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Fund Raising for the National Ugly Mug Scheme. Urgent Funding needed…

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Health, Safety, tagged , , , on 22 April, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

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Hello,

Just to keep Harlots Parlour readers informed that our Home Office funding has expired and we’re currently running the National Ugly Mugs (NUM) Scheme on funding reserves as we wait for responses to funding bids and other sources of income.

The UKNSWP, including myself as NUM Manager, have been extremely vocal in advocating for sex worker rights, including opposing proposals for further criminalisation in Scotland and Northern Ireland both formally and in the national media. The UKNSWP is also vocally urging police forces nationally to recognise crimes against sex workers as hate crime and have delivered police training to five UK police forces highlighting the negative consequences of enforcement and raising awareness about sex work.

Some outcomes and successes

Criminal Justice outcomes: none were anticipated in the pilot phase due to the length of time it usually takes from an offence to the conviction of the offender but the Scheme has been instrumental in the identification, arrest and imprisonment of eight serial offenders.

Our independent evaluation found that NUM alerts had resulted in 18.1% of sex workers changing their practices in some way; 15.7% refusing appointments or avoiding specific individuals. 40.7% of sex workers agreed that now NUM exists the police are more likely to take violent crimes against sex workers seriously and 62.7% are more likely to report violent crimes to the police.

NUM has also developed strong links with escort advertising sites and links to existing alert schemes within the industry. Membership continues to increase with up to ten new members per day, mostly private or independent sex workers.

Given the clear successes of the scheme and he impact it has had in a short pilot phase it would be a real tragedy if we ran out of funding before responses to these bids/opportunities are received.

1. UKNSWP is already using limited reserves and funds raised to continue till end of May.

2. 15 funding bids have been submitted to a range of trust funds/grant giving bodies. Decision dates vary.

3. A letter has been sent to all PC commissioners and all Cheif Constables from ACPO lead for Adult Sexual Offences – these will be followed up by a request for funding donations from UKNSWP and meetings with a range of forces.

How can you help??

· Make a donation directly to NUM by following the link on the front page of the NUM website http://www.uknswp.org/um/ or emailing us on uglymugs@uknswp.org.uk.

· Buy NUM merchandise (hoodies, t-shirts, bags, condoms, mugs and more).

· We are also registered as an eBay charity so you can sell your goods and donate the proceeds to UKNSWP and it will go directly to fund NUM.

· Write to your local Police and Crime Commissioner.

· We are also asking for donations and sponsorship from escort sites so please email the administrators of sites where you’re registered asking them to contribute!

Also, if you have any creative suggestions for fundraising please let us know!

Thank you for the support!

An example of recent publicity for the NUM is http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/scheme-aimed-stopping-attacks-sex-2586435

Best wishes,

Alex Bryce
NUM Manager
National Ugly Mugs Scheme

An example of how this scheme is working in practice is shown in this email from a sex worker who has given her permission for her email to be published:

The news that the National Ugly Mugs Scheme is under threat because of lack of funding has hit me hard.

After I was attacked in the street, the last thing I wanted to do was contact the police.

I wasn’t working at the time – but that didn’t matter. Calling the police was out of the question.

But I needed to tell someone…it was too hard to hold inside me.

That’s when I heard about the NUM scheme and that’s when I contacted them.

I filled out their detailed report form with as much information as I could remember about the rape. It’s amazing how quickly your mind closes over…tries to forget…so the comprehensive list of questions was so much more helpful than just providing a general description of what happened.

It was quite a shock when they sent me the finished product: how it would look on the website. There it all was, in black and white – committed to record.

I didn’t want to think about it once that was done – what NUM did with my information or where it would go. But after the recent reports on BBC News I know that my answers to all those detailed questions will be examined and cross-referenced and you never know….he might be caught.

And in the meantime, I can still use the number check system on NUM.

But if the funding disappears, I can’t.

And he’ll be in a much better position to attack again.

Follow NUM project on twitter: http://twitter.com/NationalUglyMug”

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The Irish Debate

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Safety, sex worker politics, Uncategorized, VAW, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 1 February, 2013 | 1 Comment »

There were a couple of debates on Irish TV.  As usual on both debates the voice of the consenting sex-work was ignored.  The TV3 Vincent Browne whitewash had the Ruhama agency along with their ex sex-worker, her name was Mary.  Mary has been used by the Ruhama agency on a number of occasions though using several different names.  So far she has been identified in media with 4 different names.   What happened to her is a crime, and the biggest crime was committed by her partner who forced her to work, she did need help.

Why was the participation in the program of active sex-workers denied?  There were sex-workers who contacted Vincent Browne asking to appear on this program.

