Sex worker solidarity in practice (Elio from SWARM)

Season 2 episode 10 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we interview Elio. They organise with SWARM (a UK-based collective founded and led by sex workers who believe in self-determination, solidarity and co-operation) and are a branch organiser for United Voices of the World (UVW, a grassroots trade union of low paid, migrant & precarious workers and we fight the bosses for dignity and respect through direct action on the streets and through the courts!). “Our focus is less on convincing the outside world that sex workers deserve dignity, and [more on] providing dignity to sex workers” “Urgency will never end…but what might end is your capacity to be able to respond” – Elio Show notes, links SWARM: community building, community resourcing Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Swedish Model (aka The Nordic Model) New Resource: ‘How We Ran A Mutual Aid Fund’ UVW sex worker organising: helping to organise sex workers as workers The United Sex Workers branch of UVWStrippers union United Voices of the World (UVW) wins landmark legal victory proving strippers are ‘workers’, not independent contractors Decriminalised Futures: popular education, arts Their Lady of the Night SchoolThe Decrim Futures archive includes both recording from their 2019 conference, and also videos from the “We can build a different world” eventThe Decriminalised Futures exhibition at the ICA in London, running from 15 Feb to 22 May 2022 Some other projects: Decrim Now, a campaign group pushing for the full decriminalisation of sex workThe Dialtone Project, giving old phones you don’t need to the sex workers who doVolunteering with the English Collective of ProstitutesYou can buy a copy of the acclaimed Revolting Prostitutes bookAnd finally, the most succint “political outlooks on sex work” meme out there: We now have a Patreon! Please help keep the podcast going, at patreon.com/resistrenew. If not, there’s always the classic ways to support: like, share, and subscribe! Transcript ALI This is Resist Renew, KATHERINE the UK based podcast about social movements, SAMI what we’re fighting for, why and how it all happens. ALI The hosts of the show are KATHERINE Me, Kat. SAMI Me, Sami, ALI and me, Ali. SAMI I’m recording this now, baby! ALI Shit, it’s a podcast! SAMI So, welcome everybody to the resist renew podcast, where we are joined here today by Elio. Do you want to say a little hello before I introduce you, Elio? ELIO a little Hello. Hello. Sorry, that was really… Hello! That’s a big hello. Oh, it’s multiple hellos of different sizes, shapes and sizes. SAMI Lots of variety: people can pick their favourite. Elio is a person who organises with SWARM, which is a UK based collective founded by sex workers who believe in self determination, solidarity and cooperation, and is also branch organiser with United Voices of the World, which is a grassroots trade union of low paid migrant and precarious workers that fight the bosses for dignity and respect, through direct action, on the streets and through the courts, which is a sentence from the website that I just really wanted to read out; and is also involved in other groups and things! And was also giving us some very helpful advice for our muscles and physical bodies before we started the recording. So thank you for that. So, let’s get into the let’s get into the chat. Elio, what is that political contexts that like sex workers, and the groups that you’re linked in with are organising within like in the UK today? ELIO So I think the main context that’s the most important to think about in terms of the impact it has on sex workers is the legal context. So currently, in the UK, specifically, I’m speaking about England and Wales really is, sex work is not is partially criminalised. So selling the act of selling sex and buying sex, for the most part is you’re allowed to do it, it’s legal, it’s fine. No one’s gonna stop you from doing it. But a lot of the, I guess, the infrastructure around those things is criminalised. So, brothel keeping, which can you know, range from someone who owns a building and they have lots of people that work there and you don’t have to give them a percentage to work there or could be just two workers working together for safety in the most part, you know, so you’re not working alone, that counts as ‘brothel keeping’ and it’s criminalised. There’s laws around ‘control for gain’ which are criminalised, which is you know, meant to stop like, what is kind of understood as the ‘evil pimp’, with the workers that they’re exploiting, and they’re ‘controlling them for gain’; but often ends up affecting people like if a sex worker has a flat and they have a cleaner, or if they have a security guard or if they have a driver. Or if they have a partner whose rent they’re paying. All of these things kind of are criminalised under the laws affecting sex workers in the UK. So I think...