Reflections on Victor Serge’s “What Everyone Should Know About (State) Repression”

In the 1960s, as repression tightened, revolutionary groups needed an understanding of how to shield themselves from the F.B.I and its police siblings. But there had been no tradition of such security knowledge either in the Civil Rights movement or the youth gangs. At that time, the New Left started passing around a translation of Victor Serge’s little pamphlet, “What Everyone Should Know About State Repression.” Serge had been a Russian revolutionary journalist and organizer, who had worked underground against the Czar’s secret police and had a lot of first-hand experience. Yaki encouraged comrades to check Serge’s booklet out; but since the Russian had lived back a century ago, in a time when you could do things like jumping on a streetcar to evade surveillance, Yaki wanted to update and reinforce the basic lessons. To an active revolutionary, this understanding is like having a first-aid kit or emergency equipment. If you are reading this kind of literature you need to be prepared to fight the political police.