Modern SlaveryMichael Moniz ALB Degree Candidate

Old Slavery

New Slavery

Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department

How has slavery evolved?Old Slavery New Slavery

Legal ownership asserted Legal ownership avoided

High purchase cost Very low purchase cost

Low profits Very high profits

Shortage of potential slaves

Surplus of potential slaves

Long-term relationship Short-term relationship

Slaves maintained Slaves disposable

Ethnic differences important Ethnic differences not important

K. Bales (1999) Disposable People, U California Press

How do we define the new slavery?

The threat or use of violence in the control of one person by another for the purposes of economic exploitation -K. Bales

What types of slavery exist today?

Traditional “chattel” slavery – Mauritania

Bonded labor – Brazil Forced Labor - Burma Child Labor – India rug making Trafficking - Thailand

Practice Free Will?

Labor Power?

Violence?

White Slavery Y Y YForced Labor Y Y YDebt Bondage Y Y YChild Prostitution Y Y YForced Prostitution Y Y YProstitution ? ? ?Forced Marriage ? ? YApartheid ? N YOrgan Harvesting ? N ?Caste N N YPrison Labor N ? Y

Kevin Bales; Understanding Global Slavery, U of CA press, 2005

What is the scope of the new slavery? Third largest international crime behind drug and arms

smuggling Generates an estimated $13B / year, this is approximately

equal to the amount Americans annually spend on jeans. CIA / State department estimate over 50,000 women and

children are trafficked into the U.S. every year. In India or Nepal, a person can be trapped into a lifetime

of hard labor just to pay the interest on as little as $36. There are more individuals enslaved today than at any

point in recorded history—including the transatlantic slave trade

The Human Rights Center at UCB estimates between 1998 and 2003 there were 57 forced labor operations in California that involved over 500 people in almost a dozen cities

What factors contribute to modern slavery?

Explosive population increase post-WWII; The world has gone from 2M people in 1945 to 6M+ today.

Rapid economic and societal modernization

Push/Pull factors in sending/receiving countries

Government complicity (esp. Police) Cultural factors

International Anti-Slavery Laws The 1926 Slavery Convention of the League

of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: ‘No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.’

The 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices similar to Slavery, banned ‘institutions and practices similar to slavery’: debt bondage, serfdom, servile marriage

Burma, Brazil, India, Mauritania, Pakistan, Thailand

What can be done?

Pressure international institutions to demand member nations enforce already existing treaties.

Boycotts are counterproductive Give NGOs in affected countries

resources to both free slaves AND assist in integration into free society

Ask hard questions of nonprofits, politicians and business.

Further Information

Free the Slaves www.freetheslaves.net

Anti-Slavery International www.antislavery.org

Rugmark Foundation www.rugmark.org

Not For Sale Campaign www.notforsalecampaign.org

Polaris Project www.polarisproject.org

End

Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department