Two weeks ago French abolitionists struck a major blow against the prostitution system by rallying more than 50 Left-wing personalities to a collective Op-Ed challenging he prostitution lobby and specifically the male-led *STRASS* organization that purports to represent sex workers with the State and in French media.
This Op-Ed was published in L’HUMANITÉ, the major Left-wing French publication, in response to a cliché-ridden earlier article about prostitution.
TRADFEM has been authorized by the Op-Ed’s authors to translate and publish it in English.
In recent years, French left-wing media have opened their columns to a shady corporatist association calling itself the Syndicat des Travailleuses du Sexe, or STRASS. This Union of « sex workers », driven by a profoundly liberal project, aims to subject all human activities to the logic principles of the capitalist market. Its project is opposed to all women who struggle against violence done to them, at the forefront of which is sexual violence. The positions of STRASS are in radical opposition to organisations defending the rights of salaried employees. The most combative trade unions and the majority of the Left have adopted very clear positions with regard to prostitution. « In prostitution, the person is involved as a whole; there is no longer any separation between him or her and the position he or she occupies. For us, physical or intellectual labour power is to be distinguished from intimacy. Sex must remain off-limits, in the realm of inalienability. Not everything can be sold. » This is basically, for example, the position adopted by one of France’s main syndicates, the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), regarding prostitution. This position is also historically the one taken by the French left, which overwhelmingly supported the campaign of Josephine Butler, pioneer of the abolitionist struggle at the end of the 19th century. The Communist Party, like other left-wing parties, has also repeatedly affirmed its abolitionist position and has come out in favour of sanctioning sex buyers. As for Karl Marx, he wrote that prostitution is an activity that does not open up a contradiction that can support emancipation, as is the case for the manual worker, but merely one that destroys the individual. At a time when the number of people living below the poverty line is constantly increasing in our country, we see the mass media relentlessly promote prostitution. They speak of the « sex worker » and claim that prostitution is « work like any other », periodically deferring to STRASS discourse. However, this « union » is in reality a mere company (association loi 1901). It is a signatory to the charter of the Global Network of Sex Work Project (NSWP), a worldwide lobby promoting the prostitution system. The charter of the NSWP plans to include prostituted women, « intermediaries » and « managers » (in other words, pimps) under the category of « sex workers ». STRASS is as a mere corporation. Indeed, a true union must remain completely independent of the employer. This is clearly not the case for STRASS, since its main demands are « the decriminalization of pimping and a refusal to see clients penalized”. In other words, it goals are “guaranteeing and preserving the full and complete freedom to exploit (women)!”, point out Sophie Binet and Sabine Reynosa of the CGT. Both STRASS and Médecins du Monde France (unlike Médecins du Monde Spain, which is struggling to have prostitution abolished) have referred the matter to France’s Constitutional Council in January 2019, demanding that the offence of « buying sex from children, disabled people, pregnant women and vulnerable people » be suppressed, arguing that these categories of people could also « consent » to sex. Their legal argument is that « penalizing the client » would seriously infringe « individual freedom, contractual freedom and entrepreneurial freedom »! A classic discourse of liberal ideology that ignores the violation of the dignity of prostituted persons and disregards the violence which they suffer on a daily basis. It should be remembered that 80% of the people who « consent » to unwanted sexual penetration are foreigners and 90% are women. The average age of entry of minors into prostitution is 14 and the average life expectancy is 34 years! Prostitution is a deeply misogynistic, racist and LGBT-phobic class supremacy. It is also a largely paedocriminal system (since children and teenagers bring in more profits). Moreover, corporations like STRASS wish to return to an archaic conception of rape, refusing to acknowledge that sexual penetration obtained under the duress of money of the prostituter (« client ») or pressure from a pimp is rape. And yet the vast majority of rapes are committed without violence, through stratagems, moral power relationships and psychological intimidation – the same mechanisms that render possible the subjection of prostitution victims. Thus, under the guise of defending prostituted persons, these corporations act as reactionary Trojan horses, governed by an ultraliberal and antifeminist project aimed at decriminalizing rape under moral constraint, in order to allow the regulation of sexual relations under the aegis of a capitalist market. Their agenda would represent a considerable step backwards for civilisation.
(This Op-Ed rallied over 50 signatories and was published in L’Humanité on July 31, 2020.)
First signatories :
Benoît Martin, secrétaire générale de l’Union départementale de la CGT Paris
Nathalie Arthaud, porte-parole de Lutte ouvrière
Laurence Cohen, sénatrice PCF
Hélène Bidard, responsable de la commission Féminisme du PCf
Charlotte Pommier, Parti de gauche
Amar bellal rédacteur en chef de la revue Progressistes
Stéphanie ROZA, chargée de recherches (CNRS/ENS Lyon).
Michel Etievent historien
René Granmont, directeur-gérant du Travailleur catalan
Jean-Michel Galano, professeur de philosophie syndicaliste et membre de la rédaction du Travailleur Catalan
Lise Bouvet, philosophe et traductrice féministe
Florian Gulli, agrégé de philosophie
Suzy Rojtman Collectif national pour les Droits des femmes
Claire Charlès, Présidente de Les effronté-es
Céline Piques, porte-parole d’Osez le Féminisme !
