Remembering Liz Hilton

Today, 3 August 2023, on her birthday, we remember Liz Hilton, our much-loved wonderful friend and sister in struggle. She would have been 61 had she not been unexpectedly taken from us earlier this year.

Liz was born in Australia and lived in Thailand for many decades, where she found a new movement family with Empower, the sex worker organisation to which she contributed so much. Since 2013, when we first met her, she worked closely with the English Collective of Prostitutes and the Global Women’s Strike, and became a most valued international point of reference for us.

Here is the message we wrote in the book her friends in Thailand are publishing today in her honour. And here is the video of an extraordinary speech she made at our monthly picket of the family courts in London.

Today, Liz’s day, we also remember other sisters from the Wages for Housework movement we have lost along the way. Liz, who hated to be singled out for any praise, would have been glad to be in their company, and they in hers.

Liz, you were our dear friend and sister in arms and we loved you.

We first met you in 2012 at a horribly posh conference where you spoke from the back of the hall calling the English Collective of Prostitutes Empower’s big sister organization.

When you came to London a couple of years later, you immediately belonged with us. You were soon an important point of reference for our international network.

We loved your quick wit, your deep loyalty to working-class women, your dedication to the international movement against poverty, injustice and every form of racism, your hard work and accountability, your fury at the uncaring elites.

You used the pain that was rooted in your childhood experience to understand the pain of others and to strengthen and encourage them. You knew what was important in this world. You thought we were all entitled to better.

We miss your jokes, your good judgement, your determination, your clever and funny insights. You have left a chasm in our lives.

Today, on your birthday, we renew our commitment to each other, to be bad together, and to our collective struggle for all life on this planet. Wherever we are, you will be with us always and always.

With love and gratitude, your sisters and brothers in the Wages for Housework / Global Women’s Strike movement.