#decriminalize poverty

[personal-blog243]

Sex work is arguably one of the most undignified ways women are exploited under capitalism, but they don’t deserve to be incarcerated for it. Laws against “loitering” also disproportionately target homeless people and other marginalized groups who wouldn’t otherwise be engaged in any inherently “illegal” activity.

#California #decriminalize poverty #decriminalize homelessness #decriminalize sex work

[lastcatghost]

#human rights and civil liberties #poverty #classism #capitalism #homelessness #communism #fuck capitalism #late stage capitalism #housing rights #substance use #decriminalize drugs #decriminalised #crimes against humanity #class warfare

[that-gay-jedi]

I'm always surprised when I see people in places where weed is still illegal celebrating steps toward legalization bc I forget that not everyone knows how legal cannabis in Canada only further harmed the same people prohibition had been harming.

It basically put all the good dealers out of business and legitimized the shitty ones, screwed disabled people over in favour of ableds, suffused everything with a cringey weed mom culture with all the same fucked up elements as wine moms, and previous users are now paying more for a lower quality product that's worse for the environment.

Legalization did not bring decriminalization to the majority of people already serving time or living with a criminal record for it, did not reduce the racism involved, and all but halted research into remaining unknowns about how cannabis works.

What it did do was largely cause the kinds of people whose voices are most likely to be heard to forget about decriminalization, medical use, public education on cannabis, and so on. Apparently the only time moneyed, abled and/or white people cared about any of those issues was when it inconvenienced them and now that they can just buy from a government-run covid farm that looks like an Apple store it's out of sight, out of mind.

There's a broader lesson here about how social change does not always equal social progress and you can't trust any system built on exploitation and violence to do anything except find new and more egregious ways to be exploitative and violent.

The only cultural changes that improve things are ones which fundamentally alter how agency, worth, visibility and control are determined and distributed among the living beings belonging to or in contact with the impacted culture. Changes to specific taboos and norms are useless if they leave the load-bearing elements of injustices intact.

I'm already seeing the logical continuation of this in how hallucinogens that might be (re)legalized within my lifetime are being approached. Social assistance in Canada still won't cover anything except CBT and (some) medication, and even their coverage of CBT is tenuous (and the CBT that's covered is of dubious quality). You really think people who could benefit from new treatments are going to have them?

Whenever people excitedly share news about psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy being approved for certain patients or results of yet another study into the effects of such substances on lingering trauma symptoms etc etc I think, "Great, one more goddamn thing that traumatized people who are already struggling to access various broadly accepted or established treatments won't get to use."

It's all repainting the walls without replacing the rotten foundation. And the building is going to fall just as soon and just as hard as it was going to before, with just as many people inside.

#decriminalization #cannabis #legalization #mental health #social justice #public health #social determinants of health #ableism #classism #racism #policing #poverty #the ways in which we continue to gentrify everything from drugs to abstract concepts astound me #do you ever get tired? #cause i sure do

[djuvlipen]

Now is as good as ever to remind everyone that the US has been actively undermining, harming and hindering the Romani rights movement in Europe. They have a hold on all the major Romani organizations in Europe. These orgs are dependent on US fundings to function. That means the US has been able to push a neoliberal agenda in those orgs that support the decriminalization of prostitution (that disproportionately harms Romani women) and the free market (even though 80% of the entire Romani population lives in poverty under capitalism). These Romani rights groups are led and funded by white Americans. The Roma working in these Romani rights groups have reported racist harassment. The US has been uprooting Romani-led grassroots organizations and preventing the creation of a radical antiracist Romani rights movement. And if you want to know more about this it's all in Angéla Koczé's book Gender, Ethnicity and Class: Romani Women's Political Activism and Social Struggles (x)

I know the trendy joke right now is that Europeans are sooo Hitler when it comes to the Roma but the US has profited off Romani slave labour for centuries before slavery was abolished. The US deprived Roma from US citizenship. US Holocaust memorial groups have been excluding Roma from their councils for decades and have pushed for decades the idea that Roma were persecuted by the Nazis but not to the point of genocide. Ian Hancock talked about all this (x).

Still today the US police is racially profiling US Roma (x).

#roma #usa #united states

[vacuouslyfalse]

hey! i saw a short comment you made about it, and i’m curious about your thoughts on complete/absolute prison abolition & anarchism.

