Today's Topics:
1. awsm nz: "ANTI-FASCISM ... SHOULD BE YOUR DEFAULT STATE" By
Pink Panther & LAMA (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. wsm.ie: Workplace safety, Sex work, Feminism - Dublin
Brothel Pickets - Stigma is Not the Solution by Ferdia O'Brien
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
On August 12th Heather Heyer was killed after being run down by a Nazi during a protest in
Charlottesville in the U.S state of Virginia. ---- When the Mayor of Charlottesville
announced the intention to pull down the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee a
collection of "alt-Right", militia members, white nationalists, Confederate apologists, Ku
Klux Klan members and Nazis descended upon the city in what they called a "Unite the
Right" protest. This protest took place on August 11th and August 12th. During their
protest they marched through the grounds of the University of Virginia chanting "White
Lives Matter" and anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans like "Blood and Soil". ---- This
assortment of misanthropes was greeted by a counter-protest that included various
religious, community and leftist groups from the National Council of Churches, Black Lives
Matter, Anti-Racist Action, Redneck Revolt, Industrial Workers of the World and others.
Among those counter-protesters was Heather, who had travelled with friends from Lovinston,
Virginia, to take part in the action.
Due to the clashes between the racists and the anti-fascists, the "Unite the Right"
protest was declared an unlawful assembly by the Mayor Michael Signer on the evening of
August 11th.
At 11.00am the following morning a state of emergency was declared in Charlottesville. A
hard core group of white nationalists went to a park 3 km away from where their scheduled
protest was due to be held and had a protest rally where the various racist trash gathered
to spew their hatred. During the rally a group of counter-protesters were run over by the
Nazi in a car. Thirty-two year old Heather was killed and nineteen others were injured.
The racism, thuggery and killing of Heather was condemned by Signer. He also condemned the
President of the United States Donald Trump for not only creating the environment that
emboldened this scum but also for allowing them to become so influential in the White House.
On this act of terrorism Trump responded by saying he condemned "In the strongest possible
terms" what he called an "egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.
On many sides." This statement of false moral equivalency was condemned by both
Republicans and Democrats in a rare display of unity.
Trump's failure to condemn the actions of the varied white nationalist garbage, ignored
the reality of events in Charlottesville. It was also noted by the New York Times (August
12th) that Trump was the only person who attributed the violence to all sides. It was
alleged that Trump had been advised not to condemn the white power mob because of the fear
that such condemnation would alienate his alt-right supporters.
In fact, the only people who were positive about Trump's response was the Nazi website The
Daily Stormer and David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, which speaks volumes
about Trump and many of the people who support him.
Trump's response had an immediate backlash with many key people pulling out of his
American Manufacturing Council, consisting of big business CEO's. It's true that big
business at certain times and places finds fascism a useful tool and during World War II
U.S businesses collaborated with the Nazis. However at the moment in modern America there
are factions among the capitalists who realise fascism and explicit racism really aren't
always in their best interests. It isn't a good look in a multi-cultural society requiring
workers from many backgrounds, to keep their system functioning. It was not lost on media
commentators that while Trump was very quick to condemn those bosses who jumped ship, he
took much longer to condemn the Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville.
It says something about the widespread condemnation of Trump's reaction that even staunch
Republicans including George H Bush, George W Bush, Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz either
condemned Trump's moral cowardice or the racist violence in Charlottesville.
Instead of being more forthright in his condemnation of the Nazis and alt-right or
offering any genuine sympathy for Heather and her family Trump went on a rant about the
mainstream media!
While Trump has again shown just how much of a racist he really is GoDaddy and YouTube
kicked The Daily Stormer off their sites for breaching their Terms of Service. Other
social media websites, including Facebook, have now announced they are going to take
action against racist extremists.
While the reactions from some sections of corporate America are more positively
responsive, it must not be forgotten that social media and corporate America played a
major part in empowering the alt-right and the Nazis in the first place. Where were all
these people now condemning the behaviour of the Nazis in Charlottesville back in 2016
when an openly xenophobic Donald Trump was vomiting forth his drivel (from day one of his
campaign!) and whipping up these groups? We really have to be careful in separating out
the reasons different organisations may happen to align on an issue, and this is one example.
While Trump himself isn't a fascist, he opened the Pandora's Box of Nazi hate and
emboldened them to the point they thought they could get away with anything. However, we
are only lying to ourselves if we think that Trump alone is to blame. The USA was founded
on slavery and genocide and has been bitterly divided economically, politically, socially
and racially for decades and Trump exploited these divisions to catapult himself into the
White House.
Now people are starting to wake up to that and, if one good thing has come out of the
Charlottesville "Unite the Right" march, it is that it has unified ordinary working people
against the Nazis and alt-right, to a wider degree than before.
Some have remarked that Heather was obsessed with fighting social and racial injustices to
the extent she drove everyone to distraction, both personally and professionally, but she
did something that few of her critics did. She stood up for what she believed in,
travelled to Charlottesville to defend those beliefs and was killed by a Nazi scumbag for
doing the right thing.
We end this article with a comment from an unexpected source. It's from a guy called Brad
on a fan site for the cartoon, Kim Possible:
"Anti-Fascist" shouldn't be a movement or a group. It should be your default state. You're
SUPPOSED to be anti-fascist.
"It shouldn't be ‘Nazis clashed with Anti-fascists'. It should be ‘Nazis clashed with
people, because people are supposed to fucking clash with Nazis."
We don't know who Brad is, but he said the most intelligent comment we have heard since
the people of Charlottesville were terrorised and Heather lost her life.
