This year Red Umbrella March is dedicated to gender-based violence.
STAR-STAR – the First Sex Workers Collective in the Balkans is organising its 12th Red Umbrella March on 17th December (Tuesday) to mark the International Day to Stop Violence against Sex Workers.
As we approach this day, we come together to remember those lost this year and renew our commitment to the on-going struggle for empowerment, visibility, and rights for all sex workers. We have been marching for 12 years, yet we are still invisible to society and institutions. Institutions remain deaf to our demands and efforts to create safe living and working conditions, although they have a duty to ensure and guarantee the safety and health of all citizens equally. Our rights need to be guaranteed, we want to be recognized by employment and labour law and to have free access to justice and health services.
According to the experiences and statistics worldwide and in Republic of North Macedonia, women and transgender sex workers are the most exposed to violence of any forms. Therefore, as every year, we are going to march on the streets to emphasize our commitment to solidarity and to end the marginalization and victimization of all sex workers.
RED UMBRELLA MARCH
TUESDAY, 17TH DECEMBER, 12:00 PM
PLACE: IN FRONT OF THE MEMORIAL HOUSE OF MOTHER THERESA
Inaugurated by Dr. Annie Sprinkle and started by the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA, the first annual day was in 2003 and was held as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle, Washington. The killer said: “I wanted to kill as much as I could. I knew that no one would immediately report them missing, and even maybe they will never be reported. I collected prostitutes because I thought I could kill as much as I want without getting caught.” Gary Leon Ridgway was sentenced to life imprisonment and was fined $ 10,000 for each victim on December 18th, 2003.
Join with sex workers, to open the red umbrellas and march together against criminalization and violence committed against our community. The assault, battery, rape and murder of sex workers must end. Economic inequality, systems of colonialist and state violence and oppression must end. The stigma, discrimination and criminalization that makes violence against us must end.