Think Again is a social media campaign that challenges people to think critically about their involvement with mainstream anti-trafficking campaigns.
This campaign highlights how anti-trafficking campaigns may be incompatible with many people’s political beliefs and values.
Day One
Does the social justice movement align with your values? This supporting mainstream anti-trafficking campaigns is an important social justice cause? Think again.
Day One
This week we will be sharing why mainstream anti-tracking campaigns might not be compatible with your political beliefs and values.
Day One
Most anti-trafficking campaigns actually mean violating the rights of sex workers. Stop human trafficking with rights, not rescue.
Day Two
Strive to be anti-racists? Then think again before supporting mainstream anti-trafficking campaigns.
Day Two
Anti-trafficking campaigns promote racist stereotypes of villians, victims, and heroes. Pictures like this one reinforces the racist trop of victims and villains.
Day Two
Anti-trafficking initiatives result in police racially profiling racialized sex workers, leading to over-surveillance, over-policing, and violence at the hands of the police.
Day Two
Stop human trafficking with rights, not rescue. Sex workers demand rights not rescue. Rights not policing.
Day Three
Support defunding the police? The war on “sex trafficking” is akin to the “way on drugs” and has become a huge cash cow for police departments.
Day Three
Despite millions of dollars being distributed to police annually for anti-trafficking efforts, there have only been 92 prosecuted trafficking cases in Canada between 2001 and 2018, of which only 45 resulted in a trafficking-specific conviction. You do the math.
Day Three
Defunding anti-trafficking efforts that harm sex workers and redirecting money to sex workers’ rights-based organizations that prevent human trafficking, like SWAN, is one of many ways we can and should defund the police.
Day Three
References: Millar, H. & O’Doherty, T (2020). Canadian Human Trafficking Prosecutions and Principles of Fundamental Justice: A Contradiction in Terms? https://icclr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Millar-and-ODoherty-Technical-Report-on-Canadian-Human-Trafficking-Prosecutions-1.pdf
Day Four
Identify as an intersectional feminist?
Day Four
Anti-trafficking initiatives do not view sex work as a viable economic opportunity and strip sex workers of their agency, reducing them to either victims in need of saving or criminals to be punished.
Day Four
Anti-trafficking initiatives are gendered in nature; they almost always target women working in the sex industry and are often based on moral judgements regarding sex and women’s sexuality.
Day Four
Stop human trafficking with rights, not rescue.
Day Five
Are you part of the labour movement?
Day Five
Mainstream anti-trafficking efforts focus almost exclusively on sex trafficking, despite only making up 29% of trafficking worldwide, with 71% of trafficking happening in other forms of labour.
Day Five
Sex work is work. Human trafficking and sex work are NOT the same thing.
Day Five
Stop human trafficking with rights, not rescue.
Day Six
Support sex workers’ rights and the decriminalization of sex work?
Day Six
Most anti-trafficking campaigns are incompatible with sex workers’ rights and result in many of the same harms as criminalization. Sex workers, who are often presumed to be trafficked, try to escape constant police surveillance and harassment.
Day Six
These harms include pushing sex work underground and actually create systemic vulnerability to trafficking.
Day Six
You can’t support sex workers’ rights and support anti-trafficking efforts that violate those rights.