Sex work

A few months ago I said I'd get onto posting about the very interesting discussion about sex workers at Green Party conference. So, for the second time in days I'm actually going to do what I said I would. Gasp.

The Green Party is the only party who've actually officially met with and taken direct advice from unionised sex workers themselves to develop policy, and it's very clear what they are saying: anti-prostitution laws make life far harder and less safe and that decriminalisation is the only path that allows for the same level of protection for sex workers as afforded to those in other industries.

The so called Swedish model, where the clients are targeted by the police rather than the worker, is also opposed by sex workers' organisations, because although it shifts the onus onto the "consumer" what it does not do is remove sex work from the frowning opprobrium of the law.

In other words, by refusing to remove criminal prosecution from the industry it remains one where regulation is impossible and other crimes, which are related to the industry as it stands, go unreported.

I noticed Sofie at Bolshevichka (formerly Volsunga) has a very interesting post on what the English Collective of Prostitutes has to say about the horrific killings of prostitutes in Ipswich.

They rightly point out that the attempts to apprehend the Yorkshire Ripper (in the seventies and eighties) were held back by the illegality of prostitution - particularly as the police, then, took a hard line saying that any other crimes that came up in the investigation would be prosecuted.

This time round the Ipswich police have explicitly stated that they "are not interested in any other crime" in order to encourage sex workers, and their clients, to come forward with information. However, whilst the local police are to be congratulated for making this statement, this stops well short of what's needed - not just in this case - but in the host of unreported injustices that are meted out to sex workers in this country.

Whilst the police have told *all women* to stay off the streets this leaves prostitutes in the position of living without money (which I've heard can be difficult, especially with children or a drug habit) or risking their lives. Paula Clennell, whose body was the most recent to be found, was interviewed just days before she was killed and said exactly this. That it's all very well the police telling women to stay off the streets, but as a heroin addict what choices did she have?

She said that she was "a bit wary about getting into cars" but "I need the money". Paula's life was worth as much as anyone else's and yet we let her go to her death hoping for a few quid to stretch for a fix and to keep a roof over her head.

Every obstacle to catching this serial killer needs to be removed, and it may be worth raising the idea that the very status of sex workers as an "other" outside of the law and respectable society may contribute to the attitudes that allow some to treat these workers as social scum rather than human beings.

As the Green Party states "Prohibitive laws have always failed to stop prostitution, yet have left prostitutes vulnerable to abuse and often violence. The Illegal, unregulated sex trade has led to child prostitution, trafficking of sex workers and contributed to the deterioration of our inner cities. What is needed is a radical new strategy that regulates and licenses the sex trade in order to protect the women and men who work in it and to reduce the harm it does to communities where it takes place." (read the full set of policies, scroll down to R550-9)

None of this is to say that sex work is a good thing per se. For instance, I'm for decriminalising heroin and for its total eradication from society at one and the same time.

There's an interesting interview with an anarchist dominatrix where she discusses some of the contradictions involved in the course of her work. The industry is fed by the commodification of every aspect of our lives under capitalism, the difficulties our alienation can produce in developing real, healthy relationships with one another and, of course, the whole host of issues surrounding gender and sexual orientation.

Ana Lopez, who organises sex workers for the GMB responded earlier this year to the government's attitude to sex work;

“The GMB Sex Workers Branch... is saddened that the Government has not taken the opportunity to respond positively the opportunity to go down a more enlightened path towards regulation. The Government has decided to continue to promote the stereo-typed and clichéd view of sex workers. GMB members who work in the sex industry know, as does the Government, that the majority of sex workers, including those who work in prostitution are not typical of the drug addict victims that everyone loves to hate.

"GMB wants the invisible majority of sex workers who contribute to the economy to a massive extent to be allowed to work in safety and without the sigma that the work they do is against the law. The GMB Sex Workers Branch believes that sex between consenting adults should not be regulated by the state.”

I think that's all that needs to be said on the matter, don't you?