Leeds Council double down on the Managed Approach to on-street prostitution in Holbeck, at Full Council Meeting on 11th November 2020

[AreYouBernard]

As many of you already know, Leeds City Council have decided that prostitution is "sex work", and that the Council condones men travelling to abuse and exploit desperate women forced by poverty into on-street 'sex work'.

Local Conservative Councillor, Cllr Amanda Carter gave them an opportunity to reconsider the Managed Approach, at the Full Council Meeting on 11th November.

Did they decide to backtrack? No. They doubled down.

The debate featured a glorious speech from Cllr Sarah Field.

The Leeds Spinners documented the half-hour long Managed Approach debate during the Full Council Meeting, on their YouTube:

Fantastic piece by @Belstaffie, outlining the horror of Holbeck
uncommongroundmedia.com/holbeck-managed-approach-drowning-not-swimming/

Thanks for posting this. This should be at the helm of feminist demonstration in the UK. It’s our national shame.

What can we do about this? Who can we write to? I agree it's absolutely shameful and these women need to be supported to get out of there. Apart from anything else i assume Leeds Council are not furloughing them?! So they're also at risk of covid as well as all the other risks

The disgusting fact is that our tax pays for Holbeck-it costs money to run it....we are paying for the set up that endangers not only the prostituted women but also women & girls who live nearby. That article is brutal-men have got away with rape, claiming they thought the woman was a prostitute-FFS no means no but that's not enough even for our legal system. What can be done?

@happydappy2

The disgusting fact is that our tax pays for Holbeck-it costs money to run it....we are paying for the set up that endangers not only the prostituted women but also women & girls who live nearby. That article is brutal-men have got away with rape, claiming they thought the woman was a prostitute-FFS no means no but that's not enough even for our legal system. What can be done?

It's The Empire Strikes Back, isn't it? Because women were getting a little more rights, the system came at us in different ways. So now rapes don't get prosecuted, we are told that women like to be choked and slapped in bed, we are told that sex work is just like any other work and even empowering, and our very ability to organise on the basis of the harms done to our sex class is being slowly erased with the erasure of all words meaning the female biological sex, and those who do the erasing are not the bigots, but we are.

Okay. Just wanted to say that.

How do we fight it?

Some thoughts.

Firstly, we need to make sure people know what’s going on. Most of our local Leeds population still don’t know what is going on in their name.

They have deliberately placed the MA in a very poor area, where people are too busy struggling to survive to join in with coffee mornings etc.

That’s why local feminists do ‘stunts’ to raise awareness. Because once people know about it, they are usually outraged. No one thinks it’s ok that this zone exists, never mind is supported by the Labour Council.

So we can support local feminists (CELST, Leeds ReSisters, Leeds Spinners) or National campaigns to inform about prostitution (Object!, Nordic Model Now). It’s always useful to share articles about the harms of prostitution, to help raise consciousness of it as male violence against women and a human rights abuse. Feminists like Julie Bindel, or Dr Em, who frequently write about it.

I also think we need to campaign to unseat some of the Leeds Councillors that are happy to vote for this. Until they lose that dominance over the City Council, they can keep forcing the issue through. So we can either pressure them to change their minds, or simply vote in new politicians.

I shudder to think what the motivation of the councillors who vote for it must be 🤮

If its so successful why don't they move it to somewhere like Bramhope?
Let a different area enjoy the success

Hmm, yes why IS that? You'd think everyone would want it on their doorstep wouldn't you!

It would make more sense. More people drive so local residents are not as at risk
In poorer areas more people rely on public transport so are wandering the streets which is why women and children have been attacked and propositioned

Any man travelling to the zone is breaking Covid 19 rules and will be as Leeds will be in tier 3. Legitimate to report any car that is there with a lone man driving, certainly outside normal business hours where they could be going to work.

Campaigning to unseat councillors (a local slate of candidates) has been used for some campaigns elsewhere, with some degree of success. For example, in Charlton about the football club going back to its home ground. Or the independent MP campaigning for a hospital in Worcestershire a few years ago.

If only someone could set up a webcam to identify and publicly shame the pathetic men who frequent the place

Scottish Feminist Here the MOMENT we can take a train to Leeds I think there should be a national gathering of women so say NOT IN OUR NAME.

Leeds City Council have decided that prostitution is "sex work"..

If it's just like other jobs why confine it to one area? (I know the answer.)

I feel so angryand sorry for the people who live in Holbeck and have to see these scummy, inadequate men in their neighbourhood.

Would it break any law to film the punters (including their registration plates) and then put those clips on a website?

Not identifying the women obvs..

The women trapped in the sex trade in Holbeck are justifiably reluctant to be photographed there (as you can imagine, if you’ve just been raped, or are anticipating being raped, or are obtaining the drugs you need to numb yourself to the pain of being repeatedly raped and sodomised.)

Local residents have utilised the tactic of photographic the number plates of men coming into the zone to perpetrate abuses against the women (see Save Our Eyes website feature “Punter of the Week” saveoureyes.co.uk/punter-kerbcrawler-wr17-odn/) but feminists from Leeds Resisters and Leeds Spinners choose not to use this tactic.

According to the ‘rules’ of the MA, kerb crawling is still supposed to be an offence. The police could theoretically use the information from the many CCTV cameras to send FPNs to drivers of cars harassing women and children in the zone. But they don’t, because they allow men to use it as a free-for-all, no matter how many assaults or rapes or how many frightened children report being propositioned on the way to school

Also, organised crime controls most of the illegal ‘brothels’ where women trapped in sex slavery service unknown numbers of men, and large, meaty blokes are often in evidence as pimps/protection for women (especially the Romanians). Organised criminals don’t think twice about threatening or beating women or men that threaten to interrupt their criminal enterprises. It would therefore be incredibly dangerous work for any woman to photograph punters’ cars.

I have 2 suggestions;

Organise a tax strike where you withhold the portion of your council tax that pays for the Zone (you could put it into escrow with a solicitor).

And also demand that the council creates a zone where they live.

Its the kind of action that should appeal to the local press. Even if they aren't 100% sympathetic it will get people talking.

Can they not be sued? From all the stories about this particular area, with schoolgirls regularly being groomed as a direct result of them allowing this trade in that area, surely that goes against their mandate to work for the city and its citizens?

It is one thing to allow prostitution in the general sense, and a totally different to allow it, and even dare calling it 'manage', in such a way that directly and demonstrably causing great harm to people.

Leeds Resisters recently campaigned to get the Council to conduct an Equalities Impact Assessment, because of the unequal impact on people who share the protected characteristics “sex” (I.e. female) and those that share the protected characteristic “age” (I.e. children).

I think there could be grounds for a Judicial Review of the decision to con

uncommongroundmedia.com/leeds-resisters-women-protest-against-the-managed-approach/