A Marxist View of Abolitionism

PRESENTATION

Women and Diversity are Marxist Feminists and Abolitionists

Prostitution is the capitalist slavery of the 21st century. Human trafficking for sexual exploitation and prostitution are inextricably linked. Both require a system of forced recruitment, which are currently the recruitment centers for women—clandestine torture centers—that imprison women lured by deception or driven by economic need, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered to generate profits for a multi-million dollar business that constitutes one of the economic engines of the corporations that dominate the global economy.

Linked to conventional forms of human trafficking for sexual exploitation are "businesses" such as those that intensified in the 1980s: the "entertainment" industry , encompassing strip clubs, the pornography industry, online marriage brokering, and the cultural propaganda industry that promotes objectification, among others, which facilitate a normalized path for recruitment. And this path leads us to networks of capitalist conglomerates.

Large monopolies intervene with the aim of consolidating prostitution within states, intertwined with capitalist governments through ministries, parliaments, and the judiciary. They disguise their intervention or lobbying through foundations, NGOs, and associations, with the goal of legalizing the prostitution business. They seek to legitimize the use and sexual exploitation of bodies, both in mass culture and in the " market," and therefore attempt to label it as "work" in order to regulate prostitution and legalize trafficking.

Of course, this "business" involves the disappearance, torture, rape, and death of hundreds of women, girls, and young women every day. Most of them are lured into these networks: deluded by the promise of a better future through false jobs, boyfriends, or partners who "take them away" from their homes with romantic promises, crushed by abject poverty, dragged along by this deeply corrupt capitalist system. As complaints and searches by family members and loved ones grow, breaking free from the complicity of officials and others, the system maintains this last link in the prevailing patriarchal reaction and intensifies violence against women, abuse, femicide, and the disappearance of women, children, and young people.

We stand as abolitionists; we are waging a battle to destroy this business imposed by the sinister capitalist system. Women are leading the fight, uniting with abolitionist sexual minorities, all racial oppressions, peoples, and nations, and we are working alongside those of us who, as the working class, seek to destroy the patriarchal capitalist system. The only way to destroy this business and its criminal mechanisms, which contribute to sustaining the capitalist system, is to abolish it. Women are leading the fight, uniting with abolitionist sexual minorities, all the oppressed, and we are driving the advance of the working class to destroy the patriarchal capitalist system and thus open the doors to Socialism.

PART I- Transformation of women into objects and merchandise

"...The discovery of the primitive matrilineal clan, as a stage prior to the patrilineal clan of civilized peoples, has for primitive history the same importance as Darwin's theory of evolution has for biology, and Marx's theory of surplus value has for political economy...The matrilineal clan is today the axis around which this whole science revolves; since its discovery, we know in what direction to direct our research and what to study..." Friedrich Engels, "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State"

To understand how women became objects and commodities, and how many of us then fell into the terrible levels of social degradation that prostitution entails, it is important to understand how the process that transformed women into objects and commodities developed throughout history, establishing the oppressive situation we face today. To do this, it is essential to understand how the abolition of matriarchy, the rise of patriarchy, and the private ownership of the means of production and exchange occurred, giving rise to the oppression of women.

According to Friedrich Engels, whose research draws on scientific disciplines such as Anthropology, Archaeology, Geology, Biology, and Paleontology, since the emergence of the human species, we evolved over millions of years in nomadic tribes whose structure was based on a model of egalitarian human relations. This stage of humanity is termed Primitive Communism by Marxism, and it spans approximately 2.5 million years according to the latest archaeological and anthropological discoveries. The first period of Primitive Communism, called Savagery, is the stage in which tribes did not settle down but were nomadic in search of sustenance. There was a sexual division of labor, but there was no private ownership of the means of production and exchange; that is, the value and existing goods were owned by all members of the tribe or primitive community.

Around 120,000 years ago, several revolutions in the development of productive forces began, ushering in a new era of savagery. The development of new hunting techniques and the bow and arrow created the conditions for tribes to transition from nomadic to settled and sedentary lifestyles, a shift that brought about profound changes within their social organizations. As societies ceased being nomadic and began to settle, women moved to the center of social organization, and the institution of matriarchy emerged.

Matriarchy did not mean that women had "power" and exploited or oppressed men, as bourgeois feminism claims. This explanation seeks to deny the existence of matriarchy . The notion of "power" or "empowerment" created by bourgeois feminism is characteristic of class society. Matriarchy was the highest stage of Primitive Communism, a stage in which there was no private ownership of the means of production and exchange, no state, and therefore no "power" as we know it today in class society. In its political and theoretical illiteracy regarding the woman question, bourgeois feminism makes the absurd mistake of applying contemporary categories to ancient periods of humanity.