Also see:
http://www.awsm.nz/2016/03/29/trumped-the-decline-of-the-usa/
http://www.awsm.nz/2015/07/06/a-crashing-roof-and-poor-foundations/
https://www.iww.org/content/after-todays-murder-charlottesville-we-must-all-unite-defend-ourselves-and-each-other
https://www.redneckrevolt.org/
http://threewayfight.blogspot.co.nz/
http://www.awsm.nz/2017/08/25/anti-fascism-should-be-your-default-state/
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Message: 2
Why have there been pickets outside massage parlours on Dorset St? Do they really pose any
danger? Do these protests help those who work there, or actually make them more afraid and
isolated? Watch the video below. ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZITV5FFSfRY ----
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: ---- You might have heard about a group of residents in Dublin's north
inner city protesting against local massage parlours over the summer. This video shows a
dozen people picketing Dorset Street. ---- The protesters say that the massage parlours
are brothels and they don't want them in their area. They say that more and more such
brothels are opening in that section of the city, and that it has to stop. ---- Why? This
Solidarity Times reporter, who disagrees, spoke to one protester to find out. ---- To be
transparent, this was done as an informal chat - only afterwards did the importance of
making a video report on this impress upon me. So, please in the interest of fairness bear
that in mind.
Why Protest?
Before we begin, for the record, Dorset Street is not a red light district in any formal
capacity.
Now, to summarise, the protester made 2 basic points. Firstly, that they wanted to clean
up the area. Secondly, that this kind of situation isn't let happen in south Dublin, or
more affluent areas.
On the first point, it was underlined that they didn't want 'seedy men' hanging around the
area, and also for the area to become more dangerous. Being a parent, they were concerned
for their child. However, when asked if a greater danger had accompanied more massage
parlours, the protester honestly replied that the danger had in fact not increased.
On the second point, they exasperatedly pointed out that Dorset St. not being a wealthy or
trendy area was effectively being used a dumping ground for social ills, and certainly not
for the first time. It was noted that the massage parlours had a depreciative affect on
local property prices.
Surprisingly, this particular protester took pains to make clear that their issue wasn't
with sex work itself as a job, which is what one would first expect. They stated that it
shouldn't be criminalised, nor could it be gotten rid of entirely, just that it should
happen elsewhere. Similar effort was put into maintaining that this wasn't simply a case
of NIMBYism, or 'Not In My Back Yard'.
Misdirected Frustration
At first it is hard not to sympathise with this protest, the initiative of 2 local
residents associations. However, on further inspection it is very misguided.
The protester made another point about the women working in the massage parlours not being
safe. But after some questions this point was dropped as it clearly can't be the reason
for the protest. Why? The reason is that picketing the premises will not make a sex
worker's life easier in any way. The stigma around sex work pushes workers into secrecy
and away from the helping hand of wider society. This only plays into the hands of
exploitative bosses and predatory customers.
But unfortunately the protest is very much about sex work as a job. Sex work continues to
bear the baggage of disgust and moral disapproval heaped upon it by an intensely
conservative religious society, steeped in sexism. Sex work isn't acknowledge as real
work, and sex workers are treated as brainless victims who should be forced to do 'what's
best for them'. There remains a huge negative emotional reflex against sex work.
The truth is that sex workers are workers like the rest of us - and you most likely know
one, even if you don't know it. They need money to eat, pay rent, and watch movies, and
they can make a decision like the best of us. They are exploited, yes. But so is the
McDonald's burger flipper, the nurse, the Dublin City Corporation street sweeper, the
social worker, the programmer, and any other working class person who works for another.
Who can say that the sex worker sells their body but the brick layer, slick with laborious
sweat, doesn't? It might be icky to some, but brick laying is indeed a job.
Are some sex workers trafficked? Yes. But this is true of agriculture and several other
industries. Sex work is not human trafficking.
Legislator in the Streets, Persecutor in the Sheets
Earlier in year, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 slipped under the radar. The
Nordic or Swedish Model of sex work was now law, pushed through by an unlikely alliance of
liberal feminists and religious conservatives in the Turn Off the Red Light campaign -
including an order of nuns who ran the Magdalene Laundries. If you don't want laws to
sneak by you again, then watch out for the grassroots Sex Workers Alliance Ireland. In a
trick many of us will have seen used before, especially in the United States, the sex work
legislation was tacked onto a bill dealing with child pornography and grooming.
To synopsise, the Nordic model of sex work means criminalising buyers but not sellers.
This sounds great in theory, but yet almost every sex worker is against it. For example
98% against it in a northern poll. The reason is clear - it makes sex workers' lives
worse. It pushes them underground, undermines their safety, and makes them poorer. Money
being why they went into the trade in the first place. You can't criminalise one end
without effectively criminalising the other. And extensive research has shown that the
Nordic model doesn't even decrease demand for sexual services as it is supposed to, merely
increasing the supply of rape, battery, and HIV.
While the Catholic Church have been somewhat pushed back on LGBT and reproductive rights,
their talons are still firmly dug into the shoulders of sex workers.
Beggar-Thy-Neighbour
The protesters are of course right that wealthier areas of the city are better attended to
by politicians, because money talks in this society. But picketing the workplace of an
already highly ostracised group of workers is not the right approach. As put to the
protester at the time, the problem is not sex work, but this economic system which forces
people to do things to make money. If we want to make sex workers safer and freer, we
should make sex work decriminalised, give them the respect they deserve, and sex workers
should run their own business without bosses, A.K.A. pimps.
You know well that here at the Solidarity Times, we love a good protest. But sex workers
didn't make Dorset Street run down and neglected. Sex workers didn't push people into
negative equity. And sex workers didn't make people feel powerless and left behind. That
was the political and economic elite. So let's not push them into the shadows, by
intimidating them at work. We all know that work is hard enough as it is.
Author: Ferdia O'Brien
https://www.wsm.ie/c/dublin-dorset-brothels-protest-sex-work-stigma
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