Following in the footsteps of sex workers in France who occupied churches across the country to protest police arresting and fining them while doing nothing to stop murders and rapes, the ECP occupied the Holy Cross Church in the red-light area of King’s Cross, London for 12 days in 1982 to protest police illegality and racism against street workers.
See here for video footage of the occupation.
The world of work is often neglected in art of the 21st century, despite the toil to earn a living consuming an average 35 hours a week in Britain. In September, Wellcome Collection in Euston Road, Euston, opened Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights. This free major exhibition offers an unsparing showcase of artworks that […]
Written by Ida Mojadad| Ida MojadadIn 1917, hundreds of San Francisco sex workers confronted a Tenderloin church pastor for trying to chase them out of town with his sermons, effectively giving him a crash course on their inability to survive economically.That direct action laid the groundwork for sex workers in France, Canada and England to occupy churches, putting […]
40 years since occupation of Cromer Street churchBy Dan CarrierTHE sex workers and their supporters came into the church in small groups – and when the service came to an end the new arrivals on the pews proclaimed they were not going anywhere.This week marks the 40th anniversary of a historic occupation at Holy Cross […]
By Bridget GaltonForty years ago, a group of sex workers and their children occupied a King’s Cross Church in protest against Police harrassment.The 12-day sit-in saw the masked women speak out in frustration at unfair laws which criminalised them while failing to protect them from violent assaults.TV crews and MPs visited the protest at Holy Cross Church […]
This autumn marks 40 years since the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) occupied the Church of the Holy Cross in the red-light area of King’s Cross, London, for 12 days to protest “police illegality and racism” against sex workers. The occupation took inspiration from sex workers who in 1975 occupied churches across France following […]
Selma James PHOTO COURTESY OF CROSSROADS AV COLLECTIVE From anti-communist witch-hunts to independence movements to wages for housework and rights for sex workers, 91-year-old Selma James has been in the struggle for a lifetime. BY LEILA HAWKINS When I arrive at Crossroads Women’s Centre in North London to interview Selma James, she is in a meeting […]
Article written by:Frankie Miren For 12 days in late 1982 the English Collective of Prostitutes occupied a church in King’s Cross to protest police brutality. Frankie Miren interviews women who were at the centre of the dispute, and explores explores the legacy of their action today. It’s November 1982 and you wake up on the […]
Ray Filar ‘Sex workers are the original feminists’, say Juno Mac and Molly Smith in Revolting Prostitutes. It’s an incendiary claim–not least because tracking ‘firsts’ is a fraught pursuit–but it might well be true. Mac and Smith point toward the medieval brothel workers who formed guilds and went on strike; the 15th century Bavarian prostitutes […]
Sarah Walker Sarah Walker first came across the English Collective of Prostitutes at the North London Polytechnic, where she was studying English, in the early 1980s. In May 2018, Sarah and I sat down to record her memories of the ECP occupation of the Holy Cross Church in King’s Cross in 1982. Sarah talked about […]
Since 1981, when the English Collective of Prostitutes issued the first rights sheet for prostitute women in England and Wales, we have been taking up cases of false arrest and intimidation by police. In 1982, we occupied the Church of the Holy Cross in King’s Cross, London, for 12 days. We were inspired by […]