The existence of matriarchy means that women led social development, were respected as leaders and organizers of the social structure, within a framework of social equality, without classes or exploitation. Children were raised collectively, sexual freedom developed, including homosexuality, and economic, social, and cultural development formed the very foundation of humankind. Matriarchy emerged after the consolidation of Homo sapiens and guided all subsequent human sociocultural development, which included enormous revolutions in the development of the economy and productive forces, such as the emergence of the first agricultural techniques, the domestication of animals, and pottery. These revolutions completely and forever altered the social structure of humanity.

Women laid the fundamental groundwork upon which all of humanity's economic, social, and cultural evolution rested. Matriarchy existed for approximately 400 centuries. During those centuries, lineage and the inheritance of personal possessions were established through the matrilineal line, that is, through the female line, and women's influence in the social structure was fundamental and decisive. The development of Primitive Communism had as its political system a complete democracy with equal decision-making power among the members of the tribe, organized through the maternal line.

In other words, relationships were established based on the degree of closeness to mothers and sisters, which established the hegemony of female kinship groups. The predominance of these forms was the basis for the development of productive forces, food production, distribution, and storage, as well as the social and political role in the evolution of these earliest social structures in human history.

All of this places the role of women in a completely different position than that assigned to them by the history written by the bourgeoisie and the ruling classes. This is why Friedrich Engels considered the discovery of matriarchy one of the greatest achievements of science, placing this scientific discovery with a historical significance similar to that of the Theory of Evolution for Biology, or the Theory of Surplus Value for Political Economy: " ...The discovery of the primitive matrilineal clan, as a stage prior to the patrilineal clan of civilized peoples, has for primitive history the same importance as Darwin's theory of evolution for biology, and as Marx's theory of surplus value has for political economy...". Marxism argues that the discovery of matriarchy changed the view of human history forever.

The discovery of matriarchy and its fundamental role in the history of human evolution refutes the patriarchal version of history offered by the bourgeoisie and ruling classes. These social classes present a caricature of history starring only men. But thanks to the discovery of the "primitive gens of maternal right," as Engels called it , we begin to understand that some of the most important revolutions in the development of productive forces were made possible under the leadership of women. As science acquires more modern and precise methods and tools, it provides new and more recent findings that confirm all the tenets of Marxism.

Perhaps, viewed from today's 21st century, talking about animal domestication, the development of agriculture, or pottery might sound like a minor achievement, because now it's so simple and commonplace. But in comparative terms, we can say that the emergence of the automobile or the internet pales in comparison to the revolution that livestock breeding or agriculture represented—fundamental revolutions in the development of productive forces, without which it would have been impossible for humanity to achieve all the subsequent developments and changes.

Women played a leading role throughout this period of fundamental changes in human history. We were among the first female officials, economists, accountants, scientists, artists, and political leaders that humanity produced. As societies achieved stable production, livestock was domesticated, and grains and materials were stockpiled, enabling agricultural and livestock development. Under women's leadership and management, centuries-long famines disappeared, and new and more complex forms of social division of labor were established.

As conclusive scientific proof of the existence of matriarchy, we have the artifacts provided by archaeology, geology, anthropology, and paleontology. Science has uncovered approximately 200 images, figurines, and engravings of women dating from between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, found in Europe in regions as far-flung as France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Russia, and even Siberia. These artifacts together constitute more than two-thirds of all the pieces found from that period of human history.

It is a vast collection of documents that highlights the preeminent place of women in the society of that period, featuring engraved statuettes, female sanctuaries such as Angles-sur-l'Anglin, with its bas-reliefs of half-length Venuses with pronounced sexuality, the bas-reliefs of La Ferrassie containing black and red animal figures in addition to oval or circular vulvas, and triangular vulvas. Or the red vulva sanctuary in the cave of Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain.

Thus, 30,000 years ago, civilizations painted their daily lives in caves, and while there is a noticeable effort at visual realism in the depictions of animals, the first symbolic representations are those of female genitalia. Female images abound in all the artifacts and documents discovered by scientists from that era, while male images, such as phalluses, are very few and appear in secondary roles—documents that clearly reveal the existence of matriarchy and the predominance of women for centuries throughout history.

Approximately 10,000 years ago, a new stage opened within Primitive Communism, called Barbarism, a period in which tribes settled, became sedentary, and more complex populations and social organizations were established. In Barbarism, successive revolutions in the development of productive forces allowed social labor to leave a surplus of production and goods as a product.

