Sex Work and COVID-19

Even though social distancing is incredibly important, we also know that many sex workers will need to go about their business as usual. That is the reality of surviving in a capitalist society while enduring criminalization and stigmatization.Social distancing is a privilege, and it’s not possible for everyone. Therefore the Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network and Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project have created accessible guidelines for sex workers and allies during this time.

Sex workers are and always have been resourceful and resilient.
We are experts in keeping ourselves and our communities safe.
We’ve been doing it for decades! We would like to share our wisdom
and learn from each other on how to overcome this current
challenge.

Sex workers often work in very precarious situations, and it is enerally impossible to access labour protections such as paid sick leave and unemployment insurance. Many of us are experiencing loss of income due to appointment cancellations, decreased demand for services, workplace closures, and sickness. Since sex industry jobs do not offer a salary, sick days, or benefits, there is little to no safety net for sex workers when we are unable to work.

While social distancing is strongly advised, it is particularly challenging for contact sex workers (full service workers, strippers, massage workers, professional dominants, etc), queer and trans sex workers, Black and Indigenous People of Colour (BIPOC) workers at the margins, and otherwise low-income workers to adhere to these recommendations. This is because the loss of income that would result from such social distancing measures prevents them from working, and makes the difference between affording basic needs such as food, medicine, childcare, rent and more.

You can access the document with guidelines HERE.

⚧🏳️‍💜Today is Trans Visibility Day 💜🏳️‍⚧

Trans people fight for the right to be acknowledged an to be seen every day. And because of COVID-19, its even harder when we are socially isolated. There will be no demonstrations or actions today.

But you can fill your virtual facebook walls and other social media with information on trans issues, or with books, movies and art made by people who identify as trans!

But don’t forget to continue to show your solidarity with trans people after trans visibility day! The Bent Bars Project is a letter-writing project for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, gender-variant, intersex, and queer prisoners in Britain. LGBTQ+ people have a long history of being policed and criminalised (and of resisting that criminalistion) yet there are relatively few community resources to support LGBTQ+ prisoners.

https://www.bentbarsproject.org/about

Do you know another good project or initiative which supports the trans community? Share it with us!

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Navigating COVID-19 and chest binding

This guide gives 8 tips to look after your respiratory health for trans people, and non binary people who bind their chest.

If you bind your chest you are at much higher risk of complications from COVID-19. If you have asthma or respiratory illness, this is particulary important.

Share this with your friends and connections, it’s important that we look after each other in these times. 💜

Update

Dear feminists,

Because of the situation concerning COVID-19 (the coronavirus), we are not are currently not organising any events.

We do not want to risk people their health and we want to be mindful about this virus. We think the Dutch government has responded to the spread of the virus too late – and is therefore risking lives. We think everyone with the privilege to stay at home should, or should try to help others in less privileged situations.  This is an important time to show solidarity with each other. Even if you are stuck in your house, it is still good to try and have social contact. Not only is this time difficult for people who are the mentioned as  ‘groups at risk’, but it’s also hard for others. Social contact can be extremely important for people who struggle with depression and other mental health issues, and right now is the time to check on others and take care of them – and of course, of ourselves.

However, we do realise that this time of social distancing can be overwhelmingly difficult. Therefore we will keep on posting different articles about COVID-19 that can hopefully help some people. We will also share interesting articles and zines. If you have recommendations, please send them to us:

kattenkwaad-haf(at)riseup.net

Filmscreening ‘Paris is Burning’

– English below –

Op 6 maart gaan we weer gezamenlijk een film kijken en bespreken!

In de documentaire ‘Paris is Burning’ (1990) wordt er een kijkje genomen in de balcultuur van New York in 1980. De Afro-Amerikaanse, Latinx-, queer- en transgemeenschappen staan centraal in de balcultuur. De documentaire is nog steeds ontzettend relevant en portretteert hoe vibrant, dynamisch en sterk de LGBTQIA+ gemeenschap was (en is!). Ook herinnert de film ons eraan dat veel ongelijkheden die voorkwamen in 1980, nog steeds voorkomen en onze aandacht verdienen. We bespreken voor de documentaire ook de kritiek van bell hooks en Judith Butler.

Na de documentaire is er tijd voor discussie en nagesprek.

De film is Engelstalig, en de ondertiteling zal in het Nederlands zijn.

We hopen je 6 maart te zien! ♥

Datum en tijd: 6 maart om 20:30

Adres: Roggeveenstraat 56, 2518 TR, Den Haag


On the 6th of March, we will watch and discuss a film together!

