This chapter explores how to prevent infighting, build trust, and maintain focus on shared goals rather than personal disagreements.
Protect The Center
They Want You Divided—Don’t Give Them What They Want.
They don’t need to destroy you if they can make you destroy one another. They don’t have to break your movement if they can turn it against itself. They don’t have to fight you if they can keep you fighting amongst yourselves. They have always known that a fractured resistance is no resistance at all. That is why they feed division. That is why they fuel infighting. That is why they make sure you see enemies where you should see allies.
Why Unity is a Survival Strategy
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No movement wins alone - If you isolate yourself, you make yourself easy to defeat.
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Infighting is an energy trap - Every battle within your own ranks is energy not spent fighting the real enemy.
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They will try to divide you along identity, class, ideology, anything that keeps you too busy arguing to focus on the real threat.
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Unity does not mean sameness - You don’t have to agree on everything to stand together where it matters.
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A coalition is stronger than a single movement - The more groups that align, the harder they are to dismantle.
How to Build Unity Without Losing Strength
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Focus on the Common Enemy, Not Minor Differences - Not everyone in your coalition will think the same way. That does not mean they are your enemy. If you share a common threat, you share a common purpose. That must come first.
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Don’t Waste Energy Policing Who is "Pure Enough" - Movements die when they spend more time purging their own ranks than fighting their true opposition. Not every ally will be perfect. What matters is whether they are moving in the same direction.
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Recognize Divide-and-Conquer Tactics When You See Them - If someone is stirring conflict within your movement, ask who benefits from this fight? If the answer is your enemy, you’re being played.
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Don’t Let Ego Destroy Strategy - You will not always get credit. You will not always lead. If you refuse to support a cause unless you’re at the center of it, you’re not here for the cause—you’re here for yourself.
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Strengthen Your Own House Before You Challenge Another - If you’re demanding unity, be sure you’re practicing it. Call for peace, but don’t ask people to stand with those who would harm them. Solidarity must be built on trust, not force.
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Build Bridges, Not Just Walls - You don’t have to agree on every issue to stand together on the ones that matter. If you refuse to work with anyone who does not share your exact ideology, you will always stand alone.
The First Task: Strengthen Unity, Not Division
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Identify one place where infighting is draining energy from the true battle.
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Recognize one divide-and-conquer tactic at play in the world around you.
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Find an opportunity to build an alliance, even with someone you don’t fully agree with.
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Focus on what unites before what divides.
"We must hang together, or we shall surely hang separately."
— Benjamin Franklin
Historical Reflection
Fannie Lou Hamer
Movements fracture when people focus on their differences instead of their shared fight. Fannie Lou Hamer refused to let that happen. In the battle for Black voting rights, she understood that victory would only come through unity, through bridging divides between class, ideology, and personal grievances. She made sure that the Civil Rights Movement did not collapse under the weight of its own internal struggles.
Born to a sharecropping family in Mississippi, Hamer knew firsthand the brutal realities of systemic racism. She was nearly beaten to death for trying to register to vote, but instead of retreating, she used the moment to galvanize others. She co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), an alternative to the all-white Democratic delegation that excluded Black voices. But her mission was larger than one group, she believed in pulling together every part of the movement, from grassroots organizers to national leaders.
When younger activists clashed with older, more traditional civil rights leaders, Hamer reminded them that the true enemy was the system that wanted to keep them divided. When economic and class differences threatened to fracture the movement, she emphasized that poverty and racism were intertwined struggles. She refused to allow purist thinking to weaken the cause, knowing that no single faction could win alone.
At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, she took the stage and exposed the country to the raw truth of racism in America. Her speech, unscripted, unfiltered, and unforgettable, forced the world to acknowledge what was happening in the Deep South. Though political deals kept the MFDP from securing seats that year, her efforts reshaped the movement, ensuring that Black Americans could no longer be ignored in national politics.
Hamer knew that victory comes not when everyone agrees, but when everyone moves forward together. She built coalitions, brought people back into the fold when they were ready to quit, and kept the movement alive even when frustration threatened to pull it apart. Her legacy is not just in the votes she helped win, but in the unity she preserved when it mattered most.
Historical Reflection
Bertha von Suttner
Peace is fragile, not just because of war, but because of the divisions among those who seek to prevent it. Bertha von Suttner understood this better than anyone. At a time when the peace movement in Europe was fractured, divided between idealists, diplomats, and pragmatists, she dedicated her life to uniting them, knowing that only through solidarity could real change be achieved.
Born into Austrian nobility, Bertha could have chosen a life of comfort, but she was drawn to a greater cause. Witnessing the devastation of militarism, she became a relentless advocate for disarmament, refusing to let political, national, or ideological differences weaken the growing fight for peace. She traveled across Europe, writing, speaking, and forging connections between disparate organizations, urging them to focus on their true enemy: war itself.
Her novel, Lay Down Your Arms, became a rallying cry, exposing the brutality of war and forcing those in power to confront the consequences of their policies. It was not just a book—it was a weapon against indifference. She built bridges between pacifists and political leaders, knowing that true peace required both moral conviction and strategic negotiation. Even as factions within the movement clashed over methods and ideology, she reminded them that infighting only served those who profited from war.
Her relentless advocacy led to a historic recognition; in 1905, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But Bertha von Suttner did not fight for personal accolades. She fought because she believed peace was possible—but only if those who desired it worked together. She refused to let the movement crumble under ego, ideology, or division, understanding that a fractured resistance is no resistance at all.
Her legacy is a lesson in perseverance, in unity, in refusing to let differences become distractions. She proved that the greatest battles are not always fought on the battlefield—they are fought in the hearts and minds of those who dare to imagine a world without war.
Bertha von Suttner did not just speak of peace, she built the alliances that made it possible.