Just a little update (but an important one!
Location y time:
The Red Umbrella Solidarity Event takes place June 3, 2pm at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt.
For more information on other events, visit: www.scarletalliance.org.au
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Red Umbrella Solidarity Event 2007
June 3rd 2007 is the first time sex workers and supporters have gathered with Red Umbrellas in Australia in Sydney to show solidarity; hopefully the first time of many. Your show of support & respect for the sex worker rights movement is an important message – sex workers have a place in our world & we won't let sex worker rights be curtailed. Not too long ago sex work in New South Wales was criminalised. Police collected paper bag pay offs on a weekly basis & sex workers had no access to justice or human rights. In 1996 the New South Wales Parliament finally decriminalised sex work, leading the world in a new wave of legitimacy for sex work.
International Whores Day 1975
June 2nd is International Whores Day, in commemoration of those sex workers and their supporters who staged a sit-in at a Church in Lyon, France in 1975. The action was in protest against increasing numbers of arrests of street sex workers, police harassment of them and the lack of interest shown by police in solving crimes committed against them. The sex workers and supporters challenged the police to come and arrest anybody who they could identify as a sex worker, making the point that most sex workers are ordinary people doing a job and cannot be told apart from others. Inspired by this action sex workers all over the world started organizing, giving rise to the modern sex workers rights movement.
Why today? Why now?
In 2007 sex workers still need to fight for human & civil rights, & still need the support of the whole community to combat the discrimination and unfair stigma sex workers face. Sex workers are not covered by NSW Anti-discrimination laws. Decriminalisation still needs extensive commitment by Government to ensure its gains are not lost. Local Councils must take a stronger and more progressive stance to ensure individual sex workers & sex work workplaces are fairly & equally regulated. General misunderstanding about sex work still exists. Many individual sex workers & sex worker workplaces operate in relative fear of discrimination & closure, due to illogical approaches by Local Councils. This perpetuates community uncertainty about cohabitating with sex industry premises in their neighbourhood. Sex workers message is: "The sex industry can & does exist peacefully and fairly alongside all other industries and home based businesses." Now & in the future sex worker communities need your support to help spread this message.
Why Red Umbrellas?
The red umbrella was used by sex workers of Venice Italy in 2002 as a symbol of beauty, and to communicate sex workers' resistance to humans' and the sky's attacks on sex workers. On the occasion of the Biennale of Art in 2002 they walked the streets together out and proud. Continuing this tradition and in honour of all sex workers who dare to resist oppression everywhere, the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers In Europe (ICRSE) adopted the red umbrella as a symbol of sex worker resistance to discrimination. Sex workers in the US have also carried red umbrellas in pride and protest. On June 3 rd we ask you to carry a red umbrella with sex workers in Sydney, to show New South Wales and the world that sex workers are here to stay, and our rights, including our right to work with dignity in the sex industry, will never be compromised.
Just a little update (but an important one!
Location y time:
The Red Umbrella Solidarity Event takes place June 3, 2pm at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt.
For more information on other events, visit: www.scarletalliance.org.au
