• Wednesday, 29 February 2012
•  13:00 until 21:00

As part of LGBT History Month, SERTUC – South East Region of Trade Union Council – LGBT Network is proud to invite you to a whole day of workshops, debate, photo exhibition and music to celebrate LGBTQI grassroots activism.

Doors open at 1 pm for the exhibition.

From 3 pm, we will offer a space for LGBTQI activists to come together and share their experiences of successful campaigns and actions, and ideas and strategies to collaborate with other grassroots organisations for social justice.

At a time of return to moral values led by the governement, institutionalisaton of racism and islamophobia, attack on the youth and working class, as well as disabled people, cuts on public services inluding fund for HIV services, SERTUC LGBT Network is inviting you to discuss how to develop strategies and ways of connecting our work for greater social justice, not only for LGBTIQ individuals but for all.
Collectives and Organisations involved include:
Act Up, Queer Strike, Gay Liberation Front, Countdown on Spanner, UK Black Pride, Stop Criminalising Hackney Youth, No Borders, Queeruption, Dyke March, Englsih Collective of Prostitutes, X-talk, Sex Worker Open University and many more as we receive confirmation.

The photo exhibition will show pictures from LGBT grassroots activism such as early pride events, solidarity actions with other campaigns by photographers Vera Rodriguez and Pam Isherwood.

We will also exhibit the work of the Queer collective “Queer Beograd” about direct action and anti-fascism.

The workshops will take place between between 3 and 7pm.
In the evening, we have a full live session with many performers:

Holly Hayes
Catherine Brogan
Ste Mc Cabe
Krista Papista

See the comment below from clips of our live artists and more info on exhibition !
See you there.

http://www.facebook.com/events/265130133554468

Published by the LRC on 17th February 2012

“Within the LRC I don’t need to apologise for who I am”, says LRC member and sex worker, Thierry Schaffauser

Recently I have been elected secretary of the Hackney LRC where I live. Although a majority of people supported me, I was surprised that I was questioned whether my public profile as a sex worker, and the porn films I did, could bring a bad image to the LRC. I was challenged because I state publicly that I am a sex worker on my Facebook page which can be seen from the LRC one.

I answered as calmly as I could that of all my life, I have never let anyone, whether my family, my friends or my boyfriends, tell me anything about my sexuality or my occupation, and that I wouldn’t start with my comrades in my own movement.

The concern was that my refusal to hide my job could be seen as a form of promotion of the sex industry criticised for being detrimental to women. So I feel the need to explain that my pride to be a sex worker means that I refuse to be ashamed and nothing else. When sex workers say that sex work is work, we are not saying that sex work is fun but that it’s work. We don’t glamorise it.

Work can appear as a form of fulfilment and accomplishment for middle class people who benefit from the status work gives them. For most working class people, work is just something we do to pay the rent, transports, and tuition fees, to fill in the fridge, to support our family, etc.

People have different opinions about the sex industry and whether it’s bad or not. But what should be clear is that sex workers are not bad and that we shouldn’t be blamed for violence or sexism in society, even when we refuse to be portrayed as victims. Being a victim has nothing empowering while being a worker means that we are part of the working class and that we share a History of struggles.

The LRC has taken a position in 2009 to support decriminalisation of sex work and sex workers’ unionisation. This is the reason why I joined the group: I could see that I had a place. I felt that I was respected as a real worker and real trade unionist as a member of GMB. Within the LRC I don’t need to apologise for who I am.

Sex workers’ unionisation is relatively new, because like women before us, we have been for a long time excluded from trade unions. This doesn’t mean that sex workers never resisted or never participated in the social struggles of the working class. We did and we will continue to do.
Nowadays, many workers have to work in a decontractualised and a casualised environment. Increasingly many workers are like sex workers; deprived of labour rights. Trade unions need to realise that younger generations no longer work in the usual workplaces and factories but are disseminated, and isolated from each other. More than ever, sex workers’ working conditions actually look like those of other workers.

Of course, the stigma attached to sex work remains very strong and makes such a difference. But precisely by coming out, we try to fight against it. So please don’t reproach us to be proud when we just try to resist to our oppression. We are part of the same class.

I have always asked myself some questions about my ancestors. What were sex workers doing during past struggles? Have they been eternal passive victims as we are often portrayed or have they been part of the social movements of the working class?

Among the women of the people of Paris who took the king from Versailles on the 5th October 1789, were there only servants and domestics or were there also sex workers?

Who were the women who led the riots for bread and were ready to do anything to feed their family?

Who were the women occupying public spaces and the streets during the revolutions of the nineteenth century?

Who were the women who alerted the Parisians in the middle of the night in the morning of 18^th March 1871 which started the Commune?

Who were the spies who provided crucial information to the Resistance by sleeping with German officers?

(picture of Mata Hari, sex worker and spy during WWI)

Who were the transgender women who rioted in the Compton’s Cafetaria in 1966 San Francisco?

Who were the young queers and Trans who started the Stonewall riots in 1969?

Who were those people who felt they had nothing to lose and dared doing things that most people would have never done? Were there sex workers among them?

