Sex workers have been in Soho, central London, for at least 200 years. During that time there has been constant attempts to arrest women and raid and close down the premises where we work. Since the 1980s women in Soho have been part of the ECP’s network and we have spearheaded campaigns against evictions and landgrabs. For example, in 2013, we mobilised against mass police raids which forced the closure of flats where women were working in relative safety. Most were re-opened, and the lie promoted by the police that the raids were aimed at saving victims of trafficking was thoroughly discredited.
Text Emma Garland ‘Your job isn’t empowering either’ Last night, the Women’s Strike took place on the streets of the UK for the first time in two years. Hundreds gathered in London’s Leicester Square – protestors, activists and members of trade unions like United Voices of the World (representing low-paid, migrant and precarious workers) and IWGB (founded by Latin American cleaners, […]
Interview byCOMITÉ AUTONOME DU TRAVAIL DU SEXE // SEX WORK AUTONOMOUS COMMITTEECari Mitchell is a former sex worker and a member of the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), a network of sex workers in the United Kingdom working both outdoors and indoors campaigning for decriminalisation and safety. 1 In 2000, the ECP organized a sex workers’ strike […]
**** IF YOU COULDN’T JOIN LIVE, YOU CAN STILL WATCH THIS ON OUR IG PAGE HERE. Sex workers have been in Soho, central London, for at least 200 years! Want to know more about the area and the campaigns led by women in our network to resist raids, evictions and landgrabs? Join us on Friday […]
Cari Mitchell on the campaign to increase safety for women working in flats in London’s Soho district Your review of Hot Stew, a novel set amid the brothels of Soho (10 March) condemns as “disastrous” the forms of protest attempted by the prostitutes. But in real life, a sex worker-led campaign of meetings and marches, pickets and protests […]
On International Women’s Day 2020, sex workers and allies gathered in Soho to protest for decriminalisation. By Jake Hall; photos by Zeinab Batchelor In today’s world of corporate feminism and #girlboss tees, it’s easy to lose sight of what International Women’s Day actually represents. That was not the case in Soho on Sunday, where the streets were filled […]
The strike highlights the call by sex worker-led organisations across Europe for full decriminalisation of the industryBy Frankie Miren(Picture: Juno Mac/SWARM)This International Women’s Day, the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) is launching a campaign calling for all feminists to support sex workers. The campaign focuses on sex workers’ grassroots activism across Europe – […]
Dear friends, please join us for these two events on Sunday 8 March, International Women’s Day: 12-5pm Open Day with Global Women’s Strike and other organisations at the Crossroads Women’s Centre. Workshops, films, exhibition, music, refreshments… Find out about campaigns and volunteering for survival and caring, against poverty, rape, racism and every violence and discrimination, detention […]
Demands for legislative changes to ‘make all women safe’By Tom FootWOMEN sex workers shut down Leicester Square in a protest calling for full decriminalisation.The strike on Friday night was part of the International Women’s Day protests and backed by the feminist movement and women’s groups across the country.Student sex workers also joined the protest, which […]
by Sophie HemeryCarried from the Bank of England to London’s Piccadilly Circus by drizzle, pop music and smoke grenades, 2019’s Women’s Strike march culminated in a performance by strippers demanding the full decriminalisation of sex work. Thousands of people danced with them, marking the end of an International Women’s Day (IWD) event that had sex workers at the […]
Sex workers are campaigning for the total decriminalisation of the industry, which they say would make prostitutes saferHundreds of prostitutes and their supporters marched through London last night on strike – protesting against unfair and unsafe working conditions.Huge crowds chanted ‘sex work is work’ and ‘no bad whores, just bad laws’ through the streets of […]