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A Union of Pimps and Johns
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_union_of_pimps_and_johns_20170518/
Posted on May 18, 2017
By Julie Bindel
Prostitutes in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (AP / David Longstreath
(http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-
Kampuchea-A-/d906b29f26e1da11af9f0014c2589dfb/14/0) )
During a trip to Cambodia in the summer of 2015 I came across a well-funded
NGO that purported to run the largest union of "sex workers" in Southeast
Asia. In Phnom Penh, I had arranged to meet a group of women who were, I was
told, members of the "sex workers" union that had been founded by the
Women's Network for Unity (WNU). The WNU, which received funding by the Open
Society Foundation, a multibillion-dollar fund set up by the investor George
Soros, has a clear pro-prostitution agenda.
Our meeting was scheduled for 8 a.m. I brought with me a translator from
another Cambodian women's NGO. On arrival at the venue, I was surprised to
find that a board member of the WNU had also decided to attend.
The women arrived, and, despite the fact that they had been out all night
dealing with sex buyers and pimps, were warm, open and keen to talk about
the violence and abuse they endure from sex buyers and police.
The board member interrupted them regularly, often speaking for them. I
asked "What are the benefits of being in the union?" She answered on their
behalf: "If the women are beaten up by the police, they are given legal
training on their rights; if they are arrested, the WNU will provide food
during the time they cannot work; and if one of the women dies, they will
help to buy the coffin." She concluded that "knowing their rights empowers
them."
The women seemed anything but empowered. One told me she could get out of
prostitution only if she had $200 to buy formal identification papers,
because this was the only way to secure legitimate employment in, say, the
service industry or a factory. The other women joined in, saying this is
also what they needed and wanted. They hated prostitution, they said.
WNU representatives claim they have 6,500 Cambodian "sex workers" on their
books fighting for "sex workers' rights." The translator said that none of
the women I met with used the term "sex work" to describe what they do, or
"sex worker" to describe who they are. This language was used by the WNU.
One of WNU's aims is "to challenge the rhetoric around sex work,
particularly that concerned with the anti-trafficking movement and the
'rehabilitation' of sex workers." All the women asked me where they could
get help to escape the hell they were in. Meanwhile, WNU board members and
paid staff travel the region, speaking at "sex workers' rights" conferences,
distorting the voices of exploited women.
The prostituted women in Cambodia made it clear to me how much they hated
prostitution. The board member said she had been at a regional conference
with other "sex workers' rights" activists and that "tens of thousands" of
"sex workers" in Cambodia signed up to this so-called union. The women I
spoke to had no idea that they were "sex workers' rights" activists.
The experiences of these women were being used by WNU to promote the idea
that unionization and decriminalization-a result of prostitution being
formally recognized as labor-would solve all problems, despite the fact that
the worst violence described by the women was by sex buyers. This NGO
considered the concept of "sex workers' rights" to be above and beyond the
importance of the lives of the women themselves. I asked the board member if
WNU was planning on raising money to help the women out of prostitution. She
said "No."
A documentary on prostitution in Cambodia titled "(Sex Workers Cry) Rights
Not Rescue in Cambodia" is described as a collaboration between the
6,400-member WNU Cambodia and Paula Stromberg, the filmmaker.
The coordinator of WNU is interviewed for the film, and says: "WNU is an
association of sex workers-adult women, men and transgender people. We
choose to work. We are not victims. We are not trafficked. No one owns us.
We don't have pimps. No brothel owners enslave us. We do not want to be
rescued."
I found this statement quite difficult to process, having spent time in
Cambodia speaking to prostituted women, pimps and bar owners.
In an email exchange with me, Stromberg wrote: "I would find it presumptuous
for me as a Canadian to speak on behalf of the sex workers here in Cambodia.
That is often the source of their problem-that everyone wants to speak about
them, but few want to listen their voices."
But as I had discovered in Cambodia, the WNU does speak for "sex workers,"
literally putting words in the women's mouths.