The entire revolution brought about by the development of productive forces around 6000 BCE generated new social contradictions. Herds were tended by men, and the work of managing and distributing livestock gradually shifted from women to men. As herds grew larger, a surplus of animals was produced that exceeded the tribe's basic needs. Successive revolutions in agricultural production also led to surplus harvests. The emergence of these agricultural and livestock surpluses was a completely new phenomenon for these societies and clans.

The beginning of animal husbandry and bartering among tribes gave rise to the first commercial exchanges, but also to disputes over the management and exchange of animals and agricultural surpluses. Animals served as the first commodity-money, initially in a precarious way, since herds and agricultural surpluses were mobile and easily exchanged. As a result of the accumulation of commodity-money and the exchanges conducted by men, they gradually appropriated more and more of the goods produced by the entire tribe.

The documents found by science that express the Matriarchy from left to right: Caves of Vulvas of Tito Bustillo, Asturias, and La Ferrassie de Perigord in France, statuettes of women in stone in Willendorf in Austria, from Lespugue in France, and from Dolni in Germany

With the appropriation of goods produced by the entire tribe by a small group of men, new social differences and disputes began to emerge. Quarrels and disagreements over trade and possessions led to conflicts and wars. Tribes began to vie for control of surpluses and trade, giving rise to a predominantly male warrior caste that used warfare and combat techniques to defend and seize their own and others' goods .

Thus, a growing social differentiation developed within the tribe, allowing men to become more powerful than women and gradually assume dominance in the communal society. As the warrior army developed, the control and possession of surplus goods by this warrior caste, along with the development of warfare and combat techniques for defending and seizing their own and others' property, began to orient the entire social system toward the appropriation and defense of goods .

This appropriation led to the emergence of a landowning class that began to take control of societies. This class was the first outline of social classes and represented the first ruling classes. With the rise of the first landowning classes, a new social institution began to emerge: Private Ownership of the Means of Production and Exchange.

Natural disasters caused by climate change were common in primitive societies from the very beginning of human activity. These catastrophes severely impacted the material development of societies, causing widespread death and loss. But to these natural disasters were now added the emergence of social contradictions arising from the development of private ownership of the means of production and exchange, such as wars and disputes, which also caused enormous destruction.

The despair and anguish caused by the combination of natural disasters and social contradictions led to the development of a social class dedicated to counteracting these disasters. They resorted to all manner of incantations and ritual ceremonies that could guarantee successful harvests, victories in battle, and control over rain, fire, wind, or other natural disasters. This resulted in the significant development of a male bureaucracy comprised of shamans, priests, and religious institutions .

Men gradually became the administrators of property, its defense, and the driving force behind the development of private ownership of the means of production and exchange. This, in turn, led to the evolution of the army and wars waged in defense of private property, and the development of priestly castes alongside an administrative caste that began to give rise to the first, rudimentary elements of the state.

The emergence of private property and the state allowed men to begin dominating societies and imposing a new economic, social, political, and ideological formation at the end of barbarism. This signified the transition from Primitive Communism to Class Society. Around the 6th century BCE, the first class societies and exploitation among human beings emerged—concepts that had been completely unknown to humanity for millions of years. For us, living with class differences and exploitation among human beings is commonplace, but for humanity, it is a relatively recent phenomenon, considering that Matriarchy existed for around 400 centuries, while Class Societies and Patriarchy have only existed for 26 centuries.

When class societies were established, and the differences between exploiting and exploited classes emerged, a fundamental change occurred within human societies: the end of matriarchy and the rise of patriarchy. The inheritance system was based on maternal right, with property passing to sisters and their children. However, to transfer their property to their own children, men were forced to reverse the traditional order of inheritance.

This change did not occur gradually or peacefully, but rather in a convulsive and violent manner. The dominance of men through warriors and the practice of warfare led to the destruction of entire communities, dispossession, looting, the killing of women and families, and the captivity and abduction of women and children, resulting in the violent subjugation of one sex by the other.

Thus, to guarantee control of property and armies, descent through the paternal line was imposed, which had to be ensured so that inheritance would remain in the hands of men, passed down from father to son. Through a prolonged, convulsive, violent, and destructive struggle, described by Friedrich Engels as "the historical defeat of the female sex," a fundamental social transformation took place, and men came to dominate society, dethroning the female sex. Primitive Communism was replaced by Class Society, which meant the abolition of collective ownership of the means of production and exchange in favor of private ownership of the means of production and exchange.

This change, in turn, entailed the overthrow of matrilineal descent and its replacement with paternal descent, thus establishing patriarchy. The impact of the social conditions resulting from the abolition of collective ownership and matriarchy led to a series of social changes. Men became the owners of the means of production, and inheritance was established through the male line , which formed the basis of patriarchy. As part of the establishment of private property, women became objects owned by men, objects that could also be used as sexual commodities to satisfy men's needs. This gave rise to the oppression of women and prostitution.

