Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association

If you're a sex worker in Australia, you should know that you have a national peak body who is fighting for your rights, challenging your government and celebrating the achievements of whores everywhere!

I've been actively involved with Scarlet Alliance for a while now, and the benefits have been enormous. I encourage all other Aussie sex workers to join up and get involved.

Enough of my blathering though, you deserve a more professional introduction. This is taken from the website:

Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association, through our objectives, policies and programs, aims to achieve equality, social, legal, political, cultural and economic justice for past and present workers in the sex industry, in order for sex workers to be self-determining agents, building their own alliances and choosing where and how they work.

Scarlet Alliance works towards sex worker rights (legal, health, industrial, civil) and uses health promotion approaches to achieve this. The tools Scarlet Aliance recognises as best practices include peer education, community development, community engagement, advocacy etc.

The objectives for which Scarlet Alliance is established are:

(a) To promote the civil and human rights of past and present sex workers and to work toward ending all forms of discrimination against them;

(b) To lobby for legal and administrative frameworks which do not discriminate against sex workers;

(c) To challenge any government at any time when and where it implements legislation, regulations, rules, policies or law enforcement practices which are discriminatory and/or repressive to the rights and autonomy of sex workers;

(d) To actively promote the right of all sex workers to work in whatever area of their chosen occupation, including street, brothel, escort, private and opportunistic work;

(e) To actively work towards guaranteeing the right of all sex workers to optimum occupational health and safety provisions. This will promote conditions where safe sex and general health knowledge can be converted to safe work practices. Furthermore, challenge any legislation, policy or process which does not so promote the rights of the worker;

(f) To strive to eradicate sex worker stereotypes and stigmatisation in the popular consciousness and to communicate the diversity of ideas, opinions and aspirations of past and present sex workers;

(g) To liaise with international sex worker rights groups in the development of regional and international networks, programs and objectives;

(h) To support sex workers and sex worker organisations to become more politically active;

(i) To enhance the capacity of sex workers to participate in advancing their rights and build networks & organisations;

(j) To gather and disseminate sex industry related information to members;

(k) To play an active role in Australia’s response to HIV/AIDS;

(l) To provide training and education on issues relating to the Australian sex industry and the migration of sex workers into Australia; and

(m) To present up to date information on sex work issues at national and international forums.

These objects are undertaken in order to advance sex worker rights.