Another sex-work program also appeared on feck.tv.  Again two abolitionists (Mary Crilly of Cork Sexual Violence Centre, and Catherine Clancy of Labour Party Councillor on  Cork City Council)   presenting their case, and a representative (Keith Dunne) of SWAI on the phone to argue against.  Again no actual sex workers represented.  I have placed a youtube link to this program, watch it and see how the arguments from the abolitionists are so moralistic, and when they are called out on the statistics, they revert to accusing SWAI of being academic and ignoring the human issues and that the prostitute is ‘someone daughters’.  The host (David O Connor) of the show though did argue and call out the abolitionists on a number of occasions, but as usual lack of subject knowledge was telling.  Nobody confronted the abolitionists on the entry age of prostitution, or why would criminalisation of sex-work reduce the demand for under aged trafficked girls where this abusive market is already criminal, and would land the purchaser in jail anyway.

A final program on RTE with Teresa Whitaker from SWAI, and Denise Charlton from the Immigrant Council.  Two sex-workers were interviewed, one who enjoys her work, and a trafficked women.   Denise Charlton from TORL is challenged at the end on her statistics and views of the success of the Nordic model.  Denise also used figures from the ILO on trafficking, and this was turned back on her in that the ILO  and UN advocate total decriminalisation as in New Zealand.  In response TORL  ignored the criticism and reiterated the lies in a louder  voice at the end of the show. Say the lie again, louder and more stridently and then it must be true.  I have respect for viewers, and I believe many will see she did not answer the questions or criticism

 

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17th December, International day to End Violence against sex workers.

Posted in Escorting Lives, Feminism, Government Brutality, Human Rights, Safety, sex worker politics on 17 December, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Today was international day to end violence against sex workers. Sex workers exist in every culture and in every nation. Sex workers, male, female and trans work in a diverse industry and in many different environments. Sex workers represent every socio and economic and academic strata within society. The media and governments present sex workers as stereotypes but the truth is there is no stereotype of who a sex worker is or any shared reasoning for why anyone becomes a sex worker. Every story within sex work is unique just as every client has a unique reason for why they use the services of sex workers.
Once, long ago, sex workers were respected within societies that rejoiced in pleasure but now sex work has become an easy target for moralists, often posing as feminists and for lazy governments eager to prove they care, especially about women. Their eagerness to show how much they care however has resulted in discriminatory laws that harm sex workers. The truth is that every sex worker who is beaten, raped, murdered is the direct result of governments who claim they have created laws that will protect the vulnerable, protect women, and protect sex workers. These laws more often than not represent an ideological and aggressive understanding of sex work rather than reflect the realities of sex workers lives and experiences. They are laws that infantalise women as incapable of autonomous thought and behaviour and which perpetuate myths and untruths about sex work.
Sadly existing injustice toward sex workers is to be made worse if proposals to criminalise clients presently being presented to the governments of Ireland and Scotland become law. Sex workers and the public must now unite to tell government in clear terms that state violence toward sex workers in the form of laws that deny sex workers their basic human rights will no longer be tolerated. Sex workers are mothers, daughters, sons and brothers; they are human beings, workers, citizens who require the full protection of the law. Politicians must listen.


Dr Brooke Magnanti, formerly known as Belle de Jour, wrote this article about the 17th of December campaign, which appeared today in the Telegraph.

You can access the full article with links “HERE”

