The 1970s movement paved the way for queer, Black, trans and sex working feminist organising across the world todayJake HallThe first thing to know about the international Wages for Housework campaign that began in the 1970s is that you shouldn’t take the name at face value. This wasn’t some single-issue movement committed to putting pennies […]
By Brit DawsonThe English Collective of Prostitutes was founded fifty years ago to protect sex workers. Despite the progress they have made in the years since, the industry remains criminalised — and exploitative and unsafe as a result.(Credit: Crossroads AV Collective.)On November 17, 1982, fifteen masked women walked, in groups of twos and threes, into […]
Poverty and cautions trap women in sex work – good policies could resolve this. But politicians don’t want to know Niki Adams There are a few dates in the calendar that sex workers mark. The day to end violence on 17 December is often a sombre affair, when we honour the sex workers who were […]
Sex workers are being punished for doing what they need to in order to survive, campaigners argueLauren Crosby MedlicottNearly 50 years ago, when she was only 15, Sharon received her first prostitute’s caution while working the streets in Bristol.“My life on the streets started when I was 14,” Sharon, who asked for only her first […]
‘Let’s face it, it was an inner-city hole and you had to watch your back’Maeve Murphy’s short film about life in a pre-gentrified King’s Cross has been showered with awards. Angela Cobbinah talked to herBy Angela CobbinahIN 1979, the old Camden Journal carried a lurid double-page feature on the Hillview estate, slum Victorian tenement blocks […]
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is being urged by campaigners to abolish ‘prostitute’s cautions’, which leave sex workers criminalised for life Campaigners from more than 100 organisations claim that prostitute’s cautions trap women in sex work, prevent them from leaving abusive and violent relationships, and push them further into poverty. While prostitution is not against the […]
‘Disastrous.’by Maya Oppenheim. 17 June 2025Labour MPs are attempting to launch the most “draconian” clampdown on sex work devised in Britain in decades, campaigners have warned.Sex workers told Novara Media that the measures proposed by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi could unjustly criminalise their friends and family and put prostitutes’ safety at risk.Antoniazzi, the Labour MP […]
Scottish sex workers have launched a bid to oppose a “dangerous” new law proposed by Alba MSP Ash Regan that would criminalise the purchase of sexual services in Scotland.The campaign has been set up to oppose the former SNP minister’s Prostitution (Offences And Support) (Scotland) Bill, which is set to be presented to the Scottish […]
The new Netflix docuseries shines a light on how the victims of the Long Island serial killer were treated with contempt by the police — 30 years on, and it seems very little has changedBy Brit Dawson Published: 09 April 2025 At around 5AM on May 1, 2010, Shannan Gilbert — a 23-year-old sex worker from […]
Further criminalisation of sex work could be more dangerous for both sex workers and survivors of sexual exploitation, activists and charities have warnedLauren Crosby Medlicott Emma had just turned 18 and thought having sheets on the window was ‘normal’ in a first flat. But she started questioning her situation when her boyfriend dumped her in London […]