GET ALONG TO THE X:TALK FUNDRAISER
Posted on | October 5, 2008 | No Comments
you are invited to…….
A KISS & TELL PARTY
Tuesday 28 October 2008
8pm Central Station @ Bar Wotever
37 Wharfdale Road, King’s Cross N1 9SD
suggested donation 5/10 waged
an evening of performances, tunes ….and the xtalk raffle will be drawn on the night. first prize for the raffle: a painting donated by artist Sandra Turnbull from the All About Eve exhibition
all monies raised go towards providing free English classes for migrant sex workers
for more info call us on: 0791 470 3372
psst: please pass this invite on to other people and networks
2005 SEX WORK CONFERENCE IN BRUSSELS
Posted on | October 5, 2008 | No Comments
The European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration was held 15- 17 October 2005 in Brussels.
The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe run a website that is full of useful and up to date resources of what is happening around Europe and also details what happened at the 2005 conference. The Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto, the product of a consultation carried out with sex workers throughout Europe is available to download. You can see the Manifesto in English, РУССКИЙ, Deutsch, Français, Español, Italiano, Ελληνικά, Slovensky and Български.
X:TALK WINS EROTIC AWARD
Posted on | October 5, 2008 | No Comments
The x:talk project was a proud winner at the 2008 Erotic Awards in the category of Innovation. The awards were presented at the Night of the Senses on 12 September in London. This charity event benefits Outsiders.
WORKING GIRLS: PROSTITUTES, THEIR LIFE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
Posted on | August 31, 2008 | 1 Comment
by Roberta Perkins
An analysis of prostitution laws throughout Australia are presented in this book as Roberts discusses the need for the decriminalisation of prostitution. Detailed findings from a survey of Sydney prostitutes and excerpts from in-depth interviews are included. Perkins also reviews a vast literature on the subject of prostitution.
ISBN 0 642 15877 0
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 1991
RETHINKING SEX-TRAFFICKING
Posted on | August 31, 2008 | No Comments
Victims of organized crime. Victims of male violence. Sex-slaves.
These are the terms commonly used to describe migrant women in the EUʼs sex industry. Trafficking, in contrast to ʻvoluntaryʼ migration such as smuggling, is defined as non-consensual form of migration geared towards exploitation of migrantsʼ labour whether in sex or some other kind of industry. This notion of trafficking resulted in NGOs and statesʼ intervention along two main lines: first, establishing of protective schemes for victims of trafficking and second, the tightening of borders and visa regimes to combat organised criminal networks.
Victim protection schemes are not to be discarded as they offer temporary residence permits to migrants. Yet, they are also not to be embraced so easily as they consign the complexity of womenʼs desires and projects to the category of the ʻvictimʼ, and consequently downplaying womenʼs resistance to structural inequalities and their struggle to transform their lives. Moreover, victim protection schemes lead to anti-prostitution laws as they subsume all migrant sex workers under the category of victims and worsen sex-workersʼ working conditions and rights. Border and visaʼs regimes relation to trafficking needs also to be reconsidered. When formal avenues of migration become inaccessible, migrant women turn to irregular channels. Stricter controls and more restrictive immigration regulations aimed at preventing trafficking do not protect women from abuse but, on the contrary, increase migrant womenʼs vulnerability to violence during their travel. In fact they increase the level of control third parties have over migrants, both during the journey and upon arrival at their destinations. Hence, current EU mechanisms of migration control help to produce ʻirregularʼ migration, channel women into trafficking and consequently into prostitution.
Shifting the terms of analysis of trafficking from violence and organised crime to migration and labour creates new political and interpretative possibilities. Analytically, it provides us with a framework to examine the impact of restrictive immigration and labour policies on migrant womenʼs lives and on sex-workersʼ lives. Politically, it avoids the danger of the collusion with statesʼ anti-immigration agenda which occurs when victimhood is the main frame of reference, and it proposes a political alliance based on freedom of movement and resistance against labour exploitation.
CROSSING BORDERS ISSUE 5: WOMEN ON THE MOVE
Posted on | August 31, 2008 | No Comments
The new issue of “Crossing Borders!”, a transnational newsletter on “movements and struggles of migration”, is out now again in 6 languages (see www.noborder.org/crossing_borders/), and we ask all of you to support this project through wider distribution.
In Issue n. 5, we speak about women’s migration, and not for the first time: as we believe it is a crucial perspective to understand transnational movements and how they affect gender relations and the organisation of labour (see also issues 3 & 4). This issue of Crossing Borders! was initially distributed at the opening initiative of the transnational chain of action - In the heart of the monster: fignting the border regime! Transnationalization now! (February-October 2008) - in Amsterdam, on February 2.
