Following our recent national conference call, we came away with the conclusion, based on participant request, for further political education that elaborates upon the meaning and nature of socialism and its politics.
The following opinions do not reflect those of the entirety of the Green Power Project or its individual members. Instead, they reflect those of the author solely and are offered as a counterweight to prominent opinions in the media and progressive-left political circles.
Over the past 18 months, sex work and those who labor in that industry have been subject of intense and oftentimes derogatory discussion and debate within the Green Party. The Green Party’s 2016 platform document, promoting the so-called “Scandinavian model,” is just one example of such mistakes. As someone who has reported on sex worker issues over the past several years, I wanted to elaborate upon these matters and offer insights provided by actual laborers. Only when we hear the stories and opinions of actual sex workers and their advocates can we come to an informed opinion that is devoid of hyperbole and sensationalism.
Bella Robinson is a sex worker activist based outside Providence. As a leader of COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), she educates the public about the inter-connected harassment of sex workers by both the state apparatuses, such as police, as well as the non-profit industrial complex, which is referred to colloquially as the “rescue industry”.
The following is a speech she gave at Southern Connecticut State University in 2015. It provides a thorough analysis of this matter and explains why sex work decriminalization as opposed to legal regulation is a safer, more effective method of preventing abuse, sexual violence, and coercion towards women and girls who would otherwise not engage in this line of employment. As opposed to the “Scandinavian model,” many sex work advocates promote the Merseyside model of legal protection for sex workers, first developed and deployed in the UK. Under this model, sex workers are designated as a minority population and criminal actions against them are deemed hate crimes, equivalent in status and prosecution to attacks upon someone for gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin.