Antecedents of Organising Sex Workers

Almost exclusively prior to the mid-1980s, where there existed any collective organisations of sex workers, these were collective organisations of prostitutes where prostitutes themselves and an array of supporters constituted pressure groups to campaign for the general improvement in the conditions of prostitutes. These groups were neither trade unions nor trade unions of sex workers. Nevertheless, these groups have provided a source of inspiration to the collectivisation and unionisation of sex workers of the period under examination. By firstly constructing an agenda and terms of debate whereby the term and discourse ‘sex work’ emerged and by secondly organising themselves publicly and collectively, the prostitutes’ organisations have constituted both a discourse and a form of organisation to be emulated by other sex workers in terms of legitimacy, identification of interests, self-pride and self-confidence. Consequently, the attempt to create sex worker trade unionism has existed in an environment where some of the necessary conceptual groundwork has already been laid out and where breaking new ground is that bit easier with the precedent set by prostitutes. This chapter begins by considering these first examples of the self-organisation of prostitutes in the seven countries under study before then moving to provide an assessment of their strengths and weakness alongside an analysis of the trajectory they represent.