Solidarity as strategy: Diverse organising by sex workers
Published 30 December 2025
Lees dit artikel in het Nederlands
Sex worker activism takes many forms. Drawing on her experience, Marin Scarlett shares how different ways of organising build collective power.
“Sex work” is not an identity, sex work is work and it is often a survival strategy through poverty, marginalisation and capitalism. Unsurprisingly, the ways in which we organise are as diverse as we are. Some days I’m meeting MEPs, others I’m rage-drawing cartoons about them. Our cause intersects with many movements, including labour rights, migrant rights and healthcare rights, among others.
We are trade unionists, calling for recognition of sex work as work and demanding workers’ rights. We are academics and researchers, contributing to the body of evidence that supports our position. We are artists and performers - this very article was devised during Red Insight’s retreat! In an increasingly dire funding landscape, many creatives support themselves with sex work, while many sex workers find creativity inherent to the job.
Adaptable approach
Each group reaches different audiences, building diverse solidarity networks that all intersect to strengthen our movement. LGBTQ+ activists challenge discrimination that disproportionately leaves many people in their communities with little choice but to sell sexual services. Supporters of migrants’ rights decry the use of criminalisation to police borders that increase migrant sex workers’ vulnerability to violence. Public health advocates highlight the impossibility of meeting HIV targets while key groups face barriers to accessing healthcare services.
In different countries, the decriminalisation movement has found different footholds. In New Zealand, reform was driven by a focus on public health and sex workers’ human rights. In Australia, the failure of previous legal models helped present decriminalisation as a viable alternative. In Belgium, the recent focus has been on labour rights, such as pensions and sick leave.
All organising counts
No single argument will sway all leaders, policymakers and potential allies. We need diversity. Each of us has our passions, work and area of focus that adds value to our movement. Meeting with politicians, participating in health inclusion groups, chanting at protests, performing at festivals; all organising is good organising.
My own activism has included all of the above, and I’ve occasionally witnessed a kind of “whoreganiser-archy”; criticism of those not doing the “real” organising. Competitiveness is counterproductive; we need to lift one another up. There is no single way to organise that trumps all others. We build mutual support and solidarity across different approaches, and should celebrate this diverse spectrum of organising in our collective struggle for the rights of all sex workers.