By the time I visited Cambodia I was very familiar with sex work lobbyists'
oft-adopted tactics of presenting pro-pimp organizations as "sex workers'
unions." In 2002, the front page headline of a London newspaper read, "Sex
workers to join trade union."
(http://www.standard.co.uk/news/sex-workers-to-join-trade-union-6302241.html
)
I had heard about the campaign, organized by pimps and their sympathizers in
the U.K., to formally declare prostitution as "work," but was nonetheless
surprised that any credible trades union had bitten the bullet.
Britain's third biggest union, the GMB, which was formed in 1889, had been
persuaded by lobbyists for legalization of the sex trade that prostitution
is a job, and that those selling sex deserve "worker's rights." In January
2002, to a fanfare of publicity, the Adult Entertainment branch was
officially sanctioned by the GMB.
The Adult Entertainment branch began life as the International Union of Sex
Workers (IUSW)-the brainchild of two academics who were not involved in
prostitution. The IUSW-now operating mainly as a website
(http://www.iusw.org/) -has never been a union, but a lobbying group for the
decriminalization of pimping. Academics, sex buyers and pimps were welcomed
as members of the IUSW, which eventually led one of its more leftist members
to break ranks and spill its secrets to me.
In the early days, two gay men were the main spokespeople for the IUSW,
making their rather unrepresentative voices dominant in the "sex worker's
rights" debate. One of them, Douglas Fox, a Conservative Party activist and
co-owner of a large "escort agency" based in northeast England, was also an
activist (https://www.amnesty.org.uk/douglas-fox) for Amnesty UK. In 2008,
Fox proposed a motion for blanket decriminalization of the sex trade at the
Amnesty International (AI) Annual General Meeting, a proposal that became
international AI policy
(http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/11/world/amnesty-international-sex-work/index.ht
ml) seven years later.
Thierry Schaffauser was prostituted on the streets of Paris as a teenager
before moving to the U.K. Schaffauser became involved in "worker's rights"
campaigns, moved to London and joined the IUSW, soon rising to the role of
president. But Schaffauser was unhappy with Fox being the public face of the
organization, and, despite being warned not to speak to me about his views
(other members were aware that I was researching the IUSW for for a news
article), (https://www.byline.com/project/3/article/4) gave me an
on-the-record interview. Partly as a result of this interview, Schaffauser
was kicked out
(https://thierryschaffauser.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/iusw-fired-me/.) of
the IUSW.
Lobbyists use the term "sex work" to include not just people directly
selling sex, but also pimps, brothel owners, pornography producers and
distributors, brothel security, sex trade propagandists, academics who
research prostitution and even taxi drivers and advertisers.
The support of Amnesty International and other so-called human-rights-based
organizations that advocate for decriminalization of the sex trade in the
affluent West has a significant influence on sex trade policy and
legislation in the Global South.
In the Netherlands, I have investigated the Red Thread,
(https://biblioteca-alternativa.noblogs.org/files/2010/10/the_red_thread.pdf
) a now-defunct "sex workers' rights" organization that masqueraded as a
union until its collapse. Founded in 1984, it was funded by the Dutch
government from 1987 with a mandate to combat HIV/AIDS. Red Thread closed in
2009, four years after losing its government funding.
At its height, however, the Red Thread had only 100 members out of an
estimated 25,000 prostituted people across Holland. It never fought a case
on behalf of a "worker" in court, and made no tangible difference to the
"working" lives of prostituted individuals. It was a propaganda machine for
legalization, and ensured that the Dutch were seen as "cutting edge" in
their approach to complicated social problems. The Red Thread lost its
governmental backing at the same time the international media began to
report on evidence coming out of Holland that showed how legalization had
been an unmitigated disaster.
(https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/02/flesh-for-sale/#)
But the damage had been done, and, in the true spirit of colonialism, the
campaigners in the Global North that had run well-oiled propaganda machines,
peddling the benefits of unionizing and legalizing the renting of women's
orifices, spread their influence to the Global South.
