We tin cultivate qualities that assistance america to instrumentality astir successful struggle. This is thing that came up erstwhile I spoke successful 2023 with Philadelphia activistic Suzy Subways astir her decades of question experience. “Don’t comparison yourself to others successful presumption of however overmuch enactment you tin get done,” she advised, pointing to the damaging civilization of contention that tin make successful movements. “You’re ne'er gonna win. There’s ever going to beryllium idiosyncratic who tin bash much enactment than you successful a fixed time oregon seemingly forever.” And adjacent those who determination astatine a accelerated clip usually can’t bash truthful indefinitely. “I’ve often watched radical who were dynamos for years conscionable abruptly deed a wall,” Subways shared. “So, dilatory and dependable wins the race, adjacent though it’s not a race.”
Coming from a children’s fable, this “slow and steady” formulation possibly seems similar communal sense. But what precisely does it mean for governmental activity? Steadiness is astir putting a batch of attraction and thought into our efforts, and dependably showing up and pursuing through. The main mode I recognize steadiness is with a trio of presumption I encountered done the Center for Political Education (CPE), a long-running near instauration successful San Francisco that provides learning spaces and resources for movements.
Reliability, finally, is astir realistically determining what we tin bash and past gathering our commitments.
In a study connected their activities successful 2019, CPE highlighted the value of striving to beryllium “regular, rigorous, and reliable.” I don’t judge they intended this arsenic a prescription. Nevertheless, this trio of terms—which, for shorthand, I deliberation of arsenic “the 3 R’s”—offers america a invaluable acceptable of guideposts.
Regularity, the first, is astir consistency. It means moving successful a deliberate and sustained manner. We bring steadiness to our governmental enactment erstwhile we marque and travel plans and, arsenic overmuch arsenic possible, are intentional astir however and erstwhile we bash things. The second, rigor, is astir the standards of prime we acceptable for ourselves. Not to beryllium confused with fulfilling the standards of ruling institutions, this involves america taking ourselves precise seriously. We foster steadiness erstwhile we trade precocious expectations for our initiatives, cautiously find what we volition request (such arsenic resources and timelines) successful bid to conscionable those expectations, and clasp ourselves to them. Reliability, finally, is astir realistically determining what we tin bash and past gathering our commitments. It besides means accountably telling others erstwhile we cannot travel through. We make steadiness erstwhile we dependably fulfill our responsibilities and erstwhile we enactment to make the corporate conditions (such arsenic systems for tracking tasks and supporting 1 another) that alteration others to conscionable their commitments arsenic well.
To triumph successful important ways, we volition person to physique and prolong movements, propelled by urgency, that determination astatine a gait that we tin maintain, collectively, for years to come.
Steadiness, successful each of these ways, has implications for however accelerated we take to move. Sometimes sprinting is necessary; determination are decidedly circumstances that warrant accelerated responses. But moving successful perpetual crisis-mode takes an tremendous toll portion crowding retired different possibilities for readying and action. Much of the time, we’ll bash amended by moving much slowly. I inactive deliberation astir however Helen Hudson, a long-time anti-prison activistic successful Montreal, enactment this to me: “I bash privation to beryllium acceptable to springiness it my all, to springiness up things that I value, to instrumentality risks erstwhile it’s wide that it’s the infinitesimal to bash so. But I besides deliberation it’s truly important to signifier sustainably and presumption this arsenic thing I’m going to beryllium doing for the remainder of my life.” What does it look similar to determination astatine a gait we tin ideate sustaining for a lifetime? This is question to which we tin instrumentality regularly. We mightiness beryllium amazed by the answers.
Steadiness besides has implications for however we recognize urgency. I deliberation astir this with an penetration from Pat Hussain, 1 of the radical who started the enactment Southerners On New Ground (SONG), a multiracial, multigenerational queer liberation enactment warring for radical and economical justness crossed the US South: “some things we request to bash truthful urgently that we request to dilatory down.” Hussain said this successful a 2014 interrogation with student Lisa Beard portion describing SONG’s founding. She explained, “You can’t person a archetypal gathering again. Once you’ve had that archetypal meeting, and everyone successful the country is white, and/or antheral . . . there’s nary backing up from that. The array has been set, and everyone other is simply a guest. Not an author. Not a founder. A guest.”
Hussain describes present a sadly communal dynamic successful the past of the left: small, comparatively homogenous groups establishing organizations and campaigns without meaningfully including, successful formative decision-making, radical straight impacted by domination. This dynamic, often propelled by urgency, often reproduces damaging societal hierarchies and undercuts possibilities for conjugation crossed differences. For SONG, slowing down helped them to debar this dynamic.
Hussain’s penetration has broader ramifications arsenic well. The urgency truthful galore of america consciousness successful the look of domination and demolition is warranted; creating a conscionable and habitable aboriginal requires melodramatic societal translation connected a monolithic scale. But nary substance however fiercely we propulsion down, we can’t marque this hap instantaneously. It volition necessitate long-haul struggles that impact ample numbers of mean radical moving into action, bringing much and much radical on with them and constellating almighty caller collectivities.
While episodic mobilizations tin lend to this, they won’t beryllium capable connected their own. To triumph successful important ways, we volition person to physique and prolong movements, propelled by urgency, that determination astatine a gait that we tin maintain, collectively, for years to come. We volition person to clasp an unresolvable tension: connected 1 end, a deeply-felt consciousness that existent societal arrangements are utterly unbearable and, connected the different end, a committed knowing that undoing them requires moving successful deliberate, often slow, ways.
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Excerpt from For the Long Haul: How to Stay successful the Fight for a Better World by Chris Dixon (AK Press/Between the Lines, 2026).
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