Along with the rise of private ownership of the means of production and exchange, patriarchy, and the oppression of women, the ownership of women as objects by men materialized in a new social unit: the monogamous family. Within the monogamous family, all manner of cruel mechanisms emerged, designed to perpetuate private property and the ownership of women by men through the enforced sexual fidelity of the wife.

A brutal system of control was imposed on women, based on sexual and psychological repression, with the aim of reducing their social participation to the mere role of domestic slave and reproductive servant. This required the constant intervention of the state, the military, and the Church, who persecuted, tortured, and murdered women throughout the centuries. Only in this way was it possible for Patriarchy to impose itself, establish itself, and consolidate itself, through a series of changes that enabled the oppression of women and, consequently, the transformation of women into objects owned by men and commodities to be sold under the aegis of Patriarchy.

PART II - Prostitution, a business protected by religion

Tertullian: "You are the gate of hell, you were the one who broke the seals of the forbidden tree"

With the rise of patriarchy, prostitution, in its origins, became embedded in social customs, later evolving into a social and commercialized practice. According to historical records, in 500 BC, at the temple of Mylitta, dedicated to the Babylonian Venus, it was established that every woman reaching adulthood had to give herself to the first stranger who threw a copper coin into her skirt, as a sign of worship to the goddess. Similar customs existed in East Asia, North Africa, Cyprus, the Mediterranean islands, and also in Greece, where the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth had more than a thousand priestesses dedicated to her service.

Over time, prostitution became an organized institution under the influence of the Church, given the income it generated. Pope Clement II, through a papal bull, established that prostitutes should be tolerated because they paid a high percentage of their earnings to the Church. Thus, Pope Sixtus IV received an income of 20,000 ducats from a single brothel that he himself ordered to be built.

Origin of prostitution

Prostitution has its roots in slavery and human trafficking, primarily of women and children . This phenomenon persists to this day, mistakenly referred to as the oldest "profession," or, more accurately, as the oldest and most horrific form of "exploitation ," tied to violence and contempt for women. This system of prostitution harks back to the origins of the patriarchal system, classifying women as "good" in the private sphere and "bad" in the public sphere.

Good women, a term that arose with monogamy, were those who guaranteed men offspring and inheritance rights, while bad women guaranteed lust and the fulfillment of sexual desires, turning women into objects of pleasure. Prostitution developed in tandem with the rise of slavery and slave societies like Greece and Rome.

Prostitution in Ancient Greece. "Phryne at the Areopagus" by the painter Jean Leon Gerome

According to a report by Wolfgang Heide, a German gynecologist who works with women in prostitution, "the health conditions of these women are catastrophic: By age 30, many have aged prematurely, all suffer from constant abdominal pain, gastritis, frequent infections, and all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases. They alleviate their psychological trauma with alcohol and drugs ." Prostitution turns women into commodities to be used and consumed to satisfy sexual desires regardless of age, including vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ+ individuals, who face homophobia and discrimination within their families, workplaces, and society.

The pimping lobbies promote "regulationism," attempting to legalize and regulate prostitution by arguing that women can "freely" dispose of their bodies, that they decide and consent to prostitution. These are fallacious arguments imposed by CEOs, businessmen, and pimp accomplices. No woman can "freely" choose in a class-based society, driven by poverty, misery, helplessness, and repression. Those who try to disguise horror, violence, and abuse as "free choice" are lying , in order to maintain brothels and "private" establishments as clandestine centers of torture for exploited women, terrified victims of economic and social circumstances, or victims of deception, all to swell the fantastic profits of pimps .

While we must contend not only with "regulationism ," we must also address prohibitionists who rely on the criminalization of women engaged in prostitution. This perspective, rooted in the Church's moral stance, posits that women lead men to lust and perversion, with the client as the victim. Regulationists, using capitalist rhetoric about women's bodily autonomy and free consent, aim to regulate prostitution, which in reality conceals a multi-million dollar industry generating profits for a small sector of wealthy individuals connected to political and judicial power and the Church.

However, abolitionism refutes and combats the business of pimps who exploit women by trading their bodies, denouncing slavery and what it entails, such as the trafficking and disappearance of women worldwide, as another of the most appalling businesses of the capitalist market. It separates women who are dehumanized and objectified, used in their need, and promotes their integration into genuine work, allowing them to support themselves and rise from their marginalized condition, break free from denigration, and become social subjects, not objects.