In India, the NGOs adopt the same tactic, and give red umbrellas-the symbol
of the "sex workers' rights" movement"-to the women standing outside the
brothels waiting for trade. They want the women to march around Sonagachi,
Kolkata-India's biggest street prostitution zone-with their red umbrellas.
"The pimps run these movements, and the prostituted women have no say in it
at all," says Ruchira Gupta, (http://apneaap.org/about-us/our-founder/)
founder and president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an organization in India
working to end sex trafficking.
"One day, in the late 1990s, there were female pimps seen around Sonagachi,
speaking as 'sex workers' and claiming they were empowering the women in the
brothels by forming unions to protect their rights in the workplace," Gupta
says. "But these women do not have any 'rights' in prostitution, and the
'union' was simply helping the pimps call for legalization."
Gregor Gall is an academic based in the U.K. whose specialty is the
unionization of "sex work." He has written two books on the topic, and it is
clear that Gall has done his research. I asked Gall if he had come across
any bogus, pimp-led "unions." He admitted that he knew of one in India, and
that it is likely they exist elsewhere in the Global South.
"There's a union there [probably in Mumbai] for bar girls, meaning
prostitutes," Gall says. "It was set up by a non-sex worker . and there was
evidence that the bar owners helped fund it because the bars were being
closed down."
Terms such as "collective" disguise the true nature of organizations that
claim to be unions but in fact exist for the benefit of the johns, pimps and
brothel owners.
SWEAT (http://www.sweat.org.za/) (Sex Workers Education and Advocacy
Taskforce) is the leading pro-prostitution NGO in South Africa, founded in
the early 1990s by two white "sex workers' rights" activists, Shane Petzer,
a gay male sex worker, and Ilse Pauw, a female clinical psychologist. Like
other pro-prostitution NGOs, SWEAT uses the international language of human
rights to argue for decriminalization.
"I looked at their leaflets, and saw cartoon drawings of happy looking
women," a woman who had recently exited the sex trade told me when I was in
Cape Town in 2016, "and there were [speech] bubbles coming out of their
mouths saying things like, 'My union protects me,' and 'I can enjoy my job
like anyone else,' and it made me feel bad for [wanting] to leave
prostitution. I thought it must be something wrong with me not to be
enjoying it."
SWEAT has been actively campaigning for decriminalization of the sex trade
since 2000.
"To them it's just [an] agency to sell sex, it is just work, 'sex work,' "
says Dudu Ndlovu, a gender studies student who was previously a volunteer at
SWEAT. "To be a black woman and be prostituted in post-apartheid South
Africa is to be reminded that you're nothing, when we are now supposed to be
liberated. SWEAT says that prostitution is your individual choice, and that
there is no difference between my choices and yours," Ndlova continues,
"which is ridiculous, because you are a white woman living in the West and I
am a black South African."
Many of the so-called unions often appear to be set up as worker's rights
organizations in order to look attractive to funders.
George Soros' Open Society, (http://www.redumbrellafund.org/grantees) which
funds the WNU in Cambodia, is one such group that looks kindly upon
organizations claiming to help "sex workers" organize and achieve autonomy.
The Open Society gives generously to SWEAT, and to other pro-prostitution
NGOs in the Global South, such as those in Kenya, Cambodia and India.
Mickey Meji is a survivor of the sex trade and runs an exiting service in
Cape Town for women who wish to leave prostitution. I ask Meji during my
trip to Cape Town whether she believes it is possible to unionize the sex
trade. "No," Meji says, "because in South Africa the trade unions that we
have, as far as I am concerned, represent people who are recognized as
workers." Meji is referring to domestic workers in South Africa, who are
often ill-treated, underpaid and abused by employers, and, until the early
2000s, had no employment rights.
