Occupy Oakland Protests a Child Sex Trafficking Conference and Blames Capitalism for Prostitution
Liberals and conservatives do not often come together to support a common cause, but the opposing groups did unite last week during the H.E.A.T. (Human Exploitation and Trafficking) Conference in Oakland. An event designed to aid in the eradication of sex worker trafficking would not seem to be the type of gathering Occupy Wall Street (OWS) would protest – but it was. The primary focus of the gathering was for law enforcement agencies, political leaders and child safety advocates to work together to form a cohesive plan to catch criminals who prey upon the weakest members of society and then essentially enslave them in the sex trade, The Blaze reports.
Members of the Occupy Oakland group went beyond sign carrying and chanting when attempting to rush into the conference center and disrupt the meeting. Eggs were thrown and fog horns blared as OWS members tried to push their way through the doors. The messages on the sign baffled event organizers and spectators alike. Some homemade signs compared the attempted prosecution of sex workers to racism and stated the police “patriarchy” should not have control in sexual matters. At least one sign declared the carrier was a “sex worker and proud of it.”
A Facebook page about H.E.A.T. Said the event was only “fronting as a conference against child trafficking” and was really bringing “pigs” and nonprofits together to create policies to “line their pockets. A press statement released by Occupy Oakland through PJ Media states the repression of sex workers intensifies the empowerment of the police at the expense of the prostitutes.
The OWS Oakland group also feels that no form of work is “truly consensual given the conditions of working under capitalism.” According to the press release, Occupy Oakland believes the only reason Americans feel compelled to engage in a “degrading and unpleasant” profession is because capitalism forced people to exchange labor for money. The focus of the H.E.A.T Conference was the issue of involuntary sex workers and the forced prostitution of children. Occupy Oakland still opposes the event and believes only a “total anti-capitalist revolution” will thwart the sex trade, according to press release excerpts republished along with a protest video on The Blaze.
