STRASS - Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel

Whore Feminism is :

1. Dictate terms to men in the sexual contract before talking, either about the length, practices, prevention and rules of consent.

2. To work with other women and queer people and thus reduce the risk of suffering sexist and homophobic jokes from colleagues.

3. Being economically independent of a father, a boss or a darling.

4. Occupy public and night spaces traditionally reserved for men.

5. Combat whore stigma that hinders freedoms of all women, by reclaiming the insult in pride in order to break the original meaning.

6. Knowing, loving, being comfortable with our body and our sexuality and take care of it.

7. Defending the free disposal of our body and not only for abortion rights.

8. Knowing that sexuality and gender are defined by power relationships and that identities are neither natural nor immutable but socially constructed and as such we perform them like actresses.

9. Educating men and to change their behaviour because we have access to their privacy.

10. The right to say yes as much as to say no. Fighting for the recognition of rape as a crime, including those committed against us and which our complaints are rarely recorded.

11. Awareness of the intersection between different forms of discrimination and being in solidarity with other minority women.

12. Respecting all women voices. Refusing paternalism that infantilises women and judge them unable to express their own will under the false pretext that we are manipulated, yesterday by the priests to deny us the right to vote, or now by pimps to ban soliciting.

13. Making visible as work all services rendered for free or extracted within the family and demanding financial compensation for this, unless to refuse them.

14. Fighting for the unionization of sex workers and change the sex industry, including being aware that gendered asymmetry between men as clients and women&queers as whores is the result of a long tradition of patriarchal sexual division of labour .

15. Refusing to be a victim.

Thursday, February 25 the National Assembly had discussed the amendments to the draft law strengthening the protection of victims and the prevention and punishment of violence against women. (1)

Among the amendments discussed, those from Mrs. Chantal Brunel (2) to repeal the crime of passive soliciting, induced by the 2003 Act, was withdrawn on the grounds that “we would take a real risk to repeal hastily a device that clearly has more merit than some are willing to say “ according to Mme Morano, Secretary of State for Family and Solidarity. (3)

This shows the contempt that this government has towards sex workers and all the associations, social workers, trade unions, magistrates, elected officials and even police who unanimously denounce the perverse and disastrous consequences of this Act for the last 7 years! (4) The LSI Act planed in effect to establish an annual record evaluation: we are still waiting for obvious reasons …

Worse yet, while welcoming the “undeniable progress” in the disappearance of “nuisance to local residents”, Morano, extolling the virtues of the crime of passive soliciting, invokes “the provisions of the Act of 2003 (…) of social measures, through mechanisms of protection and support “ which have almost never been used!

Finally, Ms. Morano proposes to “create, today, with yourself (Mme Brunel NDR), the Ministry of Interior, the Secretary of State that I lead and all the institutional partners involved, a working group together to reflect, within three months, the best way to improve the situation you describe. “

To this last proposal, wanting to believe in the sincerity of such an approach, we inform Ms. Morano that it intends to include STRASS. For too long policies concerning sex workers are conducted without any consultation of the first concerned and in disregard of our rights. Repression as the only answer always leads to more violence and opacity, it is time to end this messy political patronage and which, by making invisible precarious sex workers, engaged them in all hazards.

No politics in fight against sex trafficking and sexual exploitation can be effective if it refuses to consider sex workers as partners.

—

Notes :

(1) Proposed Act strengthening the protection of victims and the prevention and punishment of violence against women

(2) PREVENTION AND REPRESSION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - (No. 2293) Amendment No. 76

(3) Minutes of the meeting of Thursday, February 25, 2009

(4) See the report of the League of Human Rights and the Union of Lawyers of France: “New areas of lawlessness, prostitutes against arbitrary police” et Critiques des mesures concernant le « racolage passif » sur Wikipédia ainsi que le dossier d’ActUp sur la LSI.

Wednesday on the 17th, STRASS met Chantal Brunel (1), MP for UMP in Seine-et-Marne to talk about her commitment through her amendment for the repeal of soliciting’s criminalisation in the bill designed to combat violence against women which will be on the agenda of the National Assembly on February 25. This amendment seeks to repeal section 42 of the LSI (Law on Internal Security) in 2003.

