#IWD2023: women fight across the globe
On International Women’s Day, rs21 members share 13 inspiring examples of women fighting for liberation and against capitalism and state repression.
Ken Loach, sex work and paternalism
Ken Loach is widely acclaimed for his uncompromising and cutting portrayal of the realities of poverty in his films, but Kate Bradley argues his depictions of sex work fall short.
What a way to make a living | Introduction
Meet our new article series, What a way to make a living, which will explore the lived realities of work and exploitation under modern capitalism
We will strike and we will win!
Thousands of people gathered in front of the Bank of England for the Women’s Strike on International Women’s Day 2019.
Social reproduction, the Global Women’s Strike and the future of revolutionary theory
The final plenary at the Revenge of Everyday Life conference saw Tithi Bhattacharya and Siggie Vertommen lead a discussion on social reproduction, the Global Women’s Strike and the future of revolutionary theory.
Labour is letting down sex workers
The narrow space left in UK law for sex workers to operate in is under threat of being further restricted.
What is Transgender Day of Remembrance, and why does it matter?
Charlie Powell and Taisie Tsikas write on the significance of Transgender Day of Remembrance in the ongoing struggle against the oppression of transgender people.
Pride not profit
The London Pride march takes place this coming weekend, on Saturday 8 July. Barclays, Tesco and Virgin Atlantic are all sponsors of an increasingly corporate event. But opposition to dominance of corporations and official state bodies is also emerging internationally. After Black Lives Matter, uniformed cops can’t march at Pride in Toronto, while on 10 […]
Interview: Sex work in France
What attitude should we take to sex work? One approach is that of the “Nordic model” which criminalises those who buy sex, very largely men, rather than those who sell it, most of whom are women. Sex workers, however, object that the rhetoric behind such laws about improving the social position of women doesn’t match […]
Debating the work of sex work
Melissa Gira Grant responds to questions from Estelle Cooch about her work and her understanding of sex work today. Sex work has become the subject of heated debate within feminism. That debate is highly polarised – so much so that the two sides even tend to use different terms, “prostitution” and “sex work”, for the topic […]
Cops raid gay escort website: time to stop criminalising sex work
Colin Wilson condemns the US authorities’ raid this week on the New York-based website rentboy.com. On Tuesday, the New York Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security raided the offices of rentboy.com, taking away computers as evidence and arresting the site’s Chief Exec and six others on prostitution charges. The defendants face up to five years […]
Trafficking and sex work in Latin America: are women really being rescued?
Jessica Gutiérrez is a therapist working with survivors of sexual violence based in Buenos Aires. She describes how her experience of a brothel raid in Mexico radically altered her views on trafficking for sexual exploitation. (photo: an “operativo de rescate” [rescue operation] in Chiapas, Mexico, 2010 – see Spanish language report in Prensa Libre) A few […]