More Than Ever Before In History

Most people believe slavery doesn�t exist anymore, but it is still very much alive.
From Khartoum to Calcutta, from Brazil to Bangladesh, men, women and children live and work as slaves.
In fact, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before in history.

For many people, the image that comes to mind when they hear the word slavery is the slavery of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The buying and selling of people, humans shipment from one continent to another and the abolition of this trade in the early 1800s. Even if we know nothing about the slave trade, it is something we think of as part of our history rather than our present. But the reality is that slavery continues today.

Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to live as slaves.
Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay at all and are at the mercy of their 'employers'. This fact is generally not known. In part, this is because modern-day slavery does not fit our familiar images of shackles, whips, and auctions. Contemporary forms of slavery include forced labor, servile marriage, debt bondage, child labor and forced prostitution.
Modern slaves can be concubines, shoe makers, cane cutters, carpets weavers or roads builders. Though the vast majority is no longer sold at public auction, today's slaves are often no better off than their more familiar predecessors. On the contrary, in many cases, their lives are more brutal and hazardous.

Slavery is banned in most of the countries where it is practiced.
Slavery exists today despite the fact that the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, have prohibited slavery, the slave trade and institutions and practices similar to slavery.
Women from Eastern Europe are bonded into prostitution, children are trafficked between West African countries and men are forced to work as slaves on Brazilian agricultural estates.
Contemporary slavery takes various forms and affects people of all ages, sex and race.

A few common characteristics distinguish slavery from other human rights violations. A slave is:

Forced to work - through mental or physical threat
Owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse
Treated as a commodity or bought and sold as 'property'
Physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his freedom

In the past, we had slave-owners. Now we have slaveholders. In both cases, slaves are forced to work by violence or the threat of violence, they are paid nothing, they are given only what keeps them able to work and they are not free to leave.

An average slave in South USA in 1850 cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today�s money. Today a slave costs an average of $90. In 1850 it was difficult to capture a slave and transport them to the US. Today, millions of economically and socially vulnerable people around the world are potential slaves. This �supply� makes today�s slaves cheaper than they have ever been. Since they are so cheap, slaves are no longer a major investment worth maintaining. If slaves get sick, are injured, outlive their usefulness, or become troublesome to the slaveholder, they are dumped or killed. For most slave-holders, actually owning the slave is an inconvenience since they already exert total control over the individuals� labor and profits. The slave-holder cares more about these high profits than whether the holder and slave are of different ethnic backgrounds; in new slavery, profit trumps skin color. Finally, new slavery is directly connected to the global economy. As in the past, most slaves are forced to work in agriculture, mining and prostitution. From these sectors, their exploited labor flows into the global economy, and into our lives.

The ownership of one human being by another is illegal in every country in the world today. It doesn't mean slavery has ceased to exist. It means it has simply changed its form.

Slavery is everywhere and in everything.
It flows into our lives through the products we buy. Slaves harvest cocoa in the Ivory Coast, make coal for steel production in Brazil, and weave carpets in India. These products reach our stores and our homes at a very low price, but their real price is blood, sweat and tears. The real price of a chocolate snack is the freedom of someone else.

People look for bargains or buy for fashionable reasons, they try to fill a self void or consume out of conformity. They enslave each other for luxury commodities that have nothing to do with survival. They are so alienated from other species, from other humans and even from their own real needs, that they look for answers to their problems through shopping.

Nothing can save humans and nothing can be saved from humans. We are all enslavers. We simply can�t, not be enslavers nowadays.
For some of us, slavery is a mandatory consequence of what we see as necessary consumption that we are trying to minimize of course. We wish we could say, at least that, about society but unfortunately most humans are totally indifferent to the way the products they consume are manufactured. And of course, they have a few helpers� Consumption is good for governments, economists and corporations, so they are doing everything they can, to make it as easy as possible for humans to consume as much as possible. The advertising industry is making enormous efforts to convince people that consuming is the best thing they can do in order to be happy.

A consumer boycott is a very marginal phenomenon in our capitalist society. A consumer boycott for moral reasons regarding for example the employment terms of the manufactures, or because the product contains animal ingredients, because the company that sells the product is involved with animal experiments, or because the product contains CFC gases (chlorofluorocarbon � greenhouse gas) etc - are very rare compared to the amount of suffer caused during the production process.

slave in the tea industry

Capitalism is so ingrained in society and slavery is so ingrained in capitalism, that it is impossible to consume without enslaving.
If you think - vegan products, fair trade, non-tested on animals, ozone friendly products etc. Think� are these products packaged? What is the package made of? Nylon? Plastic? Wood? Paper? Is there any use of electricity at any point during the manufacture process? Is it distributed to stores by vehicles? Is it imported using ships and airplanes? There are many more related questions but we think the point is clear. Consumption always means hurting someone else. Everything in life is on the expense of someone else. There is no sufferless consumption. Don�t compromise on mediocrity! If there is no consumption without suffer, there shall be no consumption at all!