The event calls attention to crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe. (Don’t worry; you don’t have to get me a card. Cards Galore isn’t stocking any for this yet.)
It was created by legendary sex goddess Annie Sprinkle in memorial for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle, Washington.
The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers encourages people from around the world to come together and organise against discrimination and remember victims of violence.
In particular I would like to remember Michaela Hague, a woman in Sheffield who was brutally murdered in 2001.
At the time I was a student there, not yet a sex worker, living in student accommodation in an area of the city that had once been well-known as a red light district. During that time the city began a crackdown on kerb crawling and street prostitution that drove sex workers out from the well-trafficked, well-lit and policed city centre to the industrial fringes of the city.
Related Articles
Scotland’s proposed sex bill ‘won’t protect sex workers’ 10 Dec 2012
Plan to criminalise buying sex from prostitutes rejected 20 Apr 2010
It’s no surprise students are turning to the sex trade 14 Dec 2012
It was in this time that Michaela was attacked. Stabbed multiple times, her killer got away unobserved. She died far from where anybody could have been alerted to her distress in time to save her life.
I became aware of the crime because I was working in the city’s mortuary the next day (as my doctorate was with the Forensic Pathology department). I saw a woman who in her life had been not just liked, but loved. A daughter, a mother, a friend. Michaela’s murder had a profound effect on me: it seemed clear to me that her death was the result of a policy that cares more for the appearance of propriety than for the welfare of sex workers.
Michaela’s murderer has never been found.
Sex workers talk about what we want, in terms of rights and treatment. We want a say in the policies that directly affect us – almost none of the legislation currently grinding its way through the UK and Ireland has consulted sex workers in any meaningful sense. We want acknowledgement that widespread attitudes against sex work make things more dangerous for the people involved. Some nod towards the reality that not all sex workers are the same wouldn’t go amiss. And we want people to realise that behind the highly publicised and politicised images are people, not just prostitutes.
Throughout this week sex worker organisations and their allies will be holding vigils to raise awareness, not just of crimes against us, but of the laws that aid these crimes. Laws that criminalise sex work thus preventing sex workers from reporting violence. The stigma and discrimination that is perpetuated by the prohibitionist laws makes violence against us acceptable. Thankfully I never experienced any attempts of violence against me while I was a sex worker but I am all too aware of the scale of the problem.
Please join with sex workers around the world and stand against criminalisation and violence committed against our communities.
Like I said, it’s a pretty new holiday, so you don’t have to get me a card or anything. But a donation to a local sex work outreach programme surely wouldn’t go amiss.

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UKNSWP statement.

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Law, NSWP, Organisations Comment, Research, Safety, Uncategorized on 9 November, 2012 | 7 Comments »

I am pleased to publish a response from UKNSWP regarding a recent post that illustrated concerns felt within the sex working community with regard to the pilot Nationwide Ugly Mug Scheme.
Alex has asked for feed back, so please either contact him direct or comment on this forum, which would be helpful for any discussion on sex workers concerns with regard to the NUM scheme, or you can email me direct as dearharlot@googlemail.com and I will be pleased to pass comments, suggestions on.