We maintain that sexual exploitation must be abolished. Legalizing or regulating prostitution is to legalize, legitimize, and support rape, torture, and slavery, all embedded in the patriarchal capitalist system based on the exploitation of the most vulnerable sectors of society.

On the left, Pope Julius II in the 1500s created private brothels to promote the prostitution business. On the right, Pope Sixtus IV, builder of the Sistine Chapel in 1471, promoted the prostitution business to finance the construction of the Vatican.

The business of prostitution and trafficking

As we already mentioned in the 21st Century Women's Revolution, human trafficking is the slavery of the 21st century, which, with globalization, has spread worldwide, generating staggering profits. It is one of the most atrocious crimes, ranking third on the list of international crimes. Human trafficking allows traffickers to reap incredible profits, and the economic benefits generated worldwide through the sex industry (women, men, girls, and boys) amount to more than $500 million annually, a figure that continues to grow inexorably with the support and complicity of capitalist governments and the Church.

Human trafficking is becoming a major problem because, unlike drugs, which are manufactured, then trafficked and consumed, thus restarting the cycle of depletion and leading to new production, trafficking for sexual exploitation does not generate production costs. It focuses on transit, exploitation, and consumption, and is intimately linked to the kidnapping and disappearance of thousands of increasingly younger women worldwide.

The trafficking of women has been linked to wars, slavery, and the treatment of women as sex objects during the colonial period. Women of African and Indigenous origin were traded as sexual commodities. In Latin America, this situation dates back to the time of the Spanish conquest, as, in accordance with the laws of war, the Spanish took or handed over the "booty of women" to the victor, giving rise to the sex trade.

The trafficking business continued throughout the century and intensified after each world war. The primary victims were women, who, fleeing hunger and the horrors of war, became easy prey for traffickers. They were exploited for sexual purposes and transported to countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. This led to the activity being called "white slavery," because white European and American women were recruited and trafficked to Arab, African, or Asian countries. This business developed, reaching staggering proportions and evolving into an increasingly professional enterprise. Global trafficking networks for sexual exploitation generate enormous profits for businessmen and CEOs who now head multinational corporations.

The prostitution business in class society and throughout the various modes of production, in societies like Egypt and Persia, or in slave societies like Greece and Rome, as well as in feudal societies, was promoted by various religious cults. The Vatican and the Catholic Church protected, developed, and profited from the prostitution business. While they criminalized women for centuries in the Bible, portraying us as promoters of "sin," they developed patriarchy by promoting the use of women's bodies as objects and commodities under the oppression of the state, the ruling classes, and religious institutions.

PART III Prostitution and Capitalism: Globalization and expansion of the trafficking business

Globalization is a mode of operation, a system of profit accumulation for capitalism that emerged in the 1980s, following the exhaustion of the Keynesian system of capitalist accumulation that had arisen in the postwar period. With globalization, the center of accumulation shifted; the old industries that had been the center of the Keynesian system were displaced, and a new center of accumulation was established around the telecommunications, information technology, biogenetics, and pharmaceutical industries. The configuration of world trade was designed to guarantee multinational corporations geographic areas and regions in which they could dominate trade as they pleased.

Thus, they advanced in consolidating their profits, eliminating competition, colonizing the economies of underdeveloped countries, and facilitating price manipulation, thanks to the monopoly they exercised over productive sectors in free trade areas. The WTO allowed them to take advantage of education and health services, which were placed at the service of large corporations. A historical shift is that after centuries in which the Atlantic Ocean was the center of world trade, the development of the Southeast Asian accumulation axis, supported by the Japanese economy, the rise of the Asian Tigers, and the Chinese boom , caused the center of world trade to begin shifting from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean starting in the mid-1990s.

Another major change in global trade during globalization is the relentless rise in prices and persistent global inflation that developed from the 1970s onward. This affected raw materials and oil, leading to increased food prices, a higher cost of living, and a significant erosion of workers' wages, as well as worsening living conditions for the vast majority of the world's population. Inflation was particularly high in the 1970s, lower in the 1980s, and then increased again in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century.

Inflation is a two-pronged issue. First, it is a clear symptom of the severe crisis that has plagued capitalism since the two world wars, a crisis that both the postwar boom and the higher forms of monopolistic accumulation, such as multinational corporations, only exacerbated. Second, it is a formidable tool of the capitalist state for lowering wages and facilitating the global exploitation process that benefits multinational corporations .

As a consequence of globalization, harsh immigration laws, hunger and poverty, and the search for a better future, social conditions have developed that are ripe for pimps and trafficking networks. According to the report, the International Organization for Migration estimates that four million women and girls are exploited in prostitution or forced into marriage worldwide, representing a business volume of between 7 and 10 billion dollars.

