Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.

Hear, O listener, the resolute voice of Susan B. Anthony, who bore the banner of women’s rights through storms of mockery and resistance. She proclaimed: “Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.” These words were not chosen lightly, for Anthony knew that the struggle for justice is not won with swords, but with persistence, unity, and truth. In this cry, she revealed the three great weapons of social transformation: to organize so that voices are joined, to agitate so that silence is broken, and to educate so that ignorance can no longer bind the human spirit.

The origin of this saying lies in the long battle for women’s suffrage in the United States during the nineteenth century. Anthony, alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton and countless other pioneers, fought in an age when women were denied not only the vote but also the right to be heard, to own property freely, or to determine their own destinies. Facing ridicule, hostility, and even arrest, Anthony understood that victory could only come if the oppressed stood together in discipline and solidarity. Organization was the foundation, without which the movement would scatter like leaves in the wind.

But organization alone was not enough. The people had to agitate—to stir the conscience of the nation, to challenge unjust laws, to refuse compliance with customs that enslaved. Anthony herself tested the law by casting a ballot in 1872, an act for which she was arrested. Though condemned by the courts, her defiance echoed like a trumpet, agitating hearts across the land. For agitation is the spark that awakens those who slumber, the noise that unsettles the comfortable, the storm that shakes the rotten tree until it falls.

Yet agitation too must be bound to education, lest fury turn to chaos and passion burn without direction. Anthony and her allies traveled tirelessly, giving speeches, writing pamphlets, and teaching generations that equality is not a gift to be granted but a right to be recognized. They understood that ignorance is the true fortress of tyranny, and that to tear it down requires truth spoken again and again until it pierces the veil of prejudice. Through education, their cause became not merely a demand of the few, but a principle embraced by the many.

History shows the triumph of this war cry. Though Anthony did not live to see it, her battle bore fruit in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. It was the harvest of decades of organization, agitation, and education—of conventions held, petitions circulated, laws challenged, and minds awakened. Her words proved prophetic: these three pillars are not only the strategy of suffrage, but the eternal strategy of every movement that seeks to free the oppressed.

The deeper meaning of Anthony’s cry is that justice is not granted by the powerful out of benevolence. It must be demanded, and the demand must be relentless. Organization gives strength, agitation gives urgency, and education gives legitimacy. Together, they form the trinity of social change, a formula that has inspired movements for civil rights, labor rights, and freedom across the globe. Whenever the people have risen, these three have been their weapons.

What lesson, then, shall we take? It is this: in your own struggles, do not remain silent or isolated. Join with others who seek the same good. Organize your strength. Agitate against complacency, even if your voice shakes. Educate yourself and others, so that truth may shine where lies once reigned. For though your cause may seem small, history teaches that these are the steps by which empires are shaken, chains are broken, and justice is won.

Therefore, O listener, let Susan B. Anthony’s words be your inheritance: “Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.” Take them into your heart, for they are as true today as when she spoke them. Whatever your battle—against inequality, against corruption, against ignorance—these three are your unfailing allies. Wield them with courage, and you too shall carve a brighter future from the stone of resistance.