Sure. So, prison abolitionists are entirely correct about their basic thesis - prisons are state-run torture facilities that are a net drain on society. The prison system is a horror that needs to be changed.

I don't really think the immediate, absolute abolitionist position makes any sense, though. I have yet to receive a satisfying answer on how to replace the prison system.

My own approach looks something like this:

Put fewer people in prisons.

The most obvious example that gets cited is drug users, and I tend to agree that all drug use should be decriminalized. People should only be sent to prison if they are actively hurting the people around them.

2. Don't put people in prison for as long as we currently do.

Mandatory minimum sentences are evil, maximum sentences should be lowered. Old people should not be in prison for things they did as teenagers.

3. Make prisons themselves nicer.

Going to gesture vaguely at the Scandinavian model for this one, but: having your freedom massively restricted is bad enough. Getting beaten, raped, and everything else that happens in most prisons traumatizes people to the point where they are incapable of having normal lives if they get out. It is also a moral atrocity.

4. Address the socioeconomic causes of crime.

Without getting too deep into it, the link between poverty and crime is obvious and well-established and there's a fair amount of evidence that suggests we can drastically reduce certain types of crime via a better social safety net.

In addition, any sane society that wanted to reduce recidivism instead of virtually incentivizing it would put a lot more effort into reintegrating ex-prisoners into society and getting them jobs.

Anarchism is a bit of a catch-all word for a lot of different ideologies and tendencies. Getting it out of the way at the start, there's a lot of intersection between primitivism and anarchism, and I have very little patience for this. I think primitivism is a mixture of stupid and evil, and it is basically never worth engaging with.

I tend to agree with non-primitivist anarchists about most subjects. Authority is not to be trusted, states are pretty much always doing fucked up things, etc etc. I also can't help but notice that a lot of very effective groups that focus on immediately trying to help people are anarchist-aligned, which I respect a lot.

I think I don't really respect it as an ideology, though. The bits of anarchist theory I've read are... honestly worse than the communist theory I've read, and I don't even like communist theory. There's a lot of vague gesturing at stateless organizing without any real idea of what that might look like in a world with 8 billion people, in a concrete sense.

#ideology #an incomplete critique but whatever #at some point i have to stop writing and just post the responses or else things will keep sitting in my drafts

[brightlotusmoon]

Part of that effort should include “decriminalizing addiction, homelessness, poverty, HIV status, and disabilities, including mental health diagnosis, by legalizing marijuana and overdose prevention sites, declining to criminally prosecute low-level offenses such as loitering and theft of necessity goods, and expunging the records of individuals for all drug-related offenses.”

The resolution, which currently has 16 cosponsors in addition to Pressley, also points out that approximately 30 percent of the federal prisoners are serving drug-related sentences.

[genderkoolaid]

TBH it's just. very interesting reading the SWERF response to that post because they all seem to be coming from the idea that I think sex work is empowering and awesome. So they clearly did not read my post and just saw that I am against SWERFs and assumed I must think prostitution is the world's greatest career.

Like... yes. Sex work is often done by poor, desperate women with no other choice. The same can be said for dangerous physical labor and poor, desperate men. I agree that sex work is highly entangled with misogyny.

But regardless of the nature of work, if that is their only choice, taking away that choice as an option... isn't going to magically improve their life. If someone literally cannot get any other job but sex work, banning them from sex work isn't going to suddenly open up other options. It's just going to make their life that much harder.

And like I said in the tags, it seems like their ultimate trump card for why sex work bad is "paying for sex makes it coercive and therefore rape!!"

Which, again, how is that any different from physical labor? We literally have the concept of "wage slavery", so this isn't untrodden ground. If I have no other option but to take whatever manual labor job I can, which results in severe damage to my body and drains me emotionally, all because I literally have no other choice to prevent myself from homelessness and starvation... am I really choosing to work? Can I really consent?

And ultimately, I think that's a different question from legality. Whether or not any worker under capitalism can truly consent to their work when the alternative is poverty and death is a more philosophical question. If you go up to an undocumented immigrant who takes whatever job they can and say "you know, you can't actually consent, so this job is really slavery and that's awful! I'm gonna try and make this illegal, to save you!" Their response would probably be that they don't particularly care if they ~can't truly consent~ since making their job illegal would fucking kill them. The vast majority of poor workers don't give a shit about philosophical debates over if consent is possible under capitalism, they care about whether or not they get paid enough money to not die.