We need historian sex workers to answer these questions.

The sex worker movement is often said to start on the 2^nd June 1975 when French sex workers occupied churches all over the country. Among them, Grisélidis Réal, was also called the revolutionary whore.

I believe sex workers have always been part of struggles and resistances.

We have power.

(This picture shows the occupation of the Holy church in London King’s Cross 1982 by the English Collective of Prostitutes)

You can see more of her work here http://goroyesque.blogspot.com/

and of course Dolly…

Michael was accused of distributing DVDs which include scenes of fisting and watersports among others.

This is another great victory for sexual freedom in the UK and hopefully should lead to the repeal of all stupid laws criminalising sex between consenting adults.

Michael with his lawyer and supporters.

Professional photographer and friend Marc Vallee has been following me for his portraits photo documentary.

You can see the new set of pictures here

http://www.marcvallee.co.uk/pictures/Youth-Culture/Male-Sex-Worker-06.01.12/06012012_marcvallee_Male-Sex-Worker_0043.jpg

I think some are quite funny and some very intimate, much more than what you can see me doing in porn…

Sheila Farmer, a sex worker who worked with other women from premises for safety had charges of brothel-keeping dismissed today in Croydon Crown Court. She worked with other women since being viciously raped and attacked whilst working alone.

Ms Farmer left court with over 20 supporters delighted and relieved that she no longer faces a criminal conviction and possible prison sentence. Ms Farmer suffers from severe diabetes and a malignant brain tumour. Her doctor had provided evidence that an onerous and stressful trial would have exacerbated her condition.

Sheila Farmer who is available for interview commented:

“Whilst I’m relieved not to be facing trial I am angry that I was prosecuted. Will the person who made that decision now be held accountable for the 18 months of distress and upset I have suffered while waiting for this case to come to court? Safety and survival has always been my priority. Like hundreds of other women I was working to support my son and more recently to pay for cancer treatment. I would never have got through this ordeal without the English Collective of Prostitutes. Without campaigning we may not have got this result.”  Film of Ms Farmer here (starts at 6min).

Cari Mitchell, English Collective of Prostitutes commented:

“Sheila Farmer’s bravery in publicly fighting these charges should be commended. She, like many other sex workers, should never have been forced to choose between safety and legality. Why is it legal to work alone but not with others? The prostitution laws are endangering women and should be abolished. Why are police wasting time and money prosecuting sex workers while rapists and racists go free?”

Ms Farmer’s trial was thrown out because of police and prosecution incompetence – witnesses had not been asked to attend court and a key witness could not be found.  Ms Farmer has attended court six times and the case has been listed to start on two previous occasions.

How much public money has been squandered on this investigation and prosecution?  How many other investigations are being neglected as a result?

The conviction of two of Stephen Lawrence’s murderers reminds us once again that the priorities of police and prosecution fly in the face of public opinion. Why did it take 18 years to try and convict these dangerous criminals while sex workers who do no harm are quickly arrested and jailed? The ECP has received multiple reports of violent robberies by a gang of five men in East London. The only police action has been to threaten the victims with prosecution. Why are women who report violence arrested while their attackers are not pursued?

Ms Farmer’s legal team requested figures on the number of attacks against sex workers to demonstrate the high level of violence they face when working alone and the need for protection. The Metropolitan police said that no such figures are gathered. Why not? How can prostitution law and policy be assessed if their impact on sex workers’ safety and welfare is not known?

Ms Farmer was represented by solicitor Nigel Richardson, Hodge, Jones and Allen and barrister Anna Morris, Garden Court Chambers. Supporters in court included representatives from Women Against Rape, the Sex Worker Open University and X:talk.

Notes to editor

1.    The brothel-keeping laws used against Ms Farmer criminalise “two or more prostitutes living together or sharing premises for work”. Along with the prostitution laws generally they undermine safety by preventing sex workers from working together for safety and deterring those who have suffered violence from reporting to the police for fear of arrest.

2.    The Association of Chief Police Officers recently suggested New Zealand-style decriminalisation which has improved sex workers’ safety and rights.

3.    Prosecutions for brothel-keeping and other prostitution charges have risen since the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act.[1]  Under that law, the police keep 50% of assets confiscated during raids and 25% from subsequent prosecutions, with the Crown Prosecution Service keeping another 25%. Concerns have been raised that this desire to profit is fuelling raids and arrests, distorting police priorities and encouraging police corruption.

[1]  Prosecutions for brothel-keeping rose from 3 in 2004, to 11 in 2005, to 39 in 2006, to 41 in 2007 (Answers to Lord Faulkner, Hansard 15 January 2009).

English Collective of Prostitutes

Crossroads Women’s Centre

230A Kentish Town Road

London NW5 2AB

Tel: 020 7482 2496/07811 964 171

Fax: 020 7209 4761

ecp@prostitutescollective.net 

www.prostitutescollective.net

Donations always welcome – please go to link

See you everyone there on the 3rd January !

http://www.prostitutescollective.net/Sheila_Farmer_action_alert_UPDATED.htm