Che Guevera, opening his famous book Guerrilla Warfare, proclaimed that the Cuban revolution ‘showed plainly the capacity of the people to free themselves by means of guerrilla warfare from a government that oppresses them’. These words were written over half a century ago. Since then, the world and politics have changed dramatically. The Soviet Union has fallen, neoliberalism reigns supreme, and Cuba and China have almost completely abandoned ‘really existing socialism’ for the promises of capitalist progress. And yet the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. The 21st century has been marked by disastrous US imperialist adventures, a global financial crisis, a pandemic wherein the poor and precarious have suffered disproportionately to the wealthy, and the resurgence of socialist ideas the world over. New movements are arising, challenging the ideology of the free market and the rule of corporations. And just as importantly, new populist reactions have emerged embracing the rebirth of ethno-nationalism and political authoritarianism.

It is precisely in this contemporary context of revolution and reaction, radical change and an evolving status quo that guerrilla politics becomes once more so socially inspiring and strategically significant. Yet the terrain and composition of these insurrectionary movements have necessarily changed with the times. Now it is not professional armies that are the primary combatants but predictive algorithms which shape our behaviour and guide our exploitation. It is not only armed insurrections that will bring about revolutionary conditions but international mobile movements aided by digital platforms. And it is not the countryside that will be the main field of battle but a digital commons through which outdated capitalist structures and divisions between city, town and countryside can be subverted and new collaborative social relations can arise and thrive.

These rebooted guerrilla revolutionaries, admittedly, are more incipient than fully formed at this point in history. Yet their presence is being felt as insurgent groups are emerging, ushering in technologically sophisticated forms of ‘insurrectionary’ actions. Perhaps the best known of these is the hacktivist group tellingly named Anonymous, which has ‘incited online vigilantism from Tunisia to Ferguson’ (Kushner, 2014).