STRASS - Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel

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

Open letter to candidates in European elections.

Subject: Request for position

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

On the 20th March 2009, during the European Assises de la prostitution which took place at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris, we created our union: STRASS -Le Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel. We are pleased today to claim more than 200 members. You now have a representative and democratic social partner for all questions about us.

Our Union has for aim the study, representation, and the advocacy of collective, professional and moral interests of any person who exchanges a service of a sexual nature for economic purpose and any person employed or working on its own in commercial activities related to sexuality.

As part of the object above mentioned, the association aims to:
• ensure the effectiveness of the human rights of persons above-mentioned
• ensure the effectiveness of labor law, fiscal law … in connection with the above-mentioned activities and, more generally, with its members to defend their rights and interests, moral and physical, social and economic, individual and collective

We are currently excluded from the law, face to the police, to the justice, in access to housing and in number of jurisdictions for which we don’t match with any working status, however we are well regarded as workers when carrying out our taxes.

Our main demand is to have the same rights as all citizens of our country.

It is in this sense of respect for human rights, that with our colleagues across Europe, we wrote a manifesto and a declaration on the rights of sex workers at the European conference of sex workers in Brussels which we ask you to endorse.

We have translated these texts in french, you will find the attached copy.

http://www.droitsetprostitution.org/manifeste_fr.pdf
http://www.droitsetprostitution.org/declaration.htm

And in English

http://www.sexworkeurope.org/site/images/PDFs/manbrussels2005.pdf

http://www.sexworkeurope.org/site/images/PDFs/dec_brussels2005.pdf

In anticipation of a quick and favorable response, please accept Dear Madam, Dear Sir, the expression of our highest consideration.

Cadyne,
Secretary General for STRASS
www.strass-syndicat.org

Press Release - Sex workers want a Europe without Mouvement du Nid

STRASS - the Union of Sex Work

8 April 2009

Sex workers want an Europe without the Mouvement du Nid

The lobby of the abolitionist Mouvement du Nid continues with the launch of a new campaign against our work for the European elections in June.

We therefore wish to remind that the Mouvement du Nid which pretends being the expert on prostitution has no legitimacy. The real experts on prostitution are us, the sex workers.

The Mouvement du Nid like other movements that want our abolition is disconnected from our reality and distort our speech to better maintain their power.
The abolitionist business based on millions of euros of public funding must immediately end.

The Mouvement du Nid, for its part, manages at least 960 000 euros of annual budget to preach their Christian values. http://www.fondationscelles.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=111

- We do not want their status of “socially inadapted person” which excludes us from the rest of society and makes us dependent on their charity.

- We do not want their “reinsertion” which means being exploited for less than the minimum wage like with the “Dagobert workshops” proposed by the Amicale du Nid.

- We do not want their crapy analysis saying that trafficking in human beings is caused by customers demand to justify increasingly repressive laws and without ever questioning the real reasons that are related to the migration control of foreign sex workers.

We demand that candidates for European elections get inspired on the contrary from the claims of sex workers.

Here is the result of the work carried out by sex workers activists in Europe with the Manifesto and the Declaration of Rights written during the European Conference of sex workers in Brussels in 2005.

Manifesto
http://www.sexworkeurope.org/site/images/PDFs/manbrussels2005.pdf

Declaration

http://www.sexworkeurope.org/site/images/PDFs/dec_brussels2005.pdf

To contact our spokesperson
Isabelle Schweiger: 0033 6 71 59 27 36
English speaking International relations
Thierry Schaffauser 0044 7 526 998 654

Today we are pleased to announce the birth of STRASS (Syndicat du TRAvail du Sexe = Union of Sex Work) following the European Conference on prostitution that took place last Friday 20 March at the Théâtre de l’Odéon and after the Pute Pride which have brought together over 300 people.

The statutes are currently being tabled in the Paris Prefecture formalizing thus the existence of our union. The administration of the first union was elected Friday at the Conference on prostitution for a provisional three months to organize the recruitment of members and the first elections of our representatives.

We are proud to announce already since Friday the accession of at least 200 members and the existence of 5 federations nationally and still expect other forms of membership in particular from the country.

One of our first actions will be to influence the next European elections candidates by reminding our demands. A letter will be sent soon asking them to focus on the manifesto and declaration of rights for sex workers in Europe, written at the European Conference of sex workers in 2005 in Brussels.

A new website has been created where you can find various informations relating to STRASS www.strass-syndicat.org
For further information, please contact by phone:

Isabelle Schweiger, spokeswoman 0033+6 71 59 27 36

Mistress Nikita, Treasurer 0033+6 24 94 11 71

300 people marched in the Pute Pride

Today we are pleased to announce the birth of STRASS (Union of Sex Work) following the European Meeting Assises de la prostitution that took place last Friday 20th of March at the Théâtre de l’Odéon and after the Pute Pride which gathered together over 300 people.

The statutes are currently being tabled in the Paris Prefecture formalizing the existence of our union. The Bureau of the first union was elected Friday at the Assises de la prostitution for a provisional three months mandate to organize the recruitment of members and the first elections of our representatives.

We are proud to announce already since Friday the accession of at least 200 members and the existence of 5 federations nationally and still expect other membership forms in particular from the country.

One of our first actions will be to influence the next European elections candidates by reminding our demands. A letter will be sent soon asking them to focus on the manifest and declaration of rights for sex workers in Europe, written at the European Conference of sex workers in 2005 in Brussels.

A new website has been created where you can find various information relating to STRASS  www.strass-syndicat.org

For further information, please contact by phone:

Cadyne, Secretary General 06 18 44 68 99

Isabelle Schweiger, spokeswoman 06 71 59 27 36

Mistress Nikita, Treasurer 06 24 94 11 71

Or by mail: contact@strass-syndicat.org

Paper read at the Assises de la Prostitution, 20 March 2009, at the Odéon - Théâtre de l’Europe

We are prostitutes, escorts, porn actors or actresses, strip-teaseurSEs, dominas, erotic phone call workers, working in apartment, on the street, in a camper, or by Internet ads. Women, men, trans, French and migrants,

Together, we say to the rest of society:
We are not a world apart;

We are part of this society.

We are your mothers, your fathers, your sisters, your brothers, your children, your neighbors, your parents, your family, your colleagues, you meet us every day on the subway or the street. You know us without knowing us because the social stigma surrounding prostitution maintains us in shame.

Today we leave this shame.
We are neither victims nor offenders.
We are citizens. We are electors. We are workers. We are strong.

Today we are here to prove to the world that we are able to have a political discourse about ourselves, to be political actors and actresses.

We must be heard.

That is why we are proud to announce today the creation of the first union of sex work, the STRASS.

A union is the power to reclaim the discourse on ourselves.

We are the real experts on prostitution and sex work, we the sex workers.

A union is the way to put pressure on institutions and politics, to change the laws, stop the repression, gain recognition for our work and therefore our rights and end discrimination.

A union is the strength to fight against our exploitation and increasingly difficult working conditions. It is to put an end of proxenetism by the self-organization of our community.

A union is to be united, is to learn from each other, share and communicate, guide the young and those who start, to provide help and support.

It is to give what we do the best: love.