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Fear to stand up to pigs is a major part of what keeps social obedience in place. Failure to do so makes it easy for the state to resolve every problem with force. Pigs are a huge part of what's wrong with society if not the main part. They aren't just the symptom. And once you try hitting any other part of the machine, the pigs are right there too. If they're able to win by violence then it reinforces the image that the system can just ignore social problems and carry on solving everything with repression. We can't just tolerate being beaten and terrorised. So it's absolutely necessary to fight them and win.

Once we start getting into "hitting the underlying causes", the divisions in the movement get torn wide open. Some people think the underlying cause is civilisation, some that it's bosses in the workplace, some that it's amorphous structures of privilege, and some get no further than voting out Trump. In reality I think the key will be creating liberated zones where power doesn't work and pigs can't go. This also solves the problem of people getting caught after actions etc - wanted people can just disappear as needed. This will mean rural zones and may rely a lot on tunnels and underground structures.

(Mostly) non-lethal warfare against riot pigs, and lethal guerrilla warfare, are very different strategic problems. Historically, pigs and soldiers were screwed in urban conflict. The main problem with today's conflicts is the pigs have such advanced tech. We need cheap, effective ways to neutralise this. In Exarchia this has historically been done using molotovs and also throwing from height. Today we will also need ways to take down drones. Use tripwires and caltrops to keep horses and bikes away. Create hostile terrain. CHOP had the right idea until it fell apart. In the medium term, we should look at taking down the companies which supply the riot gear, or destroying the stockpiles ahead of confrontations. Experiment with ways to neutralise heavily armoured riot cops - paint, netting, booby traps. Experiment with using remote control vehicles, drones against police lines, bulldozers and armoured vehicles driven at less-than-lethal speed. A favourite tactic in Northern Ireland was setting a car on fire, driving it towards police lines and jumping out. We also need to start storming prisons and letting everyone out. The state will be screwed if it loses the threat of prison. It is also fairly easy to carry out long shutdowns by hitting key arteries (roads, rail) at different points. Use surrounding terrain; block with objects rather than your bodies; disperse and regroup.

Guerrilla wars are more complicated. The trick is to fight a stronger adversary without confronting their main force. Often this involves creating base areas in the least controlled, rural or wilderness zones, and relying on hit-and-run and sabotage. Read the US destabilisation guides and Maoist/Vietcong strategy texts for details. Realistic fear of guerrilla war often makes states compromise with more moderate factions, or back off from going in too heavy against protesters. This is a big part of how the state could just bulldoze the Yellow Vests, the Hong Kong and Chile protests, and eventually the Exarchia movement, but not the Arab Spring or the 60s/70s Black movement. It's a big part of why postwar decolonisation happened.

I agree with the previous poster that gangs are a good model (the tactics, not the politics). Control or semi-control territory, stay invisible, build up infrastructure. Corrupt or intimidate the powerful. Impose heavy costs on any repression directed against us. Stop the everyday policing and punitive systems working. Then expand our land base until power collapses.