Throughout history everything that has been done in order to stop slavery, didn�t work.
There is no reason to believe something will work in the future. Actions against slavery and any other exploitation system for that matter, have failed.

Even the United States civil war, as opposed to the famous myth, didn�t break to end slavery. That is extremely naive. The election of Abraham Lincoln, which signaled the end of Southern control over the federation, led to the 11 southern states secession. United States federal government (�The Union�) rejected the secession because of the northern states financial burden due to closed sea ports during the winter. Cynically but not surprisingly �The Union� used the slavery abolition idea to recruit salves as soldiers of the �anti slavery� north.
It is all about money and power. Wars don�t break because of moral issues.

We can�t keep blaming the corporations for being evil or the activists for not being smart enough or for not working hard enough. We can�t keep blaming politicians or the media. These are cosmetic accusations that lead us to cosmetic solutions and cosmetic actions. The problem is much more rooted. Like any other exploitation system, slavery exists from the beginning of civilization. Other species enslave each other too. It is such a natural and basic strategy. There is no wonder that slavery was never ended even though it is not legal in most of the countries in the world. It is too efficient for humans not to do it. It is so logical if you are thinking about it from a selfish, egocentric point of view of a creature that is trying to promote himself, his family and his race first. Well that�s what we are. It�s time for you to face that.

The problem has a name and it is called life.
Life is the source of all suffer. If you want to end slavery and any other exploitation system you must end life.

Debt bondage (also called bonded labor) - Debt bondage is a situation in which an impoverished individual borrows money and places himself as collateral against the loan. If the individual cannot pay back the loan, he and all of his labor, and often the labor of his family members as well, become the property of the moneylender. All of the slave's labor becomes the property of the slaveholder until the debt is repaid. However, the slave has no way of earning money now that his labor belongs to another, thus he has no way of paying back the debt. The amount of money loaned, therefore, becomes the price paid to acquire a slave. In some cases of debt bondage, the debtor's labor is theoretically used to pay off the debt. Yet, often through fraudulent accounting or the charging of very high interest, the lender ensures the debt is never paid off. In such cases, instead of gaining repayment, the lender acquires a slave. Debt bondage is currently the most common form of slavery in the world.

More than 20 million people are held in bonded labor.

Poverty and the fact that people are prepared to exploit the desperation of others, lies at the heart of bonded labour. Often without land or education, the need for money just for daily survival forces people to enslave themselves in exchange for a lump sum of money or a loan.

Debt bondage, in India, is when a worker gives up freedom of movement in exchange for the use of a small plot of land and a food allowance. The landlords are usually members of the higher castes, while the bonded laborers are usually lower caste and are illiterate.
The rates of interest for the loaned land can be very high, and the basic arrangement is that the entire worker's labor equals the interest and the principal must be paid in cash. The goal of course is that the slaves won�t be able to pay and will stay slaves forever.

Migrant labor - Humans, repulsively and greedily, exploit the fragile position of immigrants. Some migrating workers, especially domestic workers, are subjected to slavery, particularly children and immigrants who work and live in the same house or land as their employer. These workers are paid little or nothing for their work, often on grounds that they receive food and lodging. They are cut off from their families, society, and any other people that may provide them protection from their keepers. They usually cannot speak the language of the country they are taken to. They are usually brought into the country illegally and face deportation and possible jail time if they get caught by authorities. They are kept in the house (or factory, dormitory, etc.) under the threat of violence by their keepers.
Cases continue to be uncovered in countries like the United States where servants and agricultural workers were brought into the country from abroad, either legally or illegally, and then treated as slaves.

Countries affected by war or civil conflict may make convicted prisoners perform forced labor or compulsory military service. They also enslave the weak and the defenseless such as refugees, members of ethnic minorities, women and children.

Poverty, gender-based discrimination in employment and a history of sexual and physical violence are all factors that can make women and children vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
Some are abducted and sold, some are deceived into consenting by the promise for a better life or a better job, and some feel that entrusting themselves to traffickers is the only available option.

