic on the internet, apparently inspired by recent events; it would be interesting to hear your opinion on this:

Action Plan

Before the march begins – initial gathering point for protesters:

1. Protesters split into groups of 5-10 people. People organize into groups using:
1.1. Commanders
1.1.1. The commander indicates the group’s status with their hand – a fist means the group is assembled and waiting for instructions. The number of extended fingers equals the number of free spaces.
1.2. Via social networks, the Briar app.
1.3. On their own (together with friends at the rally)
1.4. Preferably, groups should be homogeneous – groups of women, groups of tall people, groups of cyclists, etc.
2. Commanders are chosen within the groups:
2.1. The commander must use hand gestures (described in point 1.1.1) to identify themselves to other commanders.
2.2. Commanders must have a phone with the Briar app.
3. Commanders with “fists” gather in one place. The groups themselves are free to either stay or follow the commander.
4. Commanders are added to a private group in Briar.
5. Commanders discuss the course of the rally. Specifically, the following are established:
5.1. A “commander-in-chief” is chosen (if necessary)
5.2. Destination point
5.3. Group roles:
5.3.1. Vanguard/Tank-group/Main-Group – positioned at the front. Their tasks include:
5.3.1.1. Ensuring the formation is impenetrable to police
5.3.1.2. Breaking through blockades (if any exist)
5.3.1.3. Other tasks (to be supplemented)
5.3.2. Recon-group. Its tasks include:
5.3.3.1. Detecting cordons, barriers, paddy wagons, patrol groups, rapid response groups, police officers, and other agencies
5.3.3.2. Detecting bypass routes, as well as methods to facilitate the crowd’s passage through cordons and barriers
5.3.3.3. Maintaining direct contact with the “commander-in-chief” (if any), otherwise everything is decided via chat
5.3.3. Midgard-group. Its tasks include:
5.3.3.1. Pushing law enforcement officers back into the crowd
5.3.3.2. Suppressing law enforcement groups that have broken into the crowd
5.3.3.3. Providing medical aid to the main group
5.3.3.4. Supplies of equipment taken from law enforcement forces
5.3.4. Support/Spirit/Passive group. Its tasks include:
5.3.4.1. Delivering equipment
5.3.4.2. Delivering messages
5.3.4.3. Chants/extras/initiative
5.3.5. Communications group (possibly unnecessary). Its tasks include:
5.3.5.1. Delivering messages in the absence of Briar
5.3.5.2. Coordinating groups
6. The march begins

At the meeting point, a new goal and the paths to reach it are chosen.

Ancap-chan’s Answer

The action on July 27, of course, looked quite inspiring. Even if nothing more remarkable happens until the elections, and opposition candidates are still not allowed to run, the pro-government candidates still have little to look forward to in these elections. Moreover, it is quite likely that this will lead to changes in the election law: signatures may be allowed via government services, election deposits may be brought back, the collection threshold may be significantly lowered, or graphological expertise may be abolished — in short, the authorities will have to take measures to curb such scandals in the future, as it is too costly for them otherwise.

So, the Muscovites did well; it is only fitting that, as residents of the capital of a highly centralized state, they show increased opposition — and they did, while simultaneously demonstrating civilized behavior.

Now let’s talk a bit about tactics. Honestly, the provided snippet of the manual reminded me of War and Peace: Die erste Kolonne marschiert… die zweite Kolonne marschiert — the battle plan for Austerlitz. It is impossible to ensure a clear, disciplined behavior of large masses of people without full-scale combat coordination. A conditional National Guard can train for a long time to form their little boxes, run in lines, and so on. For people who have not trained in advance, only the simplest tactics work, such as “let’s go there and block the road,” “link arms,” “move through alleys to such-and-such a square,” and so on.

A person who comes to an unauthorized action can be quite inventive in terms of external representation; they came to create a picture and get impressions, which is what they are doing. They understand the overall goal of the action quite well, are able to identify provocateurs, and are generally very motivated — it is important not to waste their enthusiasm on meaningless nonsense. Using July 27 as an example, it is clear that without leaders, people stirred up the entire city center for several hours, but as soon as the police released the “guests of honor” and the latter began giving orders, everyone ended up localized in one square, surrounded and arrested.

Of course, if the protest becomes multi-day, people will allow themselves increasingly complex coordination and division of labor. Relatively disciplined groups of more or less constant composition and similar things will appear.

If you look at the protests in Yerevan, there was a headquarters, but it doesn’t seem like they dealt closely with tactical issues like “who leads people to which street to block traffic”; rather, they issued general appeals within some kind of campaign plan. In Russia, one cannot rely on the existence of a headquarters, because anyone who sticks their head out will be immediately imprisoned. Therefore, a much more decentralized tactic without hard clashes is forced here, until the security forces are exhausted. Only then can conditional protest leaders be used in that capacity to conduct negotiations.

And, of course, it is important for the protesters to maintain the loyalty of the passive part of Muscovites, because constant street protests in a large city inevitably create inconvenience. A war between the authorities and society is one thing, but an intra-civil conflict is something entirely different, and it is not worth letting it get to that.