On the Necessity of Sex Trade Abolition, as a Revolutionary Marxist Line

To the Sisters and Oppressed People of the World who’ve been exploited by, and have lost their lives to the Sex Trade, this is for you:

Since the historical beginnings of class society and domination, the bodies of the exploited classes of women have been used as open sexual commodities for rulers to expand their empires, seize wealth and attain political power. The notion that women are inferior to men didn’t fall from the sky but, arose prior to capitalism as a material product of class society and private property. Prostitution emerged as a political rape economy, from ancient slavery, to the feudal era and now under the current primary contradiction imperialism, its deployment as a rape institution has always remained. Rape is a form of political violence, one that simply cannot be individualized or solved through the ideological fetters of liberalism. It doesn’t solely live in the minds of individual people but, is a mode of violence that exists in the international banks of capital, the military prostitution complex and in networks of sex trading and exploitation around the world. The liberal conception of “choice” permeating feminist discourse around prostitution has allowed for the exploitative tentacles of bourgeois patriarchy to persevere. I ask, what happens to the lowest order of women under imperialism and patriarchal oppression when feminism focuses on a mythologized agency that the majority do not have the political or economic power to attain? Here, Comrade Mary Inman, a staunch anti-revisionist in the CPUSA during the 1930s-1940’s, breaks down the history concerning prostitution as systematic rape:

“Prostitution did not start with folk customs. It did not grow out of group marriages between free people, for pre-slavery tribes had no such institution. It did not grow out of mystic rites, nor sex worship. It was always a rape institution. Even in the earliest records of prostitution, the evidence shows that the people lived in terrible degradation rising from economic slavery, and did not have the freedom to decide such matters.”

The international rape economy has been a continual force of economic and sexual subjugation, engineered through the dominant patriarchal vestiges of class society that reduce women’s role in life to being a sex slave. Today, the overwhelming majority of prostituted subjects—with a crucial emphasis on impoverished women and children concentrated in the Third World—have been foisted into this system against their will through political, social and economic measures. The idea that oppressed women exist to reproduce sexual servitude and feminized labor for ruling elites is as old as class and patriarchal dominance, we have seen in recent years, an increasing number of self-proclaimed marxists of the radical liberal strand, employ phrases such as “prostitution is the world’s oldest profession” or “sex work is work”, when historically and ideologically situated, these exist as reactionary smokescreens to sanitize sexual exploitation, reproducing apologetic sentiments towards pimping, and ignore the global suffering and femicides of prostituted women in the sex trade. These slogans, ultimately, serve ideological lines that are in direct opposition to a revolutionary marxist politics of abolishing the global sex industry, and emancipating its exploited subjects.

Phrases, as such, that exist to romanticize the centuries worth of sexual exploitation and enslavement of women in class society, is the hallmark of liberalism failing to adhere to proper social investigation into history through dialectical materialism. Reactionaries will go as far as to name these prostituted women throughout history as “divine sex goddesses”, conveniently ignoring the reality that they were sexually traded and exploited nearby temples—not because they were socially revered or worshipped by kings, rulers or members of the exploiting classes—but rather due to temples serving as the site of commercialized activity in most ancient societies, thus meaning, the question of sexual exploitation and slavery has always been a commercial one, both historically and today. As marxists, our politics won’t progress by reappropriating the patriarchal class domination that underpinned ancient prostitution. We must aim to smash the remaining vestiges of male chauvinism, patriarchal violence and sexual exploitation that exist under the imperialist system, not recreate or celebrate its historical emergence. Under the yoke of the sex trade, women will never be free, it must be fiercely done away with as imperialism falls.

Furthermore, the “the sex work is work” sloganeering campaign strategically serves a neoliberal economic agenda that meshes together the interests of prostituted women and, other oppressed subjects in the sex trade, with bourgeois profiteers of the international rape economy. Whether or not one agrees, or disagrees, on the question of coerced sexual labor being categorically work, does not matter when we begin to analyze and unravel the sheer amount of sexual violence, social murders, psychological torture and trauma the sex trade produces on a global scale. When the commodity is not located in the labor power of the worker but, in the bodies and sexualities of the prostituted, this presents a fundamentally different set of material realities and conditions, that of which is pivotal to understanding the revolutionary marxist line on abolishing prostitution. Liberals, especially the petit-bourgeoise, reduce the sex trade to a “lifestyle” or “career choice” instead of a violent imperialist and patriarchal imposition, that benefits the bourgeoise and the commercial sex industry, ignoring the fact that this trade renders the sexually exploited subhuman. Prostitution is not a choice. Here, the New Vistas Publications, originally printed in People’s March, an organ of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), criticizes “sex work” as a catch-all term, which results in sanitizing sexual exploitation, lumps together the sex trade aristocracy with the downtrodden people in the industry and conflates sex trade cartels with “prostitution unions”:

To describe prostitution as sex work and a prostitute as a sex worker means to give legitimacy to sexual exploitation of helpless women and children. It means ignoring the basic factors, which push women and children into prostitution such as poverty, violence and inequalities. It tries to make the profession look dignified and as a ‘job like any other job’.