In the documentary ‘Paris is Burning’ (1990) we get to take a look at the ballculture of New York in 1980. The Afro-American, Lantix-, queer- and transgendercommunities are central in the documantary. Even though the documentary was first screened in 1990, it is still extremely relevant and it portraits how vibrant, dynamic and strong the LGBTQIA+ community is. It also reminds us that many inequalities which occured in the 1980s, still occur today and deserve our attention. Before the documentary we will discuss the critiques on the documentary by bell hooks and Judith Butler.

After the documentary there will be space for discussion.

The language spoken in the documentary is English, and there will be Dutch subtitles.

We hope to see you on the 6th of March! ♥

Date and time: 6th of March, 20h30.

Address: Roggeveenstraat 56, 2518 TR, Den Haag

Feminist Zine Workshop

– English below –

Op 7 februari zines gaan we feministische zines maken in de Ruige Rog!

Wij brengen alles wat nodig is om zines te maken, en voor materialen vragen we donaties. Er zal ook thee en koffie zijn, evenals veganistische koekjes! Volg onze Facebookpagina voor updates: https://www.facebook.com/Kattenkwaadfeministen/.

De ‘workshop’ zal plaatsvinden in de Roggeveenstraat 56, den Haag.

——————————————————————-

On the 7th of February we will create feminist zines at the Ruige Rog!

We will bring all the material that is needed, and will ask for a donation. There will also be tea, coffee and vegan cookies. Follow our Facebookpage if you want to get updates: https://www.facebook.com/Kattenkwaadfeministen/.

The ‘workshop’ will take place at the Roggeveenstraat 56 in the Hague.

 

Solidarity with the Samenscholing and KOZP

Dear feminists,

Last Friday, the Samenscholing, a social center where we have organised several of our events, was attacked by fascists during a Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) congress. These men jumped over a closed fence and tried to come into the Samenscholing, obviously with violent motives, while lighting fireworks and smashing windows. Besides smashing the windows of the Samenscholing, they also damaged the cars which were afterwards unable to drive and had to be towed away. If you are able to donate some money to repair the damage, you can do so via:

Account Number: NL25 INGB 0007 6604 36
Name: VB SOLIDARITEITSFONDS
Citation: DE SAMENSCHOLING

If more money gets donated then needed, this money will go to antiracist groups such as KOZP.

Some of us were present at the congress or in the eatcafé at the Samenscholing during this night. During the years we have seen a lot of attacks from fascists towards activists from KOZP and especially towards people of color. We encourage everyone who can to join one of the KOZP protests, we will post more about these protests the coming days. Hopefully we see you coming Saturday in Scheveningen! 🖤💜

You can find one of the protests against zwarte Piet here.

______________________________________________________

De Samenscholing is a social center located in Moerwijk, The Hague. The building was won during the struggle for the preservation of De Vloek, a squatted free space. De Samenscholing hosts multiple social, cultural, and political activities.

Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) is a collective consisting of the Zwarte Piet is Racism and Stop Blackface campaigns. These two organisations focus on different activities, but in the fight against Zwarte Piet, KOZP has one goal: “KOZP demands that visible changes be made to the racist figure Zwarte Piet. As long as we have to wait for these changes, we will keep bringing this to the public attention by peacefully protesting at the national Sinterklaasintocht (the arrival of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands).” KOZP was initiated in 2014 by the Zwarte Piet is Racism Campaign (an initiative of the foundation “Nederland Wordt Beter”), “Stop Blackface,” and “Zwarte Piet Niet.”

Boycott New York Pizza!

We are calling out to boycott New York Pizza!

While having a nice bikeride in Amsterdam Noord – one of our Kattenkwaad activists was confronted with the new sexist advertisement of New York Pizza. 

The advertisement shows a naked body with two cauliflowers that the person places in front of their breasts, overly sexualising breasts and objectifiying the womxn’s bodies.Sexists advertisements are not new and we see them almost daily, and even though many people call out to end this, not a lot happens. So we are angry and it’s time to throw with those cauliflowers.

LETS BOYCOTT THIS SEXIST BULLSHIT!

You can email New York Pizza and let them know that we are NOT amused about their new advertisement by sending them an email that we will boycott them! Email: service@newyorkpizza.nl

If you don’t feel like sending your own message, you can send this message:

Hi NY Pizza,

Today I saw the new poster campaign on cauliflower. I was quite shocked that this is very women unfriendly! It is incredibly sexist and it objectifies bodies and breasts. These kind of advertisements are just not a way to go in this day and age (also not in the past actually) and it is terrible that you use sexism to sell pizza’s. Take you posters from the streets ASAP, we have started a boycott activity against these advertisements.

