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Angry Whores Anarcho Brigade Action Against SWERF / TERF NGO Offices

from anarchistsworldwide

Angry Whores Anarcho Brigade Mark International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers with Redecoration of Melbourne SWERF /TERF HQ.
To mark International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, on 17 December, 2019, anarchist sex workers in so-called Melbourne, Australia visited the inner-city offices of a bourgeois SWERF/ TERF organisation to redecorate their offices and express our perspective on their whore-saviourism. Project Respect, a state and federally funded organisation which claims to represent the interests of sex workers has a long history of proving they are anything but an ally to sex workers. The patronising and prudish attitudes of Project (dis) Respect towards sex workers is exemplified in one of their previous campaigns encouraging (ostensibly small-l liberal inner city Greens voting feminist) women to donate their unwanted make up to sex workers in need- never mind the 100s of 1000s of dollars Project (dis)Respect receives in project funding.

Project (dis)Respect are a clique of radical feminist academics, whose anti trafficking campaigns are deemed by migrant workers as “white saviourism”, “fetishisation”, and “creepily vicarious” (particularly in discussion of violence against migrant workers of prominently Asian background). Their programs, supported by fundamentalist Xtian allies, to assist sex workers to exit the sex industry are nothing but a farce. Like many NGO’s they exist to raise massive sums of money while ignoring the voices (and in effect harming) the people they claim to represent. We express our disgust at these scam artists, purveyors of stigma and prudish frauds.
We undertook this action as we recognise that stigma towards sex workers is in itself a form of violence. Stigma and whorephobia perpetrated by rad fems such as Project (dis)Respect is why we are subject to shitty policies surrounding the ways we can legitly work without further criminalisation; why we are relegated to being viewed as either hapless victims in need of saving, brainless sluts who operate exclusively as wet holes, or conniving gold diggers; and why systemic violence against us is both under reported by our community and normalised within mainstream society. These narratives leave no space for the our voices and the nuances of our vastly disparate experiences as sex workers of all genders.

Since discovering our redecoration of their offices, (which were painted with ‘pedlers of prudishness’, ‘fuck with our work and we’ll fuck with you- angry whores Anarcho brigade’, and an all gender inclusive anarchist liberation symbol), project dis respect have appealed to public sentiment with an outraged social media post claiming “violence” against them, and that we are ‘perpetrating violence against sex workers of our own community’. (Laughably we have also been accused of being part of a pimp lobby by project disrespect supporters.) Never mind the lateral violence we are continually subject to as a result of project disrespect’s ‘advocacy’ which only involves the experiences and voices of sex workers who view themselves as “prostituted women”.
It is for these reasons, and many more, that anarchist sex workers, through marking International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers with a visit to Project (dis)Respect, also encourage the sex worker community to take our rage to the streets! Out of the air conditioned brothels/ workspaces (apartments/hotel rooms/ cars etc) and onto the streets whore comrades! Not just today, but everyday – Lets make this sweltering summer uncomfortable for rad fems, fundamentalist xtians, prudish politicians, ugly mugs, and all those who actively profit from the stale narratives surrounding the sex industry!
– Angry Whores Anarcho Brigade.
PS: we dedicate this action to the sex worker community in the so-called Northern Territory, whose relentless campaign over many years has resulted in recent policy change, ending the criminalisation of sex work, including draconian laws requiring sex workers to “register” with police in order to operate.