Liam redux

Respect names and shames

I’ve never been tempted to go back inside a strip club since a disappointed audience and problems with chafing put an end to my brief career in the trade. There are two or three clubs about ten minutes walk from here, deep in the heart of Respect territory and they have been here for years.…

Liam
1–2 minutes

I’ve never been tempted to go back inside a strip club since a disappointed audience and problems with chafing put an end to my brief career in the trade. There are two or three clubs about ten minutes walk from here, deep in the heart of Respect territory and they have been here for years.

The organisation has thrown its weight behind a campaign to stop a pub changing the terms of its license to allow stripping on the premises. Until now every single local campaign that Respect has been involved in has been clearly anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. This one is different.

Now the strange thing about leaving Respect is that once you are out you hear very little about it. Mainly you see letters from one of the office workers or his partner in the East London Advertiser each week and that’s about it. This strip club business is diferent though. It’s all over the Advertiser this week, mainly because Labour very ineptly tried to prevent discussion of a Respect motion on the matter.

The troubling aspect of the whole business is the reactionary way Respect is fighting this campaign. According to the Advertiser Galloway said “Party (sic) members were planning to take snaps of men entering the clubs and post them on a website.” The paper adds that the leaflet shown above was distributed outside mosques last Friday. This is the Daily Mail / New Labour school of politics. No one in Respect has suggested “naming and shaming”, for example, Tommy Sheridan. Rather he gets invited to dinner and to split the SSP. If, by way of contrast, a campaign initiated by a range of women and women’s organisations were opposing this pub’s proposal then it would be excellent proof of a resurgence of feminist militancy. But handing out moralising leaflets outside places of worship comes dangerously close to reactionary populism.

13 responses to “Respect names and shames”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    The motion that was presented by Cllr. Rania Khan (who I think may now be an SWP member??) was not bad and situated the issue in terms of the exploitation of women:”This is the motion tabled by Councillor Rania Khan for debate at Full Council Motion: Licensing Sex/Strip clubs – Cllr Rania Khan There is almost-total unity across Tower Hamlets people of all ages, ethnicities and faith groups in opposing the exploitation and degrading of women associated with sex and strip club. In face of growing concerns at the impact of Strip clubs and other such venues in the borough, and the effect of these on local neighbourhoods, we call on the Council leader and Cabinet to investigate how discretionary powers can be applied to maximum effect to safeguard the rights of women, and to protect children and communities. This should include an investigation of:* Best Practise in applying local authority powers, in particular looking at City of London, Greenwich, Westminster, and Glasgow;* Latest research on the demand for and impact of such clubs;* Views of local residents;* How existing powers and publicity can be used to challenge sexploitation; * A progress report to the next full council.”Unfortunately, her colleague in Tower Hamlets, George Galloway while quite eloquent on issues such as imperialism is socially conservative, but hopefully as time progresses his marxist colleagues will educate himAJ

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  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    By the way, I disagree with your implication that this issue is not anti-capitalist. The increase of what one writer terms “raunch culture” and the backlash against women in the last ten years is a real live issue now.I saw Salma Yaqoob raise the issue of prostitution on Question Time correctly identifying the essential issue of the commodification of women and child proctection, but I think that Respect needs to develop and debate policies on these issues in more depth. Hopefully inititatives like the Respect Women’s Conference in March will start progress towards this. The SSP (who you mention) have had serious debates on issues like these.AJ

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  3. Louisefeminista Avatar
    Louisefeminista

    But is this really about exploitation of women or is it about sex? Have Respect discussed this with the IUSW, for example? I bet my salary they haven’t. I think Liam is correct when he says it is moralising and dangerously to populism. And this “namimg and shaming” is utterly appalling.AJ: The feminist movement is fragmanted and much of the left don’t give a toss about women’s oppression and when they “seem” to it is a mish-mash of reactionary ideas. If you seriously want to build a campiagn which includes women at the forefront what supporting the building of a dynamic feminist movement…??You mention commodification but to explain it more fully you have to examine the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism.AJ: what is your stance on sex work such as prostitution?