Madame Brunel joined STRASS in its negative assessment of the LSI in the fight against trafficking in women and the working conditions of sex workers. She assured us of her determination to defend the interests and stakes of such an amendment, despite the difficulties that such a proposal will meet on February 25 at the next National Assembly. During this presentation, Ms. Brunel will remind MPs that no study has been conducted during the six years of operation, despite Nicolas Sarkozy’s promises.

On this occasion the STRASS reiterated its desire to see:

• Repealed the law on internal security
• Repealed the ordinance of 1960, which classifies sex workers among social misfits
• Compliance with the fundamental rights of sex workers

Porte-parole : Tiphaine Besnard 06 62 85 53 62
http://www.strass-syndicat.org/

(1) Note: Ms. Chantal Brunel Vice-President of the Special Committee to review the draft law strengthening the protection of victims and the prevention and punishment of violence against women

On January 21, 2010, Chantal Brunel MP for the UMP in Seine et Marne is in few weeks the third personality of the majority party to talk about the reopening of brothels within an article in Le Monde (1) and the publication of her book on violence against women.

We remember the release of Christine Boutin (2), who retracted the following day after the remonstrances of anti-prostitution organizations. We also know that the MPs Elie Aboud and Isabelle Vasseur are currently in charge of a parliamentary report on policies to carry on prostitution. Elie Aboud, a member of the UMP in Hérault was interviewed in the Midi Libre (3) and said he would not rule out the idea of reopening brothels.

If we can only be happy on the common finding about the failure of repressive policies against soliciting and look forward to repeal these laws, we wonder greatly about what they have in store for us.

Indeed, our politicians continue to carry the usual cliches, ignoring the demands of sex workers (4), and our very existence as a social movement. It should be reminded to them that sex workers speak since at least 1975, when occured the occupation of churches in Lyons and in several cities of France.

STRASS has already sent a request to meet both UMP parliamentarians responsible for a report and is still looking forward their response.
If we are concerned, it is because what appears so far from the interviews with national representatives is greater control: medical supervision, fiscal control and migration control. Nobody wants their brothels. (5)

We would like them to understand that we are everything but a shapeless mass of clandestine invading migrants, diseases transmitters, and tax evaders. We are human beings.
They should know that most of us already pay taxes, that we are often the best actresses of prevention, and better placed to fight against trafficking in human beings again and still confused with immigration.

We demand to meet these parliamentarians.
We are not the problem. We are part of the solution.

Contact: National Spokeswoman, Tiphaine 0033+6 62 85 53 62

(1) http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/article/2010/01/21/violences-faites-aux-femmes-place-aux-actes-par-chantal-brunel_1294812_3232.html
(2) http://www.rue89.com/rue69/2009/11/25/christine-boutin-prete-a-rouvrir-les-maisons-closes-sur-le-papier
(3) http://www.midilibre.com/articles/2009/11/28/A-LA-UNE-Elie-Aboud-Au-moins-encadrer-les-prostituees-1015675.php5

(4) http://www.lesputes.org/declaration.htm (Déclaration des Droits Des TravailleuSEs du Sexe En Europe)

(5) http://site.strass-syndicat.org/2009/11/reouverture-des-maisons-closes-mise-au-point-sur-la-position-du-strass

The STRASS, Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel (Sex Work Union) held its annual General Assembly this weekend and elected a new team for its board.

The union has officially reached the figure of 300 members and has set a policy priority for the coming year: fight against prohibition. We will use the campaign for regional elections to raise awareness among politicians and in public opinion. We also expect the creation of a legal support office for our members.

In terms of union sociology we can say our members are approximately 70% women, 20% trans’, 10% men, and the majority of our members work on the street.

