Internatational Day of No Prostitution

IDNP Home Bay Area Events Supporters En Francais Sign Up Contact IDNP Media Toolkit Poverty & Prostitution ProclamationWe held an International Day of No Prostitution conference here in
Melbourne on Saturday 5 October. Our main speaker, Linda Watson from
Linda's House of Hope in Perth, the only survivors' refuge in Australia,
was in hospital and unable to come. She is the only survivor speaking out
here and tremendously overworked.

However we had a terrific day. We started with intro to CATW Australia by
Renate Klein, the
international CATW video So Deep a Violence, then Mary Sullivan on the
Failure of Legalised Brothel Prostitution in Victoria, then Dee Hunt of
Centre for Philippine Concerns on Online sex tourism and the 'so-called'
mail order bride experience. Then Jen Rice on The Porn Industry's Ten Year
Plan, absolutely harrowing stuff including how the pornographised woman
Houston had a labiaplasty operation filmed as porn and then her labia were
sold off at auction. It was a tremendous rousing talk such as we have not
tended to have in recent years, in Australia anyway.

Then we had workshops on porn, activism, and supporting women to leave
prostitution. Then I spoke on Envisioning a World Beyond Prostitution.
We had just over 50 women, not bad for this terrible liberal and
pro prostitution climate.

There was a great feeling and it was so good to have a day full of
radicalism with no opposition and that feeling of revolution in the air.
(the opposition did not bother to come). We got onto the ABC radio news in
the evening and that was only media apart from community radio which is
always good to us.