Banning sex work isn't going to get rid of it. It's just going to make it harder for sex workers to be protected. Sex worker unions and sex work activists generally push for decriminalization, to allow sex workers full control over their work without the state controlling them. Whether or not you think they can truly consent doesn't matter, what matters is making sure they have full autonomy, that they have the money they need to survive, and that they are able to get help when they need it. Your solution may feel morally better but practically, does it actually help people? Or do you have deeply rooted beliefs about sex and sex work that you refuse to critically analyze?

#m. #whorephobia #99% of their rhetoric hinges on the idea that sex is uniquely damaging #which is a take which is born out of sexphobia #and the denial other workers trauma and pain from their forms of labor

[the-visionary-collective]

Towards your pro drug stance: I complete agree with you except on public use. It should be decriminalized but there are undeniably certain drugs that are more likely to make an otherwise pleasant and enjoyable person extremely unpredictable and potentially even dangerous, and on the flip side drugs that make it so easy for people to hurt the user while they’re intoxicated. We should have more safe use centers and better education on drugs and usage as a whole. If we begin to solve larger issues like poverty, our poor mental health system, and the failing education system then we can focus on the social destigmatization of all drugs, otherwise it will just be another way for people to justify the awful treatment of addicts and the demographics of people who are more likely to be users.

Additionally, certain drugs like meth, which are suspended in a crystalline structure and vaporized, are incredibly dangerous to inhale even secondhand outside. Meth, once vaporized, sticks to absolutely everything including a passerby. It can stick to your clothes, your hair, and your skin. It’s so dangerous, in fact, that they have to completely tear down houses that have had meth cooked in them even once because of how horribly it sticks inside the walls. That’s not a stigmatization, just an unfortunate truth.

Public use of “hard” drugs could also be very detrimental to children, animals, and disabled people. Accidents happen. That’s okay. But we should be doing everything we possibly can to mitigate risk and make society as a whole safer and kinder towards the most vulnerable members. Public intoxication laws are for the safety of the community and the individual, not just because of the stigma.

This post is a reply to the ask above and a clarification of what i meant in this post: https://www.tumblr.com/kazzos-korner/746697691272282112/content-warning-this-post-contains-two-opinions

The rest of the post is under the cut because its extremely long and i dont wanna flood tags with a long ass post

Hi, thanks for the reply, i base a lot of my moral beliefs around scientific fact and this really helps me shape my previously morally wrong belief into a belief that fits my moral code fully.

To touch on the point of meth and other long lasting drugs, i didn’t actually know it could cause such bad physical harm so far down the line because of it being able to stick on to and off of surfaces easily, this is a great example of why we need more pro use and harm reduction based drug education because this completely changes my point of view

Relating to your point on the rational decision making impairing symptoms of many drugs, you obviously cannot fully consent to anything on those types of drugs because of the afformentioned impairing of rational descision making, so physical harm isnt something that can be consented to both ways while on drugs and should be dealt with in a legal sense if and when it happens

Additionally, i do believe legally enforced consequences to unconsensual harm should be a thing, however i also believe the current prison system is currently very harmful to any possibility of recovery of harmful behaviours because of corrupt and hypocritical governments that unconsensually harm and dehumanize criminals and that needs to be changed as a whole (examples of the harmful things commonly done in prisons being things like solitary confinement and slave labour in prisons, these things have happened and continue to happen with legal protection in prisons all the time and are normalized and are extremely mentally and/or physically harmful).

For some extra context, My morals and beliefs around commiting any type of harm onto others and/or oneself is that its okay to do and should be accepted legally and/or socially as long as its a well informed and consensual decision made by all participants, (basically the beliefs of full bodily autonomy being a basic right and informed consent being the #1 priority when it comes to inducing any type of harm towards someone else.)

I geuss my point of all this rambling is that in the post i made i meant drugs that do not impair decision making skills and drugs that dont get stuck in materials and stick in materials long enough to cause harm from breathing them in later down the line

For an example of these types of drugs: nicotine (I know the current laws are more chill when it comes to nicotine in most places but still) from what i know it cant cause bodily harm because its particles getting stuck in materials and can only harm you from inhaling the smoke from my knowledge, this goes back to my point of it specifically being specifically public open and well ventilated places.

