Prostitution is increasing because of austerity. A 60% increase in street prostitution recorded in Doncaster is primarily attributed to destitution caused by benefit sanctions,.with charities saying: “Women are being forced to sell sex for £5 because of benefit sanctions.” Sheffield reports a 166% increase (2014) while charity workers in Hull report: “ . . . women who are literally starving and they are out there to feed themselves.”
Tabi Jackson Gee “I was a full time mum, and a part-time prostitute. But I was never a regular working girl. I went out one or two nights a month to get money to pay a bill, or for something that needed replacing in the house.” Jenny* is in her mid-forties. She lives in the North of England, where […]
Austerity measures like benefit sanctions are pushing women in Sheffield to sell their bodies on the city’s streets, claims experts. That is the view of staff at the Sheffield Working Women’s Opportunities Project (SWWOP), who report that between June and August this year 51 ‘new’ women became involved with sex work in Sheffield. Manager at […]
Who cares about women’s work? Discussing care, Wages for Housework and valuing feminised labour, Ray is joined by Selma James, coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike and author of Sex, Race and Class, and Cari Mitchell, spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes.
Women at the top of the party are no guarantee of representation at the bottom, six female activists argue. Kate Green MP, former shadow minister for women and equalities, now heading Owen Smith’s campaign for leadership of the Labour Party, accuses Jeremy Corbyn of not “listening” before supporting the decriminalisation of prostitution, which in her […]
Letters: Pros and cons of work in the sex industry I was at our women’s centre reading the Guardian editorial (8 April) when I took a call from a woman charged with brothel-keeping for working with a friend. I asked her how she got into prostitution. “A man came round to cut off the gas and I […]
According to some of the most prominent opponents of sex work decriminalisation, there are basically two types of women involved in selling sex: a small but vocal minority of self-described “sex workers” who entered the industry out of choice, and a much larger number of “prostituted women” who were coerced or forced by financial necessity.Anyone […]
Decriminalisation and sex workers Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on sex work (Report, 6 March) is in line with Amnesty International’s view that decriminalisation is “the best way to defend sex workers’ human rights and lessen the risk of abuse and violations they face”. We are currently fighting legal cases with women imprisoned for brothel-keeping for working […]
Prostitution is rising along with poverty in Britain. To protect women both the criminalisation of sex work and austerity must be reversed.English Collective of Prostitutes We welcome Jeremy Corbyn’s public statement in support of the decriminalisation of sex work. He, more than many, will have in mind the austerity cuts, 75% of which have targeted […]
The English Collective of Prostitutes was asked to comment in various media outlets on Jeremy Corbyn’s support for decriminalisation. We collated some of the media comments below.“We welcome Jeremy Corbyn’s public statement in support of the decriminalisation of sex work. He more than many will have in mind the austerity cuts, 75% of which have […]
Can a “police-managed” area – one that effectively allows the street sex trade to operate legally – ever truly keep sex workers safe? BuzzFeed News spoke to the women in Holbeck, Leeds, to ask. A five-minute drive from the centre of Leeds lies Holbeck, an inner-city area that could be mistaken for any other industrial-led […]