UKNSWP is proud to be part of a tradition of “ugly mugs” and third party reporting schemes which give options for sex workers to alert each other and to report crimes. In our reports and public presentations about ugly mugs we have always acknowledged that “ugly mugs” originates from sex workers themselves and that sex workers have been and are resourceful in finding ways to protect themselves, often in challenging legal and social contexts. Before the National Ugly Mugs (NUM) Pilot Scheme was established a year-long development project was undertaken by the UKNSWP which consulted widely with sex workers. We still welcome feedback from sex workers and reply personally to anyone who sends us any comments which we take on board and make changes if we can. The vast majority of the feedback we have from sex workers has been positive and we are constantly told that the scheme is really useful. It has to be remembered that this is a pilot project and thus we are continuously learning from the experiences of scheme participants. The scheme is also being evaluated by two academic members of UKNSWP (on a voluntary basis), and they will be seeking the views of participants early next year to inform the final evaluation report and make recommendations for ways in which the scheme might be improved.
UKNSWP is pleased that there is discussion about NUM amongst sex worker online communities. We would welcome such forums to get directly in touch with us so we can consider their feedback and views through constructive engagement. In fact to date, many of the changes we have made to the scheme have come about as a response to constructive feedback from sex workers or those who run forums or escort sites.
NUM aims to support all sex workers, whether male, female or trans, and whether working on the streets, in parlours, flats, advertising online or working in any sector. Some sex workers do not necessarily have access to the internet or websites for information-sharing and it is important to make reporting as accessible as possible to all sex workers, through a range of options.
We are fully aware that sex workers who take bookings over the phone would find full numbers and profile names useful as it makes it easier for them to block people. For escorts taking bookings over the phone we do try include as much information as possible (if we have it) which might alert people to individuals to avoid such as whether the incident was an in/out call, their name, their accent, their telephone manner, the area they live in and any other details or habits which may come to light before actually meeting the individual in person.
With regards to phone numbers, our current policy is if we have a full phone number to include, this will be included with three digits taken out. This policy was based on the legal advice we took during the development of the scheme. As well as the legal issues with publishing full details of reported perpetrators, we have a duty to individuals making the report not to put them in danger of repercussions if the alert fell into the wrong hands. In compiling any alert we therefore have to consider how any details or content might identify the victim, so this can sometimes limit what is included. The other main reason why we cannot fully identify alleged perpetrators is that it could undermine a prosecution of an ‘ugly mug’ and ultimately lead to a court case falling apart. By fully identifying people we mean by including full details that identify a specific individual – telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, car registration numbers and names of alleged perpetrators are all details which we need to be extra careful about. We must also be mindful of the possibility that malicious reports could be made into the scheme.
For clarification some of the posts about NUM imply that we would include a phone number in an alert with more than three digits removed – we would never do that. In addition, in alerts where there is no phone number included that is because the person reporting the incident didn’t provide us with a phone number. The same goes for descriptions of perpetrators – we include as detailed a description as we can with the information provided to us. We encourage all NUM members to include as much information as possible about perpetrators; this will enable us to provide fuller alerts. We provide alerts in cases of limited information because members have said they want these.
That leads me on to the other main aspect of the NUM Scheme which is to support sex workers in reporting information to the police. Less than 30% of the victims reporting into NUM feel comfortable enough to make a full report to the police. That is why, if and only if the victim gives consent, we will feed the information (including full details about the perpetrators) to the police without giving any information about the victim. We have already seen positive results from this and many police forces are actually investigating them as if they had been formally reported. This is one area where NUM can really complement other schemes, whether being run by forums or escort sites or sex work projects.
We acknowledge that the laws around sex work are problematic and can undermine sex workers’ access to the criminal justice system – that is why we need schemes like this. Currently, whilst challenging laws and policies detrimental to sex worker safety, we are having to work within the existing framework to try to make a difference. Engaging with the police on our terms has already had positive outcomes in many areas.
NUM is supported by a range of organisations and individuals and we hope to build the network of supporters. Although the scheme is supported by some projects and individuals who take an abolitionist approach, the scheme is run independently and autonomously by the UKNSWP, which is fully committed to recognising sex workers’ right to self-determination. It is also important to note that the board members of the UKNSWP are unpaid and the NUM Scheme is run on a small budget by two members of staff who work very hard to manage and develop the service.
It is hard to see how a scheme which raises awareness about how the law and bad police practices contributes to sex workers being targeted by criminals, and makes them reluctant to report to the police, could be used to support abolitionist policies. UKNSWP has a long history of opposing criminalisation of sex work, and if the scheme were ever misrepresented in such a way, we would strongly oppose this.
The purpose of NUM is to complement, not replace, the work of local projects working with sex workers as well as forums, escort sites or agencies who share warnings and alerts. It may not be the perfect model for everyone working in the sex industry and we know that the alerts would be more effective, especially for those who arrange bookings over the phone, if we could identify perpetrators, but we have outlined the legal considerations we are working within that shape our practice.
However, we have already had some positive outcomes in the four months since the scheme launched. Within this short timescale, NUM has already been instrumental in the arrest and charging of 3 criminals wanted for the aggravated assault and robbery of at least 9 sex worker premises in London, the arrest of one male wanted for rape in Merseyside and the recalling to prison of a well-known scammer of male escorts.
Taking on board the feedback we have received, we will re-examine the issue of our legal requirements regarding telephone numbers and other key personal information with our legal advisers. We are also currently looking into the possibility of introducing a number checker which would allow members of the scheme to type in a number to see if it matches any that have been reported to us. As we stress, this is a pilot scheme and we genuinely want to reflect and develop.

Alex Bryce
Coordinator
National Ugly Mugs Pilot Scheme
you can email direct alex.bryce@uknswp.org.uk
or follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/NationalUglyMug

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NATIONAL UGLY MUG SCHEME, IS IT GOOD NEWS?

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Government Reviews and Change, Human Rights, Law, Organisations Comment, Research, Safety, sex worker politics, Uncategorized on 16 August, 2012 | 3 Comments »

Time will tell if the introduction of the first UK nationwide Ugly mug scheme will be good news for sex workers or bad, or more likely indifferent. An ugly mug, for non sex worker readers, is a client of a sex worker who has been violent or abusive.
Ugly mug schemes are nothing new. Although in this “article” it is claimed that local sex work projects have operated ugly mug schemes for twenty years, real sex workers, however, have operated them for as long as there have been sex workers. In the north east where I work, local agencies have shared information for the last fifteen years, and most agents/brothels have lists of hundreds, if not thousands of clients who have either, in the worse case scenario, been abusive or violent, to repeat, no shows clients. (Clients who book appointments, in call and out call, but who never show up, or, who/and, send sex workers to the wrong address deliberately).
These schemes work very well on a local basis and in theory should work nationally. There are however flaws in this system which are being ignored in the enthusiasm to welcome it.

The scheme relies on local projects. Local projects are social work groups who provide out reach to sex workers. The effectiveness and the usefulness of these projects is a post code lottery. Most work only with women, usually, street workers or sex workers who are socially disadvantaged. Most projects have little or no contact with the vast majority of sex workers who work indoor, ie in brothels, through agencies or who work independently. Often, not only are projects selective in terms of whom they support, ie, only street women, but they often have age restrictions, especially gay projects, who only work with so called “rent boys” or very young boys, men. Effectively, most sex workers never, or rarely, have any contact with any outreach project.