Additionally, from what i know nicotine doesnt cause any decision making skill impairment, at least not to an extent where you could become violent and harm others

i am personally of the opinion that if you dont want to experience any of the affects of drugs you shouldnt have to experience them. (especially the physically harmful affects, because obviously not everybody wants to have medical issues and wants to potentially die because of them, death is a scary concept for a lot of people because we dont know anything about the afterlife and how it may work and the unknown is a fear that lot of people have)

I hope all of this rambling clarifies what i meant, i often forget important points when sharing my beleifs so ive been trying to always reply with clarification when someone educates me on how my moral code and beliefs may contradict each other!!

Thank you for reading this long ass post, i struggle with making sentences short while still conveying my points in a way that still makes the most sense to everyone, so i appreciate it when someone takes the time out of their day to read my point of view, it makes me feel good because it makes me feel heard in a world that doesnt typically listen to others problematic points of view.

#~let’s have a chat~ #pro rq 🌈🍓 #rq 🌈🍓 #rqc🌈🍓 #radqueer #radqueer please interact #rq please interact #rq safe #rq community #pro radqueer #radqueer safe #pro rq #pro drug use

[96thdayofrage]

I sent my editor a draft of an essay questioning the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. I did not have the energy to respond to the potential backlash from readers, so I sat on my criticisms, reflected on my arguments and prayed that I would be wrong. Then last week, an 18 year old white supremacist drove to a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and murdered 10 Black people. He published a manifesto espousing his horrific views and penciled a racial slur on his gun. Maybe he hadn’t heard about the consequences listed in the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. Or, maybe he was willing to accept them in exchange for the lives he took. Cops arrested him like they arrested white supremacist shooter Dylann Roof– alive and with care.

I can only imagine the power and affirmation that elders and ancestors would feel to witness a federal anti-lynching act finally become law in the United States, and then a couple of months later, another mass lynching happens. It pains me to picture what they endured: the bodies that Black people pulled down from ropes, the ashes they swept into sacred canisters, the swollen babies they recovered from riverbanks. It blesses me to think of their resistance, too. Black activists formed anti-lynching organizations, created self-defense teams, wrote newspaper articles, boycotted white establishments, ran for office, sued in courts, demanded legislation, and much more. They fought white mobs, escaped, and turned potential victims into survivors.

These anti-lynching crusaders used so many different tactics to not only try to end lynching, but to try to end the kind of society where Black people could be vulnerable to the rope. Throughout US history, Black and multiracial social movements demanded economic, educational, and medical justice to increase their agency to live the kinds of lives that they deserved. Others pushed these measures for over a 100 years because they probably believed that criminalization might deter Ku Klux Klan members, cops, and white communities from murdering Black people. However, it is the duty of the living to learn the contexts for the particular demands that activists agitated for throughout history, and determine the utility of their tactics today. People who care about justice, and those of us who are courageous enough to fight for it, must refuse to solely accept symbolic civil rights acts if we truly want to save lives.

For example, decriminalization activists and scholars have demonstrated that calls for criminalization are not the deterrent to crime that many of us assume, especially since the US often perpetuates the violence that it seeks to punish. Instead, criminalization fuels surveillance, policing, incarceration, poverty, and communal violence that makes society less safe for us all. Anti-criminalization organizers argue that these consequences also bear down on the people that the law was theoretically intended to protect. In 2015, prosecutors charged and a judge convicted a Black person under an anti-lynching law for attempting to protect a Black Lives Matter protestor from being arrested.

If Congress wanted to actually fight white supremacist violence, it could fund grants for schools to teach racial justice education. Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act at a time when states are making it illegal to teach about Emmett Till. If the federal government wants to stop or at least slow down a new generation of potential white supremacists, it must make vigorous, affirmative efforts to openly and financially support schools and community organizations doing this work.

Instead of giving more money to the police departments that often hire white supremacists, the federal government could give money to organizations that help white people leave white supremacist organizations and discourage them from joining. Additionally, the US president should stop promising to give more money to the police after a cop kills a Black person. It is a perverse payday that affirms the actions of police to the white supremacist spectators who emulate cops. What’s terrifying is that the Buffalo shooter did not have to commit a mass killing; he literally could have just joined any of the thousands of police departments and killed Black people over time. The prevalence of explicit white supremacists joining law enforcement agencies is so high that the country’s top law enforcement agency- the FBI- has been sounding the alarm to raise awareness for more than two decades. And despite the rise in killings by police, Republicans and Democrats largely compete to give cops more funding, credibility, and protection.

