Submitted on Wed, 11/04/2015 - 7:15pm
By Andrew Stewart - RIFuture.org, November 3, 2015
It is called the oldest line of work in the world and yet it is consistently denied legitimacy. But here in Rhode Island, where prostitution was legal from 1980 until 2009, some local sex workers are re-asserting their agency by organizing a labor union.
“You see women get raped, you see women get murdered,” said Madeira Darling, an organizer, whose name has been changed in this story to protect her identity. “Criminalization itself is violence. It means women can’t seek protection either from the law or from one another. Occasionally you will get guys who think they are in love with you stalking you. And police will often blame sex workers for violence even if they aren’t in criminalized industries.”
Madeira began work as an exotic dancer at age 19 in New York before becoming a dominatrix and relocating to Rhode Island, labor she continues to perform here. She and several of her colleagues are working towards something radically inclusive: the creation of a statewide sex worker labor union.
Interested in creating a truly industrial union, the group is open to allowing all sex workers join her in the effort, reaching out to strippers, escorts, camera/phone workers, porn stars, strip club bouncers, bar workers, masseurs/masseuses, actors, directors, and crew in adult films, and any other laborer in the industry, including the internet workers. As of this point she has contacted four other workers, but hopes that publicizing this effort my grow the ranks.
Submitted on Sat, 05/08/2010 - 10:48pm
Disclaimer: This story and its accompanying image are reprinted in accordance with Fair Use guidelines
By Katie Mulvaney - Providence Journal Staff Writer, Friday, May 7, 2010
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Superior Court Judge Joseph F. Rodgers Jr. Friday ordered a new trial for the woman accused of assaulting North Providence police officers during a protest in August 2007.
Rodgers ordered a new trial for Alexandra Svoboda on three counts of simple assault on the officers. Rodgers said he did not feel convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Svoboda had assaulted the officers by striking them with drumsticks during the protest, despite a jury's finding last week that she was guilty on all three counts.
Rodgers did, however, let stand the jury's verdict that 25-year-old Svoboda had resisted arrest while picketing Jacky's Galaxie on Mineral Spring Avenue that hot August day.
Then the union secretary of the Industrial Workers of the World, Svoboda and others were protesting because the restaurant had purchased rice and takeout containers from a New York supply company accused of mistreating its employees.
Submitted on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 8:52pm
By DANIEL GROSS - Counterpunch, October 8, 2008
A peaceful union march is brutally attacked by police. A union activist’s
leg is horribly disfigured and nearly amputated. Maimed possibly for
life, she is charged with multiple felony offenses.
The
battleground is not the coalfields of Harlan County in the 1930s or
1970s; it's not an example of anti-union violence in Colombia or the
Philippines. Our setting is present day Providence, Rhode Island.
On
that brilliant Saturday, August 11 of 2007, Alexandra Svoboda didn’t do
what she was supposed to do. She didn’t stay home and watch TV. She
didn’t go shop at her local Wal-Mart. She didn’t waste away hours on
MySpace.
Submitted on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 6:02pm
From
The Providence Journal
By David Scharfenberg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — A year after a confrontation with police officers in North Providence left her with severe leg injuries, union organizer Alexandra Svoboda arrived at a rally yesterday with a cane, a knee brace and a message of defiance.
“This is the true spirit of resistance,” she said. “This is people saying, ‘no.’ ”
Svoboda, secretary of the Providence branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, was among a group of protesters who clashed with the police Aug. 11, 2007, while marching on Jacky’s Galaxie, a pan-Asian restaurant on Mineral Spring Avenue.
Union members were targeting Jacky’s because the eatery purchased rice and takeout containers from Dragon Land Trading, a restaurant supply company in Queens, N.Y., with a reputation for treating its employees poorly.
Submitted on Wed, 08/29/2007 - 4:53am
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
By Mark Arsenault and Lynn Arditi - Providence Journal Staff Writers, Monday, August 27, 2007
NORTH PROVIDENCE — Clenched fists raised, close to 200 protesters yesterday denounced the North Providence police and demanded “justice” for a protester seriously injured two weeks ago while demonstrating at an Asian restaurant on Mineral Spring Avenue.
