Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:45:14 -0400
From: LPA <blissett-AT-unpopular.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: AUT: Prostitutes......


 KARL CARLILE WROTE:

> The prostitute turns her/his body into a commodity. This is the chief
>distinction between worker and prostitute. The worker turns her/his
>labour power into a commodity while the prostitute turns her/his body
>into a commodity. In this regard their exists a commonality between
>slavery and prostitution. The body of both are exchanged as
>commodities. However in the case of the slave his body as commodity is
>not her/his. In the case of the prostitute the body is hers/his. This
>is a significant distinction.
>
>Another distinction is that in the case of the slave the body is sold
>all at once while in the case of the prostitute it is sold piece meal.

This is clearly at odds with reality. The slave owner does not own the body
of the slave any ore than the mind of the slave. Otherwise when a slave
sweated, it would be the sweat of the master, when a slave's limbs ached,
these aches would be the aches of the master. Clearly what is being bought
is exchange-value and when a slave works use value is being extracted from
them.

As for Sera Pinwill, she wrote:

>But I can clearly and categorically state that the evidence
>from Canberra - which is much the same as any other city of its size -
>shows that by far the large majority of women and men who are sex workers,
>are doing it BECAUSE THEY WANT TO.  Because they enjoy the financial
>freedom it brings them, because they enjoy the sex, because they enjoy the
>flexibility of the hours - and for lots of other reasons.

I see no reason to believe that sex workers are less class conscious than
any other group of workers, or that their union hacks are any less
reactionary. Whilst I can respect why workers might find this sort of work
more congenial than that sort of work, the idea of "financial freedom" is
the carrot for all sorts of work. We need freedom finance i.e.the abolition
of money

http://www.unpopular.demon.co.uk
http://www.dsnet.it/qwerg/blissett/bliss0.htm
http://www.skatta.demon.co.uk
http://www.geocities.com/~johngray




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