The elected officials for 2010 are:

Office :
Secretary General: Cadyne
National Spokeswoman: Tiphaine +33 (0)6 62 85 53 62
Treasurer: Nikita +33 (0)6 87 66 18 09

Board :
Spokeswoman for South Western France: Isabelle Schweiger
Spokeswomen for South Eastern France: Plume and Leila
Spokeswoman for North Eastern France: Cornelia Schneider
International Relations: Thierry Schaffauser
Communication: Maîtresse Gilda
Community Coordination - Street Work: Nicole
Community Coordination - Internet and Telephone Work: Marquise
Community Coordination - Work in Clubs, Bars, Parlours, Flats: Astrid
Community Cooordination - BDSM: Maîtresse Léia

Reopening of brothels, the position of STRASS.

On November 24, 2009, Christine Boutin (former Minister) relaunch the debate by declaring that she is “not opposed to the reopening of brothels” but then quickly retracted under the pressure of anti prostitution lobbies including the Mouvement du Nid.

STRASS with over 250 sex workers members in France would like this important debate not being closed immediately because of professionals anti prostitution activists who are lobbying to maintain the abolitionist dogma which ensures them many subsidies and the survival of their organization.

STRASS rejects the current abolitionist system which is actually a repressive system against sex workers on the pretext of human dignity and morality.
We are opposed to the concept of a brothel as it existed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries because it was a mean of control and an interference with our freedoms. Also we denounce the hypocrisy of the current laws that forbid us to work indoors, particularly when we want to work in group for our security.

We are against the brothels because:

* We refuse to work for the benefit of a brothel keeper as we oppose all forms of exploitation and because 100% of an income from sex work must return to the worker him/herself.
* We reject that a third party imposes or influences in the choice of our clients, our prevention, our practices and our rates.
* We believe that mandatory testing for STIs often advocated with the reopening of brothels does not protect sex workers and their clients since it ignores the pre-seroconversion window period during the transmission of these diseases.
* Only the condom protects and mandatory testing is actually used to encourage sex workers to accept unprotected sex and to pursue exclusion policies against workers with HIV. The contaminations scandals in the porn industry are a glaring example of the counterproductivity of mandatory testing on health.
* We refuse to be put away from the public space to enclosed, reserved or hidden areas. We are part of this society and we want our workplaces being open spaces to any adult audience, not closed houses.
* We do not want a regulationist system which divides sex workers among the regulars who can work in brothels and others who continue to be criminalized for refusing state control. We want equal rights for all regardless of our nationality.

What we want:

* The right to work wherever we want.
* The right to associate ourselves with who we want.
* The right to work with whoever we want.
* The right to work as we want.

This includes therefore to repeal the laws on soliciting and pimping, which prevent us to organize our work and independent housing. In trying to discourage the existence of prostitution, these laws do not protect us, they put us in danger.

The STRASS, Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel, wishes to give its opinion on the controversy started about the sexual behavior of the French Culture Minister, to remind that the purchase of sexual services is thanksfully still legal in France as well as in Thailand as opposed to the wish of some Socialist Party members.

However, if it is acceptable for a client to join the government, this same government condemns those who sell sexual services to two months imprisonment and 3 750 euro fine for soliciting liabilities since the Internal Security Law of the 18th March 2003, said Sarkozy Act. We ask our politicians why while they can legally purchase our services, they continue to penalize us for its sale?

We demand the end of this hypocrisy, and that any sexual act between consenting adults should be decriminalized.

We demand the repeal of all laws on prostitution and the recognition of our human and labour rights.

We also condemn the amalgam of sex work with pedophilia.

For more information on the sex workers movement  in Thailand:

http://www.empowerfoundation.org

http://www.swingthailand.org

The STRASS is not satisfied by the statements of the Minister for Health concerning trans’ people

Neither the psychiatric nor the disorder identity!
Trans’ people are not sick !

On the occasion of the World Day against homophobia, which this year focused on the fight against transphobia, the STRASS would join forces to this fight that affects a large proportion of sex workers.

On the eve of this day we heard from a report by AFP the decision of the Health Ministry to no longer classify “transsexuality as a psychiatric condition.” However, the spokesperson for the minister continues to talk of “disorders of gender identity.”

We note first that the French state persists to use a vocabulary pathologizing trans people, although for years, the trans’ community prefers to talk about transidentity rather than transsexuality, and therefore does not consider this gender identity as a disorder.

