Ask Lemmygrad

I recently helped present a seminar on TAILS for local activists.

I aspire to do something like this someday.

In my opinion, the current, overall best solution for most people for secure over the internet comms, is Signal.

It is better than other alternatives, and for the sake that it is more widely adopted and familiar with many people, I would have to agree.

Matrix is maybe the leading contender in my eyes, but will require further development and testing.

Same and I agree.

XMPP is honestly kind of a mess. If I was in total control of a network of XMPP users, I could have them all use the exact same client and server (or hand select a few totally compatible servers). Otherwise, letting people just choose whatever means that you inevitably won’t have working encryption between clients.

Yeah if XMPP were to be adopted in an organization, I would have the accepted clients/servers limited to the most established ones in regards to security and compatibility.

XMPP and Matrix also share the problem with Signal that people are going to have to trust the server (or trust themselves to run it securely).

Same with a forum. To answer one of OP's questions, self-hosting forums or chat services would be ideal as long as someone trained in security can keep on top of keeping the server and each of the clients secure. For an ML organization, this is a big cost, so an application like Signal is usually sufficient for most cases in regards to organizing while minimizing the costs and efforts that could have been used for more important matters. Nevertheless, I believe Matrix could be a good alternative as it exists right now.

Edit: when SHTF we’ll need radios.

Radios could be risky, too, especially if not encrypted, though Hamas seems to be handling radio communications effectively. I just mean it would be good for comrades to begin studying effective opsec practices and countering increasing levels of surveillance with high and low tech, progressively moving towards the latter as things get worse.