SARA STEENSIG In Sweden, the police persecute people who buy sex, not the prostituted persons. The sex industry is notoriously uncertain and dangerous. Traffickers and violent pimps, abusive johns and police persecution are all factors that make prostitution unsafe. No matter what you think of exchanging sex for money, it happens all the time around […]
SARA STEENSIG What is prostitution? Consenting adults having sex with money involved, or abuse of persons in a vulnerable situation? Laura Lee and Vednita Carter’s stories start the same way, just like many other stories across the world: with young women in need of jobs to finance their studies. While Lee’s friends worked three or […]
The ECP objected to the APPG inquiry into the operation of the current legal settlement on prostitution in England and Wales, and its report ‘Shifting the Burden’, on the grounds that it was inherently biased as its stated aim was to ‘end demand for the sex trade’. Blatant inaccuracies in both the methodology and the […]
CAROLINE MORTIMER SEX workers and campaigners held a candlelit procession through the streets of Soho to protest against “the worsening conditions in the borough and across the world”. The vigil was to mark International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers and the first anniversary of the raids on the Soho flats which saw 200 […]
Yesterday was the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, and the London demo had last year’s excessive police raids on Soho’s working flats at the front of its mind. By Frankie Mullin Last night, I joined a march through Soho in support of sex workers. It’s an area of London that – despite what […]
Posted by Joana Ramiro SEX workers held a candle-lit march through London yesterday to remember fellow workers who have been victims of violence. Members of the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) held commemorations in Soho to mark the International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers. And they were joined by screen […]
Sex workers in Mayfair have been part of the ECP’s network since 2009 when police raided flats without warrants, bullying and threatening prosecution. In the same year, Westminster Council threatened women with closure of the flats under planning law on the grounds that they were residential properties being used for a business. Then a few […]
In the lead-up to the general election, we have the chance to move the debate forwards, towards the full decriminalisation of sex work. BY MARGARET CORVID When I became a sex worker, I thought I was entering a marginal, grey area, as far away from politics as any occupation can be. Instead, I found myself part […]
Wednesday 17 December 20147pm (assemble 6.45pm) candlelit march — from Soho Square to St Anne’s Church.7.30pm Soho Trot by Ana Aranha. Documentary featuring powerful interviews and true testimonies from sex workers working independently in Soho flats who fought police raids and evictions, St Anne’s Church 55 Dean St. 8pm Speak Out featuring actors Rupert Everett […]
In 2012 Labour MP Fiona Mactaggart proposed an amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill to make the purchase of sex illegal. Initially she had cross party support but after a campaign spearheaded by the ECP which saw thousands of sex workers lobby their MP, she was forced to withdraw the proposal. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP […]