They marched down the street chanting “save our jobs,” and for a short while, they brought the politics of the sex work industry to the forefront of Bourbon Street.

At 9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb.1, strip club workers and their supporters marched through the French Quarter, down Bourbon Street to Jackson Square, in protest of the recent actions taken by the city who raided and revoked the licenses of eight clubs.

#BreakingNews on Bourbon Street as strippers protest for the protection of their rights chanting “Bourbon Street not Sesame Street” pic.twitter.com/3AvsGjUBbR

— Mairéad Siobhán (@mairead_siobhan) February 2, 2018

Armed with signs that read “Touching my boobs isn’t prostitution” and “Bourbon Street not Sesame Street,” the workers and their allies marched to raise awareness of unemployment issues caused by the closure of the clubs.

Cherenoble, a stripper on Bourbon Street, explained that “We are protesting the recent raids of all the strip clubs and trying to put some faces to the unemployed numbers that have risen since we’ve all been put out of business.”

In January, seven of the eight clubs that were raided were closed because of prostitution or drug sales, and the raids have also been linked to a wider human trafficking operation by the police.

However, the NOPD have yet to bring trafficking charges to anyone arrested during the raids. This is creating anger and leading some workers to think the operation aims to disrupt and criminalize stripping and other legal sex work.

Nya, a dancer at the Rick’s Saloon Bar, said that “We have found no cases of sex trafficking at any of our clubs but yet thousands of us have lost our jobs so we are out here fighting it.”

“We are silenced, we do not have the same constitutional rights as a corpse,” she added. Nya was present at the Rick’s raid two weeks ago.

https://twitter.com/anaite_sofia/status/959267273059000320

Some workers feel that the raids are just the beginning and that the ultimate aim of the city is to shut down all strip clubs.

One worker named David Williams said, “The police are trying to shut us down, it’s basically an extortion act, they shut us down for nothing.”

“We have to plead for our jobs. Let us work, that’s all we’ve got to say, just let us work,” he added.

The group of protesters have labelled their movement “The Unemployment March” and plan to meet again this evening, Feb. 2, to march down Bourbon Street again.