For years, I have heard the phrase “Building a Bigger We” from my dear friend and comrade Makani. It was also a core practice in my years at the Praxis Project. The phrase has stayed with me because it captures one of the most difficult challenges facing our movements today. Everyone seems to agree that we need a bigger we. We need broader coalitions. We need stronger solidarity. We need people willing to stand together against attacks on immigrants, Black communities, queer and trans people, workers, and democracy itself.
The question is not whether we need a bigger we. The question is how we build one. In Rhode Island, too often, organizations reach out in moments of urgency, asking people to sign a letter, endorse a campaign, join a coalition, attend an action, or support a demand. Sometimes the first communication we ever receive from an organization is a request for support. What is often missing is the work that comes before the ask.
Who are the people you are reaching out to?
What are they experiencing right now?
What struggles are they already fighting?
What relationships have been built?
What trust has been earned?
What risks are they carrying?
Building a bigger we requires more than agreement on an issue. It requires relationship, reciprocity, and accountability. One of the challenges we continue to see is that many organizations describe themselves as progressive while lacking a meaningful racial justice analysis in how they build campaigns and coalitions. Organizations led by people of color are often approached after a campaign has already been designed, after demands have been developed, and after strategies have been determined. We are asked to join someone else’s agenda rather than help shape a collective one. This matters because coalition-building is not simply about adding more names to a list. It is about building enough trust, understanding, and shared analysis to act together effectively.
The current political moment is urgent. We face growing authoritarianism, attacks on immigrants, attacks on trans lives, threats to voting rights, rising inequality, and ongoing assaults on Black and Brown communities. Urgency does not eliminate the need for a relationship. It increases the need for it.
A bigger we is not built through recruitment alone. It is built through curiosity. Through listening. Through shared struggle. Through showing up before you need something. Through investing in relationships that can withstand disagreement, complexity, and difficult moments. If we truly want a bigger we, we must ask more of ourselves.
Not simply, “Who will join us?”
But also, “Who have we built relationships with? Who helped shape this strategy? Whose experiences informed this analysis? Who is missing from the table? What responsibilities come with asking others to stand beside us?” The future of our movements depends not only on our willingness to fight. It depends on our willingness to build the relationships, trust, and political discipline required to fight together. Building a bigger we requires more than shared opposition. It requires shared practice.
The challenge before us is not simply whether we can gather enough people to respond to the next attack, crisis, or campaign. The challenge is whether we are building the relationships, trust, and political culture necessary to sustain collective action over time. Many of us are asking people to fight. Fewer of us are asking what it takes to build the conditions for people to fight together. A bigger “we” is not built on urgency alone. It is built through a relationship. Through curiosity. Through accountability. Through understanding how race, power, privilege, and exclusion shape our movements as much as they shape society.
If we are serious about defeating authoritarianism, advancing racial justice, protecting our communities, and building a liberatory future, then we must become as committed to building relationships as we are to building campaigns. The bigger we is not a destination. It is a discipline.
As we continue this conversation, we invite our members, neighbors, partners, and allies to reflect on a few questions:
- Who shaped this analysis, and whose voices were missing?
- What do your coalition and partnership practices reveal about your understanding of race, power, and solidarity?
- When you ask others to join your fight, what have you invested in the relationship beforehand?
- Are you building connections that can withstand disagreement and crisis, or only mobilizing people in urgent moments?
- What would it take to build a bigger we rooted in shared responsibility, not simply shared opposition?
The future of our movements depends on how we answer these questions. Building a bigger we is not simply about bringing more people into the room. It is about creating the conditions for people to belong, contribute, lead, and struggle together toward a shared future.
