Our labour movement should resist the commercialisation of sexual exploitation, argues Helen O’Connor.
Prostitution is not a form of work. It is one of the worst forms of human exploitation, and the vast majority of those trapped in it are women and girls. Most do not want to stay in it for a moment longer than they have to. For feminists like me this is not a moral question. It’s a class issue and a human rights issue. Trade union and socialist feminists oppose all neoliberal objectification and consumerisation of women’s bodies. We reject the false framing that this is some kind of civil liberty issue. It can’t be reduced to individual ‘choice’ because there can be no equality for any women while prostitution exists.
If Alba MSP Ash Regan’s “Unbuyable” bill becomes law, paying for sexual acts would become a criminal offence in Scotland. An estimated 6,000-8,000 women and girls are involved in prostitution and Police Scotland and the Crown Office already regard them as victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The bill aligns the law with this by decriminalising the victims, quashing historic convictions for soliciting, and providing a statutory right to support services to assist women to leave the trade. Amidst an epidemic of violence against women, the bill aims to prevent one type of violence – prostitution – through changing male behaviour. It is backed by the Scottish Government’s own evidence review and a recent one undertaken by the campaign group A Model for Scotland. It is the policy of the government party in Scotland, and of the Scottish TUC.
However, individuals and organisations with a commercial interest in the sexual exploitation of women and girls are running campaigns both inside and outside the labour and trade union movement to get prostitution badged as “work” and legitimised through decriminalisation. Unfortunately, this dangerous and ill-informed view is gaining traction. It also inadvertently gives a message to young women that if they want to have an income they can live on, they don’t fight for it at work, they can find it via prostituting themselves.
While not all prostituted women are trafficked, trafficking is rife in prostitution and Scotland’s current laws, and male demand, make it a highly profitable destination, with reported figures at a record high. Since the full legalisation of prostitution in Germany, in 2002, the majority of those involved in its vastly expanded sex trade are women trafficked for exploitation.
Those of us who oppose prostitution are often falsely accused of not talking to prostitutes or of having a lack of empathy with the women involved. However, those who formed the trade unions and especially those women comrades who sacrificed so much, did so because of their empathy and solidarity with working-class women and girls who were forced to sell their bodies so that their families could eat.
When I was a nurse in the NHS I worked with prostitutes. I listened to their harrowing stories and observed the brutal conditions of their lives. You would never see any of the women I met on social media platforms or in the media telling you that prostitution is a career choice for women. Those women were forced into prostitution through poverty and lack of choice. The voices of the women I met have informed my view that prostitution is not a form of work. Trade unionists should be arguing for well-paid, safe and secure jobs for women too. Any trade unionist worth their salt should reject any idea that extreme violence, rape and murder, which are integral parts of prostitution, can be seriously described as work.
Along with high levels of substance abuse among prostituted women, they also suffer enduring mental health impacts, the severity of which should never be tolerated in the world of work. The idea that adequate health and safety measures could ever be applied in prostitution which is entirely based on the exploitation and subjugation of women is delusional.
Research on prostitution requires far more rigorous scrutiny. The widely accepted hypothesis that prostituted women are less likely to be victimised in countries where the sex industry is legal forms the basis of much misguided campaigning. This idea that the legalisation of prostitution makes it “safer” is based upon tiny samples of qualitative research conducted in countries where prostitution is “illegal” and “not legal.” It is therefore incorrect to reach a conclusion that prostitution is “safer” or better for the women in countries where it is legalised.
Union organisers should be leaving no stone unturned to assist women to get organised in workplaces to fight for decent pay and health and safety protections at work. We should roundly reject the “sex work is work” line and demand safe, fully funded exit routes out of the sex industry as advocated by Ash Regan’s bill and Nordic Model Now!
It is in the interest of the exploiting class to give an ideological justification for the exploitation of women and for prostitution itself. In our age the worst type of reaction has been expressed in terms of liberal identity politics which seeks to reframe prostitution, into which working-class women enter, as a free and liberating choice.
For socialists this is not some niche issue and part of “women’s debate,” nor is it an issue for feminists alone. It is an issue that affects every single worker, male or female, as the presence of such exploitation degrades, weakens and divides the entire working class. The struggle to fundamentally change society for the common good should never include an acceptance that the commercial sexual exploitation of women’s bodies is suitable alternative work for the daughters of the working class.
Helen O’Connor is a feminist trade unionist. This is an updated version of an article first published in the Morning Star in March 2024.