Background Information about the Hosting Organization
Taipei Alliance of Licensed Prostitutes (TALP)
Situation Report - April 11 1998
A: Introduction & Summary
Members: 128 Former licensed legal sex workers who have now been made illegalized, from 16 (former) licenced brothels in two Taipei city districts...
Average age: 33
Average time working as licensed prostitutes: over 10 years
Average level of education: elementary school.
(In future, members may include illegal sex workers -- provisionally, "TULIPS.")
Background: This union was set up in September 1997 in the wake of the sudden and shocking illegalization that was faced when the legal licenses were revoked without warning with less than 48 hours warning on September 4 - 6.
Summary of Activities: from September 1997 until Now: TALP 128 sisters have been protesting continually for 7 months. Faced with an unsupportive bureaucracy and economic hardship, three of the sisters almost lost hope and attempted suicide. However, strength comes from struggle: TALP has organized over 50 street pickets, 5 public forums, 4 major large-scale protest demonstrations, and over 20 national press conferences with debate and coverage. We have held protests at: the Taipei City Government; the Taipei City Council; the Executive Yuan [ Premier's office]; the Control Yuan (ombudsman); Democratic Progressive Party Headquarters. We have also been in the International media (Interviewed by The BBC, The Guardian, Reuters.)
International Activities: We sent representatives to attend the U.N.-sponsored international conference on AIDS in the Philippines recently and also sent representatives to Australia to attend the international sex workers conference there.
B: Our Standpoint on Sex Work in Taipei, and why we struggle for a two-year grace period
The Taiwan Alliance of Licensed Prostitutes (TALP) and the Solidarity Front of Women Workers (SFWW) oppose the revoking of sex workers' legal licenses', unless prostitution and prostitutes are 40 years. TULIPS is organized by 128 middle-aged sex workers who held the legal licenses, and who were employed by 16 different registered brothels. These licenses provided some protection from exploitation and danger. (However, thousands of women work in underground brothels without any protection from exploitation, danger and terror, unable to get licenses. ) Worse, the 128 sisters' licenses were suddenly revoked in September 1997, putting them in danger.
Sudden "Illegalization"
In September 1997, with less than 48 hours warning, the Taipei City Government decided to revoke our legal licenses and crack down on the 128 licensed sex workers. We are now suddenly treated as criminals. Now we have lost our jobs, our sources of livelihood, and our security.
Worse, we who were formerly legal, have been singled out for police arrest, humiliating investigations and live media coverage. Thus we have become scapegoats of public stigma and blame. Even though for the past 20-40 years, we could ask for police protection and go to public health clinics openly and legally; but in September 1997, our lives suddenly became hell.
TULIPS sisters extended struggle
For the past seven months, we have held an extended struggle, with continuous protests, sit-ins, hearings and demonstrations. We tried hard to fight for decriminalization of prostitution, but the Taipei mayor insisted that prostitution is a "crime", and with very little support from society, we finally demanded at least a grace period: to postpone the "illegalization" for two years, to give us time to find other jobs.
Our extended struggle and determination won some support from the Taipei City Council. In December 1997, the City Council voted to allow our legal status for a two year grace period.
Mayor's Refusal
But in spite of the City Council's 2-year grace period decision, the city Mayor has refused to adopt the City Council's edict. Instead, the Mayor has embarked on a propaganda campaign and has refused public debate.
C: Why TALP Sisters want to first fight for their licenses, and after that, then fight for decriminalization of all sex workers in Taipei
On September 6, 1997, Taipei City Mayor Chen Shui-bian announced, and at the same moment putting into effect, the revoking of the licenses of the last-remaining 128 legal prostitutes of Taipei who had been operating in prostitute houses sanctioned by previous regimes for the past 40 years. Overnight, the 128 sex workers became targets of police arrest, surveillance and harassment; whereas before, they had been the only prostitutes able to take recourse to the police and demand legal protection in case of client harassment and abuse. In addition, these prostitutes, because of their legal status, are the only sex workers who are regularly examined for possible AIDS infection and other venereal diseases. Government report affirms that none of them have been found to be HIV-positive for the last five years since the health bureau instituted such regular check-ups-which certainly goes to show the success of disease-prevention programs for sex workers when the programs are positively supported and carefully executed by the government. The same cannot be said for the thousands of illegal prostitutes in Taiwan, who have been under great danger of infection because of their illegal status and their lack of protection.
The Taipei City Government had been planning to phase out legal sex work by not giving out new licenses; it is estimated that within the next two decades, legal prostitution would have "died out naturally" in Taipei city. Yet, in order to show its determination in the recent governmental anti-obscenity campaign, the mayor willfully decided to implement the inhumane measure of declaring illegal the work of these 128 women, most of whom are semi-literate single mothers in their mid-forties, many of whom are supporting extended and poor families. The city government has promised temporary subsidies for them, but the latter refuse to accept charity funds from the government. "We can work for our living, let us do that," they say. Furthermore, governmental subsidy funds come with stringent conditions which not all the women involved can meet. It also demands that these women stay away from hotels, bars and all such places for the duration of the subsidy funding to avoid all suspicions of continued sex work. These 128 women have in effect been placed under house arrest.
Since they learned of the government ban, the sex workers have formed a self-help group to protest the forceful removal of their right to work. Several labor-oriented women's activist groups have worked closely with them to struggle against the arbitrary decision of the ruling power elite. Jointly the women organized several panel discussions, amidst a traditionally discriminatory culture, to call attention to their plight. On Septermber 6th, the sex workers and labor women's activists went to the city government to plead for a meeting with the mayor in order to personally express their grievances. The city government replied with a line of police, barring the entrance to the building; the stand-off later exploded into a scuffle between the police and the middle-aged sex workers, leaving quite a few women bruised and hurt. On September 11th, the protesting group returned to the city government to demand a public debate with policy makers of the city. Again, they were met by police. In desperation, the sex workers opted to plead for a two-year grace period, instead of the reinstitution of their right to work as prostitutes. A public forum was held, demanding that the city government respond. Again there was only indifference on the part of the government. Since September 14th, pressed by loan sharks and the hardships of life, three prostitutes have attempted suicide. Fortunately they were saved in time. The mayor, upon inquiries issued by a sympathizing press member, replied coldly, "This has nothing to do with me. Take it up with the city council or the police."
Time and again, the mayor had turned a deaf ear to the pleas of sex workers while upholding his willful decision to eradicate all so-called obscenities, in an effort to win the support of the morally righteous middle-class while leaving lower-class women out to dry. The ex-legal prostitutes have been without work and under police surveillance for more than three month now, but they are still struggling for recognition and restitution. In the meantime, the mayor have been traveling and gloating over his success in keeping Taipei city "clean," never mentioning how the poor and the indigent are swept under the carpet during the process. Worse, he has been using his influence in the media to spread rumors about sex workers, thus further stigmatizing these women.
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