How do we discern the most effective and aligned social justice strategies? Is it more important to engage in civil disobedience or to work on legislation? Is it more effective to organize with our neighbors or to provide a healing space for overworked activists? There are no easy answers to these questions, but the butterfly of transformative social change can guide us. Each of the four wings of the butterfly represents a set of tactics – resist, reform, build, and heal. To resist means to directly confront systems of oppression through noncooperation – protest, strike, sit in, boycott, etc. To reform means to work within existing systems toward incremental change – education, electoral politics, petitions, etc. To build means to create new institutions that reflect the world we envision – cooperatives, freedom schools, community farms, etc. And, to heal means to address trauma and center joy so we can embody a healed work – spirituality, art, therapy, etc. Just as a butterfly cannot fly without all of its wings, a movement cannot succeed without all of these strategies. Ask yourself what is the intersection between your skills, passions, and the strategies available to you? That intersection is the body of the butterfly and where you can focus your energy.