But what we fear, especially from reading the headlines, is that this declaration is only an announcement, and that the decree in question does not change much, if not all bad. That this decree will only change the name of the pathologisation imposed to the trans’, that it means a step backwards instead of progress: that the french state continues to exercise supervision on pathologizing of trans people, and making them at the same time more difficult to access treatments. Treatments which are sometimes necessary only because of transphobia from the french state itself, still alive and active, and makes life impossible. For example, the state requires the sterilization of trans people as a condition for obtaining a change of their administrative identity.

We are concerned therefore that it is once more a measure to divest the French state from its responsibilities while strengthening control over the discriminatory categories of persons who “disturb”.

We demand:
- The end of the pathologizing that the State illegaly imposes, trans people do not need the so-called expert opinion about who they are. There is no need to classify trans people’ as “sick” to take care of their treatments: the state finance by such treatment due to pregnancy, but does not consider it as a disease .
- Free and unconditional care, not classified as mentally ill, whether in the form of a “psychiatric condition” or as “disorder of gender identity.” And without even be classified under any other pathologisation’s name. In short: trans’ people are sick of nothing. Their suffering is entirely the product of transphobia from the French State and society around them.
- We therefore demand that the state pays repair for the damage done by its transphobia in our lives for the last decades.

The real questions we ask:
When equal civil rights for trans?
When the abolition of the first digit of the national insurance number, which stigmatizes and excludes us de facto from the labor market?
When the change of administrative status on request?
When the family and parental rights equal?
When the voting rights for trans people-independently of the gender mentioned on their ID?
When a genuine policy of public education against transphobia and homophobia from the state ?
When the end of violations by the French State of the European Charter of Human Rights, particularly regarding trans people ?
(read: http://www.coe.int/t/commissioner/Viewpoints/090105_fr.asp)

All these critical issues are political rather than medical, and they call for policy responses and not medical. Replies which to this day the french state refuses to give. Worse, it refuses even to understand the questions…

The STRASS joins all these pressing issues, and requires the french State to respond in emergency, instead of seeking a demagogic announcement on the occasion of International Day against Homophobia.

STRASS - Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel

Press release,
Following the murder of a prostitute near Nimes (Gard)

To achieve its political purposes, Nicolas Sarkozy, then Interior Minister, introduced in the law deviant provisions that, mechanically, lead to tragedies such as the murder happened 48 hours ago, in a parking in Nimes, in atrocious conditions. The President of the Republic holds an electoral meeting today a few hundred meters from the scene of the murder. Will he have a thought for the memory of this young woman, and all those who have a tragic ending, because the law, which is his is flawed? It has forced sex workers in the hiding and excluded them from the protection of the law for everyone. The President will not disgrace himself by correcting in emergency the  populist and demagoguery mistakes of the Minister he was.

It should be noted, however, positive responsiveness from local government, probably in step with a view that is changing. The means employed, the fast presence of high officials began perhaps finally a new human approach instead of contempt and stigma.

The STRASS, Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel, will be particularly attentive to the seriousness of the investigation and demands that its claims are heard by the repeal of the Act called “interior security” of 2003.

Contact:
Mistress Gilda,
0623068701
STRASS
http://www.strass-syndicat.org

Founded on the 20th March 2009, at the European Assises de la prostitution, STRASS, Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel (Union of Sex Work), fights for the decriminalization of sex work, for self-organisation of sex work and for equal social rights to all sex workers /  prostitutes, escorts, porn / actors-tress, strip-teasers, dominatrix, telephone or webcam animation, working in apartment, on the street, in camping van, or by Internet ads, men, women, trans, French or migrants …

We fight :

• Against any criminalization of sex work, including against the Interior Security Law, prohibitionist, classist and racist, which discriminates, insecures, excludes, but favors the traffickers;
• Against any form of exploitation of all forms of sex work: the french State is for instance not less a pimp than mafia networks of pimps against whom it claims to be fighting;
• For our equal rights, which we are prevented today: housing rights, family rights, the right to health, labor law, unemployment funds, pension funds …
• And a real status of sex workers.

STRASS – le Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel – www.strass-syndicat.org