You can’t break a SWEAT – Creatively fighting for the rights of sex workers in South Africa

As advocates for social justice, our sights have been stoically fixed on fighting against and challenging what is, be it systemic inequality, structural violence and injustice. Dismantling these systems of oppression are critical, but we have lost sight of the importance of imagining what could be. That is, what a future free from that oppression might look like, might feel like, might be like. Without this ability to imagine, we are unable to create new ways of being that do not perpetuate the injustice we are trying to fight against. The bringing together of Creativity and Activism has proved vital in allowing us to begin to imagine and enact what a more equal and just world might look like. This article explores how the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) in South Africa has been utilising creative methodology in their advocacy to advance the rights of sex workers. SWEAT has been committed to exploring and experimenting with creative methodologies which have been incorporated into strategising, organising, mobilising and advocating for the decriminalisation of sex work. These creative methodologies have resulted in some of the biggest successes in the struggle for the human rights of sex workers in South Africa.