Support this multilingual newsletter project by contributing and distributing!
One year ago “Crossing Borders!” appeared for the first time as an attempt to foster transnational communication: in reference to the migration-related networking process in general, but connected to practical struggles and initiatives in particular. The first issue was published for the transnational action day on October 7th 2006, then we used the opportunity of the World Social Forum in Nairobi in January 2007 for a second, and May First for the third issue. Our earlier reports mainly covered conflicts in Western Europe, in Africa and the USA. The 4th issue included many impressions from the Ukraine, but as exemplary for the whole of Eastern European realities.
Contact Frassanito Network:
Email: frassainfo@kein.org
Website: http://www.noborder.org/crossing_borders/
The aim of “Crossing Borders!” is to consolidate and to extend the migration related networking process in, around and beyond Europe. We do not ignore the differences in realities and struggles in various regions, countries or continents. But we are convinced in the necessity to bridge and communicate these differences - crossing these borders too! We are committed to a process of “becoming common”, not only by exchanging information and experiences, but much more by fighting against the same global apartheid- and migration regime! And by struggling for the common demands of freedom of movement and the right to stay in the context of a general fight for global social rights! Thus “Crossing Borders!” is focussing to the movements and struggles of migration, but taking into account their multiplicity and looking for links to other social struggles. In each issue we will present manifold protests and campaigns, social and political struggles from different local situations. That’s one reason, why we ask all of you to contribute to this project and to provide - at least in a few sentences - your experiences.
But wider participation is crucial for this newsletter on more levels. We follow a multilingual approach and so we need continuous help in translations! It is an Internet based project, but most important in our concept are decentralised printouts, copied and distributed in the various migrants-localities and communities.
“Crossing Borders!” is an initiative of the Frassanito-network
EROTIC AWARDS FINALIST 2008
Posted on | August 31, 2008 | No Comments
The x:talk project has been chosen as a finalist in the 2008 Erotic Awards competition (category: Innovation) in London. The awards are presented at the Night of the Senses on 12 September. This charity event benefits Outsiders.
The Erotic Awards 2008 Finals take place in the early evening of the Night of the Senses on 12 September, at Mass and Babalou in Brixton.
Winners are announced in the exhibition marquee at 7pm and then presented on stage with the much-admired golden flying penis trophies, hand-carved for us in Bali.
Then the striptease, performance and fashion finalists will be seen on stage and these winners presented with their trophies.
5TH QUEERBEOGRAD FESTIVAL
Posted on | August 31, 2008 | No Comments
on the agenda: Direct Action + Antifascism
18 - 21st Sept 2008
Belgrade, Serbia
www.queerbeograd.org
What does it mean to take action, to take responsibility to actively create the conditions for our own existence? How do we negotiate this with the society around us? How do we shape our own societies so that our actions form and inform the world around us? Queer Beograd is a direct action collective; our roots are in dissatisfaction with waiting for anyone else to make for us the place we need for ourselves. After the failure of the 2004 Pride in Belgrade we decided its enough of being afraid and hiding, of thinking nothing could be done. We judged our tactics to match the situation and we TOOK ACTION.
Now looking around us we see change, change that have been built not by begging politicians to listen to us or to make concessions on our behalf, but by going ahead and doing what we needed anyway – refusing to be silent, refusing to be still, to be invisible. Each time we took action, each time we won against fear, we found our selves a little stronger and with our eyes and arms opened to new allies, new networks.
But what is direct action?
What are the ways in which we open our society and BUILD that?
There is a common idea – this perception that direct action is only going to the streets, strikes, demonstrations…but we see a wider application. When ever some one takes a positive powerful action to fill a space where there is a lack, whether this is making a library or independent media, forming support groups, holding festivals, direct action is every time we create without first asking permission.
If we cannot find the things we need, we make them ourselves – it is the direct activity of creating a responsible accountable society.
And what about our current situation? Serbia has seen some changes in the last year, a referendum, the ‘passing‘ of the so called constitution, the fall of government, the independence of Kosovo, yet another election. All the time the political climate moves increasingly to the far right neo fascist identity.