Congress must also commit to ending wars and militarism. Major violent institutions like prisons, police departments, and the military are bastions for white supremacist recruiters who grab isolated and alienated working-class white people to build their ranks. War additionally inspires civilians in the US to violently attack people who descend from places where our drones drop. Or, they join rightwing militia groups like the Oathkeepers, Sheepdogs, and Proud Boys to cement a war-like mentality often replete with martial gear and training. Thus, it is no surprise that the Buffalo shooter dressed in the similar military fashion that many other white, male mass shooters wear during their violence.

Demilitarization, decriminalization, decarceration, and defunding the police all help to shrink the sites of armed, white supremacist organizing. As we continue to build an abolitionist society, let us never forget that the same state that has passed this anti-lynching legislation is at the root of what conditioned the Buffalo shooter to target Black people.

[beardedmrbean]

Did you see the UN-backed legal recommendation that minors should be able to consent with no age specifications? They're not even hiding it anymore. Disgusting.

Been seeing things about it, haven't have much of a chance to read into it yet.

Got fox open already so I'll go there, they're one that it's easy to read between the lines on. I have a feeling some of it is overblown, as these things tend to be.

Both sides like to blow things out of proportion.

A shocking report issued by international legal experts with the backing of the United Nations appears to open the floodgates to normalize sex with minors. 

"Sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual in fact, if not in law," the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists wrote in March with an assist from UNAIDS and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report is titled "The 8 March Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law Proscribing Conduct Associated with Sex, Reproduction, Drug Use, HIV, Homelessness and Poverty."

It is published front-and-center on the group's website.

It does not actively call for decriminalizing sex between adults and minors. But it states that children have both the capacity and the legal right to make sexual decisions. ______ Folks start editorializing from there on in, so clipping that off. This appears to be what people are sticking on.

Don't know this website I'm stealing this map from, but I'm just gonna trust it's accurate.

Got aoc laws that have 21 as the minimum and must be married which can be whatever age they get married at, with hopefully not a gross minimum age like 6 years old or anything.

So it's not like they're entirely wrong, 16/17 year old likely is capable of consenting to sex even if the local AOC is 20, but good lord there are much better ways to put it.

Diplomatic speak in situations like this needs to be curbed in favor of actually setting a red line for things, may not apply to all cases but it still needs to exist imho.

#anonymous

[lemccr]

Previous Post in the series. Next Post in the series

Homelessness in Gotham, Gone?

An article by Julia Remarque

Earlier today Jason Todd-Wayne gave a speech about the future of the Martha Wayne Foundation and the proactive stance they plan to take on the rise in homelessness in Gotham and how their plan to address it in a city-wide campaign about the 8 key issues facing the houseless community in Gotham. They project that they can drastically decrease the number from Over 5,000 people in the next three years with this plan. 

“The issues facing the low-income and homeless community are complex and multifaceted. Some of the most significant issues include:

Lack of affordable housing: One of the main causes of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. This can be due to high housing costs, low wages, and a shortage of available rental units.

Poverty: Homelessness is often a symptom of poverty. People living in poverty may not be able to afford housing, food, and other basic necessities.

Mental health and substance abuse: Many homeless individuals struggle with mental health issues and substance abuse. These issues can make it difficult for them to maintain stable housing and employment. We are equipping all employees at Wayne Enterprises with Harm Reduction and Suicide prevention training, additionally, we will expand this training through the community centers currently under construction. 

Physical health problems: Homelessness can lead to poor physical health due to lack of access to healthcare, poor living conditions, fear and Joker toxin inhalation, and exposure to the elements. By opening three more clinics that offer a “pay what you can” model those who are in need of healthcare are not limited by the lack of insurance and are instead supported in this critical need. 

Lack of support systems: Many homeless individuals may not have access to family or community support systems, making it harder for them to find and maintain stable housing. We plan to address this with the opening of community centers that offer job training, free counseling, and places to gather without the threat of the elements. 

Lack of access to education, job opportunities, and social services: Homelessness can make it difficult to access education, job opportunities, and social services, which can make it harder for homeless individuals to improve their situations. Each of the community centers that we are funding will have food banks as a part of the services that they offer, this can help families eliminate the decision between paying the rent or starving, in addition to providing food security to those without homes. 

