Sex trafficking is not "sex work".

Jennifer Block's article on sex trafficking in the Summer/Autumn, 2004 issue of Conscience, "Why the Faith Trade Is Interested in the Sex Trade," caused considerable controversy. Janice G. Raymond, of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women International (CATW), requested the opportunity to present an opposing viewpoint.

OVER THE LAST DECADE, certain UN agencies, various governments and some NGOS have promoted the policy that prostitution is voluntary and sex trafficking is forced. Yet, the reality is that prostitution and sex trafficking are habitually co-dependent. In countries that prohibit trafficking but decriminalize the sex industry, prostitution, sex trafficking, the illegal sex sector and child prostitution all expand.

Even the indulgent Dutch are closing down their main tolerance zones, originally promoted as places that would protect women in prostitution and control the influence of organized crime. In 2004, Amsterdam's mayor admitted that the "Tippelzone," Amsterdam's infamous prostitution zone, had become a haven for traffickers and unsafe for women.

Jennifer Block told Conscience readers that certain feminists are everywhere exaggerating the prevalence of sex trafficking, sensationalizing its victims and have gone on a "bizarre picnic" with the right wing. But she interviewed hardly any of these feminists.

The Bush administration has no monopoly on fighting sex trafficking. Trafficking was a priority of the Clinton administration as well. More to the point, trafficking has long been a priority of many feminists. The current US government's position approaches one that many feminists have consistently advocated. So too do feminists favor the policy of the liberal Swedish government which holds that all prostitution is men's violence against women.

The US and Swedish governments have launched a cooperative campaign to prevent prostitution and sex trafficking. In a joint project with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and the European Women's Lobby (EWL), Sweden and the United States will enhance measures to assist victims of trafficking, challenge legalization of the sex industry in Europe and address the demand. This agreement was announced the same week that Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson stated that "Europe will continue to criticize Bush the same way as earlier.... But I do not believe that he will be more willing to listen."

Certain organizations whose staff Block interviewed, such as Jenny Stanger from the Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) and Ann Jordan from the Freedom Network, have received some of the largest federal anti-trafficking grants. If access to Bush administration anti-trafficking funds is a measurement of some "bizarre picnic" with the right wing, then these groups are certainly well-fed.

Then there is the Network of Sex Work Projects. Its website, maintained by the Sex Workers' Alliance in Vancouver, lists "Adult Entertainment Businesses" where sex industry entrepreneurs, also known as pimps, have been promised free advertising.

To its victims, sexual exploitation is neither sex nor sexy. Many progressives

who state that globalized capitalism promotes gender, race and class inequality have a strange reluctance to criticize the sex industry for doing exactly that. They are out of touch with the majority of women in prostitution who want not "better working conditions" but a better life.

Prostitution is not "sex work," it is violence against women. It exists because significant numbers of men are given social, moral and legal permission to buy women on demand. It exists because pimps and traffickers prey on women's poverty and inequality. It exists because it is a last ditch survival strategy, not a choice, for millions of the world's women.

In November 2004, liberal Berkeley defeated Measure Q that would have ranked prostitution the lowest police priority. It was championed by a coterie of "sex workers," whose leader had been convicted of interstate promotion of prostitution, i.e., trafficking. Sixty-four percent of voters were not fooled into thinking that decriminalization of pimps, brothels and buyers protects women in prostitution. Like many feminists, Berkeley voters indicated that they favored de-penalizing the women in prostitution and penalizing those who promote prostitution.

When the American Civil Liberties Union joins with evangelicals to pass the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or when the Congressional Black Caucus works with conservatives to pass the Sudan Peace Act, their progressive credentials are not suspect. Block and her flavored interviewees have a different standard for feminists who work across political boundaries.

Groups who strive to make political change search for ways to act across differences in ideology and tactics. Sometimes, this effort results in organizations acting in loose association. Sometimes, it results in coalitions of those who would never be able to coalesce on other issues such as the war in Iraq or reproductive rights. As civil rights leader Bayard Rustin stated, "The issue is which coalition to join and how to make it responsive to your program ... the difference between expediency and morality in politics is the difference between selling out a principle and making smaller concessions to win larger ones."

Opposing sex trafficking, the system of prostitution and the sex industry doesn't make you a conservative, a moralist or an apologist for some political party or group. It helps make you a feminist and a human rights advocate.

JAN ICE G. RAYMOND is the co-executive director of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women International.