Millions 'live in modern slavery'

[emad]

Some 12.3 million people are enslaved worldwide, according to a major report.

The International Labour Organization says 2.4 million of them are victims of trafficking, and their labour generates profits of over $30bn.

The ILO says that while the figures may be lower than recent estimates, they reflect reported cases which may rise as societies face the problem.

The report calls for a global alliance to improve laws and raise awareness of what it calls a "hidden" issue.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4534393.stm

[Dr.Phool]

1. I got news for you

Millions of Americans are mired in "slavery". Imagine what it would cost companies like Wal-Mart, if they didn't have to pay minimum wage, what it would cost them to house, feed, cloth, and provide health care for their workers.

I guarantee you, it would be a lot more than minimum wage.

edit: spelling

[lateo]

2. Wage slaves probably aren't counted.

[dArKeR]

3. I think the figure is more like "billions". Take all of South/Central

American, Africa, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, China...

[Double T]

4. "Wage Slaves" Are Transitional To Becoming "Actual Slaves"

The "MAD MAX" Reality Is Just Around The Corner If We Don't Start To Change Things.

[potatoe]

5. Referring to "wage slaves" trivializes a hidden, but very real

problem. The poorest of the poor suffer not as a result of being oppressed by large multinational corporations, they suffer as a result of being neglected by them. The answer is more globalization, more intrusion, involvement and oversight from the developed world.

[salib]

6. So the "neglegent" become the "intrusive"?

Great way to turn passive slavery into an active industry!

[Zorra]

9. That is precisely the philosophy that is destroying this planet and

enslaving the majority people of the world in the service of a few.

The "developed world" has mangled every existing indigenous culture in its imperialistic lust for wealth and power, stealing their resources, their land, and turning them either into starving subsistence farmers or starving urban refugees.

In the following parable, the scorpion represents corporations, and the fox represents people.

The Scorpion and The Fox

One day, a fox and a scorpion had to cross a river.

The scorpion looked at the fox and asked: "fox, can you carry me on your back across the river? I can't swim."

The fox replied, "Not a chance, as soon as we get in the water you'll sting me in the back, and i'll drown"

The scorpion promised not to sting the fox, and the two started across the river.

Half way across, the scorpion stung the fox in the back. With his last breath of life, the fox asked, "why did you do that, now we are both going to die"

The scorpion replied: "its in my nature"

The World Bank, now under the direction of the insane PNAC fascist Paul Wolfowitz, is currently promoting the same idea that you have posted here in a propaganda effort to convince people to give up their cultural identities, national sovereignty, and liberty to the corporate globalist yoke.

Multinational corporations are soul-less entities whose primary goal is profit above all else. "More globalization, more intrusion, involvement and oversight from the developed world" means world slavery.

The idea of any benevolent corporation, when viewed from both a present and a historical perspective, and with the exception of a corporation owned by employees themselves, is ludicrous.

The globalization of exploitation:

But the "new world order" not only rearranges this new labor force in geographic and productive spaces, it also re-orders its place (or lack of a place, as in the case of the unemployed and subemployed) in the globalizing plan of the economy.

The World Population employed by sector was substantially changed in the last 20 years. In fishing and agriculture it went from 22% in 1970 to 12% I 1990; in manufacturing from 25% in 1970 to 22% in 1990; while in the tertiary sector (commerce, transport, banking and services) it grew from 42% in 1970 to 57% in 1990; while the population employed in the agricultural and fishing sector fell from 30% in 1970 to 15% in 1990. (Statistics from "The Labor Force in the World Market in Contemporary Capitalism". Ochoa Chi, Juanita del Pilar. UNAM. Economy. Mexico, 1997).

This means that each time more workers are channeled towards the necessary activities to increase production or to accelerate the elaboration of merchandise. The neoliberal system operates in this way like a mega-boss, conceiving the world market as a single company, administered with "modernizing" criteria.

But neoliberal modernity appears more like the beastly birth of capitalism as a world system, than like utopic "rationality". "Modern" capitalist production continues to base itself in the labor of children, women and migrant workers. Of the 1 billion, 148 million children in the world, at least 100 million of them live in the streets and almost 200 million of them work. It is expected that 400 million of them will be working by the year 2000. It is said as well that 146 million Asian children labor in the production of auto parts, toys, clothing, food, tools and chemicals. But this exploitation of child labor does not only exist in underdeveloped countries, 40% of English children and 20% of French children also work in order to complete the family income or to survive. In the "pleasure" industry there is also a place for children. The UN estimates that each year a million children enter sexual trafficking (Statistics in Ochoa Chi, J. Op. Cit.).

