"It's not just the money," Janta adds, "you also have a lot of free time, you can study in the day time, you have more freedom than in other jobs. And we learn about human behavior. It's very interesting. We get to learn other languages, meet people from all over the world."Read More: Decriminalizing Sex Work Helps Sex Workers
The stereotype of trafficked Asian women exploited by sex tourists means that few people in the west expect Thai sex workers to be at the forefront of a radical push for sex workers' rights, but despite its slightly shabby, unassuming exterior, Can Do bar represents just that.According to Liz Hilton, an Australian woman who originally joined Empower as an advocacy volunteer and has now been working with the organization for 23 years—so long that she sounds more comfortable speaking in Thai than in English—Can Do is the only bar in Thailand, if not the world, that is owned and run by a collective of sex workers, and designed to model exemplary working conditions in the industry."The Can Do bar came about because sex workers had been advocating for [workers' rights] and working under shitty conditions for years," Hilton explains. "One day a group of sex workers here in Chiang Mai said, 'Actually the government doesn't get it, nobody understands what we're talking about, we're going to have to build it ourselves, we can't wait anymore.' And so they pooled their money and raised a million baht [almost $30,000] between them all and created the bar."One day a group of sex workers in Chiang Mai said, 'Actually the government doesn't get it… We're going to have to build it ourselves.'
Sex workers are usually paid a small salary by the bar owners of anywhere between about 3,000 baht ($82) and 13,000 baht ($357) a month. But in order to actually receive this salary, women working in bars must meet a certain quota of 'lady drinks' and bar fines. If they fail to meet this quota, they lose part of their salary. They can also lose money for an array of minute offences, facing fines for tardiness, missing staff meetings, and even every kilo of gained weight. The numerous fines mean that it is possible, and quite easy, to go into minus figures and actually owe the bar money at the end of the month.We're the only organization that works with sex workers, not on top of sex workers.
"We work according to the Thai labor law," Janta explains. "We only work an eight hour shift, we're paid according to the labor law, there are no salary cuts, we have a safe, healthy workplace, we have four days off per month, and also paid sick leave. And we have access to the social security scheme."Unlike in other bars, at Can Do sex workers are not forced to drink alcoholic 'lady drinks' either—they don't have a drink quota at all, but if they are bought a drink they can choose whether they want: Alcohol, juice or soda. There is also no bar fine, leaving women free to come and go as they please.In the daytime, the rooms behind and above the bar are used for meetings, gatherings, lessons, and workshops. Thanta Laowilawanyakul, a witty, smiling woman who tells me to call her 'Ping Pong,' points out that Can Do is a vitally important space because it brings together people who wouldn't usually mix: sex workers from different parts of the industry—from bars, massage parlours, and brothels—and from different countries. It's a place where people can meet, socialize, relax, exchange information, and organize.[NGOs] use sex workers as volunteers to do little jobs, but you can't be the manager, you don't own the budget… You're just a pity doll.
According to her this renders the work of many NGOs unhelpful: As well as perpetuating stigma, they're simply not interested in engaging with the practical problems that sex workers face."They say they are working for sex workers," Van Derburg tells me, "and we might want to go and learn English with them, but then they want to change our job and change our religion, so we're really only their victims." Ping Pong agrees. "They use sex workers as volunteers to do little jobs, but you can't be the manager, you don't own the budget, you don't design the programme, you're just a pity doll."Sometimes you hear or you read about Thai students selling sex—we say, 'No, no it's just sex workers going to university, don't worry.'
"In other places you can't sell sex and work for that organization, they make you stop work," Van Derburg adds. "Some of them have rules that you can't go to your old work place or associate with your old friends."Many of the women I speak to have ambitions outside of sex work, but that doesn't mean they want to stop sex work entirely. Instead, they see it as a potentially lucrative and flexible part-time job, a choice that Empower supports. "There are over 100 women in Chiang Mai who are now at the university and colleges after finishing studying with us," Hilton tells me. "Sometimes you hear or you read about Thai students selling sex—we say, 'No, no it's just sex workers going to university, don't worry, it's the other way round.'"Eventually I broach an especially sensitive subject with the women: Sex trafficking, and the numerous initiatives in Thailand to stop it. In 2012 Empower published a damning report arguing that, "we have now reached a point in history where there are more women in the Thai sex industry who are being abused by anti-trafficking practices than there are women being exploited by trafficking."I ask Hilton to explain. "There was a massive problem [with trafficking], until about 1998," she tells me. "Empower worked through that, we were in the locked brothels, we know exactly what trafficking looks like and we looked for it when it ended." She insists that in Empower's experience, sex trafficking in Thailand is now almost extinct.Read More: This 'Uber for Escorts' App Aims to Revamp Sex Work
Besides, she says, the strategies employed by anti-trafficking organizations are deeply flawed. "The women that we knew that were in forced labor, the strategies that they're offering now, [the women] didn't want then either," she tells me, arguing that what the Thai authorities call 'rescuing and repatriating' trafficking victims is actually a forceful and violent process, better described as "arrest, detention, and deportation". Rescue and repatriation operations are often indiscriminate, Hilton says, aggressively targeting and forcefully removing voluntary migrants without documents, rather than trafficked women.In the report, Empower describe one incident in which 50 armed police officers raided a karaoke bar and detained eight women who worked there, all Burmese migrants, locking them in bathrooms when they attempted to escape. The women were ordered to place their thumbprints on statements written in Thai, which they could not read. Their phones and personal belongings were then confiscated and they were detained for over a month.Empower's stance on trafficking is controversial—it directly contradicts organizations like the United Nations, which believes that sex trafficking is still a significant problem in Thailand—but it's difficult to disregard the voices of migrant women who have witnessed and experienced both trafficking and anti-trafficking initiatives.Why is the world so afraid to have young, working class, non-English speaking, and predominantly non-white women moving around?
Altogether 206 Thai and migrant sex workers, including Van Derburg and Janta, were directly involved in conducting Empower's research and many more were interviewed. In the introduction to the report, they write eloquently and scathingly of the sexist double standards experienced by female migrant sex workers, asking: "Why is the world so afraid to have young, working class, non-English speaking, and predominantly non-white women moving around?""We are forced to live with the modern lie that border controls and anti-trafficking policies are for our protection," the report continues. "None of us believe that lie or want that kind of protection. We have been spied on, arrested, cut off from our families, had our savings confiscated, interrogated, imprisoned and placed into the hands of the men with guns, in order for them to send us home… all in the name of 'protection against trafficking.'"In Thailand, as in the rest of the world, it seems that many people are still unwilling to listen to sex workers. But the women at Empower are resourceful, tenacious and determined to change this by continually finding new ways to communicate their message, until eventually they are heard."We have our performance with our new theatre, and a book, and a movie," Mai says. "We try and make sure we have a place in different social spaces and on different stages and forums, so that whatever people are talking about they're talking about sex workers' point of view too."As Ping Pong leaves the bar, she says she has one last thing she wants to tell me. She suggests a simple solution for people grappling with the issues surrounding sex work. "People talking about, 'sex workers this or that, whatever', they don't need to be asking other people anymore," she says. "It's 2015—tell them, go ask a sex worker!"We are forced to live with the modern lie that border controls and anti-trafficking policies are for our protection. None of us believe that lie or want that kind of protection.