Listen here. After the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2016, large industries have struggled to handle the ramifications of the upcoming Brexit. One affected industry that does not get much coverage is prostitution. Laura Watson is the spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes in London. She spoke with The World’s Carol […]
By Laura WatsonIn 1980, the English Collective of Prostitutes wrote to Len Murray, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress in the UK, asking to affiliate as a union. Since we were founded in 1975, we had been defending women against criminalisation, workplace violence and exploitation, and providing other support – the kind of work […]
The UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights reports on UN member states’ ‘initiatives taken to promote and protect the rights of those living in extreme poverty’. The ECP’s submission to the Rapporteur points to the way austerity cuts have targeted women, with special note of single mothers, women who are carers, and EU […]
A union has said it will seek “legal remedies” following a sting operation by anti-strip club campaigners linked to the Women’s Equality party (WEP).In recent months, the anti-strip club campaign Not Buying It has paid male private investigators, including two former police officers, to pose as customers in strip clubs in Sheffield and Manchester with […]
BY GEORGIA ASPINALL On Tuesday, Lee Hogben, a 35-year-old man from Bournemouth, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after raping a woman in a hotel when he chose to remove the condom being used during sex. This comes months after a landmark case in Germany found a police offer guilty of sexual assault for […]
‘It is terrifying that this is the police response to women’s situation. Women are out there because poverty has increased – particularly in that area. People are really struggling,’ says campaignerMaya Oppenheim Women’s Correspondent @mayaoppenheimPolice have been criticised for warning sex workers in Swansea that they could be prosecuted in a clampdown. Campaigners argued this would put the women in greater danger.Sex […]
Niki Adams, English Collective of Prostitutes, Crossroads Women’s Centre, Wolsey Mews, Kentish Town, writes:We are distressed to see “Street Watch” patrols in Ilford Lane which claim to target kerb crawlers as this is likely to push sex workers into more isolated areas where they will be more vulnerable to violence.We have also seen how quickly […]
Press The Guardian: Decriminalise Sex Work to Protect us From Crime, Prostitutes Say. “The English Collective of Prostitutes is calling for the removal of laws relating to consensual adult sexual behaviour, arguing that the legislation forces sex workers to operate alone, leaving them vulnerable to crime and reluctant to report violence to the police […]
April 7, 2019 You report that the Not Buying It group is paying men to spy on strippers at Spearmint Rhino, to catch them breaking the no-touching rule (“Sting at strip club lays bare feminist split over sex work”, News, last week). This surveillance, aimed at closing down strip clubs and depriving women workers of […]
Exclusive: ‘For migrant workers, everything is compounded – the sexism, the criminalisation and the racism and then the hostile immigration environment’Maya Oppenheim Women’s Correspondent @mayaoppenheimSex workers in the UK are being illegally targeted for deportations and subjected to harassment and attacks because of a Brexit-inspired culture of discrimination against foreigners, campaigners have claimed.A dossier compiled by the campaign group English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) […]
