Thread by @eekiemout

It’s time again! June 2nd is #Internationalwhoresday when we celebrate the daring tricks and whorestorical delights of the 1975 French #sexworkers strike.

So if you dig a good #whorestory join me as I reach into the archives (if I can get it together).

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The strike was prompted by a string of unsolved brutal murders of sex workers in and around Lyon. At the same time, the police also clamped down on the small hotels where sex workers saw their clients. Sound familiar?

The 40 year + contemporary sex worker rights movement has a vibrant history but most people will have trouble finding anything about it in the public sphere cause stigma means whores are rarely seen as capable of organising anything let alone a workers rights movement.

Strike headquarters was St Nizier Church in Lyon, a celebrated example of French Gothic architecture visited by thousands of tourists each year. But amongst the Church's many displays there's none that acknowledges the week-long asylum seekers who became global media sensations.

News of the strike spread to other sex worker activists like Roberta Perkins from the Australian Prostitutes Collective. During the 1980's she'd recount to us young whore activists the story of the strike. These were our "motivational moments" and we used them to inspire others.

Years later I did my best to uncover the details of the 1975 French sex workers' strike so I could share with other sex workers. "Our Life" was published by the English Prostitutes Collective and is full of strikers personal accounts. I got my copy from @ProstitutesColl.

But I wanted to know more so I went to Lyon to discover what became of the strikers and discovered that Radio France had the most amazing radio archive of the strike. You can hear them in this @radiofrance documentary (with English subtitles).
vimeo.com/139457788

In 2014 Barbara one of the strike leaders was living a simple life as an ordinary grandmother in rural France. She told me she had no regrets and wished to be remembered "neither as a victim nor a saint". Here she is on a stretcher after being "evicted" from the church by police.

Here are some more newspaper reports about the strike from around the world ...

But nothing can compare to the huge and perfectly preserved archive of the strike (and its aftermath) curated by the late Father Louis Blanc. Here he shows me his prized memento, the Police Commissioners gold ring "lost" in the struggle to expel the #sexworkers from the Church

I can confirm that Father Blanc bequeathed his archive to the Lyon Public Library where it waits for others who wish to explore its many riches (thanks to French pop legend @Antoine_en_mer for helping me with that).

Want more? Read this scholarly article that I wrote some years ago....thanks to my comrades @ElenaJeffreys and @nicolegooch for their contributions. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13…

This recent BBC podcast is a positive sign that MM is recognising its importance. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3…

I'd love to see and hear more about the history of the global sex worker's rights movement and where people can find out more about it so please comment. But for now, I'm off to celebrate. Au revoir!