It is from this position that we place the agenda for our next festival as direct action and antifascism – because we always want to take the most concrete steps to build bridges to smash borders, to see our liberation linked with every ones. In discussing our struggles and strategies in the context of direct action and antifascism we will also tackle the problem of macho-behaviours, sexism and homophobia within antifascist/alter globalist movement.
x:talk was delighted to contribute a workshop to the 4th QueerBeograd Festival in 2007. Focusing on the topics of sex work and trans issues, the festival opened up a space to establish visibility and to share experiences. Experiences of being Trans in the Balkans, and experiences of working in /around the sex industry were discussed. The discussion on trans issues was organised in cooperation with the first trans-group which was founded in Belgrade earlier in 2007.
A MILLION WOMEN RISE MARCH 2008
Posted on | August 31, 2008 | No Comments
post-script: this text appeared as a leaflet which was distributed at the Million Women Rise March 2008 in London
Today, we march alongside women on the Million Women Rise March with solidarity and respect. We are energised and excited to be a part of a rising tide of feminist activism. We are here to march and to show our resistance to the continued oppression and exploitation that the majority of women the world over, continue to experience. We therefore think it is more important than ever to build a movement and develop a feminist politics that can fight for liberation and justice. Because of this, we think it is crucial for us to think hard about the kind of feminism that we want to work for.
We are feminists who want to link our fight for women rights with other movements for social justice and all struggles against capitalism and exploitation. We think as feminists it is crucial that we build alliances between these different struggles and to focus on the ways in which they interconnect. We do not think it is useful to prioritise one form of oppression over another, or to focus simply on women’s rights as separate from a wider system of exploitation. The privileging of gender (above race, sexuality or class) leads to the idea of women as eternal victims; to an ahistorical and static concept of patriarchy or male power; and to fruitless competition over who is ‘more oppressed’ according to different identity categories. This approach has been heavily criticised by many, especially Black and women of colour feminist sisters because of the way it presumes to define a particular female experience of male power to the exclusion of those whose experiences do not fit with this model.
We understand all oppressions to be rooted within capitalism and the racist and patriarchal ideologies it produces. For this reason we do not think that real liberation for women can be achieved without also fighting capitalism. By capitalism we mean a system of power, control and exploitation that puts profit before the needs people and the planet.
Violence and exploitation take many forms. It is of course crucial to oppose rape and sexual abuse but equally it must be understood that violence is not just perpetrated by individuals, but also by the state and in the name of big business. Immigration controls, sweatshop labour, poverty, police brutality, military imperialism and the denial of reproductive freedom are all forms of violence and must be named as such and opposed by all.
We support all women organising in their workplaces and against their bosses, be they sex workers, sweatshop workers or supermarket workers, and we stand in solidarity with all women fighting for their rights- wherever they are in the world. For this reason we oppose the Million Women’s Rise definition of prostitution which links domestic abuse, rape and commercial sexual exploitation. For the thousands of women who work in the sex industry this demand is not only offensive but dangerous. To deny women the ability to choose to work in the sex industry is to deny their fight for better wages and working conditions. The demand to criminalise sex workers and the sex industry only serves to further the marginalisation and exploitation that sex workers currently face.
We want our campaigns and politics to empower women to fight their own exploitation rather than to depend on others for protection. We do not think a feminist movement should look to charitable organisations or ‘experts’ to bestow our rights upon us, but that we should build a movement involving as many women and men as possible to bring about liberation from below.
We demand:
- Reproductive freedom for all - including abortion on demand; a free publicly-funded health service; increased benefits for single mothers; IVF access for same sex couples and single women; better sex education and an end to forced sterilisation.
- A living wage and safe working conditions for all workers, including migrants without papers.
- Support for independent trade unions.
- Freedom of movement for all, an end to the deportation of all migrants and asylum seekers and the abolition of detention centres.
- The decriminalisation of sex work and support for the unionisation of sex workers.
- An end to the curtailment of civil liberties and the criminalisation of ethnic and religious minority communities
Signed by:
x:talk project – free English classes for sex workers
Feminist Fightback (www.feministfightback.org.uk)
Left Women’s Network
International Union of Sex Workers- GMB Branch (www.iusw.org)
Carol Leigh, Bay Area Sex Workers Advocacy Network (www.bayswan.org)
Liv Mertz, independent scholar, Denmark
Malika Amaouche, activist France
Comitato per i Diritti Civili delle Prostitute Onlus - Italy
NextGenderation (www.nextgenderation.net)
The Desiree Alliance (www.DesireeAlliance.org)
Pia Eberhardt, University of Kassel, Germany
Sumit Baudh New Delhi, India
Sarah Becklake - München
Sex Workers Outreach Project, San Francisco, USA (www.swopusa.org)
Les Putes - Paris (www.lesputes.org)
THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY + PROSTITUTION: WHAT IS GOING ON?
