#urban survivors union

Please share: Presentation for 4/23 9 PM EST Urban Survivors Union sex worker organizing group conference call: Shawna Ferris and (time-permitting) Amy Lebovitch will be discussing how to protect ourselves from potentially exploitative researchers as our sex worker orgs gain visibility. Shawna Ferris wrote the groundbreaking _Street Sex Work and Canadian Cities: Resisting A Dangerous Order_, the most brilliant book I’ve ever read on sex work, neoliberalism, gentrification, and media tropes. Of course, most of us know Amy Lebovitch as the acclaimed sex worker activist famous for being one of the plaintiffs in Bedford v. Canada. Outdoor sex workers in particular,as well as other marginalized groups of workers, get pressure to take part in research, so it behooves outsider sex worker orgs made up of street workers, drug-using workers, trans workers, migrant workers, etc, to prepare strategies for responding to these queries. Shawna and Amy will go over how to set agendas and protect ourselves from or in research w/various kinds of academics-students, graduates, university professors, etc. They’ll also outline what different kinds of researchers can offer our communities and what they can pay us as subjects. As usual, any current or ex drug-using sex workers or current or ex sex workers interested in harm reduction or drug users union work are invited to the call! Respectful harm reduction and drug users union allies who don’t center themselves at our expense are also welcome. Again, this biweekly call will take place on 4/23, 9 PM EST. The info for the call is always the same–over laptop/tablet/smartphone– https://www.gotomeet.me/LouiseVincent
On your phone in the US–+1 (786) 535-3211
Access Code–615-430-549

Urban Survivors Union sex worker organizing call tonight at 9 PM EST! The next one after this will be 4/23 at 9 PM EST. Info always the same:
Over laptop/tablet/smartphone: https://www.gotomeet.me/LouiseVincent
On your phone in the US–+1 (786) 535-3211
Access Code: 615-430-549
All current or ex sex workers interested in harm reduction, particularly current or ex-drug-using sex workers, are welcome, as well as respectful harm reduction or drug users union allies.
What we’ll be discussing on the call tonight:
1) Strategizing to have all call members attend the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in St Louis in November, either via DPA scholarship or through USU-created scholarships, so that we can meet as a nascent group in person.
2) What I can do to represent us at some coming harm reduction events
3) What presenters do you want on the call in the future?
4) What do you want to do with any funding we acquire? Does anyone want to volunteer to help with grant writing or grant editing?
5) What can we do to link up the Urban Survivors Union #reframetheblamecampaign against drug-induced homicide laws to sex workers’ rights and women’s issues? (Not to say those are the same thing.) http://ncurbansurvivorunion.org/sex-work-and-reframethebla…/
6) What would you like to do with the free reign we’ve been given with the sex work section of the USU site? With USU server space?
7) What is the best way to utilize a national call like this in general? How can we use it to help with the regional work we’re all doing separately?
If you’re interested in the calls in general, PM me your email and I can add you to the regular calendar alerts,

Exciting presentation at the Urban Survivors Union sex worker working group conference call this Tuesday at 9 PM EST–Cora Colt, the co-founder of Lysistrata will be speaking about starting and maintaining a sex worker collective fund! https://www.gotomeet.me/LouiseVincent or join us on your phone in the US–+1 (786) 535-3211 Access Code: 615-430-549

Sex worker collective funds are a thriving practice in African sex worker movements, as documented in Chi Adanna Mgbako’s To Live Freely In This World, and in Indian sex worker orgs, but in the US they are few and far between. Lysistrata is one of the oldest and most consistent sex worker mutual aid funds around, established in the wake of the first major Backpage shakeups/ad category closures a couple of years ago. W/the economic devastation sex workers are suffering post-FOSTA/SESTA, esp. marginalized sex workers such as drug-using sex workers, the creation & management of collective funds are invaluable skills for sex worker communities. So, sex workers/ex-sex workers, esp. drug-using sex workers, as well as respectful allies w/connections to drug users’ unions and harm reduction, are welcome to join us at 9PM EST Tuesday for the presentation.

Cora Colt is co-founder & treasurer of the Lysistrata Mutual Care Collective and Fund, an online-based sex worker activist cooperative and emergency fund to support marginalized workers in crisis. Cora has been a sex worker since 2007, primarily working as a stripper. She began organizing through producing underground percentage profit share stripper events in NYC. Those events led Cora and others to hosting broader sex worker community meetings/events, highlighting the need for more direct services and productive partnerships between folks of all experiences in the sex industry. Then Lysistrata was founded in the aftermath of the Backpage raids and the 2016 presidential elections.

We will also be talking grants, the connection between sex workers and the Urban Survivors Union #reframetheblame women/feminist-led campaign against drug-induced homicide laws, bad date list sites, and more! We want to develop this call into a national resource for drug-using sex workers and sex workers connected with/interested in harm reduction to use drug user union movement resources.