This core dilemma—how to fight tirelessly against deeply entrenched systems of oppression without sacrificing personal well-being or organizational health—forms the foundation of Dixon’s insights. In discussions with long-standing figures across various social movements, a common warning emerges regarding the culture of competition that often plagues activist spaces. Philadelphia activist Suzy Subways, reflecting on her extensive history in grassroots organizing during a 2023 conversation with Dixon, cautioned against measuring personal output against that of others.
Subways pointed out that the internal pressure to constantly prove one’s dedication creates a toxic environment. Organizers are frequently pushed to their limits, trying to match the seemingly boundless energy of peers who appear capable of working indefinitely. However, this dynamic is fundamentally unsustainable. Even the most prolific organizers eventually hit a physical and emotional wall. Subways observed that movement "dynamos" frequently burn out overnight after years of operating at a frantic pace, reinforcing the age-old lesson that a slow and steady approach is ultimately necessary, even if political struggle is not a simple race.
While the concept of moving steadily may sound like a cliché borrowed from traditional fables, Dixon argues that it carries profound, practical implications for modern political organizing. Steadiness, in a practical sense, requires deliberate care, deep thought, and the dependability to consistently show up and follow through on commitments. To conceptualize how political groups can operationalize this steadiness, Dixon highlights a framework he encountered through the Center for Political Education (CPE), a longstanding San Francisco-based institution that provides educational resources and spaces for leftist movements.
In a 2019 organizational report, CPE outlined a guiding ethos centered on striving to be "regular, rigorous, and reliable." Although these terms were not originally intended as a rigid prescription for the broader movement, Dixon identifies this trio of concepts—often referred to simply as the three R’s—as an invaluable set of guideposts for contemporary organizers.
Regularity focuses primarily on consistency. It requires movements to operate in a deliberate and sustained manner rather than reacting solely to breaking news cycles or episodic crises. Bringing steadiness to political work means establishing clear plans and maintaining intentionality regarding how and when actions are executed.
Rigour addresses the standards of quality that organizations set for themselves. Rather than merely mimicking the bureaucratic standards of ruling institutions, rigor involves organizers taking their own work and communities seriously. This means establishing high expectations for political initiatives, carefully calculating necessary resources and timelines, and holding participants accountable to those standards.
Reliability involves realistically assessing individual and collective capacity before making commitments and ensuring those promises are met. Furthermore, reliability requires transparent communication when unforeseen obstacles prevent someone from following through. Fostering reliability means creating supportive collective environments—such as efficient task-tracking systems and mutual aid structures—that actively enable participants to fulfill their responsibilities.
Embracing these principles directly influences how movements manage the tension between speed and sustainability. While certain political moments demand rapid mobilization and immediate sprinting, operating in a perpetual state of emergency inflicts a heavy toll on activists while crowding out long-term strategic planning. Dixon highlights the perspective of Helen Hudson, a long-term anti-prison activist in Montreal, who emphasized the importance of balancing readiness to take risks with a commitment to sustainable organizing. Hudson noted that while organizers must be prepared to give their all when historical moments demand it, they must also view their activism as a lifelong commitment rather than a temporary sprint.
This deliberate approach also reshapes how organizers understand and respond to urgency. Pat Hussain, one of the co-founders of Southerners On New Ground (SONG)—a multiracial, multigenerational queer liberation organization fighting for racial and economic justice across the U.S. South—offered a striking perspective on this dynamic. In a 2014 interview with scholar Lisa Beard, Hussain described the founding of SONG by noting that "some things we need to do so urgently that we need to slow down."
Hussain illustrated this point by warning against the common historical pitfall where small, homogenous groups rush to establish organizations and campaigns without meaningfully including directly impacted communities in foundational decision-making. When groups organize too hastily, they frequently reproduce existing social hierarchies and undermine the possibility of building broad coalitions across differences. By intentionally slowing down during their formative stages, SONG avoided these exclusionary dynamics, ensuring that marginalized voices were not merely invited as guests, but positioned as co-authors and founders from the very beginning.
Hussain’s insight carries profound implications for contemporary social movements facing immense systemic pressures. The urgency felt by millions of people confronting environmental destruction, economic inequality, and state violence is entirely justified. Achieving a habitable and just future undeniably requires sweeping social transformation on a massive scale. However, history demonstrates that these transformations cannot be achieved instantaneously through sheer willpower alone.
Instead, real progress requires long-haul struggles capable of engaging ordinary people on a massive scale, drawing new participants into active resistance, and forging powerful new collectivities over time. While episodic protests and sudden mobilizations play an important role in drawing attention to injustices, they remain insufficient on their own to secure lasting change.
To achieve meaningful victories, movements must successfully bridge a difficult and unresolvable tension. On one side lies the deeply felt, urgent conviction that current social arrangements are fundamentally intolerable; on the other side sits the mature understanding that dismantling those arrangements requires deliberate, disciplined, and often patient collective action. By building movements propelled by urgency yet grounded in regularity, rigor, and reliability, modern organizers can lay the groundwork for a sustained fight for a better world that endures for years to come.
