Thursday, June 21, 2018

And So It Begins - Again

We cannot afford to have our heads in the sand....
Hello there. It's been a while since we last posted, largely because in early 2017, TonyN and I reached the conclusion that we didn't really have much to write about anymore. Organised efforts to close clubs had effectively ceased after the recrimination splattered demise of Object in January of that year. 

But now it seems we have something of a problem...

NotBuyingIt is the vehicle of Sasha Rakoff, Objects first CEO who has decided to relaunch the battle against the strip industry in the UK. The detail of the Rakoff Strategy will be discussed in a future article, what I need at the moment is for every club owner in the UK to take the current campaign very seriously and to understand its objectives.

NotBuyingIt and the other members of the 'Times Up For Stripclubs' Coalition have one aim - the closure of every club and the redundancy of every stripper in the United Kingdom without any exceptions. For the sake of clarity, that achievement of this objective would lead to hardship for thousands of women is not an issue - the coalition simply do not care. Your venue might be an outstanding example of how a club should be run, it might embody the very best management practice, but it will still be targeted for closure. The coalition want one thing - for you to cease to exist as a trading entity and for your dancers to vanish back to where they came from.

If with the above cartoon I have offended anyone by comparing the strip industry to ostriches with their heads in the sand, then I apologise. However, there needs to be greater awareness of the forces that are acting against clubs and their performers and I remain unconvinced that this awareness is widespread. Awareness is essential to counter the forces fighting to destroy the industry and the lives of the people that it employs and engages with.

It was in January 2012 that I launched this blog in response to a fusillade of media abuse of strippers and venues where they worked. It almost seems that we are starting all over again but if that's what it takes - then so be it.

3 comments:

  1. I wonder what happened to Sasha Rakoff's other organisation, Stand Up For Women...
    ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It seems to have disappeared almost without trace from the web - I bet there are one or two stories to be told about that!

    ReplyDelete