Criminalization of homelessness:  Gotham criminalizes activities such as sleeping or camping in public spaces, panhandling, and loitering, which can make it harder for homeless people to survive. We want to address the legislature around this issue to decriminalize the struggle to survive and provide criminal record erasure as part of this new legislature for non-violent offenders. This is not only penalizing someone in their struggle but also prevents them from access to safe housing and many jobs because of the criminal record this creates.

Villain attacks: Villains such as Scarecrow, Joker, and the Penguin cause homelessness with the destruction of property and further plague them with chemical attacks that they are now more vulnerable to due to exposure to the elements. We will have mobile response units equipped with first aid, the latest anti-toxin, and water available within every five-block radius of an attack. Additionally, we will be providing self-defense training in our community centers to prevent more people from becoming the next victim statistic. 

It's important to remember that homelessness is a complex issue and requires a multi-faceted approach to address it effectively. But above all, each person suffering from homelessness is worthy of dignity and respect. It is the promise of the Martha Wayne Foundation to treat every individual who walks through their doors with human decency, a hot meal if they need it, and a listening ear. Alone we are unable to meet the needs of the community, but together, hand in hand we can see a better future for a better Gotham.”

Readers, if like myself, after reading this article you are asking yourself “How can I help with the community outreach program” Here are five easy ways you can become involved.  

Donate money or goods to local shelters or organizations that provide services to the homeless. 

Volunteering at a homeless shelter or one of the Community Centers. This can be done with your friends, family, or even just yourself. 

Supporting policy changes that address the root causes of homelessness, such as lack of affordable housing and access to healthcare and mental health services.

Educating oneself about the issues facing the homeless community’s issues and sharing that knowledge with others to raise awareness and inspire action.

Getting trained in Harm Reduction, First Aid, and Suicide Prevention through the Martha Wayne Foundation. 

If we all take one small step in the right direction in helping the basic needs of our community to be met, maybe one day there will be no more need for vigilantes, but instead, a force of everyday Gothamites equipped to address the needs of their Neighbors, Friends, Family, and Coworkers in ways that prevent more lives lost. 

I am left wondering if this boy from Gotham’s Streets will rise to the challenge or go like those who have tried and failed before, burnt out in the days, weeks, and years to come.

#batman #gotham #breaking news #jason peter todd #dc universe #Julia is coming for the Waynes #eat the rich #eat the 1% #bruce wayne #batfamily #only in gotham #gothamite #julia pennyworth #Charity Director!Jason Todd Au #Gotham as told by news articles #Martha Wayne Foundation #Charity Director!Jason Todd

[lastcatghost]

On one of the least surprising turn of events since oregon decriminalized substance use, the lack of accessible and realistic resources to actually help people gain a footing in recovery, instead in the public eye, ignorant of the reality, the general assumption is so many people using in the open, the blame shifts entirely on the people suffering, if they're still using they just don't want help. The changing of the law also aided the misplaced judgment as people general grew more and more resentful at the lack of police interactions and incarceration of homeless users.

Now as anyone understanding this tactic could see coming, cities across Oregon and many pig chiefs are starting to publicly call for re Criminalization of substances, and they'll likely not only succeed with this, but I'd bet anything when the law changes back to locking users up again, it will be even harsher than every other state. They'll claim decriminalization was a failed experiment and proves heavier sentences and allowances for the police to pursue any suspected user or dealer.

God forbid they give people things like housing and actual treatment so they can have a way to even attempt recovery, when instead they can publicly be used as live public propaganda pawns, thus increasing the publics approval for incarnation in the slavery system that is US prisons, it's providing housing that they can profit off of, so clearly that's what's better for business after all. Can't have a surplus of slave labor if people get real help.

#portland #decriminalize drugs #human rights and civil liberties #capitalism #poverty #classism #homelessness #fuck capitalism #late stage capitalism #communism #class warfare #us prisons #us propaganda #prison system #abolish the police #abolish prisons

[gaytog]

What exactly are your political leanings since you're no longer an anarchist? I'm a bit curious since I do like the thoughts you have on things

I don't pay much attention to what my government is doing on any given day, largely because I no longer believe that politics is my best avenue toward changing the world for the better. I do, however, have a few rules of thumb to guide me through elections.

