[LAF] Blog post on de-criminalisation of prostitution in San Francisco

[Ed McArthur]

Ok : Granted   Proposition K, should be supported as it would reduce the 
power of the police  and putting prostitutes in Jail is not the answer and they should certainly be protected from murder and rape
  but  
 
Are you saying prostitution is somehow a solution to poverty ? because its not(I don't think you are but you could give that impression -  you know  "Prostitution provides poor women with a better income than working for min wage in a supermarket")  is an argument I hear from right and some left wing libertarians)
 
Most  supporters of the proposition are so called right wing "libertarians"  ( the are not libertarian because they believe in socially coercive relations  but think they should be private) who see women and indeed people 
as commodities to be bought and sold . 
 
The same people used the same arguments to oppose
 the ending of slavery (Some of them even 
claimed that
slavery was good for the slaves)  when slavery was abolished former slaveholders were paid compensation
for loss of their "Property Rights"  The rights of "sex workers" and pimps are no more valid than those of the erstwhile slaveholders
 
Most prostitution is based in poor areas, its the poor people who have to suffer from the pimps, the men who harass women  who  are not  prostitutes and yes the dirty needles and discarded condoms which are a health hazard for poor people who don't have access to health care or indeed health education
 
Why should people who LIVE in the district not have a say  this is grass roots feeling not the state imposing from above  its not a question of being anti sex but being
anti chimerical sex
 
Why do so many people on the libertarian - left have such a different attitude to the SEX industry than to other forms of commerce ?
 
Ed
 


 
Ed MacArthur   07981  900  563
 
www.eventsandissues.bravehost.com
   
 
 


--- On Thu, 10/30/08, Echo of Freedom <EchoOfFreedom at riseup.net> wrote:

From: Echo of Freedom <EchoOfFreedom at riseup.net>
Subject: Re: [LEAF] Blog post on DE-criminalization of prostitution in San Francisco
To: "List - London Anarchist Forum" <laf at lists.aktivix.org>
Date: Thursday, October 30, 2008, 8:29 AM

Echo of Freedom wrote:
>
http://www.melissagira.com/2008/10/29/keeping-san-francisco-safe-from-prostitutes/
> 
> Who really is opposing Proposition K, a ballot initiative now before San 
> Francisco voters, which would forbid the City from spending public funds
on 
> arresting and jailing sex workers? Even among sex workers, this ballot 
> initiative is not without controversy. We do recognize one common ground:
that 
> so long as sex workers are criminals, sex workers will never have full
civil and 
> human rights. Who would oppose the right of sex workers to organize their
own 
> labor, to have access to health care, to hold law enforcement to the same 
> standards as other citizens do? Who would say that it’s not important to
prevent 
> rape, assault, and even murder of sex workers, if it would risk reducing
their 
> property values?
> 
> The biggest opposition to Prop K USN’t anti-prostitution feminist
groups. It’s 
> “neighborhood associations.” Unlike even the most socially
conservative 
> feminists, they never say, I don’t want sex workers to be raped. They
say, I 
> don’t want to see sex workers. Don’t want to see them on their front
steps. 
> Don’t want to see their clients or “pimps.” Don’t want to see
condoms, or 
> syringes. In short: don’t want to see poverty, don’t want to see poor
people.
> 
> ...
> (for more see the link)
> 

And make sure to read and re-read this part:

"San Francisco’s Director of STD Control & Prevention supports Prop
K for this 
reason: if cops are using condoms against sex workers as evidence of intention 
to commit a crime, how does that keep anyone in San Francisco safe?"

-- 
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  "None of us are free until all of us are free."    ~ Mihail Bakunin

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