The following article by Rob Ski was originally published in Light Fighter Manifesto Volume III, pages 50 through 57. It is included here as a structural reference for how to think about organizing your chapter’s nine pillars, not as a call to form an underground resistance. LFHI chapters are lawful, public-facing community groups that train practical skills and serve their neighbors in the open. The Foundation is the primary source document for LFHI and defines the initiative’s mission and boundaries.
What Rob Ski gets right, and what LFHI draws from directly, is the sequencing. His framework puts counter-intelligence and intelligence before everything else: before the fighting force, before education, before media, before healthcare. That principle carries over to LFHI pillar organization. A chapter that secures its communications, screens its members, and maps its operating environment before it moves into operations, medical training, or community outreach is building on a sound foundation. A chapter that skips those steps is not. The structural discipline of building in the right order is the core takeaway from this article.
Several other elements translate directly into the LFHI framework when reframed for community service rather than armed resistance. Rob Ski’s emphasis on education (preserving knowledge, running training programs) maps to the Education and Information pillars. His section on healthcare (recruiting medical personnel, caching supplies, providing care outside institutional systems) parallels the Medical pillar. His insistence on media and counter-propaganda translates to the Information pillar’s focus on documenting local government actions and keeping the public informed through evidence rather than rhetoric. The organizational structure he describes (small teams reporting upward through districts) reflects the same scalable, cell-based model that LFHI chapters use: small enough to be tight, large enough to be effective.
Why Small, Decentralized Groups Work
The structural model Rob Ski describes is not unique to resistance movements. Small, autonomous groups connected by shared principles rather than central command have consistently proven more resilient and more effective at sustaining community cohesion than top-down organizations. The historical record on this is extensive.
The Committees of Correspondence, formed in the American colonies beginning in 1764, operated as independent local bodies that shared intelligence and coordinated action across colonies without any central authority directing them. Samuel Adams organized the first formal committee in Boston in 1772, and within a year, nearly every colony had its own network. They had no headquarters, no chain of command, and no formal charter. What they had was a shared purpose and a communication discipline. When the British moved to suppress dissent in one colony, the others already knew about it and were already responding. The Continental Congress that eventually formed did not create this coordination. The committees did, from the ground up.
Mutual aid societies followed a similar pattern throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Immigrant communities, Black communities in the Jim Crow South, and rural communities across the country formed local organizations that provided healthcare, burial insurance, small loans, education, and disaster relief entirely outside government or corporate systems. The National Fraternal Congress of America reported that by 1920, fraternal benefit societies had roughly 9 million members across thousands of independent lodges. Each lodge governed itself. Each set its own priorities based on local needs. The model worked because it was small enough for every member to know every other member, and independent enough to respond to local conditions without waiting for permission from a national office.
The Danish resistance during World War II demonstrated the same principle under extreme conditions. Beginning in 1943, Danish civilians organized into small, autonomous cells that operated independently to protect Jewish neighbors, sabotage German logistics, and maintain underground newspapers. The resistance had no single leader and no centralized command. When the Gestapo captured members of one cell, the others continued operating because no single person held enough information to compromise the broader network. An estimated 7,200 of Denmark’s 7,800 Jewish residents were evacuated to neutral Sweden in October 1943, an operation carried out almost entirely by ordinary citizens organized in small local groups.
In the modern context, the principle holds. Research published by Elinor Ostrom, who received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics for her work on collective action, demonstrated that small, self-governing groups consistently manage shared resources more effectively than either centralized authorities or unregulated markets. Her fieldwork across dozens of countries showed that the critical factors were group size (small enough for accountability), clearly defined boundaries, and rules that the group itself could modify. These findings, published in Governing the Commons (1990), directly challenge the assumption that community problems require large organizations or government programs to solve.
LFHI chapters are built on this same foundation. Small groups, locally governed, connected by shared training standards and principles rather than a command structure. The model is not theoretical. It is the way communities have organized effectively for centuries, and the historical evidence shows that it works precisely because no single point of failure can bring down the whole network.
Create an Underground Resistance
By Rob Ski
Generally, people imagine Underground Resistance (UR) as a fighting force. The interim military objectives are usually devoted to self-defense, sabotage, and intelligence work. When the goal of the UR is to disrupt the enemy’s actions by all means necessary, including force, before that happens, many other equally important steps must be planned for.
As early as 2009, Gilles Dorronsoro, Professor of Political Science at Pantheon Sorbonne University, warned International Coalition Forces in Afghanistan about the need to change tactics to defeat the Taliban Resistance in Afghanistan. He wrote, “On-the-ground observations and reliable evidence suggest that the Taliban have an efficient leadership, are learning from their mistakes, and are quick to exploit their adversaries’ weaknesses. They are building a parallel administration, have nationwide logistics, and already manage an impressive intelligence network.” - The Taliban’s Winning Strategy in Afghanistan, 2009.
As we now know, the Taliban Resistance was ultimately victorious, and the International Coalition Forces were forced to leave Afghanistan, enabling the Taliban to claim total victory and come back to power. So, what happened? How did they do it? All the goals and steps taken by the Taliban were nothing new. Taliban fighters similarly used the same template the European Resistance fighters used during WWII against the Nazi Germany.
