Amsterdam sex workers and residents march together against controversial erotic center
Sex workers, business owners, and residents from De Wallen, the neighborhood in Amsterdam that includes the Red Light District, marched to City Hall on Thursday afternoon in protest against a proposal to shut dozens of windows used by sex workers. Instead, the city wants to open an erotic center outside of the city center with about a hundred placements for sex workers.
However, the sex workers have long maintained they were uninterested in leaving and have pleaded with City Council members to hear them out. This time, they were joined by residents and others from the city's Noord and Zuid districts, where the Erotic Center could be located. They are also largely opposed to the proposal.
About 100 people from the “monster alliance” against the erotic center marched from Oudekerksplein to the Stopera, Amsterdam’s city hall. “Don’t save us, save our windows,” they chanted as they walked. At their destination, the sex workers handed over their “Manifesto for the preservation of the Red Light District” to five city councilors. They got support from about 100 residents of Noord and Zuid, protesting on Nieuwmarkt.
The march was organized by Mariska Majoor, the former sex worker and the founder of the Prostitution Information Center. Her plan was again aimed to express displeasure with the city's plans to relocate the window brothels.
The manifesto was written for and by sex workers, Majoor told AT5. “This is a different plan than that of the residents of Noord and Zuid. With all due respect, they do not want a red light in their backyard. These people have a red light in their backyard, and they want to keep it.”
The parties in the monster alliance aren’t against the municipality’s intention to spread crowds in De Wallen, but that should not only focus on relocating sex workers, they said. They refer to another plan to make the Zuidas more attractive to tourists with several activities, thereby shifting tourism flows out of the city center.
“This discussion is not about a building but about a city. Not about prostitution but about tourism. It requires a future-orientated vision of city development. For an Amsterdam that everyone can be proud of,” Majoor said to the Amsterdam broadcaster.
The proposed erotic center is intended to provide a workspace that helps relieve the old city center of overtourism and nuisance caused by crowding, while enhancing the position of sex workers, and combating criminal activity. However, the plan has raised the concerns of Noord and Zuid residents and the sex workers themselves.
Last month, a petition with over 22,000 signatures against the proposed erotic center was presented to Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema. The petition was initiated by a coalition called the "monsterverbond," the “monster alliance” in Eglish, which includes various businesses, educational and cultural institutions, residents' associations, and interest groups.
