· The first ever private prosecution for rape in England and Wales, brought by two working women with our support, after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) refused to prosecute. In 1995, the rapist was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison, reduced to 11 on appeal. This legal precedent has established that working girls, like all other women, have the right to justice and protection against rape.

· Winning compensation for rape victims who have been turned down or have had their compensation reduced because they are work as prostitutes. We work with Women Against Rape and Black Women's Rape Action Project.

· Defending sex workers against police illegality and racism. Since 1982 when we occupied the Holy Cross Church in King's Cross, London, for 12 days we have been taking up cases of false arrest and intimidation by police. We were inspired by prostitute women who in 1975 occupied churches all over France. Sisters in Vancouver followed our example some years later.

· Defending sex workers against attacks by vigilantes and exposing how the police, local councils and government ministers in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, are backing these violent criminals in order to force working girls out of the area. With our support some women have defeated council attempts to evict them from their homes.

· Opposing and preventing the scapegoating of sex workers for HIV and AIDS. Prostitute women do not "spread HIV or AIDS". We challenge all assumptions put out by drug companies and/or governments which stand to profit from them financially or politically. We oppose compulsory HIV testing and support all mothers' right to breast feed their babies and have access to independent and reliable information, and to refuse conventional treatment.

· Getting the police to stop using possession of condoms to arrest sex workers. After a two year campaign, we succeeded in getting the police to agree in principle but what they do on the ground has remained an issue.

· Taking legal action on behalf of women whose phones had been cut off by British Telecom because they advertised in phone boxes. BT was forced to reconnect.

· Giving legal advice about arrests and court cases. Often this has resulted in charges against working girls or carders [those who put up the adverts] being dropped or acquitted.

· Working with Legal Action for Women to build a network of sympathetic lawyers who are accountable to us and to the person they are representing.

· Helping women fight extortionate tax demands. Women have successfully challenged tax demands based on biased assumptions about what sex workers earn rather than fact on the situation of each individual woman. We also oppose taxation on the grounds that women who are criminalised for the work they do should have to pay tax -- no taxation without civil rights.

· Attending international NGO forums and United Nations conferences to press for an end to the discrimination of prostitute women everywhere. The International Prostitute Collective workshops at the Beijing forum in 1995 attended by sex workers from many countries, South and North, made clear how much we have in common -- all supported decriminalisation and viable economic alternatives to prostitution.

· Shaping public opinion. Our campaigning has had a great impact. Most people now support prostitute women's right to protection from violence and discrimination regardless of what they think about prostitution. The Children's Society, the Royal College of Nursing and other "respectable" organisations have called for the decriminalisation of prostitution. The media often comes to us for information. The author and actors of the award winning TV series Band of Gold consulted us during its production.

We work closely with the US PROStitutes Collective, our sister organisation in San Francisco and are in touch with sex workers all over the world. We are part of the International Prostitutes Collective, and members of the International Wages for Housework Campaign.

Publications include: Some Mother's Daughter -- the hidden movement of prostitute women against violence; Prostitutes Our Life; Prostitute Women and AIDS: Resisting the Virus of Repression; The Hooker and the Beak; Network News; International Prostitutes Collective Information Pack; San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution Final Report; Taking Sanctuary: the birth of a movement; Demystifying Child Prostitution: A Street View, in Child Prostitution in Britain: Dilemmas and Practical Responses.