When preparations for the armed struggle were being made, but before it could begin, a different warfare must be fought.
Intelligence gathering is extremely important to the UR. Without reliable intelligence, there is no way to fight. Acts of sabotage must be planned and coordinated on every level; this goes back directly into the UR intelligence gathering capabilities.
Diversion is another important puzzle piece: carefully planned and executed diversions could deliver much more desirable results than fighting itself and at a much lower cost (to human life).
Finally, and most importantly, the civilian struggle should focus on fighting the occupation force in everyday life.
On top of fighting the enemy, the UR should also actively take care of its resistance members by supporting secret training and education courses (to preserve basic values, identity, and history), establishing its media (to counter occupational forces propaganda apparatus), and the documentation of occupational forces crimes so the perpetrators won’t avoid punishment. The Underground Resistance structure must be resilient: centralized enough to be efficient but flexible and diverse enough to adapt to local contexts.
The Underground Counter-Intelligence Cell
The highest priority must be dedicated to the creation of the Underground Counter-Intelligence Cell (UCC).
Counterintelligence will vet future resistance candidates and prevent the enemy from penetrating and compromising the resistance ranks. The UI will also be responsible for identifying and tracking all collaborators.
The identity of these cell members must be protected at any cost and be shielded from the risks of regular resistance operations to prevent any unnecessary possibilities of being captured by the occupants.
The Underground Intelligence (UI)
The UI’s primary role will be identifying and prioritizing the potential sabotage targets occupying the force’s location, strength, and movements. Intelligence cells must also actively work to penetrate and extract information within the enemy’s ranks. Only with the strong underground intelligence cell meaningful actions of the resistance will be possible!
The next cells should be created only after establishing strong Underground Counterintelligence and Intelligence cells.
Otherwise, the UR will risk the enemy’s early penetration of its ranks, which could cause disastrous consequences in the long run, leading to the compromise and destruction of the future resistance movement.
The Underground Military Force (UMF)
The simplest form of the organization would be the Fire Team, which would consist of three members: two Fire Teams would create a Squad, and four Squads would form a Platoon. Fire Team Leaders would report and answer to the Squad Leaders. Squad Leaders would report and answer to the Platoon Commanders. Platoon Commanders would report and answer to the District Commanders. District Commanders would report and answer to the headquarters.
The formation of the larger forces would be based on resistance recruitment, but it cannot be rushed to prevent any compromise by the enemy intelligence forces. By default, occupants will commit atrocities against the civilian population.
These should be exploited by the UR media section and utilized as Resistance recruitment driving opportunities. With the growth of the UMF, the creation of the communication, supply, and logistic sections would be required to support UMF.
The Underground Judiciary System
The importance of the underground judiciary system cannot be stressed enough. Most likely, it would have to be rebuilt from scratch following the system’s collapse after the enemy invasion and establishment of the occupational forces. The main goal of the underground judiciary must be to demonstrate to society that any acts of treason and collaboration with the occupation forces will be punished. It should act as a deterrent to anyone from working for the occupants and to strengthen the belief that the Resistance will eventually serve justice if any crimes were committed.
Underground Education
An underground educational system must be developed and run to preserve society despite the ongoing occupation. A network of underground schools must be created where youth can learn freely and continue their education in areas such as history and native language. Knowledge and preservation of history will be prioritized here since history will be immediately the subject of manipulation, propaganda, and changes by occupational forces.
The Underground Media
Another key to completely erasing national identity by invaders will be destroying all free press. News outlets will become important in the enemy’s plan to break the nation. It is expected to see carefully crafted propaganda aimed at shaming society and justification of the occupant’s action to correct the “wrong” old ways of doing things. In response to the predicted destruction of the independent media, an underground press movement must be established in its place. Counter-propaganda must be delivered in both digital and printed form. Leaflets, posters, and similar “paper” media could be effectively and discretely distributed in public places without a trace and without leaving a “digital signature”. Articles in such secret publications should focus predominantly on crimes against citizens that occupants will most likely hide from in society and provide information about the underground resistance victories to boost morale.
From history, we know that all occupational forces are prone to corruption. Underground Resistance media should track and document corruption cases and, when possible, build their message on this by exposing the corruption of the occupational government. Any lack of basic services for the people should be highlighted as well.
The Underground Healthcare
Medical personnel recruitment should be one of the top priorities for the Underground Resistance movement. This is needed to provide medical assistance to those in need without putting them at risk of being captured by the enemy. Access to healthcare facilities and hospitals usually will be closely monitored by the enemy or completely denied. Special attention should be given to creating storage for medications, field dressings, tourniquets, and similar medical equipment.
I know it all looks like an overwhelming task, and it doesn’t sound very sexy. But these steps are necessary to form a meaningful and strong Underground Resistance to defeat any possible enemy occupation.
Preferably, preparation and planning must start as quickly as possible, as necessary resources are still available and could be stashed for future use…time is clicking.