No criminalisation of sex workers!

Article in the Perspectives series by the Berlin regional group of the Care Revolution network (This article was published in a shortened version in Analyse & Kritik 617.)(Article as PDF) [caption id="attachment_2132" align="alignnone" width="640"] Photo: Javi. CC-BY-SA.
With the new Prostitution Protection Act, sex workers will be driven more and more into illegality - more invisible and therefore even more vulnerable[/caption]The so-called Prostitutes Protection ActOn International Sex Workers' Day, 2 June 2016, of all days, the first reading of the planned Prostitutes Protection Act (ProstSchG) took place in the Bundestag. As numerous prostitutes and supporters made clear in front of the Bundestag, it was ignorant that the controversial law was read for the first time on the day on which prostitutes around the world draw attention to the fight for their rights. The law was passed on 7 July. Once again, prostitutes and supporters called for protests in front of the Bundestag. The Berlin regional group of the Care Revolution Network supported the protests. Four information events on the Prostitution Protection Act in Berlin and Potsdam were organised by the network group during the legislative process. An evening with political and cultural contributions was also organised to take a joint look at sex work and paid and unpaid care work. This is because the regional group considers sex work to be care work, for example when it comes to enabling people with disabilities to be sexually active through sexual assistance. The question that needs to be asked beyond this is: Where does care work begin and where does it end? For example, are the services you can buy in a brothel also part of care work? However, the group's activists do not agree on this point: some argue in favour of a general revaluation of sexuality, as they see sexuality as part of basic human needs, as an aspect of the 'good life for all'. Others consider it legitimate in any case if sex workers decide to work in brothels, but would not describe the sex work sector beyond sexual assistance as care work per se. The above-mentioned event at the Werkstatt der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin was intended to address these and other questions and contradictions. It was also about questions of how the debates in the care sector could be linked together, how to talk about similarities and differences and how to raise the status of all care work. Counselling centres for sex workers such as move e.V., Hydra e.V., Doña Carmen e.V. and the professional associations BSD e.V. and BesD e.V. etc. sharply criticise the law. Prostitutes are confronted with outdated and patronising victim rhetoric by the SPD and CDU/CSU, which deliberately ignores the different realities of prostitutes' lives. For example, the coalition assumes that prostitutes with a migration background are particularly in need of protection, who come to Germany without education or career prospects and quickly become victims of the so-called sex industry due to their weak position. This side of sex work, namely the forced side, is of course undeniable and it is absolutely clear that it must be combated. Nevertheless, voluntary and forced sex work coexist. There are also many shades of grey and intermediate steps between these two poles. Ignoring and not recognising this simultaneity, but rather suggesting that sex work is basically always 'wrong', is an attitude that also has anti-feminist traits, as it disempowers working, self-employed women; they are told that what they are doing is actually wrong and that sex workersmustthereforebe protected from themselves. Alliance 90/The Greens and The Left reject the draft, however. Until 2002, prostitutes in Germany had hardly any rights - for example, they could not sue for their wages. This improved somewhat when the red-green federal government introduced the Prostitution Act (ProstG). Since then, agreements between prostitutes and their clients are no longer immoral and therefore no longer invalid under civil law. Furthermore, sex workers can and should pay into the health, unemployment and pension funds.... prevents collective organisationThe new law stipulates that prostitution establishments in which more than two people work must obtain a business licence. This regulation will mean that many operators of small residential brothels will have to close as they will not be able to fulfil the requirements (separate sanitary areas etc.) for registering a business. In addition to this licence requirement for commercial premises, building law also applies in the context of brothel operation, which only tolerates brothels as places of entertainment in core, commercial or industrial areas. The consequence will be that there will no longer be any legal residential prostitution. However, residential brothels in particular have so far given sex workers the opportunity to work independently, flexibly, without coercion and in a collective with other prostitutes. According to an estimate by Hydra e.V., 80% of all prostitution centres in Berlin, for example, are residential brothels, most of which will now have to close. Large brothels, on the other hand, will be able to fulfil the requirements.... expands control and repressionIn addition, prostitutes will have to undergo new special controls by the state: from now on, they will have to register individually every two years with their surname and carry confirmation of