In 1970, imprisoned activist George Jackson issued a stark challenge to those claiming to resist oppression: stop fighting each other. The fascism he warned about from inside California's prisons no longer hides. It stands exposed, and the fragmentation within resistance movements has become a critical liability at the moment it matters most.
Organizers across the country now grapple with a fundamental problem. The very systems designed to divide the powerless have fractured movements from within. Ego, credit-seeking, and disputes over strategy have weakened coalitions precisely when unified resistance is most urgent. Infighting born from scarcity and competition has made movements vulnerable to the coordinated power arrayed against them.
The arithmetic is brutal. A movement at war with itself cannot push back against consolidated state power, militarized policing infrastructure, or the tightening grip of authoritarianism. Yet the solution is not to suppress conflict. It is to transform how movements handle it.
Building the Infrastructure of Solidarity
Organizers have begun experimenting with new frameworks that address harm directly rather than allowing it to fester. Over the past three years, groups across California developed collective processes rooted in transformative justice and community accountability. These were not theoretical exercises. They emerged from a 2021 reckoning with gender-based harm that forced movement leaders to confront how patriarchy shaped their own organizations.
Facilitated healing sessions brought organizers together to unpack personal and ancestral trauma, examine power dynamics, and learn concrete repair tools. The goal was not to suppress disagreement but to move through it without reproducing the violence of the systems they opposed.
Many state coalitions have now adopted collective agreements outlining shared decision-making, communication protocols, and accountability structures. These are political commitments, not bureaucratic paperwork. They establish transparent voting processes, define expectations for disagreement, and create clear pathways for responding to harm. They make solidarity a daily practice rather than an aspiration.
The tools already exist. Training programs rooted in Indigenous wisdom and culturally grounded healing practices help movements navigate conflict without mimicking the carceral state. Leadership development programs teach the skills needed to sustain healthy organizations through struggle. Networks of healers and organizers across the country are demonstrating that people can process harm, let go of resentment, and return to shared purpose when given adequate support and space.
People do not join movements because they are right. They join because they feel they belong, because they are given room to grow and transform, and because the movement actually delivers tangible things: food, housing, safety, jobs, freedom from state violence. This requires daily practice and renewal. It requires showing up even when it is uncomfortable, talking to people whose politics remain imperfect, and refusing to turn on allies over minor disagreements while focusing fire on the actual enemy.
Confronting harm directly also means doing the slow, principled work of repair rather than simply avoiding conflict. This infrastructure of accountability and solidarity is not optional. It is the foundation of movements capable of enduring the long fight ahead.
In Los Angeles, organizers continue surveying thousands of residents about city budgets and resource allocation. The answer has remained consistent since 2020: divest from punishment and invest in people. This clarity across the political spectrum offers a blueprint. It shows what movements can accomplish when they focus outward on shared demands rather than inward on factional disputes.
The window for action narrows. Organizers no longer have the luxury of waiting until internal problems are solved. There is no time for that. But there is still each other. And that remains enough.
Author James Rodriguez: "The difference between a movement that splinters and one that endures is not the absence of conflict, it's the courage to address it head-on without replicating the harm they're fighting against."
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