Areas of work
English Collective of Prostitutes & US PROStitutes Collective

Response to the UK Government's Review of the Prostitution Laws
International Prostitutes Collective Press Release:
David Blunkett is no Josephine Butler! His policies have made sex workers more vulnerable to violence and exploitation. Women working in various areas of the sex industry and spokeswomen from the IPC are available for interview on the new government proposals.

Letter in the Evening Standard, 20 July 2004: Women who have no choice
DAVID Blunkett is using the Home Office consultation paper on prostitution, Paying the Price, to promote his own punitive agenda of compulsory health checks and registration with the police (Bold move to legalise brothels, 16 July)...

Plans threaten vulnerable sex workers

19 January 2006

Stopping serial murderers and rapists
In 1995 the first ever private prosecution for rape in England and Wales was brought by two working women with our support, after the Crown Prosecution Service refused to prosecute. The rapist was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison, reduced to 11 on appeal. This legal precedent has established that working girls, like all other women, have the right to justice and protection against rape.

Press release about the murders of women in Ipswich, December 2006

Radio interviews about the murders of women in Ipswich, December 2006

These Attacks Could Have Been Stopped
re the inquiry into 'Camden Ripper' Anthony Hardy Camden New Journal 6 October 2005  

Exclusion zone issued on Birmingham rapist

Stop Midland Murders - Stop Police Sweeps

"Private case brings rapist to justice"
The Guardian 1995

The Guilty Victim: Rape and the CPS
Socialist Lawyer Autumn 1995  

1981: Statement  PROSTITUTES ARE INNOCENT OK!
At the time of the trial of the Yorkshire Ripper, serial murderer Peter Sutcliffe, 
who murdered 13 women.

In San Francisco, US PROS and others monitored the courts after they released a serial rapist on bail and he attempted to murder a fourth woman. Attending 30 pre-trial hearings over two years and weeks of trial, women's pressure succeeded in getting him convicted.
Jack Bokin case: No woman is safe when prostitutes aren't safe

Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders:  article in Los Angeles Times 1989 
Police Raked for Handling of Prostitute Murder Cases

Opposing trafficking laws being used to deport women
In February 2001, we organized an emergency picket to protest against police and immigration raids against 60 immigrant women in Soho, London. The protest got widespread sympathetic media coverage and as a result the raids were publicly condemned and their legality challenged by women’s groups, prominent lawyers, MPs and church people. Many deportations were stopped by the public outcry and by Legal Action for Women organizing good legal representation for detained women. Women, denied they were victims of trafficking and said they are working independently and earning money to support themselves and their families.
Trafficking Victim Criminalised and Imprisoned, Social Justice Network, Summer 2005

Soho sex workers say claims they are being pimped by organised gangs are part of an underhand plot to discredit them and clean up the notorious red light district. By Jon Silverman

(pdf) "Anti-trafficking legislation : Protection or deportation?" Feminist Review 73, 2003
Spanish translation of "Protection or deportation?" in Feminist Review 73, 2003, LEGISLACIÓN CONTRA EL TRÁFICO DE MUJERES: ¿PROTECCIÓN O DEPORTACIÓN?

 
Quote from an article on trafficking women into prostitution,

The Independent, 17 August 2002

Letter to the Observer,

10 Feb 2002

Refugee Women’s News July/August 2001

"Protecting Prostitutes",

The Economist 14-21 July 2001

Press release for emergency protest,

16  February 2001

Law Violates Sex Workers,

 The Guardian 22 February 2001

Picket: Home Office, police and academics discuss tightening immigration controls
under the guise of protecting women from trafficking

6 July 2000

Operation Pentameter: Deportation is the real story
Letter to The Voice 30 May 2006

Response to Home Office consultation on trafficking 
April 2006

International Conference, London, 2004

Working with women all over the world
We are in touch with sex workers and/or women who work with sex workers in many countries: Hong Kong, Japan, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda . . .  Although each situation is different, we all face poverty, lack of economic alternatives, criminalization and abuse of power by the authorities. In Trinidad we work with the National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE) which has defended sex workers' rights against arrest and deportation.
NUDE, Trinidad and Tobago press release in support of sex workers

Prostitutes face sexual harassment, Trinidad &Tobago Mirror, June 2001

'They are workers, too' Trinidad &Tobago Mirror, June 2001

In India, sex workers demand improved rights and for changes in the law.

 Challenging racism against women of colour and immigrant women, both within the criminal justice system and the sex industry. Women of colour are more likely to be targeted for arrest and to be given longer prison sentences.
The work Black prostitute women face of dealing with racism,  including from clients
Extract from US PROS Sex Work
Statement to Human Rights Commission

Winning compensation for rape victims who have been turned down or have had their compensation reduced because they work as prostitutes. In England we work with Women Against Rape and Black Women's Rape Action Project.
Rape victim refused compensation because of prostitution, wins her appeal
Anti-rape website: www.womenagainstrape.net

Challenging the criminalization of children
Demystifying Child Prostitution: A Street View, in Child Prostitution in Britain: Dilemmas and Practical Responses

Defending sex workers against attacks by vigilantes and exposing how the police, local councils and politicians back these violent criminals in order to force working girls out of the area. In Balsall Heath, Birmingham, England, some sex workers, with our support, have defeated the local authority's attempts to evict them from their homes.
Street dread, Guardian, February 1998:
Prostitute women and residents oppose ordinance to seize cars of people suspected of soliciting

In San Francisco we spearheaded opposition to mandatory testing of sex workers.
Press coverage in Gay Community News

