Emergency Dispersal Protocol
If they take the leaders, the movement has to survive.
Pressure addressed: leadership
Time: Weeks to establish, regular updates
People: Core organisers and designated successors
Resources: Planning time, documentation, regular practice
About this tool
Leadership decapitation works when removing leaders stops the movement. The emergency dispersal protocol ensures it doesn't. This is the plan for the worst case. Multiple people arrested. Key organisers unable to continue. The leader who held everything together gone.
How to do it
Identify critical functions
What has to happen for the movement to continue? List every critical function and who currently performs it.
Designate successors
For every function, at least two people who can take over. Succession isn't optional, it's structural.
Document everything
Processes, contacts, access credentials, history. If it's in one person's head, get it documented where successors can access.
Distribute access
Bank accounts, social media, communication channels. Multiple people with access to everything critical.
Practice transitions
Simulate leader loss. Can the successors actually perform? Regular drills, not just plans.
Update regularly
People change. Roles change. The protocol needs to stay current.
Before you start
- Core group willing to plan for worst case
- Documentation capacity
Implementation guidance
Starting point
- All critical functions have designated successors
- Documentation accessible to successors
- Access distributed (no single points of failure)
- Regular drills testing transitions
- Protocol updated as situation changes
- Organisation has survived leader absences
Building on it
- Key functions have backup people
- Some documentation exists
- Basic succession planned
Advanced practice
- No succession planning
- Critical access concentrated in one person
- Plan exists but never practiced
No succession planning means leader loss equals movement death. Concentrated access is a single point of failure, and a targeting opportunity. Unpracticed plans fail under pressure. Undecided succession means chaos when crisis hits.
Examples
Movements with continuity planning
Organisations that survived leadership targeting
Operations continued despite arrests and leader loss