The scheme also relies heavily upon the co operation of the police. Sex workers do not trust the police, with very good reason. The police, as sex workers know to their cost, are more interested in persecuting sex workers than in caring for the safety of sex workers. Brothels and agencies, representing consenting adults, are still being raided across the UK and sex workers prosecuted and their assets seized. This is one recent “example”.

Before any national scheme can be truly called successful the relationship between the police and sex workers must improve. Although the new national Ugly mug scheme promises that sex workers can report crimes anonymously through their local project, the real advancement would be if sex workers were able to report crimes against them, just like every one else, to the police directly, with out fear of arrest or harassment. One is tempted to suggest that the first ugly mug listed on the scheme should be the police themselves, or perhaps the government, who empower and encourage the police to target sex workers. This important point aside, the ability to report crimes to projects, depends therefore, largely upon the relationship, if any, that exists between any projects and the sex workers, and often, as I have explained, there is no such relationship.

The NUM (national ugly mug) scheme also promises sex workers and agencies etc the ability to share and access telephone numbers. The problem is that the law prevents the sharing of full phone numbers. So sex workers, if wanting to check a client, will only be able to access part of a phone number. Better than nothing one may think, but hardly fool proof and unlikely to replace or improve on existing, local, sex worker run, ugly mug schemes. It is of course these very important local schemes, already established within sex worker communities, that are so often destroyed by the police, our new protectors, when they raid brothels and agencies (yes I am being ironic). The same also goes for car registrations and names. If the police were truly interested in creating and maintaining a comprehensive list of ugly mugs then they already have a valuable source to tap into. Sadly the lure of easy convictions and lucrative proceeds of crime confiscations are currently however, more important than the safety of sex workers.

Sex workers have told me personally, when discussing this scheme, that the sharing of incomplete phone numbers is pointless. Mobile phones do not pick up ugly mugs by imputing incomplete numbers and sex workers, often in a hurry to organise and confirm appointments; do not have the time to troll through hundreds, if not thousands of phone numbers or car registrations. The reality is that this is a pointless exercise for most sex workers. It is an exercise for the police and for projects. As one sex worker said, “It makes them look like they are doing something”.

So we sex workers have to ask if this is a good idea, will it be helpful to us in our work?

My answer, as a sex worker, is that it probably is a good idea, although, its real worth is not to sex workers as a practical tool in their work, but rather it is an aid to projects and the police, who hopefully, will now more easily coordinate the sharing of information about ugly mugs, especially those who target street workers.

If I were to be cynical I would also argue that it will also certainly provide monies and opportunities for projects regionally, and probably, will also be helpful in creating a whole new tier of administrators. If this is the case, it will be nothing new. Sex workers have always provided lucrative opportunities for saviours on both sides of the debate, those who persecute us and those who live off us by, erm, helping us.

There is however, a danger, not yet mentioned, that the scheme may, at some point, also be used against sex workers. Any future anti sex worker government, like the last labour government, for example, may use the information gathered in a national ugly mugs scheme, to justify further persecution of the sex industry. The information, they may claim, of hundreds, possibly thousands, of ugly mugs, wanting to rape and murder, poor, abused, sex workers, could, if wrongly interpreted by moralists, (of any governing party) be used, to justify for example, the criminalising of all clients, which is what the Labour party, when last in government desperately wanted to do. Information is dangerous in the wrong hands.

In conclusion, as an ordinary sex worker, I give this nation wide ugly mug scheme a tepid welcome and wait to see how it develops. It is up to sex workers to comment and inform projects and the authorities in general, what we, British sex workers, really need. What we really need is a discussion about decriminalisation and a trusting relationship with the police. I don’t think that this is it. I may be wrong.

It will be interesting to read comments from other sex workers and also from projects.

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“An Agency of Their Own”.

Posted in Book review, Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Research, Safety, sex worker politics, Uncategorized on 23 July, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Review of:

An Agency of Their Own, a book by Gregor Gall, published by Zero books.

As a reference book “An agency of Their Own” explains and records the development of sex worker unions around the world. Unionisation has, as the book notes, given authority and legitimacy to sex workers, both in their battle to be recognised as workers and in their demands for human rights.

The author recognises in his book however, that although unionisation gives legitimacy to the voices of sex workers that authorities find hard to ignore, the selling of unionisation to a group of workers as stigmatised and criminalised as sex workers, is not an easy task. It takes time and persistence to sell unionisation, not only to sex workers but to other unions, who are naturally cautions of accepting into their midst a group of workers that some, consider to be morally and ethically, controversial.