In England we succeeded in getting the police to agree in principle to stop using possession of condoms as evidence to arrest sex workers for loitering or soliciting. Unfortunately what the police do on the ground has remained an issue.
Letter to Home Secretary, November 1991 re: prostitute women and condoms
Press coverage
Police response

Defending sex workers right to work from premises We have prevented the eviction of sex workers and the maids who answer their phone or door, from their homes in Soho, London's most famous red-light district, by the local authority. We also took legal action on behalf of women whose phones had been cut off by British Telecom (BT), the phone company, because they advertised in public phone boxes. BT was forced to reconnect. Press Release: Prostitute Women's Phones Reconnected  22 September 1992 Prostitutes force BT to reconnect numbers advertised on cards The Guardian 22 February 1997

Soho's most famous trade fights to keep a way of life that has thrived for 300 years  Westminster council threatens to compulsorily purchase flats used by prostitutes in redevelopment of London's most colourful area, The Guardian Soho sex workers say claims they are being pimped by organised gangs are part of an underhand plot to discredit them and clean up the notorious red light district. By Jon Silverman PRESS RELEASE 10 February 2003 On eve of public enquiry: Sex workers & other Soho residents demand protection not eviction The day a rector spoke in defence of Soho's brothels, The Times, February 12, 2003 London prostitutes stage Women's Day Strike, Newsday (Trinidad), March 2000 Press release against eviction of Soho women We’ll fight evictions, say Soho’s sex-strike prostitutes, Evening Standard, 13 March 2000 Legal Action for Women letter to council Press Release: Prostitute Women's Phones Reconnected -- BT was breaking the law I'm a stripper in San Francisco

Opposing further criminalization
We have opposed the criminalisation of clients. Consenting sex should not be the business of the criminal law. Arresting clients is no help to women. In fact, it has meant more violence and more arrests for sex workers.
Opposition to 'Call for ban on Kings Cross kerb crawlers', Ham & High, July 2002
Campaign against Kerb-Crawling Legislation
The John School: A diversion from what's needed

Helping women fight extortionate tax demands
Women have successfully challenged tax demands based on biased assumptions about what sex workers earn rather than the facts on the situation of each individual woman. We also oppose taxation on the grounds that women who are criminalized for the work they do should not have to pay tax -- no taxation without civil rights.
Photo of protest

Challenging discrimination by sex worker projects and other service providers
Open letter to the Women’s Movement 

Law Violates Sex Workers, Guardian
Protest against a women's refuge refusing services to prostitute women
Press comment on "ugly mugs" list

Lobbying at United Nations conferences and NGO forums for an end to the discrimination of prostitute women everywhere. Our workshops at the Beijing forum in 1995 were attended by sex workers from many countries, South and North. They made clear how much we have in common -- all supported decriminalization and viable economic alternatives to prostitution.
Report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women January 2007
Press coverage
Workshop leaflet

Working with Legal Action for Women to build a network of sympathetic lawyers who are ready to fight for sex workers and defend us in court.
Legal Action for Women

Shaping public opinion  
Our campaigning has had a great impact. Most people now support prostitute women's right to protection from violence and discrimination, regardless of what they think about prostitution. A prestigious ad agency ran an advertising campaign for us which got great media coverage.

Resolution from the City of San Francisco prioritizing protection over prosecution of sex workers  Q & A in the Evening Standard with Cari Mitchell from the IPC regarding overhaul of prostitution laws August 2004 Part of our work for the Strike 2003 was to write, with others, an Open letter to the Women’s Movement - some of those who claim to speak against violence against women picketed a sex industry establishment on International Women's Day, when most women, children and men are desperately trying to prevent the war against Iraq.  Machismo begins with the military, not with lap dancing.  Sex workers oppose Reclaim the Night March, November 2004 Self-preservation society, Camden Chronicle, June 2002 Vindication of the Rights of Monica Coghlan, letter to the editor of the Guardian July 2001 A woman in our network responds to her Guardian interview Jan 07 A Woman in our network writes Dec 06   Letter to the European Conference on Sex Word, Human Rights, Labour and Migration 10 October 2005 en français  italiano  espagnol Press Release on the conference   Why we withdrew from the Capita Corporation's Conference “Tackling Prostitution” 29 May 2006 Barbary Coast event and photos

US Pros media interview in San Francisco Speaking at the  Scottish Drugs Forum,  Sex in the City Sept 05

A majority of people now agree that sex workers should not be criminalized, and a number of prominent organizations are supporting our call for decriminalization.
Royal College of Nursing
Extract of Demystifying Child Prostitution: A Street View
Liberal Democrats

The media often comes to us for comments and information about current affairs as well as popular TV series like "Band of Gold".  Right: Kay Mellor and Geraldine James are flanked by Nina Lopez-Jones and Niki Adams, of the English Collective of Prostitutes  (Ham & High July 19 1996)

Publications include:
Criminalisation: the price women and children pay
The English Collective of Prostitute's response to the government's review of the prostitution laws, presented at the Conference No Bad Women, No Bad Children, Just Bad Laws London 4 December 2004
Some Mother's Daughter -- the hidden movement of prostitute women against violence
Prostitute Women and AIDS: Resisting the Virus of Repression
San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution Final Report
Prostitutes Our Life
Taking Sanctuary: the birth of a movement
Demystifying Child Prostitution: A Street View (in Child Prostitution in Britain: Dilemmas and Practical Responses)
The Hooker and the Beak
Network News
International Prostitutes Collective Information Pack

Sex Workers

All Women Count