MORE: Thanks, Katherine! yeah... there is a lot more to say about this than I allowed myself time for... ok! I'll have to elaborate now:) As a first event of its kind (as far as I'm aware of) the fact that it made an impact is significant. These are not easy things to implement, *in general*, (especially on a very limited budget, as it appears to have been) and they had some serious added-on difficulties.
You picked-on the most significant one I believe, the fact that not all relevant orgs joined the protest -- that not everybody believes craigslist should necessarily do away with its "erotic/adult" sections. As I've said on this blog, I personally believe they should definitely give it a try! And as long as they don't, I have a hard time believing they could possibly care...
Having said that, it would have been much more valuable as public discourse if these orgs would have come to the event *anyways* and explained the reasons for their dissension but my feeling is that they didn't want in any way to undermine organizations with which they share so many core principles.
They probably also felt that it was a mistake to lump together the issue of human trafficking in minors with the issue of *prostitution in general*, not because they believe prostitution can be a good thing... but because doing so diffuses the focus from the primary concern.
I personally believe prostitution is a bad choice, regardless of the circumstance because it is fraught with inherent risks extremely difficult to control and also negatively impacts other people than the two making "the deal" (even in the cases when it is "consensual," and I seriously doubt it is *ever* truly mutually consensual when it ultimately comes down to it... and not only on the side of the women, plenty of men appear to have something at least resembling an addiction, shelling out money that they can ill afford...so it can actually be predatory on the "career" prostitute's side)
But yeah... it would have helped to keep these things separate and I trust that the orgs will learn from this experience and have a bigger event and a bigger impact next time. Still, as far as I'm concerned, it was not bad for a start!
Delia
P.S. sorry to hear about the bad personal experiences you had, hopefully everything will be better next time! D.
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katherine. has left a new comment on your post "(trafficking in women) real life protests against ...":
it was an interesting event...but disappointing.
my take on the Craigslist Protest
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