Organising with STRASS

Some History

1973 Coyote in California1975 Franceoccupation of churches1982 LondonHoly church occupation

Mapping the sex industry - Porn industry- Webcam, online chat or by phone- Striptease & pole and lap dancing clubs- Outdoor sex work (stations, forests, streets, parkings)- Indoor sex work (brothels, flats, saunas, hostess bars, karaoke bars, massage parlours, peep shows)- Escorting (in calls & out calls)

What obstacles to unionisation? - Criminalisation- Stigmatisation- No tradition of trade unionism- No shared workplace- Many languages spoken- Differences of identities and ways to work

How do we organise?

- Legal advice & paralegal activities- Information sharing in different languages- Distribution of condoms and prevention material- Safe spaces (weekly meetings, online forums, collective meals & parties)- Annual conference- Campaigning & activism- Trainings on advocacy & trade union organising

What do we do differently?

- Fighting police abuse & violence- Support for undocumented migrants- Actions against forced labour & human trafficking- Fight against exploitation with no Labour laws & conflation between trafficking and sex work- Feminism and LGBT rights- HIV & Health- Individual support & intimate issues (care work)

Understanding of exploitation

- within the workplace (fees, fines, workplace rules, health & safety conditions)- outside the workplacelandlords, advertising, police corruption or legal state practices of fining, migration

Informal work- Often freelance work- De-contractualised labour- Criminalised workplace- Undocumented workers

The traditional weapon of strike is often not relevant

Observations Connection between different types of sex work and need for solidarityLink the criminalisation of some forms of informal labour (street art, unlicensed street sales, sex work, begging, drug dealing) with the broader exploitation of labour within the industrial carceral complexSocial reproduction of labour & the specific oppression of female migrant workersEffects of globalisation and liberalism

STRASS successes - decreased police abuse in some places- more solidarity and less racism within sex workers’

communities- sex workers are better informed about their rights- regularisation of some undocumented migrants- won cases in court- from 200 to 500 members

What you can do to help !- pass motions for decriminalisation and sex workers’

labour rights- invite sex workers to public talks- organise informal workers by opening branches in your

trade union- fund and support events to organise informal workers- fight austerity and for the rights of women, migrants and

minorities- GLI manifesto needs to include the demand for the

decriminalisation of informal labour, including sex work

Thank youThierry Schaffausersexworkeractivist@gmail.com