Guerrilla warfare is often thought of as something which emerged only in the modern era of revolutionary struggle. Yet, in truth, it has a long history stretching back to Sun Tzu's The Art of War (1963). Indeed it was prominently used in the US Revolutionary War in the late 18th century, where an outnumbered army was able to use a range of harassing attacks against invading British forces to successful effect (see Dederer, 1983). These same tactics would be adopted famously by Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communists, where Mao succinctly described the strategy: ‘The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue’ (1965, p 124). Significantly, guerrilla tactics were viewed as more than simply a military technique. Rather, they were a way of being that emphasized values of adaptability, covert actions and resilience in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. According to US Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith, what makes guerrilla warfare and its practitioners so dangerous is that ‘guerrillas are masters of the arts of simulation and dissimulation. … Their tactical concepts, dynamic and flexible, are not cut to any particular pattern.” (Mao Tse-tung & Griffith, 1964, p 26).

What lessons then, if any, would such a guerrilla ethos hold for present-day activism and social movements? At first glance, they may appear reserved for only armed insurrections or a rather duplicitous – indeed anti-democratic – mode of political operation due to their emphasis on simulation and dissimulation. Digging deeper, though, the contemporary relevance of guerilla tactics starts to emerge more fully. They speak to the possibilities of pursuing effective resistance and potential transformation in a social order whose domination is paradoxically marked by flexibility and innovation rather than stability and stagnation. While their rootedness in violence and duplicity may stand out, perhaps their true legacy will be in providing valuable insights into how to construct an insurgent revolutionary politics that is every bit as mobile – and often more so – as the power they are seeking to challenge and replace.