In Europe, the International Labour Organization estimates that there are 140,000 victims of trafficking, which could generate a business volume of €2.5 billion. In Spain, the business moves close to €10 million daily, some €3.5 billion annually, representing 0.35% of GDP, a volume similar to that contributed by the footwear industry or the contribution of a city like Málaga.

It is estimated that there are around 100,000 prostitutes in Spain, twice as many as registered physiotherapists (42,490) and three times as many as dentists (33,286). However, only 20% of them are Spanish, and many of them, around a third, are victims of human trafficking and forced into this activity against their will. Among them are Romanians (45%), South Americans, Chinese, and sub-Saharan Africans, and the industry generates around five million euros a day.

The sex industry doesn't just generate profits for brothels, strip club owners, and upscale, reputable pornography companies. Many sex workers benefit financially, which helps to entrench prostitution within national economies. Hotels and airlines also profit from business sex tourism.

Taxi drivers who take clients to brothels and clubs include club security and management staff, wardrobe assistants, and makeup artists. These networks are also financed by companies that advertise alcoholic beverages; for example, two whiskey companies, Chyvas Regal and Johnnie Walker, have been identified as profiting from prostitution in Thailand. Corporations like General Motors are involved in entertainment activities, which include pornographic channels among their businesses.

This intertwining of capitalist interests leads to unthinkable connections, which attempt to legalize prostitution and trafficking, such as the billionaire magnate George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management, founder of Quantum Fund and Open Society Foundation (OSF).

These conglomerates allocated part of their investments to the prostitution business in the 1980s. For example: in Argentina, Eugenio Zaffaroni, who was appointed Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, is also a founder and advisor of OSF, and was accused of maintaining brothels and managing the trafficking network in 6 departments in Buenos Aires.

The Open Society Foundation (OSF) is a donor to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and other groups that promote prostitution worldwide. Soros is one of the world's leading financiers in favor of legalizing prostitution. Amnesty International published its policy and research on protecting the rights of sex workers, clarifying that " Its formal approval and publication are the result of a democratic decision taken by the global Amnesty International movement in August 2015."

Human Rights Watch (HRW), which did not have a defined policy on prostitution and the sex industry, suddenly and drastically changed its position in favor of legalization, allocating funds to the Irish Sex Workers Alliance, supporting the attempt at judicial review of abolitionist legislation in Northern Ireland, arguing that the Northern Ireland abolitionist law violates the human rights of men who exploit prostituted women, and also those of women who choose to sell sex.

George Soros' investments are linked to other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Open Society Initiative, the Ford Foundation, the American Jewish World Service, the Red Umbrella Fund, and Mama Cash. These organizations were the main contributors to the decriminalization of prostitution, providing €10 million in funding to projects supporting sex workers . Capitalist groups also contribute substantial sums to the Red Umbrella Fund, the first global fund established for sex workers, which, since 2012, has connected fund providers and sex workers.

The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) is a membership-based organization. Its members are organizations and networks led by people who engage in sex work at the local, national, or regional level, and across five regions: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean. The NSWP exists to amplify the voices of people who engage in what they call sex work (PERTS) globally and to connect regional networks that advocate for the rights of women, men, and trans people in sex work.

Aprosex, the Association of Sex Workers, which defends the rights of those who engage in prostitution and its normalization as sex work and is part of NSWP, received $60,000 from the Open Society Foundation (OSF) in 2008 alone. The page where this donation appeared has since been removed from the OSF website, but it can still be accessed through Archive.org, which allows users to view archived websites that have been deleted.

At the European level, TAMPEP (The European Network for HIV and STI Prevention and Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers) is one of the organizations that receives funding from the Red Umbrella Fund. While the exact amount is unknown, the maximum grant is up to €80,000, paid over two years, according to the Red Umbrella Fund website. On TAMPEP's website, in the Members and Allies section, we find that Aprosex, OTRAS, and other Spanish organizations such as Genera, Colectivo Hetaira, CATS, and Centro Alba are members and/or allies of TAMPEP.

Another arm of the regulationist lobby is AMMAR (Association of Sex Workers of Argentina), closely linked to the organizations Aprosex and OTRAS, and in fact, one of the groups that signed in support of the OTRAS pseudo-union. AMMAR, as well as RedTraSex (an organization and network of regulationist groups at the Latin American level), of which AMMAR is a part, are both funded by the Red Umbrella Fund. AMMAR's representative, Georgina Orellano, has been invited on several occasions to speak at events organized by Aprosex in Barcelona.