Selling unionisation to sex workers, as the author explains, has often relied upon the cooperation of sex worker managements, ie brothel owners and escort agents and strip/erotic dance establishments owners and managers. The Co operation of sympathetic managements has offered unioniser’s access to sex workers, who, especially in the west, usually work as self employed and use third parties for discretion and safety. Conventional methods of recruitment have often not proven to be the best way to reach workers who often work in secret and often in semi legal or even illegal environments. Adapting recruitment policies therefore, has been a learning curve, not only for unions but for sex workers themselves.

Where the book is less clear, is in discussing the current situation of sex worker unions. Notably, for example, the attempted radicalisation of the GMB sex worker branch by some members which has led to often bitter infighting and to accusations of bullying. It is a situation that waits to be resolved.

This book is definitely however a must read for sex worker activists and for others interested in the history of unionisation and the positive affect that unionisation has had in mobilising and creating a voice for marginalised groups within society.

You can purchase the book“HERE”

Douglas Fox,
Editor of http://www.harlotsparlour.com.

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OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND.

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Human Rights, In the Media, Organisations Comment, Safety, sex worker politics, Thailand, Uncategorized on 8 June, 2012 | 1 Comment »

The sex workers of Thailand have sent an open letter using the offices of the Empower foundation to the Prime Minister (also sent to related Ministeries, UNIAP and various media) of the royal government of Thailand calling for the recognition of the human and labour rights of Thailand’s sex workers. The open letter is below.

Thailand is a country that is not represented especially well on Harlots. I am doing my best to remedy this. If any one of our readers would like to write more about sex work in Thailand please contact me and if you wish you may join our list of authors.

Open Letter to: The Prime Minister of the Royal Government of Thailand,
On the occasion of 5th June 2012, National Anti Human Trafficking Day, Empower alleges that successive Thai governments have sacrificed the rule of law, their international human rights obligations and the well-being of migrant sex workers and their families, in an attempt to please the US government and satisfy the American anti trafficking agenda.

We accuse the United States government of using the issue of human trafficking to coerce its allies into tightening border and immigration controls. The US agenda has also created a climate where women crossing borders are all seen as suspect ‘victims’ of trafficking.

Recently on the 21st February 2012 Empower released an in-depth research report, ‘Hit & Run’ done by sex workers which clearly identifies how the State is breaching rule of law and police procedure while arresting wrong people. (Report available “HERE”)

Even though Thai governments have tried hard to appease the USA, Thailand remains on a Tier 2 watch list and risks being further downgraded in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) due for release later this month. Empower sees the Trafficking in Persons Report issued by the US State Department as subjective and bias against the Thai Entertainment Industry in particular.

Furthermore Empower says the Thai government has so far failed to recognize the many improvements the Entertainment Industry has undergone in the last decade. The old days of the ‘green harvest’ and locked brothels are over. In the modern context, sex work is similar to other jobs. Exploitation in the industry is an issue of access to identity and work documents, labor rights and occupational health and safety. These are labor and human rights issues, not police or criminal issues.

Society is all too familiar with media images of uniformed police, fully armed storming Entertainment Places and apprehending young unarmed women. Women desperately try to hide their faces; sometimes the women are naked and not even given time to cover themselves. The women and girls never fight back; most don’t even dare to think about trying to run away and not one woman or girl has ever been found carrying a weapon. These events were commonly shown in the media well before the new human trafficking hysteria. The image of a hero or rescuer has now been added to the scene…it’s all very exciting.

However society never sees or hears of what happens after the rescue. Society is not told that the women are put through a range of unnecessary medical tests regardless of consent or their human dignity. They don’t know that women have been detained against their will for over a year in government shelters. No one knows about the pain and suffering brought about by the separation from children and family. Who could imagine that the women, who are the main family providers, are not compensated in any way by the State, and given just 3,000 Baht, (about 200 Baht per month) from private anti trafficking fund when they are eventually forcibly and formally deported?

Under the law there are provisions for social assistance but in reality the focus is on punishment. Little wonder women escape from their rescuers when they can.

Police enforcement of the law using raids encourages violence. We suggest that instead of continuing costly, and ultimately useless “raids and rescue” missions, it is time Thailand resisted being bullied by foreign governments and instead worked to ensure migrant sex worker’s access to documentation and fair working conditions in Entertainment Places.