It’s also a good idea to send this email to the designers that make this kind of advertisements, which is NATWERK in Amsterdam. Their email address is: info@natwerk.nl

Workshop Sexism, Racism and Other Discriminatory Behavior in Activist Collectives

Sexism, Racism and Other Discriminatory Behavior in Activist Collectives

On the 8th of June, Kattenkwaad will host a workshop on sexism, racism and other discriminatory  behavior in activist collectives or actions at anarchist festival the Pinksterlanddagen

Sometimes you enter an activist or anarchist space and you feel uncomfortable, not welcome and not empowered to voice your opinion or discuss your ideas. Spaces where you are supposed to feel more comfortable because people state that they are striving towards a non-discriminatory world or towards creating a space where everyone is welcome. Yet, underlying power structures that are present in society are often hard to break loose from, also in these communities.  

Feminist initiative Kattenkwaad will host a workshop on sexism, racism, ableism and other discriminatory behaviour in anarchist and activist groups. This workshop will focus on sharing experiences with each other, to discuss what we have been through and how we can deal with these situations. We organise it from an ‘open space’ perspective, which means that there is no set questions to discuss, but everyone is welcome to introduce questions, and to answer them. We believe that we don’t hold all the answers, and together we know way more.

The workshop will be open for everyone who feels like they experience or have experienced discriminatory behaviour. Women and non-binary identifying people their voices and experiences (particularly lesbians and bisexual, women of colour and trans-women) are going to be prioritised throughout the workshop. We hope that no one who wants to join the workshop engages in racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, ageist, classist, sexist or other exclusionary behaviour, including any and all forms of shaming, erasure, and victim blaming. We will interfere whenever we do feel like that is happening and we hope to create a space where people can share if they want to share or not their experiences and approaches to deal with these situations.

About the Pinksterlanddagen

The Pinksterlanddagen (or PL for short) is an anarchist festival which takes place every year in the weekend of pentecost, in the end of May or the beginning of June. This year it will take place on the 8th of June and 9th of June. The program is on Saturday and Sunday, but you can arrive on Friday and stay untill Monday morning. Hot meals in the evening will be provided against additional (low) cost. There is also a canteen where you can get sandwiches, cake, coffee, tea and other food items. Everything is vegan and organic. The festival is alcohol and drug-free.
The PL is only possible if everybody helps out. You can help out by cleaning up, giving a workshop, helping in the kitchen, doing the dishes, making radio, singing a song and many other ways.
The suggested donation is 17,50 for the whole weekend, or 10 euro for a single day. More information on the Pinksterlanddagen can be found on: https://pinksterlanddagen.org/. This pdf-file was published on indymedia.nl and shows you which other workshops are possible to visit during the Pinksterlanddagen: https://www.indymedia.nl/indyfiles/PL-Blokkenschema-2019.pdf

 

Time of the workshop: 14h – 15:30h

Anarchistisch kampeerterrein Appelscha
Aekingaweg 1a

8426GN Appelscha

Hex the Patriarchy Reading Group 2

HEX THE PATRIARCHY Reading Group 2: Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women*

On the 25th of April, we will extent our discussion of the relationship between witchcraft, anti-capitalism and feminism!

In the feminist movement, the depiction of the ‘witch’ has often been used as a symbol for resistance towards patriarchy and used as direct action methods for direct change (think about W.I.T.C.H). Yet, the genocide of women during the early modern witch-hunt era in Europe is often overlooked when we talk of periods in history that have had an impact on social inequalities in contemporary society. Yet, these witch-hunts occurred during the rise of modern day capitalism, and when the political and economic power of the church became very important. Christianity and capitalism sailed together to other places and there too, decided that powerful women*, medicine women*, shamans and everyone who they saw as ‘witches’ were destroyed. In some places in the world, the witch hunts are making a come back .According to Federici:

‘We are witnessing a new surge of interpersonal and institutional violence against women, including new witch hunts, which have occurred alongside an expansion of capitalist social relations.’

This is the second meeting which focusses on Silvia Federici’s ‘Witches, Witch-hunting and Women’. We would like it if you come to the reading group prepared, and if you can also read the previous chapters. Federici will offer us an explanation of how anti-capitalism should be connected with feminism, and the other way around.

We will read and discuss:

– Chapter 5: On the Meaning of Gossip

– Chapter 6: Globalization, Capital Accumulation and Violence Against Women: An International and Historical Perspective

– Chapter 7: Witch-Hunting, Globalization, and Feminist Solidarity in Africa Today

The book ‘Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women’ can be bought at the anarchist bookstore the Opstand, https://opstand.noblogs.org/.

And you can email kattenkwaad-haf(at)riseup.net for a pdf.

Time: 19h

Address: Roggeveenstraat 56, The Hague