(http://idwfed.org/en/affiliates/africa-1/south-africa-domestic-service-and-
allied-workers-union-sadsawu)
"People can unionize before they are legally recognized as workers," Meji
says. "We started having 'house helps,' and the employers decided what they
wanted to pay and they [workers] decide if they want to accept it. Finally,
through unionizing, they fought for the recognition of their rights. It was
not a criminal offence to be 'house help.' That's the difference; otherwise
we'll start having a union of smugglers and traffickers."
I ask Meji: What if prostitution was legalized? She believes the stigma of
being prostituted will never leave female prostitutes, even if there are no
criminal penalties attached. "How do you unionize people in their absence?"
she says. "When they march they wear masks; they want to be hidden and
anonymous. How do you then unionize that? Because every industry that we
know of, regardless of how gruesome it is or how dirty it is, people have
taken ownership. But in the sex trade there is no real 'pride' from the
women being prostituted."
Janet M. Wojcicki, a white anthropologist based at the University of
California, appears to consider black Africans such as Mickey Meji to be
motivated by religious fundamentalism. In an article
(https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/the-
movement-to-decriminalize-sex-work-in-gauteng-province-south-africa-19942002
/860CF02C54169285096186DD646D1B4D ) on the pro-prostitution movement in
Gauteng Province, South Africa, in the early 1990s to 2000s, Wojcicke makes
the extraordinary claim that, post-apartheid, "There is now a counter
discourse opposing decriminalization, based on religion and on the argument
that sex work is 'un-African.' " The feminists opposed to the sex trade on
the grounds that it is both a cause and a consequence of women's inequality
are neatly written out of the debate by Wojcicki.
The sex trade can never be unionized because prostitution is not labor.
Beatrix Campbell is a socialist, feminist and author of the classic text,
"Wigan Pier Revisited" (1984).
"In all of the discourses about prostitution as work-is always-what the
product is, who buys the product and what the relationship of this alleged
purchaser is, in relation to power over and power to," Campbell says.
"That's the other half of the discourse that needs to be explored. What do
men think they're doing when they are buying sex?"
The Russian Federation, which borders Europe and Asia, boasts a massive sex
trade (http://legal-dialogue.org/trafficking-russia-ukraine) , and is known
as a hub for pimps and traffickers.
Irena Maslova is the coordinator of Silver Rose, an NGO in Russia that
campaigns for a legalized sex trade. Maslova told me, "I have 3 million sex
workers behind me [across Russia]." Silver Rose was founded in 2003, and at
the time was a small advocacy organization. By 2011 it was well funded,
partly by George Soros' Open Society, and expanded to 30 cities around
Russia.
"Silver Rose is more a supporting role and promoting the idea of unionizing
and getting together in order to stop the situation of violence and
discrimination against sex workers," Maslova tells me. I ask how many people
in prostitution are in her union. "We have 3 million sex workers behind us,"
she repeats.
Yet I have found no evidence of any employment tribunal finding, or any
positive stories about the unionization of prostitution during my extensive
research. Nor did any of the formerly prostituted women I interviewed from
across the Russian Federation know of such a "union," let alone say they've
benefited from it.
The occupational hazards of regular workers are not remotely similar to
those faced by women in the sex industry. Drug and alcohol misuse, violence
in the "workplace," unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and
even death are daily concerns for many prostituted women, not the
extraordinary issues they would be for regular workers. Prostituted women
deserve human rights, not "workers' rights."
Janet Wojcicki claims that ". if one examines the language that is used in
speaking and writing about sex work and sex workers in the post-apartheid
period, it becomes clear that the movement to decriminalize sex work has
incorporated the overall language of human rights that became enshrined in
the African National Congress' Constitution."
But Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, former ANC activist and founder of the
feminist anti-prostitution (abolitionist) NGO Embrace Dignity
(http://embracedignity.org.za/) , based in South Africa, has a very
different take on this.
"We did not struggle to end apartheid to end oppression so that women can
then be subjected to this kind of oppression and exploitation," Nozizwe
says. "Mandela would understand-I seriously believe that if we had gone to
him to open his eyes, he would have been on our side, saying, 'The Nation is
not free while women remain in oppression.' "
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