Nelly Martin – Marche Mondiale des Femmes
Anne Godard, membre de la direction nationale de Femmes Solidaires
Daria Khovanka, survivante de la prostitution et militante abolitionniste
Mourad Aliaza, survivant de la prostitution
Rosen Hicher, survivante de la prostitution
Suite des signataires (version en ligne)
Fatiha Aggoune, Vice-présidente chargée de la jeunesse, de l’égalité Femmes-Hommes, droits Humains du Conseil départementale du 94
Jean-Jacques Angot, Retraité CGT de la Sécurité sociale, ancien agent de direction
Malika Bonnot, militante féministe, abolitionniste.
Brigitte Boucheron, responsable Association Bagdam Espace lesbien, Toulouse
Saliha Boussedra, Docteure en philosophie, membre de la revue Cause Commune.
Laure Caille, Présidente de l’association Libres Mariannes (membre de la Clef)
Hannah Caouissin, auteure dessinatrice
Marie-Ange Chaussoy, élue PCF
Irène Corradin,Collectif Midi-Pyrénées pour les droits des Femmes,Toulouse
Geneviève Couraud-Huon, Présidente d’honneur de l’Assemblée des Femmes et d’ECVF
Françoise Courtiade pour le Collectif Midi-Pyrénées pour les Droits des Femmes
Frédo Coyère, graphiste
Maité Debats Co-responsable association
Monique Dental, réseau féministe « Ruptures »
Blandine Deverlanges, professeuse de sciences économiques et sociales, militante féministe
Jacqueline Devier, militante féministe
Harmony Devillard, secrétaire d’édition de La Bibliothèque des voix aux éditions des femmes-Antoinette Fouque.
Josèphe Devillers, militante lesbienne féministe.
N’deye Nancy Diouf membre du Collectif Midi-Pyrénées pour les Droits des Femmes et également présidente de l’ association les femmes d’AB.
Philippe Dupont, Président du Mouvement national Le CRI
Ismène Fleury, Bibliothécaire et militante féministe
Esther Fouchier, Presidente du Forum Femmes MEDITERRANEE
Claire Fougerol, militante
Yseline Fourtic-Dutarde, membre du bureau de l’Assemblée des femmes, conseillère municipale déléguée aux droits des femmes et à la lutte contre les discriminations de la ville de Cachan
Sylviane Francesconi, responsable associative
Marie-Hélène FRANJOU, Présidente de l’Amicale du Nid
Magalie Galais, Adjointe au Maire de Clermont-Ferrand à l’égalité des droits et aux luttes contre les discriminations, PCF
Coline Garnault, commission féminisme Droits des femmes de la fédération PCF Paris
M.-C. Gonzalez, responsable féminisme PCF33
Blandine Harlé, présidente départementale d’INDECOSA-CGT 18
Babette JACOB, Mouvement Le CRI
Elsa Kaczmarek, responsable de la commission féministe Droits des femmes du PCF 94
Annick Karsenty, Professeure retraitée, Présidente de Femmes Solidaires Marseille
Cécile Lateule, cinéaste
Martine Llanes, militante féministe
Brigitte Lovichi, militante féministe (Italie)
Laurent Maronneau, docteur en philosophie
Véronique Marouzé, secrétaire de section PCF du Pays d’Aix
Elisabeth Maugars, secrétaire de section et Féminisme et Révolution PCF 37
Nadine Mezence Présidente associations
Colette Mo, responsable collectif féministe PCF 06
Céline Peccini, directrice d’école, Aix-en-Provence
Sophie Péchaud, militante féministe, ancienne présidente de l’AVFT
Fiji Phoenix, survivante de la prostitution
Odile Planson, doctorante à l’Université de Strasbourg
Agnès de Préville Formatrice et communicante, Experte égalité femmes hommes, Membre du bureau de l’Assemblée des femmes
Gilles Questiaux, professeur d’histoire et rédacteur du blog Réveil communiste
Lorraine Questiaux, avocate, militante féministe.
Martine Ragon, Militante féministe Marseille
Danielle Raucoules, Femmes solidaires et Nous Toutes, ancienne élue municipale à Pau (PCF)
Luc Renoux, pro féministe, militant abolitionniste.
Nelly Sondecoste-Lespoune, commission Droits des femmes, PCF 64
Pierre Spano, Conseiller municipal PCF, Aix-en-Provence
Francine Sporenda, universitaire et journaliste
Annie Sugier, présidente de la Ligue du Droit International des Femmes
Nathalie Tessier, secrétaire de section 8ème Marseille
Yagmur Uygarkizi, Radical Girlsss
Caroline Vauchère, Secrétaire fédérale du PS31 en charge de l’égalité femmes/hommes
Michèle Vianès, Présidente de Regards de Femmes
Marie-José Vidal, CMPDF
Joana Vrillaud, fondatrice et coordinatrice du CAPP (Collectif Abolition Porno Prostitution)
Shirley Wirden Conseillère nationale PCF – Élue PCF Paris Centre
Original version: https://marchemondialedesfemmesfrance.org/2020/07/31/tribune-collective-sous-le-strass-le-corporatisme-dun-monde-liberal-et-antifeministe/
Translation : TRADFEM
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