Asian sex worker organizing -- presentation by Kate Zen, June 2019

2. 2014, Dongguan – in 4 months of
crackdown, 6000 police raided 3533 hotels,
2000 saunas and karaoke bars, and arrested
3,033 people. They shut down 12000
websites with 1 million instant messaging
accounts involved in prostitution.
- SCMP http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1428709

4. Police abuse of sex workers:
• Beatings, torture, physical and sexual assault
in “custody and education” camps without trial
• Arbitrary arrest and detention for up to 2 years
• Extortion, fines, bribery & blackmail
No referrals to social or health services in “reeducation camps”
• Impunity for police; Public shaming for sex workers and their families
• Negligence to pursue justice when sex workers are victims of crime
• Forced testing without informed consent or privacy
• Condoms used as evidence of prostitution in arrests

5. Sex work in China:
• 3-10 million sex workers in China, as of 2010
(China Daily) Beijing: 200,000–300,000 sex workers.
• Majority of Chinese women engaged in sex work
are migrants from rural areas or small cities who
have not completed high school.
• Main reasons cited for why they engage in sex work: job loss,
to support family, lack of economic and educational opportunties
for women (especially in countryside), divorce / separation
• Fines collected from sex workers supplement operational costs of local law
enforcement. Rampant corruption. No due process in arbitrary detention.
Police conduct “shame parades” to “educate public” in the streets (2010).
• In 2000 - 183 Custody and Education Centers,
holding 18,000 inmates
Once when I was soliciting on
the street, the police just
came and started beating me
up…. There were five or six of
them, they just beat me to a
pulp.
—Xiao Jing, a sex worker
interviewed in Beijing, 2011

6. Ye Haiyan – began
blogging about working
conditions of migrant sex
workers in 2005. Created
China Women’s Rights
Workshops, providing
outreach to sex workers,
distributing free condoms.

7. Shanghai CSW&MSM Center

9. “Sentiment concerning the Chinese:
Illustrations from Periodicals” – July 20, 1899
(UC Berkeley Archive of California)
Page Act of 1875 –
Banned Chinese women
from entering the country,
who were considered likely
prostitutes.
Targeted Chinese brothels in
Chinatown, even though
prostitution was prevalent
among other nationalities.
American Medical
Association: Chinese
immigrants have “distinct
germs.” Esp. prostitutes.
Lead to Chinese Exclusion
Act 1882. Requirement of
upper class women to base
immigration on proven
relationship to men: that they
were wealthy wives, with
bound feet and other signs of
upper class “morality”.
Created policing of
immigrants around sexuality,
which continues today.

11. Florida 2019:
From “fighting trafficking” to
prostitution arrests.
(zero trafficking found, women
unlawful detained, video
surveillance for 8 months)

12. Signs of Trafficking
According to Florida police photos (and racist rhetoric by organizations like Polaris):

14. Flushing Crackdown on Massage Parlors
Queens Councilman Koo
urges police crackdown on
massage parlors in Flushing.
In November 2017, Flushing massage
worker Song Yang was killed during such a
police crackdown on her workplace.

15. Red Canary Song
Organizing Against State Violence

19. Red Canary Song
Vigil for Yang Song

20. Red Canary Song
Coalition with DecrimNY: Support from Legislators
So much gratitude
towards NY State
Assembly members
Yuh-line Niou, Ron Kim,
Dan Quart, Jessica
Ramos, and John Liu.

21. Red Canary Song
Endorsing Tiffany Caban for Queens District Attorney

22. Red Canary Song
Honored by Assembly members Yuh-line Niou & Ron Kim
at Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in Albany
Also honored individually by
Senator John Liu
Now so much work to do, to build stronger
alliances within AAPI community on this
issue. And build bigger membership of AAPI
sex workers!

26. Garment Workers &
Sex Workers:
Low-Wage
Women
Workers
Unite

28. INDIA’S SEX WORKER
LABOUR ORGANIZING: 65,000
strong
1. Community-led sex worker organizing drastically lowered
HIV / AIDS rates in Sonagachi District and West Bengal.
2. Set standard prices for workers across the union and
mandated use of condoms. Inspection of clean, safe working
conditions, and fair wages for all workers.
3. Eliminated presence of child sex workers under 18 years of
age. Created sustainable help for the impoverished children.
4. Created Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Bank, the largest
and most successful cooperative bank in West Bengal,
democratically led by sex workers and former sex workers
saving together, investing in educational programming for
their children, plus career training and social networks for
retiring and retired sex workers.
5. Pushed back against rampant police violence.
Tactical Tech human rights research on
police violence against sex workers, with
data collected by community-led
organizations: DMSC (India) and
Women’s Network for Unity(Cambodia)

29. Red Canary Song
Goals this year: Talking about why sex worker rights is an
Asian American Pacific Islander issue!
Transnational migrant sex worker labor organizing: Butterfly (Toronto), Steel
Roses (Paris). Asian sex worker organizing. Global Justice Framework
instead of Anti-Trafficking as U.S.-led moral imperialism.

30. RESPECT: Sex Work Is

31. Police brutality against indigenous women and children in
British Columbia, many of whom were trading sex for
survival. (Human Rights Watch, 2013)
Reported police violence against
youth of colour in sex trades is
greater than violence from pimps or
johns, and it enables violence from
predators posing as customers.
Home Front