Supporting vulnerable women, not their exploiters

THE 156th annual TUC conference takes place in Brighton this week. The event is a crucial celebration of workers’ hard-won rights, which are increasingly at risk from the ongoing impact of Covid-19, economic uncertainty and the rise of neoliberal policies.

These challenges make unions more important than ever. The feminist activists at FiLiA UK look to unions with hope, expecting them to resist the growing push by labor-related circles to promote what they call “the decriminalization of sex work.”

The title of this policy may seem innocent to the layman, who interprets the “decriminalization of sex work” as an attempt to protect vulnerable women from legal prosecution. However, this formulation is manipulative and hides three major lies spread by the global pimp lobby: that prostitution is just another type of work; that “decriminalization of sex work” is aimed at helping people in prostitution; and that legalizing the sex industry will improve their lives. None of this is true.

First of all, prostitution is not “work.” The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, described prostitution in her latest report as a “system of violence, inequality and discrimination that impacts a woman’s ability to achieve equality.”

Alsalem’s choice of words is accurate; in order to survive economically, the average woman in prostitution is forced to tolerate sexual access to her body by five to twenty strangers daily, simply because they have paid for it. No other job in the world involves the client using the worker’s intimate organs, while the worker endures penetration, pinching, bodily fluids, unpleasant odors, and often verbal, physical, and sexual abuse.

Mortality rates in prostitution are alarmingly high, compounded by unwanted pregnancies and serious physical and mental harm – none of which should be dismissed as mere “occupational hazards.”

Dr Melissa Farley’s research, conducted among people in prostitution in a wide range of countries, found that this population group suffers from PTSD at rates comparable to war veterans seeking treatment, rape victims, battered women seeking shelter, and refugees from state-organized torture. No union representative could conduct a risk assessment or enforce health and safety measures that would adequately protect prostitutes from inherent abuse and violence.

Second, the call for the “decriminalization of sex work” is not an arbitrary idea, but rather part of an organized global effort. The full name of the policy is “Decriminalization of All Aspects of Sex Work,” which legitimizes the abusers and the profiteers — the gamblers and especially the pimps.

The claim that this approach helps women in prostitution by normalizing their “stigmatized profession” is a lie — not only because there is no need to legitimize the abuser in order to support the abused, but also because most women in prostitution do not seek to normalize their harmful circumstances. What most prostitutes want is a way out of prostitution.

Since prostitution itself is not illegal in the UK, and since there are other ways to improve existing protections for women without criminalising them, it is clear that the “Decriminalisation of Sex Work” has one aim: to help pimps obtain business licences.

Third, the claim that legal brothels give prostitutes the right to organize and access labor rights is a lie. In countries such as Germany, New Zealand, parts of Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, where brothels are already legal, we do not see a flourishing of “workers’ rights” for prostituted women, achieved through unionization or the application of labor laws.

Even in these countries, women who can avoid prostitution do not enter it. As a result, most people involved in prostitution are undocumented migrants and other victims of exploitation, creating a huge black market. Those who are legally involved are overwhelmingly classified as “independent contractors” who rent rooms from brothel owners. The pimps seek permits, not the legal responsibilities of an employer. Those in prostitution bear the burden of taxes but do not benefit from the protections of labor law.

If the “no holds barred” prostitution that decrim lobbyists seek is legalized, all forms of prostitution — legal brothels, street prostitution, and trafficking in minors and undocumented migrants — will inevitably increase. This normalization of an inherently abusive practice would destroy society’s view of women and further erode their rights at a time when violence against women is already endemic.

The legal mega-brothels in countries like Germany do not provide wealth to the women trapped within them; instead, they commodify their bodies and expose them to humiliation and violence. In a society where prostitution is normalised, pimps could set up brothels anywhere, even next door. The managed prostitution zones in Holbeck, Leeds, turned the area into a crime hub, making it a place where no one wanted to live.

The good news is that unions can take many meaningful actions to support vulnerable women rather than help pimps. They can work with feminists and survivors to bring the Nordic model to Britain — a legal framework that protects victims and punishes their abusers, which has already been successful in nine other jurisdictions.

Unions can also work with employers to help survivors of prostitution gain training and employment in legitimate, fairly paid jobs. The focus should be on empowering the most vulnerable and giving them the chance to rebuild their lives with dignity.

Most union members would recoil at the idea of ​​themselves or their loved ones being forced into prostitution because of economic hardship. Unions should be working for equal pay and conditions for women, not promoting the dangerous idea that prostitution is just another form of work.

Despite ongoing efforts, women are still paid less than men for work of equal value. Unions must step up their fight against this injustice and ensure that women’s demands are central to their mission. This does not mean subscribing to the damaging and misogynistic idea that “sex work is work.”

Luba Fein heads the anti-prostitution campaign for the women’s rights charity FiLiA UK (www.filia.org.uk) and Helen O’Connor is a trade unionist and former nurse.

LUBA FEIN and HELEN O’CONNOR

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