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  4. Liam Mac Uaid Avatar
    Liam Mac Uaid

    The terms of the motion are fine. I’m pretty certain that most people don’t want a strip club in a residential area. What I object to is the tabloid presentation of the campaign and using agitation outside places of worship to generate mass support. That’s the reactionary bit. When socialists agitate it should be with a view to encouraging working class action and developing political consciousness. Using the language of the Daily Mail does not do this.

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  5. Dave Riley Avatar
    Dave Riley

    Good point about Sheridan. I note some hypocrisy in that regard. The ‘raunch culture” thing is a bit of a curly one esp in regard to the potential to foster straightlaced moralism. But if the feminist movement did this, initiated it I mean, I’d have no problems with it at all. But for RESPECT to do it given the core Islamic alliance that constitutes it I think it can send some very mixed messages to its core constituency.Don’t you think? I’m not requiring RESPECT to be consistent and if thats’ what they decided well then, thats’ what they decided…but I think it’s a wrong approach and ill thought through. As for naming and shaming… what flows from that?: name and shame suspected paedophiles, out gays, publicize the whereabouts of local ex cons…? Thats’ not the tactics we want to espouse anytime.There’s the beginning of a broader debate around this:Take this for example here in Australia:http://www.leftwrites.net/2006/12/20/sexual-positions-on-the-left/and the recent furore around the SSP’s new position on prostitution.There’s this irony: issues arising without the on hand movement to address them from a keenly developed feminist perspective and the associated discourse, activity & debate that goes with it. So there’ a fall back on some formulaic and maybe copycat approaches.

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  6. Louisefeminista Avatar
    Louisefeminista

    Actually, if feminists were involved in picketing this pub/strip joint then I would have problems with it. It does not necessarily show a resurgance in feminist activity. Firstly, has anyone spoken to the women who work there or like i said before the IUSW? I asked Ana Lopes from the IUSW when I heard her speak some months ago what was the impact on sex workers when Reclaim the Night demonstrators would stand outside Spearmint Rhino, for example. She said it angered the sex workers as nobody speaks to them. That’s the point, isn’t it? Who are the women who work in these places and wouldn’t it be better to speak to them or the IUSW/GMB as they have no so much good organising sex workers?The probs with the feminist movement is that it is weak and fragmented. But what is also bound up with this is still the influence of radical feminism. I have been to a couple conferences around women’s liberation and the debates are still centred around censorship and porn (Porn=theory rape= practice)and very little else. I obv. take a very different interpretation of patriarchy. That’s why it is important and bloody vital that the Left shows interest and support for socialist feminist ideas and to help strengthen them as much of the left see feminsim as a “dirty petit-bourgeois” word or just don’t understand its significance hence “falling back on formulaic approaches”.Dave mentions the SSP policy on prostitution, though I respect the SSP politically and it has so many strong and dynamic women at the forefront. No matter how much agreement I have on some of their policies they are wrong on prostitution. Again, has anyone spoke to sex workers in Sweden to ask what their view is on the law?Probably not.

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  7. twp Avatar
    twp

    I think Louise hits the nail on the head. No one speaks to the workers themselves. The idea that women working in strip clubs or as prostitutes are “victims” and need to be supported instead of workers who should be supported as they organise adds to the idea that they are non-entities. It is as though these women are simply to be assisted and not spoken with as equals. I agree as well that the SSP’s position regarding prostitution of criminalising the punters is incorrect. The Ipswich murders and subsequent investigation showed how difficult it was for these workers to come forward to the police given the level of harrassment against them regularly by the cops. The SSP’s position exacerbates the problem whereas supporting union organising of sex workers is I believe the correct way to go and protects all involved.On Respect, I agree with Liam that this is a reactionary approach and Louise makes a good point that even if feminist groups were “naming and shaming” in this manner, one would still have to question whether this approach could or should be supported. No doubt, debates of feminist views will continue to occur, but I think we need to reassess a number of the views which claim that the sex industry = violence against women. I strongly disagree with this and right or wrong, many empowered young women of my generation feel the same. A lot of women feel as though they own their sexuality and that includes watching porn and even visiting strip clubs – not because they believe in violence against themselves but because they enjoy it sexually amd feel as though they have the liberty to do so. Is this a “bad” thing for women? It’s an interesting question.

