How to Build the Movement We Need
The New Playbook for Organizers
After upheaval came uproar, and after uproar came uprising. - Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts (2017)
I’m feeling something electric in the air as we settle into this age of emergency.
Now, this could also be ozone (thanks to President Donald Trump’s second term executive order freezing pending EPA ozone regulations) or it could be the beginning of a political revolution. It’s hard to tell what is happening in this liminal period between the extremes of authoritarianism on the one hand, and status quo racial capitalism on the other. We can’t go back, we don’t want to stay here, and we need to go somewhere we have never been.
If the current system is a mix of the past and the future, then we should get busy building toward the society of our dreams instead of fighting to get back to President Biden’s first term. There’s no guarantee that this energy in the air will translate into a winning movement before the United States goes full-on fascism and our freedom dreams are foreclosed for a generation, which is why what we do, how we do it, and who we organize matter more than ever.
In a world where social media outrage cycles and cancel culture dominate our discourse, two powerful voices offer a radical alternative: what if we approached social justice work with love instead of anger, connection instead of division, and strategic vision instead of reactionary tactics? Loretta Ross and Vanessa Daniel have given us two essential playbooks for anyone seeking to organize toward meaningful change in their communities.
Vanessa Daniel’s Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning (2025) is a captivating page-turner that shares hard-won lessons about the struggles she faced building and leading Groundswell — and what it will take to support women of color leaders better going forward. Loretta Ross’ Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel (2025) builds on Daniel’s wisdom with hands-on advice on how to use calling-in to transform our organizations into ones that can win everything from relationship repair to societal change.
As Ross writes, “We yearn to be part of something bigger than ourselves, something that gives our life meaning. But it is not enough to be correct; we must take correct action.” This wisdom forms the heart of both authors’ messages to those dedicated to community organizing as a vocation.
The Problem of Movement Cannibalism
Both Ross and Daniel identify a troubling trend within progressive spaces: the tendency to turn our righteous rage on each other rather than focusing on external opposition.
“In the past decade, I’ve seen a spike of infighting, cruelty, and call outs among could-be allies,” Ross observes. “This has always been a danger among radical movements: it’s what hamstrung the groups I worked with in DC in the 1970s when I started my journey as a social justice activist.”
Daniel puts this in stark terms: “We are living in a time when it is not unusual for WOC to simultaneously receive death threats from white supremacists, be undermined by white coalition allies, and be unfairly attacked by their own staff—including people of color.”
This internal strife has real consequences for movement effectiveness:
It diverts precious energy from external targets
It creates traumatizing environments that drive away talented leaders
It perpetuates patterns of harm within spaces meant to heal societal wounds
It prevents the strategic unity needed to build powerful coalitions
It makes organizing spaces unattractive to newcomers who might otherwise join
Lessons from Ross: The Art of Calling In
1. Understand the Strategic Value of Calling In
Ross defines calling in simply as “a call out done with love.” But it’s also a strategic choice that builds lasting power. As she explains:
“Calling out is a short-term fix, whereas calling in is a long-term remedy. One of the downsides to calling out is that the harm we are trying to stop often simply metastasizes, creating long(er)-term destruction.”
For organizers, this means critically evaluating when public confrontation serves movement goals versus when private engagement might be more effective.
2. Master the Five Steps of Calling In
Ross offers a practical five-step approach to calling in that community and worker organizers can implement immediately:
Start with the self: Check your own emotional state and intentions before engaging. Ask: “What is in my heart right now? Am I operating from anger or from love?”
Calibrate the conflict: Assess what’s actually happening. Are you certain harm was intentional rather than the result of ignorance or miscommunication?
Lead with love: Open conversations with genuine curiosity. Try: “When you said _, I didn’t understand what you meant. Do you have time for us to talk about it more?”
Accept the reaction: Don’t expect immediate change. As Ross notes, “True change is hard, and it takes time—longer than any single conversation.”
Reach a resolution: Focus on mutual growth rather than “winning.” Ross emphasizes, “I like to say that our larger goal when calling in is to persuade people to be with us, not to agree with us.”
3. Build Strategic Coalitions Through the Spheres of Influence Model
One of Ross’s most valuable frameworks for organizers is her “Spheres of Influence” model. She identifies different percentages of alignment with potential allies:
90% allies: Those who agree with you on most issues
75% allies: Those who share your core values but differ on significant points
50% allies: Those who have meaningful areas of both agreement and disagreement
25% or 0% opponents: Those fundamentally opposed to your goals
Ross challenges organizers to stop obsessing over that final 10% disagreement with our closest allies: “We end up acting as if that remaining 10% is the most important thing to hash out, as if once that’s done, maybe the movement will spread like wildfire… I don’t see perfect ideological unity as a goal that’s either achievable or desirable.”
