At 2.30pm sex workers and their allies took over one of the streets, bringing traffic to a standstill at Piccadilly Circus and unveiled a banner which read ‘SEX WORKERS ARE
STOPPING THE TRAFFICK’.

Sex workers took direct action today to highlight our opposition to the Policing and Crime Bill. Speakers at the SPEAK OUT included representatives from the x:talk project,
English Collective of Prostitutes, Sex Worker Open University,
academics and sex worker rights activists from across Europe.

The issue of human trafficking in the sex industry has been used by
the Government and those intent on abolishing the sex industry to
justify the further criminalisation of the sex industry. The existing
criminalisation of sex work effectively excludes workers in the sex
industry from the full protection of the law. Increased
criminalisation will further exacerbate this exclusion. Trafficked
workers, regardless of the industry in which they work, face gross
violations of their rights. Women in the sex industry should not be
defined by the area in which they work.

“The Policing and Crime Bill will make it less, not more, safe for us
to work, whether as strippers, escorts, working girls, maids or
models. It is crucial that sex workers speak out about the current
climate in the sex industry of fear, raids, deportation and arrests“
said Ava Caradonna from x:talk.

Ava Caradonna continued, “We also want to highlight the hypocrisy of
the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. Purchases from our industry can
find their way into her expense claims, while at the same time she has
been leading the Government’s attack on the sex industry.”

The Policing and Crime Bill has passed through the committee stage
following two readings in the House of Commons. If passed, this Bill
will further criminalise people in the sex industry in the UK, whether
they work by CHOICE, CIRCUMSTANCE or COERCION. It criminalises
clients, increases penalties for soliciting and imposes measures for
forced rehabilitation. It is based on a lack of evidence about the sex
industry and has been drafted without taking the views of sex workers
and their organisations into account.

This event was been called by x:talk in partnership with the Sex
Worker Open University.

:: photo’s from the action are available on flickr:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtalk_project. if you have more photos
that you would like to share please email:  xtalk.classes@gmail.com