"I became bonded after I got married to my husband 20 years ago � his family had been bonded for three generations to the same landlord � they took loans for marriage, for illness, for education and so it went on� I used to work from 6.00 am in the landlord�s house � cleaning, fetching water�Then I would go to work on the farm�cutting, threshing and so on until 7.00 pm or later. Sometimes I would have to go back to the landlord�s house to clean and wash everything. Only after I had finished could I go home to feed my family. My landlord never let me work with another landlord, he would abuse us and threaten to beat us if we ever went to work for someone else. If we were ill, the landlord would come to our houses and tell us that we were very lazy and so on� As women, we had to work more than men because women had to work in the landlord�s house as well as the farm. Even after working on the farm, we had sometimes to go back to the landlord�s house to work�"
Leelu Bai, former bonded labourer adivasi (indigenous) woman from Thane District, India, 1999

Sexual Trafficking is slavery because traffickers use violence, threats, and other forms of coercion to force their victims to work against their will. This includes controlling their freedom of movement, where and when they work and what pay, if any, they receive.

Statistics about trafficking are unreliable for a number of reasons, one is the clandestine nature of the activity. However, rough estimations suggest that between 700,000 to 2 million women are trafficked across international borders annually. Adding local trafficking would bring the total, much higher, to perhaps 4 million persons per year.

Some trafficking victims are physically imprisoned by locks, bars or guards. Those with apparent freedom to leave are controlled by other means. Physical, sexual and psychological violence are employed against them effectively. Former trafficking victims report being beaten, in some cases with iron rods, for refusing clients, attempting escape or �causing trouble". Others have reported being drugged or forced to consume alcohol, some to the extent that they became addicted.

Trafficked migrants are vulnerable because of their irregular legal status, and may face deportation. They often cannot access legal assistance and medical care, and so remain dependent on their agents and employers.

Children who have been trafficked across borders and 'rescued' are often treated as criminals. They are considered to be in breach of the law in those countries, which criminalize prostitution, and they are considered to be in breach of immigration laws for having entered a country illegally. They may be subject to imprisonment or 'rehabilitation' before being sent back to their country of origin. Once in their country of origin, some will be punished again, this time according to the laws and policies of their own countries for emigrating illegally.

Violence: The consequences of psychological, physical and sexual violence associated with trafficking and sexual exploitation include depression, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and physical injuries such as bruises, broken bones, head wounds, stab wounds, mouth and teeth injuries and even death.

Health: Involvement in the sex industry is associated with an increased risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Pregnancy and forced and unsafe abortions are primary health concerns, exacerbated by lack of access to health care.

HIV/AIDS: HIV risk increases in situations where victims do not have access to condoms, or where they are not in a position to negotiate condom use. The risk is further increased by cuts and tears in vaginal and anal tissue due to rough sex, rape and through ulcers, caused by sexually transmitted infections.

Substance Abuse: Many women and children in the sex industry use drugs and/or alcohol as a coping mechanism. Both voluntary and forced use, commonly lead to addiction and its attendant health consequences.

Access to Health Care: Fear of detection and deportation can leave undocumented women reluctant to access social services. In situations of debt bondage, women may not be able to pay for care. Those forcibly kept in brothels may not be allowed to leave to seek health care. Because their access to care is so restricted, trafficking victims are at high risk of complications such as undiagnosed and untreated infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancy.

Children: Often lacking accurate information, skills, power and ability to negotiate condom use, children are at greater risk of HIV infection. Due to their immature reproductive tracts, girls are especially vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections and are more likely to suffer long term damage from them. The traumatic sexualization, betrayal, powerlessness and stigmatization involved in sexual exploitation are particularly damaging to children and adolescents development, and can lead to various types of psychiatric morbidity and an impaired ability to form attachments and successful interpersonal relationships.

Children are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases than adults, including HIV infection, as their body tissues are more easily damaged. Psychological impacts of sexual exploitation are harder to measure, but no less painful for the child. Many children who have been exploited report feelings of shame, guilt and low self-esteem. Some children do not believe they are worthy of rescue. Others create a different reality and say that prostitution was their choice - that they want to help support their family or that their pimp is really their boyfriend who loves them.

Some suffer from stigmatization or the knowledge that they were betrayed by someone they trusted. Others suffer from nightmares, sleeplessness, hopelessness and depression - similar to the feelings exhibited in torture victims. To cope, some children attempt suicide or turn to drugs.

Servile or forced marriage - is where young girls or women have no rights to refuse marriage. In "servile marriage", a young woman is often given in exchange for money or other payment, she can sometimes be inherited by another person if her husband dies, or even sold to someone else. Girls as young as 10, married without a choice, are forced into lives of domestic servitude and often-physical violence.