Today Empower Foundation is calling on the Prime Minister of The Royal Government of Thailand to:

Review the practices of anti trafficking act in relation to the protection of human rights and the rule of law
Stop using sex workers as scapegoats in foreign policy and other political games.
Stop police entrapment which contravenes police policy. Stop raids on entertainment places which are violent actions usually reserved for apprehending dangerous criminals. Stop arbitrary detention of sex workers.
Protect the human rights of women arrested or assisted under the Anti trafficking Act and ensure they receive the full entitlements according to the Act e.g. translation, legal representation, compensation.
Work together to promote accurate information about the modern context of sex work in Thailand to all agencies involved in anti trafficking.

The letter has been endorsed by:
Sex workers of Krabi
Sex workers of Phuket
Sex workers of Samut Sakon
Sex workers of Nontaburi

Sexworkers of Chiang Mai
Sex workers of Mae Sai, Chiang Rai
Sex workers of Mae Sot, Tak

Sex workers of Mukdahan
Sex workers of Ubon Rachatani
Sex workers of Udon Thani

Sex workers of Pattaya, Chonburi
Sex workers of Soi Cowboy, Bangkok
Sex workers of Soi Nana. Bangkok
Sex workers of Patpong, Bangkok

CC:

National Human Rights Commission
Office of the Prime Minister
Ministry of Social development and Human Security
Department of Special Investigations (AHTD)
Office of the Attorney General – Public Prosecutor, Ministry of Justice
United Nations Interagency Project on Human Trafficking UNIAP

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“Are they bad girls or brilliant?”A Harlots review of a brilliant book by Aphrodite Phoenix.

Posted in Escorting Lives, Feminism, Government Brutality, Human Rights, In the Media, Law, Organisations Comment, Religion, Safety, sex worker politics, Uncategorized on 10 May, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I was delighted to be congratulated by Aphrodite Phoenix on a paper that I recently presented at the Brunel university sexual cultures conference.

Aphrodite asked me if I would be interested in reading and possible reviewing her book “Are they bad girls or brilliant?” I was delighted to be asked and agreed at once.

The book is actually two books in one. The first is entitled “A personal journey” and book two is called “18 audacious essays”.

The first book primarily details her experiences working as an escort in the USA. Aphrodite tells us about her reasons for joining the business, her family life, illness and tragedies and joys and also about her intellectual journey and her spiritual awakening through her work as an escort. In book two Aphrodite gives us her thoughts about feminism and sex worker activism through a series of essays. She includes an idealised manifesto for a sex worker future where sex work is once again revered and understood as a positive force within society.

I found myself agreeing with so much in this book which reaches out both to the public and academics. It is an easy and enjoyable read that is also insightful and positive.

Aphrodite’s experiences as an escort in many ways resembled my own experiences. Her thoughts about her work, her views on activism and about feminism also mirrored in many instances my own thoughts.

Her book intriguingly is titled “Are they bad girls or brilliant?”. She used the question mark because she wants her book to answer the questions that an outsider to the sex industry may want to ask in order to understand why someone like her would enter the sex trade. She leaves the answer to the question posed in the title however, to the reader.

This is a journey that we can all empathise with in so many ways. Aphrodite, for example, describes in an early chapter; entitled, “Just an afternoon of terror and joy”, the mixture of excitement and terror that escorts in the USA, where prostitution is a criminal offense, feel when meeting a new client. That excitement is however tinged with a real sense of danger. The fear is not that the client may be dangerous but rather that the meeting may be a police sting. The danger, the fear felt by the escort is also experienced by the client who is equally fearful of a police sting on him, because in the USA the client also is criminalised. The sense of relief felt by both the escort and the client as they hug and discreetly frisk each other for hidden wires is palpable. It is a story of two people in danger, not of criminals.
At the end of that chapter Aphrodite gives an early explanation for why she is prepared to risk arrest. She writes:

“I walk back through the bustling housekeepers. We resume all those sweet wordless greetings. My heart goes out to them now. I think of all the cleanings they have to do, and how, as with me, their work is performed for strangers. They purge away dust, lint, litter, loose hairs. Used sheets, semen-streaked towels like the one I’ve just left behind, tub scum, toilet filth…I consider their low pay. I consider how awful some people think my work is. How much “worse” it must be for the maid’s.
I think of the pleasure I give. I think of the stress I relieve. I think of how I do it all-naturally. Not Toxically. Not pharmaceutically.
And I think of the money I make.
I feel so good I could shout.”

I think this just about sums up how most sex workers feel about their work when criticised for their choices. I am sure the public will also sympathise with the fear and ask; where is the crime?

I also felt a personal resonance when Aphrodite describes how sex work has had a positive effect upon both her physical health and mental well being. She understands this as part of her personal awakening to an awareness of Goddess worship. She describes (with many references) the fact that healing once was the preserve of women and that part of that healing process was sexual healing. The sacredness of sex as practiced by priestesses who were also sacred prostitutes resonates through out the book.