Instead, she advocates for strategic unity by engaging the 75% and 50% allies: “To achieve power that builds—power that can win over public opinion and change the system—we must move beyond that 90% bubble and out into further circles of influence.”
4. Create Advance Understanding and Accountability
For organizations, Ross recommends establishing “advance understanding and advance accountability.” This means:
Creating shared language and concepts around conflict before it arises
Developing clear procedures for navigating tensions once they emerge
Establishing agreements about behavior during conflict
Using techniques like “Oops, Ouch, Whoa” to signal mistakes and hurt feelings
She writes, “When we create a call in culture before tensions flare, we can fall back on shared values and procedures rather than letting our fear and anger send us straight into call out mode.”
5. Make Space for Joy in the Movement
Perhaps most surprisingly, Ross emphasizes that activism should bring joy: “Fighting hate should be fun; it’s being a Nazi that sucks!” She continues, “When human rights activists face some of the worst things people can do to one another, joy is not an indulgence—it’s a necessity for survival.”
This represents a profound shift for many organizers who have normalized burnout and suffering as badges of commitment. Ross insists, “We liberate our minds and souls through joy even as our bodies, our lands, and our ways of life are colonized and threatened.”
Lessons from Daniel: Sustaining Movement Leadership
1. Value 360-Degree Vision in Organizing Strategy
Daniel identifies “360-degree vision” as the first superpower of women of color leaders—an ability to see interconnected issues and develop solutions that address multiple forms of oppression simultaneously.
For organizers, this means:
Refusing to compartmentalize issues that are interconnected in people’s lives
Creating campaigns that reflect the fullness of community experiences
Preventing the “coat check” phenomenon where people must leave parts of their identity at the door
As Daniel explains: “When organizations pretend that any issue—from climate to healthcare—isn’t raced, classed, and gendered in powerful ways, it leads to fighting for wins that leave many people behind.”
2. Create Belonging Without Building Walls
Daniel warns of two extremes in movement spaces:
Toxic exclusion: Creating barriers to participation so high that people feel unwelcome
Toxic belonging: Setting standards so rigid that people are shamed and expelled for minor transgressions
She advises meeting people “where they are with love, rigor, and encouragement on their path to liberation,” while noting this doesn’t mean “giving people a pass to continue to speak and behave in ways that are ignorant and harmful.”
For organizers, this means developing the discernment to distinguish between:
Healthy boundaries that protect communities from harm
Walls that exclude potential allies and lock movements in echo chambers
3. Identify and Counter Common Movement Barriers
Daniel identifies several barriers that destroy movement effectiveness:
Projection and scapegoating: When external oppression feels too overwhelming, and closer targets become proxies
Empathy without discernment: Crusading on behalf of accusations without examining their validity
Emotional contagion: Being swept up in group emotions without maintaining critical thinking
Trauma bonding: Achieving closeness through shared victimization rather than shared vision
Performative wokeness: Using callouts to elevate one’s status rather than address real harm
Fragility: Confusing discomfort with harm and avoiding necessary feedback
Narcissistic individualism: Prioritizing personal comfort over collective mission
For organizers, recognizing these patterns is the first step in addressing them. As Daniel notes, “Most organizations derail not because the majority agrees with the actions of a few people who are derailing, but because too many people are frozen in fear due to a lack of skills and no sense of permission or responsibility to intervene.”
4. Develop Core Strength in Organizations
Daniel recommends four elements to build organizational resilience:
Clear values: Including due process, rigor, non-dominance, and accountability to frontline communities
Long-arc vision: A compelling vision of what the world will look like after winning the long game
Political education: Helping members understand the relationship between values, campaigns, and long-term goals
Grassroots organizing skills: Training in using collective power to transform systems
She emphasizes, “There is no work-around to putting strong values, long-arc visioning, political education, and organizing training back into the praxis of movement organizations.”
5. Set Healthy Boundaries and Counter Mammying Expectations
Daniel offers specific advice for leaders (especially women of color) facing unrealistic demands:
Explicitly reject the expectation to “mother” an organization
Disabuse people of the notion that leaders are there to “save” them
Set sustainable expectations appropriate to the organization’s size
Delink self-worth from pleasing others
Maintain the right ratio of internal to external focus
As she writes, “It’s important for WOC leaders to ask ourselves: What would it mean to carry myself with a steady confidence, without engaging in artificial vulnerability, victimhood, or smallness to make others comfortable or less threatened by my presence?”
6. Make Hiring Decisions Based on Values and Resilience
Daniel challenges organizations to update their hiring practices:
“Job interviews and reference checks can no longer just test for skills and the ability to glibly parrot back the organization’s core values or party line; they need to screen diligently—including with real-time simulations for capacities like emotional maturity and regulation, critical thinking, backbone, ability to receive feedback, capacity to navigate conflict, and an ability to stay focused on the social justice purpose of the organization.”