this with them, a kind of "prostitute ID card". The data used to create the ID card will be stored by the authorities. However, collecting data on people's sexuality is controversial, as the draft leaves open how the data is to be adequately protected by the respective authorities. Furthermore, the question is: who will apply for a "prostitute ID card"? Certainly, undocumented prostitutes living illegally in Germany will not register with the authorities, as they would have to fear arrest. Those affected by human trafficking will not register either, nor will the many prostitutes who work in small brothels, e.g. in residential prostitution, who cannot fulfil the new requirements for a business licence. Some prostitutes in smaller towns will also not register. As they lack the protection of the anonymity of the big city, they are threatened with forced outing. The stigma of whoring continues. Even in 2016, it is still a socially recognised practice to publicly defame people who engage in sex work. The Prostitution Protection Act therefore deliberately accepts the displacement of residential prostitution. From now on, prostitution should explicitly take place in large brothels and thus be better controlled. However, the opposite is to be expected. Prostitution will increasingly take place clandestinely. Those who work clandestinely are more exposed to pressure from customers and pimps and are more susceptible to blackmail. The law will therefore have a repressive rather than empowering effect on those working in prostitution, but the law is also facing opposition from Alice Schwarzer and other self-proclaimed "abolitionists", for whom the draft is still too lax when it comes to special laws for prostitutes. Gunhild Mewis argues similarly in the newspaper Analyse und Kritik in favour of, among other things, a general ban on buying sex and criminal prosecution of customers. These positions, which have received some attention in the debate about the law, are characterised by an unrealistic analysis of the diverse living conditions in prostitution. In a rhetoric of generalised devaluation, prostitutes per se are portrayed either as "survivors" (this and all subsequent terms in inverted commas come from the article by Gundhild Mewes in AK 616 just quoted) of prostitution or as "privileged" people who work voluntarily where others are forced tovegetate like "slaves".The call for repression against the privileged is also regressive, as the privileges mentioned are often rights that have been fought for (the right to self-determined sexuality, the right to control one's own body, the right to work voluntarily as a sex worker, etc.), which should definitely apply to everyone. The debate is even deliberately polarised in order to be able to present themselves as morally 'clean' in contrast to a supposed counterpart, "the left-wing helpers of the sex industry". Mewis and others thus seem to prefer to indulge in shadow battles to enhance their own image rather than carry out an actual and political reality check. However,a "who has the cleanest slate?" type of navel-gazing does not help sex workers.... does not improve the situation of sex workersThere are various reasons for people to engage in sex work - often economic motives, poverty and a lack of prospects are behind it. These reasons also apply to other professions. The moralising assertion that prostitution in itself is always a patriarchal act of violence against women and should therefore be fundamentally rejected cannot therefore serve as a starting point in the political debate. It should be less about affiliations, corresponding privileges and individual guilt and more about unequal rights that lead to these conditions. The focus should therefore be on demands for rights for migrants (work permits, education, etc.) and for prostitutes, such as the abolition of restricted area ordinances, the prostitute ID card and special police rights. In addition, self-help, professionalisation and more needs-based advice centres would have to be installed. In addition, the strong economic pressure that weighs on people on a daily basis cannot be ignored. It is no secret that strengthening the rights of workers and giving them the opportunity to organise, exchange ideas and seek advice means that less coercion can be exerted on individuals. Therefore, in addition to the self-empowerment of prostitutes, the strengthening of the position of prostitutes as employees by, among others, the service trade union ver.di is an important field of political action.... and must therefore be withdrawnThe draft law will come into force in July 2017. From a queer-feminist and left-wing perspective, in the interests of wage labourers and with regard to informational self-determination, the law is a step backwards from the already desolate legal situation of sex workers. State repression and control will not improve the situation. We therefore call on leftists and queer feminists to continue to speak out clearly and offensively against this law. State repression against prostitutes affects us all if, for example, data on the sexuality of a population group can be stored in the future - this must be opposed.We can only lead and win the fight for sexual self-determination and for the rights of sex workers together and in solidarity.[caption id="attachment_2134" align="alignnone" width="640"] Photo: h3xtacy, Licence: Creative Commons
The resistance against the criminalisation of sex workers will continue[/caption].