:: report from the workshop at Gender, Race, Class Conference ::

The aim of the workshop was to build on previous debates about the sex industry that have taken place in a variety of left feminist spaces over the last three years (including at Feminist Fightback conferences and the Feminist Activist Forum sponsored event last International Women’s Day). We wanted to look more in-depth at the ‘trafficking’ discourse that has provided the background and ideological justification for the Policing and Crime Bill – to ask what evidence it was based upon and how it interconnected with issues of gender and migration.

We began with a brainstorm, asking the whole workshop what they had heard about trafficking from the media, government and women’s groups. Then we gave out materials from anti-trafficking campaigns and asked for people’s comments on them, leaving people to discuss these further in smaller groups.

Speakers from the English Collective of Prostitutes, the International Union of Sex Workers and x:talk contributed for 5 minutes each before we opened discussion up again to the whole workshop. These speakers gave different perspectives but all agreed the the Policing and Crime Bill would make it less, not more, safe for workers in the sex industry and that the debate about trafficking was actually about immigration – a smoke screen for tightening up our borders and deporting migrant workers.

We expected people in the workshop to have a variety of views on this however and aimed to make this a safe space for people to disagree with each other. The rest of the discussion time was taken up with one contribution from a sister who told us about the painful experiences of her friend who had sold sex on the streets. Unfortunately, the workshop had to finish after that but about 10 people continued the discussion in break out space afterwards. This was a fairly heated exchange, with some people feeling that the speakers had only represented one view, while others felt that space for discussion had been closed down through the use of emotive personal stories. Nevertheless, we all made an effort at this stage to be respectful and hear each other out. The fact that those who both supported and opposed the decriminalisation of sex work were able to be in a room together and to talk is massive progress on the situation till now, where abolitionists have refused to attend conferences where sex worker organisations were speaking. We all expressed our desire to continue discussing with each other.