Posted on | August 31, 2008 | No Comments
post-script: the text below was distributed outside the Women’s Library in East London on numerous occasions. Sex worker rights activist held several demonstrations outside the Women’s Library and arranged a large contingent of sex workers to visit the exhibition to demand the inclusion of sex workers voices.
A red umbrella intervention (November 2006)
Our mobilization around the current exhibition and programme of the Women’s Library ‘Prostitution: what is going on?’ comes from our implication in struggles around gender, labour and migration as they happen in sex work and from the urgent need to create alliances across different working positions, nationalities, and class if we are to change the sex industry.
The Library’s programme of speaker events excludes sex workers, sex workers’ organisations, as well as anyone speaking from a perspective that considers their struggles in the UK and around the world. Speakers on migration and informal sector work are also excluded. The exhibition is patronising and offensive in its representation of sex workers and the sex industry. It gives the idea that sex workers are poor women victims (read: weak) of sexually aggressive men. And clearly, as too often, prostitution is only spoken about sex workers and not by sex workers.
What kind of space is given to represent sex workers as working women, men, and transgender people who attempt to individually and collectively struggle to improve our lives, be freer, move across countries, and work in better conditions? No space is given to analyse how the exploitation and coercion that do exist in the sex industry are due not to evil men but to precise and changeable laws, regulations, and discourses, which produce the criminalisation of the industry, the impossibility for sex workers to work together, to unionise and organise, the impossibility for most people in the world to migrate in a legal way, the impossibility for many people, traditionally but not only women, to make good (read: ‘highly skilled’ and male) money in legal and regulated areas of the labour market.
By choosing to represent and discuss prostitution in such a way, the Women’s Library has made a serious political choice, and inscribes itself in a larger strategy of exclusion of migrants, sex workers and allied activists around the world who try to organise to change conditions in the sex industry from a labour and migrants’ rights perspective.
There is more than one feminist position on sex work.
When feminism only sees prostitution as violence of ‘bad men’ against ‘innocent women’ it erases the complex experiences of many workers, including those who use the resources of sex to mediate a variety of financial problems and/or migrate, and find themselves in exploitative and abusive conditions. It silences the workers who consciously make the decision to work in the sex industry but who are at some point subject to abuse. The abuses we undergo, and our stigmatisation, are considered to be natural consequences of our willingness to work as prostitutes, meaning it is our own fault. This reinforces the classic dichotomy between innocent and guilty women, thus fostering the idea that ‘innocent’ women deserve of protection and ‘guilty’ ones can be abused with impunity.
When feminism denies sex work as labour it forces us to spend our time defending the existence of our work instead of struggling for its transformation. It forces us to deny any of the pleasures of our work, or to invent them.
When feminism contributes to and promotes the moral panic about ‘trafficking’ it makes itself complicit in the increase of states’ border control, restrictions to migration, worsening migrants’ dependency, police raids in working places and deportations. This discourse in effect becomes the legitimisation of state violence and of the creation of hierarchies of citizenship.
We are in the process of developing conversations and actions that disrupt this tendency within feminist theory and practice. We believe in a feminism which starts from and talks to the people for whom sex becomes labour. Selling sex is in many ways a labour process similar to other personal services exchanged on the capitalist market. At the same time, we recognise that the ways in which sex work exists are also deeply interrelated to the ways in which ‘female’ services such as caring, domestic, sexual and reproductive activities are supposed to be provided. The demand of money for sex in a transparent and potentially contractual way is often a break and significant shift in the way people, traditionally but not only women, are expected to give these services for no remuneration. Therefore, central to this feminist vision is the autonomy of all people of every gender employing their resources in the sex industry and/or moving across borders. Your browser may not support display of this image.
We ask the Director of the Library to include the present leaflet in the exhibition, and the IUSW banner, along with the Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto (2005), endorsed by a conference of 120 sex workers and the Declaration of Sex Workers in Europe (2005). Both documents were presented at the European Parliament by the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe on the 17th of October 2005.
A communiqué from the
The International Union of Sex Workers
23 November 2006
Protesting with us are:
x:talk: English classes for workers in the sex industry
London NoBorders
Sexual Freedom Coalition
ICRSE International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe
NextGenderation
TLC- putting disabled men and women in touch with responsible sex workers
NSWP Network of Sex Work Projects
ENS Education Not for Sale – Women