1. All humans are equal, and everyone has the right to become happy. All individuals have the right to pursue their own particular path towards happiness, specific to their unique lives, experiences and circumstances.
  2. All fully consenting adults have the right to engage in non-traditional sexual activities of their own choice, without fear of judgement or condemnation.
  3. All individuals have the right to choose their own livelihoods, and to use their bodies as a means to generate income and/or as a vehicle of self-expression.
  4. The ELSC is made up of mindful, ethical and autonomous individuals, each having chosen to strip and perform for work and pleasure. No one has been or is being coerced, nor does ELSC agree with the coercion of dancers in any way whatsoever.
  5. The ELSC recognises the work of a stripper to be a legitimate job and profession, aims to promote high standards of employment and working conditions for all its members and all strippers alike, and seeks to de-stigmatise the choice to work as a stripper.
  6. The definition of the term “stripper” indicates someone who is paid to remove items of clothing and/or underwear performed as an exotic/eroticised dance routine or performance, to reveal all or parts of their naked body.
  7. The ELSC wish to self-identify using the term “stripper” to draw a distinction between the work they do and other types of sex work. While the ELSC stands in total, open and honest solidarity with other sex workers and sex worker organisations, and has no resistance to the term “sex work”, for the purposes of campaigning on issues that specifically affect strippers in the UK the ELSC remain committed to the definition “stripper” to describe what they do for a living.
  8. The ELSC recognises exotic dance and striptease as a legitimate art form, dance discipline and mode of self-expression, as much as any others likely to entertain, titillate, or sexually stimulate the viewer (such as neo-burlesque, ballet, pole dancing, belly dancing or Jamaican dance-hall daggering). The ELSC does not regard one art form as “higher” or “more acceptable” over any other.
  9. The ELSC aims to inform and influence those in positions of authority, locally and nationally, who have the power to control, regulate and otherwise legislate the UK strip club industry. We wish to advocate on behalf of all strippers and performers affected by licensing legislation, and ask that we may be consulted during key stages of debate. We aim to have a fair and representative voice within the political arena instead of having decisions, which directly affect us, made on our behalf by those who have little or no contact with us at all.
  10. The ELSC aims to challenge/disturb the patriarchal conventions on which the industry is currently built. The ELSC invites and endorses the prospect of male dancers, female viewers, mixed gender audiences, couples, and trans/queer participants within the culture of strip clubs.
  11. Membership of the collective is limited only to those with relevant experience ie. strippers or ex-strippers (which does not exclude male strippers); therefore decisions made about the activities of the collective may only be made by members (strippers) themselves. Anyone at all maybe a supporter of the ELSC.
  12. Not one individual should profit from the labour/work of another. The ELSC does not aim to act as an agency, but instead as a resourceful network to help strippers avoid being exploited.