Sex workers stage national strike after the femicide of four colleagues in Buenos Aires

Argentine sex workers launched a national strike on Tuesday to demand justice for the femicides of their colleagues recorded in recent weeks, as well as to call for safety guarantees to carry out their work free from violence.

Footage shot in Buenos Aires shows the demonstration held outside the National Congress, where activists and sex workers denounced the femicides of their colleagues Paula, Daniela, Barbara and Tatiana that took place in October.

"We are outside Congress with a national strike, a halt to activities in every neighbourhood and also on digital platforms, calling for them to stop killing us and wanting society to echo our demand, because our lives matter too," said activist Georgina Orellano.

The mobilisation was marked by the use of red umbrellas, the international symbol of the sex workers' rights movement. The demonstrators said that the stigma associated with their work makes it difficult for their labour rights to be guaranteed.

"Sex workers are demanding that the State recognise their trade, their work, with all the rights that entails; that sex work be recognised so they can have all the rights enshrined for workers. This will end clandestinity," said activist Ornella Infante.

They also criticised the policies of Javier Milei's government for the lack of places to file complaints and the closure of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI). "Sex workers are being persecuted by the government (...) At this moment we have four colleagues who are no longer with us today," said sex worker Azul Bahia.

She also denounced the labour precariousness faced by sex workers, the majority of whom have tertiary and university studies. "It is not a problem of poverty, but a problem of not making it to the end of the month to eat. So that pushes girls towards the fanciful idea that with an OnlyFans, with one photo you sell, you become a millionaire, and it is not like that," she said.

The strike included a halt to activities in different neighbourhoods and on digital platforms, with the aim of making visible the conditions in which they work. The demonstrators insisted that the femicides of their colleagues must not be rendered invisible by social stigma and demanded that their rights be recognised.

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