Reactionary Feminisms as a tool for Empire:

Liberal feminism incorrectly severs patriarchy from class society, and positions the “equality” of women being achieved solely through mere cultural trends, progression and adjustments. This is a recipe for bourgeois class collaborationism that ignores the social necessity of material change. Imperialism is women’s enemy, no meaningful social revolution for the advancement of impoverished and Colonized women’s conditions can take place while the global imperialists and exploiting classes continue to amass profit from the patriarchal institutions that oppress and murder us. Patriarchy is not a system that exists in isolation but, can rather be located in economic conjunction with the expansion of global imperialist exploitation and capital. It is scientifically clear that the patriarchal system can take on specific material contexts and forms, depending on the level of development and particular historical conditions a nation or region attains surrounding gendered oppression and divisions of labor, such as colonized nations toiled with a peasantry class that face the horrors of semi-feudal and semi-colonial exploitation, which systemically worsens the status of tribal women in rural areas, or the peasant woman more broadly speaking. However, this does not outweigh the material truth that patriarchy has always been used by the ruling classes to advance their interests, and isn’t an institution with its own political or economic laws of motion.

To put it concisely, “women”, within a marxist understanding of gendered social relations, isn’t constituted on the grounds of ontology, nor does it exist as its own class but, is understood as an oppressed social sector under class society. The historical development of women’s oppression as a linkage between class exploitation and ancient slavery, and the emergence of the gendered social division of labor, is the important point of study for communists. We believe, that like all historical phenomena, patriarchy was created, therefore it can be destroyed. This will take ideological, political and economic struggle, through the abolition of class society, and social revolution, to begin the process of liquidating the patriarchal bondages that remain. The oppression, commodification and subjugation of women, in this era, is maintained chiefly by the imperialist system. There will be no successful liberation movement for the toiling classes of women, for nationally oppressed women, for African and Colonized women, for the woman in prostitution, or behind prison cellblocks, while global capitalism continues to expand its regime of economic terror. Through class struggle, proletarian feminist education and revolutionary approaches to political organizing, this path towards a red future for women can become a reality. Here Comrade Anuradha Ghandy offers a powerful passage on capitalism being the primary enemy of women:

The same ruling classes, whether imperialists, capitalists, feudals and the State they control, are the enemies of women because they uphold and perpetuate the patriarchal family, gender discrimination and the patriarchal ideology within that society. They get the support of ordinary men undoubtedly who imbibe the patriarchal ideas, which are the ideas of the ruling classes and oppress women. But the position of ordinary men and those of the ruling classes cannot be compared. The crucial question is that without women having control over the means of production and over the means of producing necessities and wealth how can the subordination of women ever be ended? This is not only an economic question but also a question of power, a political question.

Any “feminism” that is mainstream, has proven to be bourgeois political theatre that serves the interests of the exploiting classes of imperialist nations, ignoring downtrodden and exploited women, such as those in the global south, that are subject to militarism, economic destabilization and sexual violence. Just as the land should be decommodified, water, and housing, the bodies of impoverished and Colonized women around the globe, too, should be decommodified. There will be no revolutionary project for socialist construction without ending the commodification of human bodies, which liberal bourgeois feminism, both ideologically and materially, stands in direct opposition to—as it seeks to make the world a safer place for the expansion of imperialism, ignores the contradictions of national and neocolonial oppression, and works towards commodifying the struggles, sexualities and bodies of oppressed women—thus, making it irreconcilable with socialism proper.

The Marxist Case Against Pimps, Sex Traffickers and Buyers

Pimping is one of the most socially acceptable material positions one can adhere to under capitalism and patriarchy, it’s a glorified role, that is engineered to uplift one’s social and economic status. While the masses of prostituted women get casted away as social diseases that need to be cured, the pimps accumulate power and wealth by stepping on their necks. The exploited are universally condemned, while the exploiters are praised and celebrated. This dynamic remains true between the prostituted and pimp, the trafficked and trafficker, and is a centralized contradiction that exists within the international rape economy. Sex trade expansionism, as an ideological rightist deviation of marxist sex trade abolition, due to the capitalist pimp lobby, is alive on the “marxist” left. It has found a way to creep in, leveraging more social support for the parasites that capitalize on the exploitation and abuses of the prostituted, while no organizational or state-sanctioned support exists for the masses of impoverished and Colonized women to exit the sex trade. The pimp lobby has taken on socially progressive language, in order to appeal to the masses of prostituted women, helping fester the reactionary seeds that grow an acceptance of one’s own sexual subordination within the industry. Here, Comrade Thomas Sankara talks about prostitution, and the necessity to fight against pimps:

Prostitution is nothing but the microcosm of a society where exploitation is a general rule. It is a symbol of the contempt men have for women. And yet this woman is none other than the painful figure of the mother, sister, or wife of other men, thus of every one of us. In the final analysis, it is the unconscious contempt we have for ourselves. There can only be prostitutes as long as there are pimps and those who seek prostitutes.

