>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >This article from NYTimes.com >has been sent to you by Julio Cesar Pino [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Marxism list > >What this fine-sounding editorial fails to mention is the role of >multinational capital in keeping slavery alive. Thus, Thai brothels are often >owned by Japanese firms who sub-contract the sale of women, and US companies >buy rugs made in India and Pakistan by child chattle.BTW, even though he's a >liberal, read Bales's book; it will make your flesh crawl. JC > >Julio Cesar Pino >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Modern-Day Slavery > >September 9, 2000 > > > >By a conservative estimate, there are 27 million people working under >various forms of slavery in the world today, and the number is >growing. In contrast to the slavery America knew, today's >slaveholders mainly exploit people of their own race. But as in the >American past, they use violence and threats to force people to >labor for no pay. Slavery is illegal everywhere, but it thrives >because of the corruption of police and government authorities. >Many people are unaware that modern slavery exists. > > People held in some form of bondage pick sugar cane in the >Dominican Republic, make the charcoal used in Brazil's steel >industry and work as prostitutes in Thailand. In Mauritania and >Sudan blacks are forced into domestic and agricultural slavery in >Muslim households. Similar forms of oppression are not unknown in >developed nations. The Central Intelligence Agency estimates that >45,000 women and children are smuggled into the United States each >year with false promises of decent jobs. Instead, most find that >their passports are stolen and they are forced to work as >prostitutes or maids, on farms or in sweatshops. > > But the majority of people who are treated like slaves, perhaps 20 >million, according to the United Nations, are South Asians in debt >bondage. The system is chillingly described in "Disposable People," >a survey of contemporary forms of slavery by Kevin Bales, who >teaches at the University of Surrey in England. Whole families, >including children, are trapped into peonage to pay debts incurred >by medical expenses, a funeral or crop failure. Their debts are >inflated by outrageous prices for food and usurious interest rates. >Families can essentially be enslaved for generations. > > Slavery and related kinds of servitude are a growing business >because the number of desperately poor people is increasing and >globalization has disrupted rural communities. In many nations, >children, mainly girls, must drop out of school to work. A girl in >a northern Thai village can be sold into prostitution for $2,000 ó >a huge sum there. A Thai survey found that many families knowingly >sold daughters into prostitution because they felt pressure to buy >consumer goods such as televisions. Girls stay until they contract >AIDS, and are then sent back to their villages to die in disgrace. > > While slavery is illegal, it is hard to eradicate. Even the >United States lacks adequate criminal penalties for those who >traffic in human beings. Moreover, the victims ó the potential >witnesses ó are usually deported. This may change, however, as both >houses of Congress recently passed a bill that would criminalize >trafficking, end the rapid deportation of victims and provide help >for them here and modest programs to prevent slavery abroad. > > Slavery and forced labor are even more difficult to fight in >nations where they draw support from traditional structures of >power and corruption, the devaluation of women and, in India, the >caste system. Educating the poor about how to avoid falling victim >helps, as do small loans and skill training. India has an excellent >program to pay off laborers' debts and give them training and land. >But Dr. Bales argues that local officials and judges often sabotage >it. > > The first step in combating modern variations of slavery, however, >is education. The developed world needs to realize that slavery >exists, and that its victims may have helped produce the clothes, >rugs and other goods we buy. It is especially important for people >in nations where it is widespread not to accept it as a traditional >practice but to see it as one of the most serious abuses of human >rights. > > >The New York Times on the Web >http://www.nytimes.com _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