She notes many organizations are now using role-plays and scenarios to evaluate candidates’ values alignment and emotional resilience.
7. Build Your Leadership Squad
For sustained leadership, Daniel emphasizes the importance of trusted relationships:
Keep mentors close
Work with people you trust and who trust you
Look for opportunities to lift up other leaders
Trust your ambitious ideas
She quotes advice from numerous leaders about the need for a strong support network, including this wisdom she received during a difficult period: “If you are dragged in public for things you didn’t do, I will have your back and gather others to have your back in public. We will not leave you alone.”
Additional Wisdom for Community and Worker Organizers
Balancing Inner Work with External Action
Both authors emphasize that personal healing work is essential for effective organizing:
Ross: “My potential was only limited by the amount of energy I was expending to keep my pain sealed inside and my mistakes hidden for fear of being called out.”
Daniel: “As leaders, when we don’t do our own work to address and heal our pain and trauma, it can harm others and the organizations that we are trying to lead.”
For organizers, this means:
Developing regular practices for self-reflection and healing
Understanding that personal growth enhances leadership effectiveness
Recognizing when unresolved trauma is impacting your work
Creating sustainable boundaries to prevent burnout
Navigating Power Dynamics Effectively
Both authors discuss the complex relationship between movements and power:
Ross: “Power itself isn’t what we have to fear. We rightly fear the abuse of power. But power is something we need if we want to change unjust situations.”
Daniel: “Our discomfort with power shows up in a number of ways. It’s there in the fetish for small, scrappy endeavors that have a radical analysis but refuse to amass enough strength to win anything that substantively improves people’s lives.”
For organizers, this means:
Getting comfortable with building and wielding power
Distinguishing between “power over” and “power with”
Creating mechanisms for accountability within power structures
Recognizing when power aversion prevents achieving meaningful results
Fostering Decision-Making That Works
Both authors critique unrealistic expectations around organizational decision-making:
Daniel: “People want ‘collectives’ but they also want four-day workweeks, to clock out at 5:00 P.M. and not spend a second more in meetings dealing with annoying things like consensus building and governance.”
Ross: “I don’t see perfect ideological unity as a goal that’s either achievable or desirable. Our pursuit of a perfect ideology—sacrificing a good outcome for perfect results—is a futile tactic that’s characteristic of a narrow imagination.”
For organizers, this suggests:
Creating clarity about which decisions require consensus and which don’t
Setting realistic expectations about the time investment good process requires
Emphasizing strategic unity rather than ideological purity
Designing processes appropriate to organizational size and capacity
Developing a Bold Vision While Building Step by Step
Both authors emphasize the importance of balancing ambitious vision with practical action:
Daniel: “Women of color making bold demands—by tapping into 360-degree vision and organizing a grassroots base to fight for them—is a growing trend in American politics.”
Ross: “[We need to] understand the value of transitional demands instead of all-or-nothing policies.”
For organizers, this means:
Articulating a compelling long-term vision that inspires action
Breaking the vision into achievable campaigns that build power
Developing transitional platforms that move toward the vision
Celebrating victories without losing sight of the larger transformation
Standing Firm Against Both External and Internal Attacks
Both authors offer wisdom for weathering the inevitable attacks that come with leadership:
Daniel: “Terror reveals what people are made of, and if they lack integrity and courage, their worst and most spineless selves will come to the surface.”
Ross: “Forgiveness is something you do for yourself before you can forgive others. Forgive yourself for when you knew you should’ve spoken up, but you were scared.”
For organizers, this suggests:
Developing resilience against both external opposition and internal conflict
Building relationships with people who will stand by you during attacks
Learning to distinguish constructive criticism from destructive attacks
Taking the long view when facing short-term controversies
Conclusion: A New Vision for Community Organizing
Together, these books offer a revolutionary vision for community organizing—one that is both more humane and more effective. They remind us that how we do the work is as important as what we accomplish, because who we bring along determines how far we’ll go.
As Ross states, “We can all do this: call ourselves in to call others in.” And as Daniel adds, “When WOC leaders are doing well, everyone is doing well. You never go wrong by doing right by us.”
In a world desperately in need of bridge-builders, these lessons provide a pathway for organizers to create movements that reflect the world we’re fighting to create. As Ross concludes: “The more consistently we call ourselves in, the more we learn to enjoy the learning we are gifted from others. If you are peacefully aligned with your values, you can talk to anyone and take joy in the messiness of us all stumbling through being human together.”
This is how we will build a majoritarian movement for justice and freedom in America. Let’s get to it.