It is more than clear, that through studying the history of sex slavery, prostitution and the commodification of impoverished and Colonized women’s bodies, this shows us how many reactionaries today mirror the arguments of 18th and 19th century European settlers and slaveowners, whereas they argued that African slave labor was a social necessity, sex trade expansionism argues that prostitution is compatible with a socialist future. No such toleration for the sexual trading, selling and enslavement of the lowest classes of women under socialism would exist. In fact, anyone holding onto remnants of colonial and patriarchal sexual violence would face consequences for their actions in a communist society that is dedicated to ridding the world of exploitation. The question on women’s emancipation for the marxist is more than consequential, as we have seen what happens when communist parties and organizations tail a more than reactionary approach on harboring sex buyers, rapists and predators in their organizational ranks, particularly those in leadership roles and positions.

Patrons and buyers within the international rape economy represent a traitorous contradiction to the movement for revolutionary class struggle, impoverished and Colonized women’s liberation and political campaigns that seek to end the exploitation of prostitutes. They are class traitors in every sense of the word, as marxists we oppose the bodies of impoverished and Colonized women in the sex trade existing as a means of production capable of being seized. As mentioned, there is a difference between someone’s labor power being commodified, in comparison to their sexuality and body becoming a commodity on a global sex market. Due to the dominant political discourse surrounding prostitution on the left, specifically within the United States and imperialist nations, being made reducible to liberal sloganeering, and being co-opted into an economic agenda of imperialist privatization and the global institutionalization of the sex trade, this has produced an apologia for sex buyers, resulting in an ignorance around the global suffering of prostituted women that are repeatedly battered, sexually abused and murdered at disproportionate rates by sex-starved customers.

It is in my belief that:

1. Communist organizations, parties and cadres, along with other anti-imperialist or revolutionary structures should hold a staunch political stance and line against sex trade expansionism.
2. These aforementioned political entities should expel pimps, sex buyers and abusers from their ranks, and offer a thorough anti-sex trade and proletarian feminist political education to their members.
3. Recognize sex trade abolition as an engrained communist political line and tactical organization approach, that Marx himself outlined in a fundamental historical text: the manifesto, as did other revolutionary thinkers.
4. Organize around fighting for the right of the prostituted masses to exit the sex industry, this is the most denied right of oppressed women and people in prostitution and the international rape economy.
5. Socialism means the abolition of the sex trade, don’t retreat on this stance because its unpopular in the face of liberal elite society, sex trade abolition is a nonnegotiable revolutionary position, that is a fundamental pillar of class struggle and women’s emancipation.
6. We meet the needs of prostitutes, irrespective of their political worldviews, while never resorting to a chauvinist line that shames them but, instead we shame and organize against the corporate pimping institutions, sex capitalists, and bourgeois-serving cops that criminalize them.
7. We do not rely on capitalist institutions, such as the American prison industry, or deportation machine, that criminalizes our struggles, to seek out a future for prostituted women, we organize from the ground-up through revolutionary marxist means.
8. Take seriously the concerns of survivors, both of commercial sexual exploitation and other acts of institutionalized rape culture, ignoring our battle cries, and unwavering commitment to ending the sex trade, is a step in being on the wrong side of history.
9. Combat the “choice” narrative, as marxists our analysis and organizing extends to those who have no choices, who are systemically beholden to capitalist systems that are politically and economically coercive.
10. Repudiate acronyms like “SWERF” (sex worker exclusionary radical feminist) when they are used to silence survivors of the commercial sex industry, or when they are employed as a straw-man argument against marxist, anti-imperialist and feminist organizers fighting against prostitution.

Final Words

I write this with the utmost compassion for my sisters, friends and loved ones that have understood and felt my pain, received my battle cries, and too, have experienced the horrors of the sex trade. My solidarity stands with the oppressed people of this world. I only hope to build solidarity and bridges with those that also seek out a future where the international division of gendered labor, the feminization of globalized poverty and women’s sexual and reproductive oppression are eliminated, by every means necessary. We must understand prostitution as a political and economic terrain that allows the social notion that women, children and African and Colonized people being raped is “normal”, to thrive. There is nothing productive, essential or necessary about the sex trade, we must renounce this liberal myth every time it rears its absolute ideological terrors against our communities. I will leave this off by saying, down with the capitalist exploiters, down with all who stand to profit from the oppression of the downtrodden, the comprador neocolonial puppets that sell out their own nations, the militaries and cops of imperialist countries and most importantly within the context of this article, down with sex trade expansionists, traffickers, pimps and buyers, and to the international rape economy known as prostitution. Here is a final quotation by Comrade Alexandria Kollontai, speaking to the importance of fighting against prostitution, which also exemplifies that class struggle persists under the dictatorship of the proletariat:

“Some people might say that since prostitution will have no place once the power of the workers and the basis of communism are strengthened, no special campaign is necessary. This type of argument fails to take into account the harmful and disuniting effect that prostitution has on the construction of a new communist society.”