At the local level, I'm a single-issue voter in favor of urban density—that is, building more housing in cities, getting cars off the streets, and preventing urban sprawl. I've made this a priority because it does a lot of good things all at once: lowers rents (which in turn reduces poverty and homelessness and allows more immigration), combats climate change, reduces road traffic deaths.

At the national level, and especially when it comes to electing a president, I'm a single-issue voter against U.S. military involvement anywhere for any reason. If I knew more macroeconomics I might care more about international trade policy, which can also result in widespread devastating harms—but given how very little attention I'm willing to lend to national politics, I'm content to leave my stance at "We're the evil empire and we need to stop."

Overall I'm extremely libertarian (in the social sense); I'm in favor of decriminalizing drug use and sex work, and otherwise letting people do whatever they want that doesn't hurt anyone else.

My voting is not any sort of glowing endorsement of my government, which I think is pretty corrupt and terrible! I just want to put in a little time and effort to keep the wheels of democracy turning, since even a corrupt, violent, imperialistic democracy is much better than the readily available alternatives.

[mxthtea]

swerfs have got to be normal sex. especially when it comes to sex workers. it's not dirty to like sex or be paid for it.

many sex workers suffer from poverty and take up sex work for a form of income. (this is not to say that all sex workers work in sex work due to their economic struggles, as many take it up for different reasons) with the criminalization of sex work, the industry has been pushed underground and making it more dangerous for sex workers. people of color who work in the industry are more likely to be exploited and arrested on top of that. trans people who work as sex workers as well.

former sex worker kaniya walker wrote a short article that was posted on november 20, 2020. in the second paragraph, she writes- "Thirty-seven trans people have been killed since January. The real number is probably even higher. Trans people are often misgendered by law enforcement or don’t report attacks, so we don’t even know about most of the violence that happens to our sisters. Most of the deaths this year were of Black trans women. Many were sex workers." she continues to speak on decriminalizing sex work, especially for trans woman of color.

the article link is imbed in the text here, feel free to read the article for more information.

swerfs criminalizing sex work and viewing it as "bad" or whatever label will only make this worse. you say you support women until you learn they identify as trans, or work as a sex worker, or aren't "feminine" enough.

you aren't hiding your racism nor your capitalistic beliefs either. swerfs and terfs can't use their form of "feminism" as a way to hide from it. you don't want equal rights and opportunities given to women, you don't believe in equality.

if anyone wants to add on or critique what i've written, then feel free to. swerfs and terfs, i'm not interested in reading what bullshit rebuttal you can try to come up with.

#important #transgender #fuck swerfs #fuck terfs #ask to tag #i am aware i am 17 and not legally an adult but i will make my opinions known on this #thank you lovely qp partner astra for helping me with writing this

[djuvlipen]

Are there orgs that specifically support Roma women? What are the top issues affecting Roma women and how can allies help?

So there are organizations that specifically "support" Romani women. However, neoliberal groups like the EU and private actors have been undermining them (in the case of grassroots orgs) or hijacking them to push a neoliberal agenda. Angéla Koczé, a Hungarian Romani radical feminist, has written extensively about that (there are links to it in my pinned post).

For example, in Romania, the country with the largest Romani population in the world, the largest Romani org is e-rromnja, which supports decriminalizing sex work. e-rromnja, as well as major EU-funded romani orgs like the ERRC, has worked with Antonella Lerca Duda, a Romani transwoman who created Sex Work Call, a pro-sex work organization that wants to decriminalize sex work. Sex Work Call is a member of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, which is itself associated with the 'Red Umbrella' pimp lobby.

In Spain, the largest Romani 'feminist' organization is Gitanas Por La Diversidad, which also supports decriminalizing sex work and gender ideology.

In Germany, there's a Romani feminist organization called RomaniPhen, it has no stance on prostitution as far as I know, and is msotly aligned to EU-style corporatism. It's very inoffensive as far as I can tell.

So all the Romani feminist organizations are divided into what I'd call corporate feminism (ie pushing for Romani women's empowerment and pushing for their joining the entrepeneur class) and pro-sex work lobbies.

There are exceptions to this, it mostly takes the form of local initiatives.

