Sarah Walker (activist)
Sarah Walker is an English political activist. A member of the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), she has acted as their spokesperson. In 2013 she was named to the BBC's 100 Women list.[1]
Life[edit]
Walker first encountered the English Collective of Prostitutes while studying English at the North London Polytechnic in the early 1980s. She attended the Strangers and Sisters conference in 1982, finding there a movement where she felt at home inl. Later that year she participated in the 12-day ECP occupation of the Holy Cross Church, St Pancras,[2] which protested police illegality and racism in the policing of sex workers.[3] The occupation also involved activists from Women Against Rape, and Black Women for Wages for Housework. Walker remembers that participants "were crossing divisions".[4]
Walker became a spokeswoman for the ECP, speaking to the media on a range of issues. In 2001 she rebutted police claims to have infiltrated a sex trafficking ring in Soho:
It has nothing to do with illeal immigrants or the rights of women ... The police just want to gentrify the area ... It is to do with money and property values.[5]
In the 2010s Walker linked austerity measures to an increased number of UK students turning to sex work,[6][7] and other women pushed into sex work by poverty.[8] She also commented on media fears that the 2012 Olympic Games would lead to an increase in prostitution.[9]
In 2015 Walker supported Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell in their leadership of the Labour Party, helping to write the pamphlet Why People Of Colour Should Support the new Corbyn/McDonnell Movement.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ "100 Women: Who Took Part?". BBC News. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ Rodgers, Polly. "Kings Cross Story Palace – ECP Church Occupation". Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ a b "Time For Change: Generation Revolution". Tate. 9 December 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ Dahms, Isabell (2023). "Maternal Inclinations, Queer Orientations, Common Occupation". Critical Horizons: A Journal of Philosophy and Social Theory. 24 (2): 147–163. doi:10.1080/14409917.2023.2233111.
- ^ Alleyne, Richard (17 February 2001). "31 held in Soho vice raids". The Telegraph. Retrieved 28 November 2023. Quoted in Hubbard, Phil (2006). "Cleansing the Metropolis: Sex Work and the Politics of Zero Tolerance". In Collins, Alan (ed.). Cities of Pleasure: Sex and the Urban Socialscape. Routledge. p. 58. ISBN 9781317998822.
- ^ Holden, Michael (14 December 2011). "Desperate British students "turning to prostitution"". Reuters. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ Rkaina, Sam (21 March 2015). "Cash-strapped students being recruited as escorts and lap dancers via social media". The Mirror. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ "Economic woes push more women into sex work". Channel 4 News. 30 November 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ Cacciottolo, Mario (7 June 2012). "London 2012: Will the Olympics bring more prostitutes?". Retrieved 28 November 2023.
External links[edit]
- An Earth Shattering Experience, interview with Sarah Walker