In 2018, the Federal Court of Appeals in Mar del Plata, Argentina, upheld the indictment of María "Malú" López, a leader of AMMAR (Association of Women Sex Workers of Mar del Plata), for the sexual exploitation of three victims. López acted as a pimp, managing income and expenses, imposing "sanctions" on women who joined the pseudo-union, and securing rental properties. She also coached victims on how to act and what to say in the event of a raid, threatening them not to mention her name if they asked about her. Georgina Orellano, AMMAR's General Secretary, visited Seville, Cádiz, and Barcelona, ​​and gave a conference alongside Conxa Borrell of Aprosex and others, entitled: "From Whore to Whore! Unionism is the Way."

Soros is not a "loose cannon" funding regulation and the prostitution business. He is not a "philanthropist" as he tries to portray himself, nor is he an "isolated capitalist." George Soros is part of a vast network of capitalist businesses, large corporations, and monopolies that control the immense, multi-billion-dollar prostitution industry. Soros is part of the mega-corporation Bank of America, which controls significant portions of the global economy, as well as BlackRock, the world's largest investment fund. This powerful network of capitalist enterprises operates behind the scenes with pimps and trafficking networks, and has the capacity to lobby and bribe officials, presidents, members of parliament, judges, political parties, social organizations, and so on.

A CAPITALIST NETWORK THAT FINANCES PROSTITUTION

The emergence of a regulationist and pro-sex feminism and left

As part of protecting their business, these corporations fund numerous feminist organizations that promote regulation, thereby ensuring that their projects are approved in Parliament, and even that feminist, progressive, or left-wing organizations support them and give a " progressive" veneer to their pro-pimp proposals.

Through foundations and NGOs, Soros also globally funds numerous organizations that claim to be "leftist," "Marxist," "progressive," or "revolutionary . " It's easy to spot when these organizations are linked to Soros's economic power. This occurs when, while claiming to be "Marxist , " "Trotskyist," or "revolutionary," they simultaneously advocate for regulation. This is the case with Podemos in Spain, whose founder, Íñigo Errejón, attended events in support of AMMAR and the legalization of prostitution, or with numerous organizations like the Communist Party of Cuba, which promotes, encourages, and controls the prostitution business on the island.

European and North American left-wing organizations, such as those that make up the PSOL in Brazil or the Left Front in Argentina (FITU), either defend regulation or remain silent on the issue, thus allowing pimping and the capitalist trafficking business to flourish. Behind this pro-pimp and pro-trafficking left lies the management and corruption of funding from global capitalist conglomerates, controlled by Soros and other capitalist bosses who profit from the prostitution business.

Thus, the crisis facing the left and Marxism worldwide has one of its most significant points precisely in the issue of abolitionism. The process of social democratization and adaptation to the regime experienced by most of the global left is based on the sexism of its leadership, stemming from its capitulation to patriarchy, capitalism, and the private ownership of the means of production and exchange by accepting and promoting the prostitution industry.

Part IV - Abolition of Prostitution and Trafficking Networks

Twelve (12) routes are used by traffickers to recruit and transport their victims. Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Venezuela, and Panama are the main countries where human trafficking victims are recruited. The process is generally the same: the trafficker arrives in the victim's place of origin, makes contact with the victim or people in the surrounding area, and then recruits teenagers and young adults with false promises and transports them to another location. The UNODC report states that 49% of trafficking victims worldwide are women, 23% girls, 21% men, and 7% boys.

Furthermore , a report by the Comprehensive Assistance Program for Victims of Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation (APRAMP) indicates that they assisted 32 Bolivian women who had been subjected to sexual exploitation up to 2014 (no further census was conducted afterward). The report also reveals the precarious state of security at Paraguay's borders, where, at the Libertad Bridge, a tri-border area between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, people cross easily and with little oversight. The same occurs in Bolivia, in the Desaguadero area, which, according to the Migration Service, is used by some traffickers.

An emblematic case is that of the state of Tlaxcala in Mexico, considered a veritable "pimp state." Tlaxcala is the epicenter of prostitution in Mexico, as part of a route that includes Puebla and Hidalgo, where migrants from Central America heading to the United States, as well as Mexican women, are recruited, kidnapped, and forced into prostitution. Tlaxcala represents a business closely linked to organ trafficking, drug trafficking, and other criminal enterprises that are scourges of capitalism, but which disproportionately affect the poorest and most oppressed members of society.