Aphrodite describes her life as an escort as a learning experience, a journey of discovery. It is an experience in which she learns not only about herself but also about the human condition. She writes:

“I INTUITED RIGHT FROM THE ONSET, THAT SEX WORK CAN BE HEALTHY BECAUSE SEX WORK CAN BE SPIRITUAL”.

Aphrodite goes on to say:

“I was a mother, homemaker, gardener, exerciser, healer, writer and whore. All were seamlessly, wholly, my path”.

“Are they bad girls or brilliant?” is a revelatory vision of a woman’s journey of discovery. It is the story not of a “Happy hooker”, and many will try and dismiss her as such, but of a real woman who falls in love, is arrested, brings up children, is a mother, who copes with illness and loss and does all of this while also being a sex worker.
This is a story of an intelligent and well read woman whose intellectual and emotional journey has resulted in the writing of a book that will become a classic.

This book is available exclusively as an ebook from Aphrodite’s web site “HERE”.

The book will also be available in good old fashioned print very soon. Details will be available on Aphrodite’s web site and also from Harlots Parlour.

I genuinely recommend this book….enjoy and please write and leave reviews.

Both myself and Aphrodite will be speaking on the Charlie Spice show tonight at 8pm UK time. We will be discussing the book and coming out as a sex worker activist.

Please join us: “HERE”

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STATEMENT by ECP. English Collective of Prostitutes on ACPO call for decriminalisation.

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Government Brutality, Government Reviews and Change, Safety, sex worker politics, Uncategorized on 4 November, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

ENGLISH COLLECTIVE OF PROSTITUTES ON ACPO CALL FOR DECRIMINALISATION
It is a tragedy that it has taken the murders of countless sex workers including of five young women in Ipswich and three women in Bradford in the last few years, for the police to question whether the prostitution laws are ‘fit for purpose’ and suggest that decriminalisation as introduced by New Zealand should be considered. New Zealand successfully decriminalised all prostitution (as opposed to legalisation) both indoors and on the street, eight years ago. There has been no increase in prostitution and sex workers find it safer.
Any measures on prostitution should be first of all judged by whether they make sex workers safer. Women driven from the streets, including in Ipswich, have been shunted into other areas and driven underground into more danger. Self-help safety networks have been broken up. Hundreds of sex workers are being criminalised for working together in premises for safety. Fear of arrest (and for immigrant sex workers, deportation) deter women from coming forward to report rape and other violence. In some high profile cases where women have reported violent attacks, they have been arrested for prostitution while their attacker goes free.
ACPO is right to ask why New Zealand’s decriminalisation is not being followed? The government should act before more sex workers lose their lives.
Cari Mitchell
English Collective of Prostitutes
Crossroads Women’s Centre
230A Kentish Town Road
London NW5 2AB
Tel: 020 7482 2496
Fax: 020 7209 4761
Mobile: 07811 964 171
Website: http://www.prostitutescollective.net

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Greater Manchester Police chief backs brothel debate

Posted in Government Reviews and Change, Law, Organisations Comment, Safety, sex worker politics on 4 November, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne said there was “no perfect solution”
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

Q&A: UK Prostitution Laws
Decriminalising brothels could solve problems linked to prostitution, says a Greater Manchester Police chief.

Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne said he would welcome a debate about alternative approaches to policing prostitution and sexual exploitation.

Mr Byrne, who leads the policing of prostitution for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), made the comments on the Police Chiefs blog.

He said there was “no perfect solution” but it had helped in other countries.

“There is a great amount of academic research available, much of which supports the view that an alternative approach is needed,” he said.

While the decriminalisation and regulation of brothels in Australia and New Zealand was not an answer to all related issues, he said it was “certainly a solution to some”.

He added: “More of those involved in sex work [there] can now access health services with ease, whilst maintaining more personal security.

“An approach like this would help to bridge the gap between tackling neighbourhood nuisance and the exploitation of sex workers by organised criminals and gangs.”

‘Local approach’
Mr Byrne added that policing prostitution needed effective partnerships to support victimised individuals and communities with appropriate legislation and enforcement resources in order for it to work long term.

Responding to Mr Byrne’s comments, a Home Office spokesman said: “Current laws to protect individuals and communities from the harm of prostitution have a clear focus on tackling exploitation.

“At the same time the law on sexual and violent crime is unequivocal, regardless of whether the victim is involved in prostitution.

“We believe local agencies know how to best respond to the needs of their particular communities and the most effective responses are therefore developed at local level.”
Read rest of article with links etc “HERE”

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