In celebration of International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, I am announcing the release of new zine, titled “State Violence, Sex Trade, and the Failure of Anti-Trafficking Policies.” This zine is yet another compilation of short essays and articles I’ve been writing about sex work, sex trade, and the anti-trafficking movement.
In spring of 2011, I wrote “War on Terror and War on Trafficking: A Sex Worker Activist Confronts the Anti-Trafficking Movement,” which focused on debunking main claims of mainstream anti-trafficking organizations. In “Understanding Complexities of Sex Trade/Work and Trafficking” published in late 2011/early 2012, I discussed what sex trade actually looks like for people who come from complicated backgrounds, demonstrating how mainstream anti-trafficking rhetoric and politics harm the very people they are intended to “rescue.”
Essays in this new compilation extend the analysis of the previous two booklets on this important topic, with a special emphasis on the context of pervasive surveillance and criminalization of communities of color, immigrants, street youth, as well as people in the sex trade. Throughout the booklet, I am calling for a new multiracial coalition against state violence and criminalization, instead of narrowly focusing on sex workers’ rights or on sex trafficking.
I hope that this booklet stimulates conversations among feminists, sex workers, progressive activists, and all others who need to be part of this emerging coalition.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Trade Secrets: The Tough Talk of the New Anti-Trafficking Movement
- FBI’s Campaign to “Rescue” Youth Continues to Cause Mass Arrests of Adult Women in the Sex Trade
- Stop Labeling Sex Worker Activists “Pimps”: Criminal Charges Do Not Tell the Whole Story
- Trans Women of Color in the Sex Trade Misclassified as “Clients” in Chicago’s “End Demand” Initiative
- The Opportunity Cost of the NYC’s Anti-“Sex Trafficking” Taxicab Rule
- Gangs and Sex Trafficking: Latest Target in the “War on Trafficking”
- Economics of “End Demand”: Reducing Demand Can *Increase* Supply in Prostitution Market
- Anti-Criminalization: Criminalization happens on the ground, not in the legislature
- System Failure Alert! Information
The new zine is available for download (PDF) and purchase (hard copy) at http://eminism.org/store/
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