The tradition of servile marriage is still practiced in Ethiopia, where it is common for a man to rape an underage girl. Once the girl is raped, the rapist goes to her father and demands the girl as his wife. The father and the rape victim have no option but to agree, as no other man will marry her. In certain South Asian countries, a young girl is sometimes �bought� by paying a bride price and without the assent of the girl. Girls in servile marriages are often abused physically and sexually by their rapists, their buyers and even by priests.

Girls are being pledged to priests in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. In this traditional practice, known as Trokosi, young girls, usually under the age of 10, are given to the local fetish shrine to atone for offenses allegedly committed by a member of the girl's family. The girl becomes the property of the fetish priest and must provide sexual services as well as other labor for him. In simple words, parents prostitute their own little children in order to atone their own crimes.

Sweatshops

Big retail and apparel companies are in a global race to increase profits by driving down costs. As they source merchandise from all over the world, they search for places where workers are paid the lowest wages, and human rights are trampled.

There are no international laws that require corporations to respect workers� rights, to ensure decent working conditions, or even to pay a living wage. In fact, the current trade laws encourage companies to make their products in places with the worst conditions and the lowest wages. Places where workers are not free to stand up for their rights and protect themselves.

Sweatshop workers report horrible working conditions including sub-minimum wages, no benefits, non-payment of wages, forced overtime, sexual harassment, verbal abuse, corporal punishment, and illegal firings.

Sweatshop operators can best control workers that are ignorant of their rights as workers. Therefore, bosses often refuse to hire unionized workers and intimidate or fire any worker suspected of speaking with union representatives or trying to organize her fellow workers.

Large corporations almost always use contract manufacturing firms to produce their goods. In this way, corporations separate themselves from the production of their own goods and try to claim that the working conditions under which their goods are produced are not their responsibility.

The corporations are driving developed countries into a race to the bottom.
Factories with good conditions are getting shut down and sweatshops are opening up.

Child Labor

Of nearly 250 million children engaged in child labor around the world, the vast majority � 70% or 170 million � are working in agriculture. Child agricultural work is grueling and harsh. Children frequently work long hours in scorching heat, haul heavy loads, exposed to toxic pesticides, and suffer high rates of injury from sharp knives and other dangerous tools.

Worldwide, about 246 million children, ages 5 to 17, are involved in child labor, 1 out of every 6 children in the world.
Nearly three-quarters of the world's child laborers, about 180 million children, are exposed to the worst forms of child labor - work that is hazardous for children. 110 million children in hazardous work are under the age of 15. 8.4 million children are trapped in the most abhorrent forms of child labour - slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography, and other such activities.

Child agricultural workers often begin to work at early ages, and may work 12 or more hours a day. During peak harvest season, they sometimes work 14 hours or more. Children may begin working as early as 4 a.m., and may spend two hours or more, each morning and evening, traveling to the fields where they work.

One of the greatest threats to the health of child agricultural workers is exposure to pesticides.
In Ecuador, Egypt and the United States, children reported working in freshly sprayed fields, and even working in fields while they were being sprayed.
Interviewed children have reported symptoms of exposure including headaches, fever, dizziness, nausea, rashes and diarrhea. In severe cases, pesticide exposure can lead to convulsions, coma and death. Long-term effects also include cancer and brain damages.

Working while fungicides are sprayed from airplanes flying overhead, children try to protect themselves by hiding under banana leaves, covering their faces with their shirts or placing banana cartons on their heads.

The coca industry is known to be one of the most violent slavery industries. "The beatings were a part of my life," Aly Diabate, a freed slave, told reporters. "Anytime they loaded you with bags (of cocoa beans) and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again".

A reporter who visited the coca fields said: "there wasn�t an inch of the coca slave's body which wasn�t scarred".

Their wounds became infected and they had to rely on the maggots feeding on their flesh to clean the wounds and save them from gangrene.

The brutality, the isolation, the hunger and exhaustion, all combined to break the spirit and will of the captives, dooming them to years of slavery.

Nothing has changed.
Most things got worse. Slavery does not only exist but it is much more widespread than ever.

Apartheid is not over, it has changed to the world debt and the related structural adjustment programs.

And the worst part is that the number of the most enslaved creatures � non human animals, is exacerbating all the time.
Each year billions of animals are added to the already 100 billion exploited animals per year.

The conventional way can�t stop it.
Hundreds of years of failures are more than enough.

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