Sex worker rally in London against Policing and Crime Bill

Thanks to several readers who sent me versions of this news.

Morning Star online.co.uk

Sex workers rally against new Crime Bill

Tuesday 31 March 2009 – Paul Haste

Sex workers smothered London’s Piccadilly Circus in red umbrellas on Tuesday to protest against the criminalisation of their profession.

Scores of workers from the nearby Soho district gathered at the Eros statue in the heart of the capital, stopping traffic to highlight their opposition to the government’s Policing and Crime Bill.

Carrying the red umbrellas as a symbol of their resistance to the new law, sex workers’ rights activists declared that it would “push prostitution further underground and push us into more danger.”

English Collective of Prostitutes organiser Cari Mitchell explained that the Bill, championed by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, would “make it easier to for the police to arrest sex workers on the street and give them powers to seize our earnings and property regardless of whether there is a conviction.”

Referring to reports that Ms Smith’s ministerial expenses included pornographic DVDs, Ms Mitchell said: “It is ironic that the minister makes expense claims for products from the sex industry while waging this fundamentalist moral crusade against us.”

Ms Mitchell pointed out that “many sex workers are single mothers and prostitution is a survival strategy to deal with debt, low wages and unemployment.

“As the recession hits harder, more women are likely to resort to prostitution and the government should be providing resources and support for them, rather than stigmatising and criminalising them.”

Sex worker activist Ava Caradonna, who organises English classes for migrant workers in Soho, insisted that the women and men who sell sexual services “don’t need and don’t want other people making choices for us.

“Ministers want to criminalise our work, but we want to do what we do – and we want to organise and take charge of our own lives to make conditions better,” she added.

Danish activist Zanne agreed, pointing out that “sex workers all over the world are organising,” while Italian Andrea added that the government should “legalise the industry instead of attacking us.”

Ms Caradonna added that “those who want more oppressive laws need to listen to the workers and their union.”

“Abolition is not the answer because prostitution will never end. Instead we need some respect,” she stated.

6 thoughts on “Sex worker rally in London against Policing and Crime Bill

  1. Pingback: links for 2009-03-31 « Tlönista

  2. Pingback: Topics about Umbrellas » Sex worker rally in London against Policing and Crime Bill

  3. Belinda Brooks-Gordon

    I was on this rally and it was an important to show the hypocrisy of the current Bill, and to hear sex workers (men and women) give their view of the Bill. It was interesting how the public were highly supportive too. I do feel that public opinion has changed to realise that those active in the industry should be consulted.

    Reply
  4. Ken Rogers MA (Criminology)

    I am concerned that this proposed new legislation will drive this trade underground creating dangerous enviroment for these prostitutes.

    It is shocking that in this day and age in the UK that a number of women turn to this trade to survive, where is the government care for its citizens?

    There will always be prositution decribed by some as a necessary evil. However as a police officer in the fifties sixties in East London I found the active prostitutes to be polite and in fact assisted if a police officer was in trouble in dealing with a violent situation.

    Reply

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