A Decriminalised Future

A poster from SWARM festival of resistance featuring text in red 'Celebrating 10 years of SWARM 2009-1029: A DECRIMINALISED FUTURE: SEX WORKERS FESTIVAL OF RESISTANCE'.

Poster from SWARM festival of Resistance 2019

A terrier-type dog leans their head on a round table, on top of a SWARM conference programme leaflet.

SWARM Festival of Resistance 2019. Photo via Juno Mac

Two white people stand in front of a black cloth backdriop and wooden floors holding up SWARM conference posters. They are both smiling widely.

SWARM Festival of Resistance 2019. Photo via Juno Mac

A large event / theatre like space filled with people.

SWARM Festival of Resistance 2019. Photo via Juno Mac

A table featuring various merchandise from SWARM conference, including pints, badges, books and tshirts.

SWARM Festival of Resistance 2019. Photo via Juno Mac

A table featuring various merchandise from SWARM conference, including pints, badges, books and tshirts.

SWARM Festival of Resistance 2019. Photo: Juno Mac

In May 2019, SWARM hosted a three day festival to celebrate ten years of organising. This included panel discussions across a wide range of topics that impact on sex workers, and which connect and intersect with sex worker rights organising as well as broader struggles for justice. The conversations and discussions from that festival lay the groundwork for the Decriminalised Futures project.

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A Decriminalised Future (May 2019)

This was the opening panel from the Decriminalised Future conference in May 2019. It brought together activists and organisers from across a broad range of movements to discuss drug policy, feminism, migration, anti-trafficking policy, reproductive justice, gender, sex work and our ongoing struggles for decriminalisation.

Full Recording

Transcript

Programme Guide

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Speakers: Blair Buchanan (Decrim Now), Chiara Capraro (Amnesty), Emily Kenway, Rain Watt (TransgenderNI), Kirstie Douse (Release)

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Further reading:

  • The Truth About Modern Slavery (2021) - Emily Kenway. Via Pluto Press.

  • Im/Migrant Sex Workers, Myths & Misconceptions: Realities of the Anti-Trafficked (2015) - toolkit via SWAN Vancouver.

  • A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Across the Globe (2016)- Niamh Eastwood, Edward Fox & Ari Rosmarin. Via Release.

  • The Colour of Injustice: ‘Race’, drugs and law enforcement in England and Wales (2018) - Michael Shiner, Zoe Carre, Rebekah Delsol and Niamh Eastwood. Via Release

A Decriminalised Future is the opening panel discussion of the SWARM 2019 Festival of Resistance.

The topics included:

  • Imagining Feminist Futures

  • Radical Transfeminist Activism

  • Cops Don’t Keep Us Safe: When Survival Is Made Criminal

  • Sex Work and Migration in Europe

  • The Impact of Austerity

  • Sex Workers of Colour Roundtable

  • (Resisting) Systems of Violence

  • Sex Workers on the Nordic Model

  • Artists Talk Bodies, Visibility, and Violence

  • Radical Histories: Exploring the Archives

  • Aesthetics vs Ethics: Expanding Definitions of Feminist Porn

  • How Do Disability and Sex Work Intersect in the UK Today

  • The Future of Work

  • Technology, Surveillance and the State: How We Resist

  • Examining Anti-trafficking Measures: Academic Perspectives

  • Researching Sex Work

  • Strength, Resilience, and Healthcare

  • A Decriminalised Future

Year: 2019
Type: panel discussion
Series: swarm festival of resistance
Subject(s): trafficking drug policy migration reproductive justice gender decriminalisation vawg