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  8. Louisefeminista Avatar
    Louisefeminista

    “I strongly disagree with this and right or wrong, many empowered young women of my generation feel the same. A lot of women feel as though they own their sexuality and that includes watching porn and even visiting strip clubs – not because they believe in violence against themselves but because they enjoy it sexually amd feel as though they have the liberty to do so. Is this a “bad” thing for women? It’s an interesting question.”I think that the above is a very good point TWP makes. There is this hangover from radical feminism with the emphasis on violence against women which still has an impact feminist thinking (SSP policy on prostitution. It reduces women to one-dimensional victims without really understanding the relationship between patriarchy and capialism. Patriarchy isn’t this monolithic entity. This kinda theory denies the contradictions, complexities and the dialetical relationship between patriarchy and capitalism. And the issues TWP raises about women enjoying sex on their own terms, porn, strip clubs and so on need to be debated by the Left and the feminist movement.

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  9. Liam Mac Uaid Avatar
    Liam Mac Uaid

    Not so long ago when looking for some holiday brochures I went into a shop in Oxford Street called Ann Summers. The name is very misleading. It didn’t have any literature about summer holidays. What surprised me was the fact that the overwhelming majority of the customers were younger women, some of them with their partners, friends and even mothers. This free expression of their sexuality, including the use of what for shorthand we’ ll call porn, is I think a good thing. It’s infinitely preferable to growing up in an atmosphere where the subject is never discussed, and sexuality is furtive. As for not wanting a strip club on your doorstep, I can think of all sorts of businesses that a group of residents might object to and organise against.Nevertheless engaging with the workers in an industry is something that should be obvious to any group of socialists.

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  10. 632C5R09OW8 Avatar
    632C5R09OW8

    632C5R09OW8ftssoldier.blogspot.comwww.edwardsaid.orgWhat the hell is progressive aboutraunch culture?Sex, Abortion on the demand and shopping are not progressive.There IS such a thing as unprogressive Secularism as there is reactionary religionJust a thought no offense ment

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  11. Louisefeminista Avatar
    Louisefeminista

    “Sex, Abortion on the demand and shopping are not progressive”.You what? What the hell is wrong with fighting for abortion on demand? ‘Cos at the moment women have to jump through hoops to get one. What is not progressive about women controlling their own reproductive rights? And shopping? What do you mean? And sex what is so wrong with sex…. should people only do it twice a week with the lights off and even then they are pushing it? Sorry but this is just a moralistic diatribe.

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  12. Chris P Avatar
    Chris P

    Labour Group not letting this through was nothing to do IMO with the substantive motion. It was typical Town Hall politics. Labour don’t want to be passing Respect motions and they hadn’t been competent enough to have a good amendment lined up. I mentioned this in supporting Salma Yaqoob’s overall point but not detailed argument re Holocaust Memorial Day here. The Respect lot could soon be faced with the opportunity to govern Tower Hamlets in league with the tories! What should they do comrades? What will they actually do? Choice being between ganging up with Labour or with Tories.

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  13. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I apologise for not replying, I have been away from home over the holiday!To Chris, it would be inconceivable that Respect would enter into a coalition with any mainstream political party. To Louisefeminista: I will be honest I have not studied the political and philosophical debates around these particular issues (such as prostitution or strip clubs) in any depth and so wouldn’t feel qualified to comment too much, indeed I’m more than willing to listen to people who have thought about these things in more depth than myself and be educated.Personally, while I support the legalisation of prostitution (for reasons such as the protection of sex workers), I can’t see that in a socialist society, sex would be a commodity that people would buy and sellBy the way, I was recently re-reading an interesting interview with Ariel Levy on some of the issues raised earlier (unfortunately the interview doesn’t answer all the questions it raises)http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=9817

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