Spain is the leading European destination for women and girls who are victims of sexual exploitation. The routes used by human trafficking networks typically originate in Eastern Europe, primarily Romania, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. Many women also arrive in Spain from Algeria, Nigeria, Mauritania, and Senegal. One victim recounted her life during the seven years she worked for a trafficking ring. She arrived in Spain from Romania at the age of 19, and upon arrival, her passport and all her documents were confiscated. She was tricked into coming to Spain and forced into prostitution. It took her seven years to "pay off her debt" to her pimp, who forced her to see up to 60 clients a day.

The chart shows the 12 trafficking routes. Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and researcher Mabel Lozano

Marxist Feminism is abolitionist

Once we understand that prostitution is a capitalist business that moves millions of dollars, and that trafficking networks are part of the supply and demand of sexual exploitation by organized crime that are associated with the corporations that dominate the global capitalist economy, the position of Marxist Feminism can be none other than abolitionism.

The fight against sexual exploitation and trafficking is part of the class struggle and clearly attacks the capitalist profits of corporations, organized crime, and trafficking networks. We must confront the manipulations, financing, and intertwined practices that advocate for the legalization of prostitution, which masks the most perverse and corrupt businesses of the capitalist system.

The regulationist stance is a servile accomplice to the profits of states that promote prostitution, capitalist organized crime, and the profits of corporations involved in the prostitution business. Regulationist arguments rely on false premises, such as the claim that prostitution is practiced with the consent of the woman, trans person, or transvestite, who is exploited and tortured to commodify their bodies.

A clear example is Amnesty International, which urges the legalization of prostitution for those who practice it "with consent" —a clear trap. Therefore, we expose and denounce those who advocate for regulation as complicit in the normalization of these human rights abuses and in the corruption that fuels the profits of states that promote prostitution, capitalist organized crime, and the corporations inherent in the prostitution business.

These enormous profits not only go into the pockets of pimps and corporations, but even become the biggest resources of states, like Cuba, which promote the prostitution of increasingly younger women, driven by hunger and misery, being one of the biggest sources of income for the Island through the "jineteras" who have become one of the biggest tourist attractions.

Organizations that call themselves Marxist and defend prostitution, such as the Communist Party of Cuba or the Communist Party of China, are traitors to Marxism. No Marxist organization can ever defend the interests or profits of businessmen who benefit from the prostitution industry, which is based on the suffering and degradation of thousands of women.

Marxism is either abolitionist or it is not Marxism. Marxist feminism makes abolitionism one of its main tenets. No self-respecting socialist organization can be regulatory, and those that advocate regulation must be denounced as complicit in trafficking. Likewise, bourgeois feminism, which claims to be abolitionist, is insufficient to abolish prostitution and trafficking because it denies the class struggle against capitalism.

The position of bourgeois feminism is inconsistent, since its objective is not to fight against capitalism, and by separating the fight against trafficking from the fight against capitalism, it ends up being reformism that serves the capitalist state. Bourgeois feminists, and radical feminists as part of bourgeois feminism, ultimately aim to become functionaries of the capitalist regime, however radical they may try to appear.

In countries where prostitution was legalized, such as Sweden in 1999, the law was later repealed. Today, prostitution is considered violence and oppression against women and children. While the purchase of sexual services is criminalized, the sale of such services is decriminalized, and more recently, resources have been approved to help women who wish to leave prostitution, including job training programs. As a result, prostitution rates have decreased significantly, and the trafficking of women and girls has almost disappeared.

Today the women's revolution does not stop, on the contrary it advances sweeping against the patriarchal system and capitalism, vindicating all the struggles of women, and the most vulnerable sectors, raising the green scarf for legal, safe and free abortion, for the separation of Church and State, including sexual diversities, with an abolitionist feminism that banishes the multimillion-dollar business of Trafficking.

Destroying the capitalist system that breeds the most perverse businesses, where wealth is concentrated in 1% of the world's population and 99% suffer misery, hunger, unemployment, exploitation, and abuse at the hands of this tiny circle that sustains the capitalist system, and driving the socialist system forward through gender and class struggle.

Marx Women, the Marxist Feminist organization, call for this struggle to continue, uniting in the same objective the abolition of prostitution, the Patriarchy, and the Private Ownership of the Means of Production, in order to establish Global Socialism.

PROTOCOL FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PERSONS

Texts and authors consulted :

"Women of the 21st Century" Julie Bindel is an investigative journalist, writer and researcher on issues of violence against women and girls, especially prostitution, trafficking, international trade in surrogacy, among others.

Anna Prats, journalist specializing in prostitution.

Cecilia Zamudio, journalist, artist.

Andrea Giménez-Salinas Framis. Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Daniel Campos. The End of Multinationals. Amazon 2012

"12 routes for water collection, transit and exploitation" UNODC and researcher Mabel Lozano

THE AUTHORS