Kink.com workers lost in the anarchist shuffle.

Posted by March 21, 2013

 

 

It was with great concern that the Archaist Book Fair hosted two  possibilities to talk about what’s going on at their host space, Kink.com.

 

One was the very generous Saturday night evening discussion over the withdrawal of one of the speakers, conflated Kink.com with Bank of America and deemed that un anarchist like.

And the other was the sex worker section on Sunday afternoon.

Having only attended the Sunday session for the last 15 minutes and hearing from those who attended the Saturday night event, there didn’t seem much discussion of the topic of how anarchy would benefit the workers at kink.com  Thinking about the workers and their present situation is on my mind. I would have liked to have effected the conversation towards the fate of the workers at Kink.com in light of the recent arrest of the owner, Pete and recent public complaints from former workers about his management practices.

 

I, like many of my fellow kink/sex/worker positive community  members can remember when in 2007, we all piled into city hall planning commission to show public support for kink.com’s right to buy the armory. It wasn’t so much I personally was standing up for Peter’s right to buy and occupy the armory but more of the right for a kink based business to occupy the armory.  Like many of my fellow kinksters, we knew that peter had his detractors then.   In hindsight, a key question that ought to have been asked and answered about if the workers had a collectively bargained contract to cover their labor and work conditions in place.

 

So it was of no surprise to read about recent complaints of the disrespectful management practices where he unilaterally changed a pay scale for webcam performers without negotiating with them first,  the lack of concern for injuries and questionable scene negotiating practices.  The former being a major value in our community.

 

At least one worker found out she didn’t have the skill set to take on unionization in a competitive adult work site to make the necessary changes.  Not many people do.  That skill set comes with training, support and determination.  Maggie Mayhem’s explicit indictment of the peter culture in the wake of  his arrest for cocaine and shooting off guns rings harsh in my ears.  I would say that any new approvals in city planning have to include a collectively bargained contract for the workers no matter what kind of business.

 

So I know I cannot be the only one who feels that our community should take up our part in being responsible for this situation that the kink.com workers are in and start the conversation with them about where to go now.   Where do they want to go now?  I think its really important to be available to listen to concerns as a community.

 

The criminal charges against Peter are not really of that concern as most of us have had problems with Johnny Law, but there’s a question of the what could happen to him and what state will the business be left in or more to the immediate, what state is the business in now as the workers depend on it, the kink community vouched for it, the city approved it, with the haters are nipping at our heels always.  There’s more on the line here besides Peter’s status.  He might be able to buy his way out of his legal situation but to what end?  To go back to business as usual?  Is that what the workers want?  Is that what the community who stood up for kink.com that day in 2007 wants?

 

I hope that part of the conversation can include looking at models of unionization that includes a cooperative component as depicted in this article.   Sustainable Jobs, Sustainable Communities: The Union Co-Op Model   Its about the United Steel Workers and co-op hybrids coming together to create some new possibilities in our new economy that might apply to a fairly new industry.

 

 

I know the Lusty Ladies have had experience with these institution and how they  might relate to Kink.com especially considering  Kink.com has some interests now with the LL.  But that’s a topic for another blog….

 

Maxine

Erotic Service Providers Union

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Violent Feminsts

Posted by March 2, 2013

This whole debacle of calling out these perpetrator feminist types for their violence by stigma, their weapon of choice against us whores is getting really good.

Like the batterers they are, they’re consistent in their acts of violence when they retaliate for being called out for the actors of violence against our class in maintaining criminalization of prostitution.

Its just further evidence of their violent intentions to continue to pollute the public domain with their hate speech again and again with their made to order faux facts about us and our lot in this life.

 

Violence de-escalation training and anti oppression training is in order for us to help put their behavior in the right context.  Then hopefully, our class won’t feel the need to extend ourselves so civilly as to try to reason or educated them with the expectation they’ll stop hurting us.

 

How many times have battered peoples said that if they could just tell the abuser or who ever will listen, the effects of suffering from their bad treatment or try to confront the flawed logic used to justify their attitudes of indifference and denial of abuse in that hope that the violence might finally stop and but it never works out that way.

These types won’t ever stop their violence against us no matter what we say, no matter what do. Its a fact of life and no fake facts the likes of which they use to perpetuate negative stigma against us, are ever going to change this cycle.

 

But some people do change their minds.

We can see politicians changing their minds recently in a very public substantial way in these very last days before the high court decides key lawsuits on marriage equality.  Like  jumping off the imminent crazy train wreck at the last minute, politicos are abandoning these kinds archaic ideas only because they’ve lost or stand to loose elected positions and the subsequent fortunes that accompany them.  We even saw the mother of invention of john school change their minds during Proposition 35 in California and withdraw their endorsement of that menace legislation weeks before the election.  Even with the passing of the Violence Against Women Act, Sen. Leahy managed to added a provision to stop arresting minors for prostitution and substantially defund the imperialist Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons!

 

 

But the feminist types of which we rail against, they’ll never change their minds.  Saying they are for stopping arresting us while they’ve actively opposed legislation to do just that typifies their constant two faced antics. They won’t change their minds because they oppose our rights with the veracity of the religious zealots and the brute force of the police all of which they’ve aligned together to walk in goosestep.

 

The way to deal with them is similar to the way other oppressed groups, like LBGT and African Americans have dealt with the same systems of violence.  When the AIDS epidemic hit, anti sodomy, female impersonation and associating with homosexuals laws had been decriminalized for the most part and for parts that weren’t, the high court’s decisions eventually upheld privacy that dealt the death blow to the hold outs in this area.

Too, it took 100 years after emancipation to pass the civil rights act to finally name discrimination as an illegal act not only against those who are of color but gender too.

 

Since  we still suffer from having our labor and relationships criminalized in the anti prostitution laws and the subsequent discrimination, we have to start with were we are here in the US;  we must all focus our energies together to change these things in short order.

 

As far as dealing with public opinion, I suggest a truth and reconciliation commission convene itself as to fully expose the extend of the damage and corruption that criminalization and discrimination has brought.

 

And FYI, we’ll consider paying taxes 10 years after the last discrimination case has been litigated similar to how the Voting Rights Act mandates 10 years of uninterrupted compliance before restrictions on judicial review can be petitioned to be removed.  But in the meantime, feel free to ban the Dennis Hoff owned walmart brothel and enforce the laws already on the books; rape, robbery, extortion, coercion, theft, abduction, battery, fraud…solicitations for unprotected sex….murder.  I subscribe to the idea that if the workforce is made up of primarily women, then only women from that workforce can be hired by that said workforce in the capacity management.

 

Its okay to be overwhelmed and think, it’s such a tall order, we cannot possible go through with it, but no perfect magic pill can be taken to make it all go away.  Instead find some workable principals and adherence to them and re evaluate and be open to change but lets just start by stepping away from the wasting our time with the hater feminists.

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