La Resistance needs YOU!

I have run into a problem. My hero joins up with the resistance through a rather bizarre set of circumstances, but not everyone else can have the same backstory. I need ideas on how La Résistance could plausibly recruit in an atmosphere of extreme surveillance - no internet, no phones - and plausibly get enough operatives and training for them to take on federal troops.

EDIT: To clarify: It's set 20 Minutes into the Future. Phones and the internet exist, but they're monitored enough that it's pretty much impossible for civilians to avoid being caught even if the Resistance is actively trying to contact them.

edited 30th Mar '11 5:16:44 PM by KyleJacobs

Word Of Mouth is impossible to fully monitor.

If there are enough disillusioned people and La Résistance makes its presence well-enough known, instant recruits.

Keep the resistance covert, underground from the prying eyes. Only indirect recruiting to those who they absolutely trust, coupled with secret advertising (something which looks as innocuous as a tabletop scratch or simple graffiti) would let aspiring members find the resistance.

I would imagine this resistance as disjointed; nobody knows the whole operation (except for the heads), and the rest of the members: each member would only know three people; their higher, and two of their lowers (the ones under their control). It would be like a tree structure.◊ If you're familiar with computer science, you might know what I mean. This way, if the police nab one of them, then they can only say what they know. Which is comparatively little in the grand scheme of things.

edited 30th Mar '11 11:57:30 AM by QQQQQ

QQQQQ is talking about binary trees — mm mm mm deliciousness! By deliciousness I mean the binary trees are delicious. I'm currently taking Data Structures & Algorithms, so that's why I know it.

@ Kyle Jacobs: Here is a question: How do they communicate secretively to each other when there is no phones or internet?

edited 30th Mar '11 5:01:15 PM by EldritchBlueRose

Here's the structure: There's about 2-300 individual branches spread out across the country. I'm following the Washington, DC branch, which is structured as follows: the leader, his younger sister, the big guy, their hacker, and the hero all know each other, mostly because the big guy is a very good tactician and the hero showed up half dead on their doorstep. The leader and his sister are the only ones who have ever even spoken to the actual head of the resistance or members of another branch. There's another 10 or so people under them who get called out for combat duty. As for getting in contact during emergencies: currently serving members are issued hacked and encrypted prepaid phones. When they're needed, a call comes out from the hacker, who randomizes the number every time. As for how they actually get these phones: new recruits have to go through existing members, each with their own ID number and unique verification phrase (which is usually along the lines of "you government bastards wouldn't know a code phrase if it kicked you in the balls" in order to throw off interrogators). The existing member vets the prospect before deciding whether to send him onto the head of of the branch with a letter of introduction containing just the member's phrase. The leaders then perform a second background check on the recruit, connect the phrase to its owner, call him to make sure that he's alive and did in fact recommend that particular prospect. If all of those conditions are satisfied, then the prospect is accepted into the branch. If any of the checks fail, the prospect will be shot.

My problem is getting prospects in contact with existing members in the first place.

Bicycle couriers/messengers, word of mouth, hand to hand messages written on folded paper, code word conversation (goes with word of mouth), etc.

When I said no phones, I meant that phones are being tapped. As stated above, current members have what may or may not be government proof phones. If I decide that they are not in fact government proof, this will not change the fact that the resistance thinks that they are.

It was aimed at Kyle Jacobs. My post is now fixed to show that.

Do some research on espionage. Somehow people managed to communicate before the Internet.

Here's one typical scheme. In a message drop, you check a certain place on a regular basis. It might be a tree stump, a pumpkin patch, a loose brick in a wall, anywhere you can leave a piece of paper. Your contact knows where and how often to leave messages but need not know anything about you.