The major exception is Amoun Sleem's Domari Society in Jerusalem, which aims at supporting the Palestinian Dom community (a people affiliated with Roma). It's not focused exclusively on women's issues but it's still a big part of their program: x

Personally, I think the biggest issues faced by Romani women right now are these:

Prostitution, pimping and sex trafficking. Romani women make up the bulk of the European sex trade. We are overrepresented in prostitution. Most prostitues in German and Dutch brothels are from Eastern Europe, and Romani women make up 50-90% of Eastern European prostitutes (I have more info about this in my pinned post)

Poverty. 80% of European Roma live at risk of high poverty. Women are particularly impacted, especially when it comes to healthcare and education access (not helped by segregation). It has been shown that lack of access to education increases risk of child marriage and unemployment. Overall, the average life expectancy is 15 years shorter for Roma than for the global European population. Romani women have higher risk of pregnancy complications than other European women.

Religion. Roma have been converting to the Evangelical Christian faith at a very alarming rate, in all of Europe. I think in some places, as much as a third of Roma are Evangelicals. This is a problem because Christian fundamentalism undermines organizing among Roma, prevents us from addressing the roots of our oppression (racism). For women, the Evangelical Christian faith means restriction, subjugation, being silenced, being policed, being forced to marry a man and give up our lives for men, being powerless. I have a post about that in my pinned as well.

As to how can allies help... I don't think you can, sadly. I don't think we can even help ourselves. The situation is too dire and our movement has been cut out before it could even start. Romani people didn't have time to start organizing to fight racism before liberals took over and start pushing for capitalism when Roma are the most impacted by capitalism in Europe. Romani women didn't have time to start fighting sexism before liberals started saying we should legalize pimping Romani women. Maybe raising awareness about all of this is the first step: people usually are very unaware of the full extant of anti-Roma racism and of the misogyny Romani women face. If we have to take the more radical path, we should push for the abolition of the sex trade, of patriarchy, of capitalism (including the EU, who has been killing our movements for decades!) and of white supremacy, because it's what has been killing Romani women for centuries now

But there is so much work to do and so little women who want to get mobilized that I don't see how we could achieve liberation one day. Sigh

#roma #asks #anon #questions

[bunnygiggles]

The Problem with Prostitution

LEGALIZING PROSTITUTION WOULD NOT HELP PROTECT WOMEN AT ALL. It will never be dignifying for women because it will only dignify the sex industry. It is innately abusive, not just in a sexual way, but also promoting exploitative one-sided relations that would only benefit the patriarchal society. 

Some would say prostitution is a job opportunity and that they needed it because that is what they can do. It is like, “if women are often objectified, why not make a profit out of it?” mentality. It is saddening to know and see that these women have no options. This signifies that the lack of choices is indeed a sign of oppression. 

One of the ROOT CAUSES of women entering the world of prostitution is poverty. They opt for this choice out of necessity and not because they want it. They need money to sustain their needs, and some also do it to provide for their families.

Another cause is unemployment. The lack of job opportunities for women because of discrimination or even impossible qualifications made them do it. The lack of skills also contributes to the difficulties of employment and thinking that prostitution could be a choice because living in a patriarchal society, women are often viewed as sexual objects that satisfy men's sexual fantasies. 

A third cause of prostitution is because of family negligence. Women who grew up without family guidance and protection are easily swayed to pathways comprising bad decisions after bad decisions. Such vices as alcohol and substance abuse, peer pressure, and victims of sexual abuse would make them seek validation outside their homes and in the streets, offering themselves to people who “accept and love” them, which could lead to prostitution. 

Instead of legalizing it by trapping them in an abusive occupation, why not make SOLUTIONS so that they can escape from it?

One solution is to promote public awareness through educational engagements. Campaigns about women's rights and welfare are necessary, not just for women, but also for men's participation. Reform of a system should always start at the grassroots level to cut the root causes of harmful effects of prostitution. 

In terms of societal issues, there should be more employment opportunities and greater access to social services that do not only benefit the privileged. This can be achievable through good governance. The distribution of such needs would eradicate the chances of engaging in prostitution because the basic needs would be met, and poverty would be gradually eradicated. Poverty does not produce laziness to find jobs, but it also leads to selective opportunities in life due to some qualifications not being met. 

Lastly, prostitution should not be legalized. Some would say that decriminalizing prostitution would defend the rights of female sex workers. But in reality, it will just raise the demand of availing them, making them also prone to abuse and violence so that it will be so common and normalized, which should not be in the first place. It would also decriminalize the pimps and the businesses related to them. Decriminalizing prostitution is legitimizing women's exploitation.