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/ezln/1997/jigsaw.html

[potatoe]

10. A complex modern economy offers more opportunities,

and more choices, especially to women, than simple agricultural economies. Slowly, over the course of decades, developing economies reward a broader and broader range of skill sets than ag based economies.

A decline in the segment of the labor force involved in agriculture has been a sign of progress since the dawn of time. Right now a woman with talents she does not know she has is doing back breaking labor in a field rather than doing interior design or dreaming up ad campaigns or teaching in a law school. As costly as it is in the short term, globalization ultimately offers more choices and more opportunities to escape limited options, including slavery.

[Zorra]

14. Really? I suppose that our current pro-business globalist fascist

government is a good example of the wonders of globalization?

Give me a break.

Willie Nelson likes to tell a story about the time his (former) wife came home unexpectedly and found him in bed with another woman.

"Are you going to believe what you see, or are you going to believe what I tell you?" he asked.

[chlamor]

15. Does that explain

the Maquiladores where the Globalized economy has the young woman doing grueling labor for little pay and a rare bathroom break? Of course they don't have the jobs for long as lung cancer sets in in the toxic factories of the new techno-economy as those mostly brown-skinned women suffer terrible lives in that "complex modern economy."

[potatoe]

19. Working conditions in South Korea were probably about as

bad as those in Mexico before workers there reaped the benefits of many decades of economic growth and maturation. But you have to start somewhere.

Globalization can help curb exploitation, abuse, and slavery by simply giving outsiders more of a presence in closed, isolated societies. Their mere presence makes it more likely that extreme cases of abuse will at least be brought to the attention of the outside world, to the attention of people who care enough to try to do something about it, by boycotting products and other forms of pressure. The first step in solving the problem is awareness. NGOs and the UN are important conduits for awareness, but we need even more awareness, more eyes in more places.

[Zorra]

21. Apparently S. Korea had longest average workweek in the world - 55 hrs

as of 1999. 2,477 hours a year, compared with 1,821 in the U.S, as of 2002. What a wonderful life that must be. Plantation slaves may have worked fewer hours. I am sure that Mexicans would be very pleased to spend so much time away from their families, and have no leisure time whatsoever.

Labor Pains
Korea's unions take to the streets each spring to fight, literally, for their goals. But this year their vast reservoir of public support has begun to run dry. Have we seen the last spring of Korean worker unrest?

When Seoul police this week pulled out hammers and shattered windows belonging to union members' trucks, the trade union chiefs appealed to the public. Surely there would be widespread outrage at a blatant example of police brutality? Think again. Yes, there was blood trickling down the faces of a few cement truck drivers who tangled with police. But compared to an incident April 10 in which riot police hacked their way through a crowd of 2,000 protesting Daewoo Motor workers, this latest incident was child's play. And in neither case was there any outcry from the citizenry. Unions take note: The Korean public no longer automatically sides with organized labor.

On the other hand, the unions do have legitimate cause for concern. From 1998 to 1999 the percentage of the nation's workers employed in part-time jobs rose from 40% to 53%. And for full-time workers, the average work week stands at a grueling 55 hours — the world's longest. "The government's restructuring drive is a terrible thing and we'll fight it to the end," says KCTU spokesman Sohn Nark Koo. "We worry about layoffs, loss of full-time jobs and burdensome working conditions."

It's no surprise that the government and business oppose disruptive union activities. But the public's hostility to the unions is new. For most of the 24 years since the nation's democracy movement began in 1987, a revolution in which organized labor was an important force in favor of reform, the public sided with organized labor. But the economic crisis has begun to change that. Today, unions are seen as a force blocking necessary reform. "None of the people I talk to support the unions," says 20-year-old university student Choi Daewoo. "Even the taxi drivers criticize the strikes."

The need for root and branch structural reform is so desperate that workers themselves are rethinking their knee-jerk opposition to threats. A militant Daewoo Motors labor union, which has been vocal and even violent in its opposition to a proposed takeover of the automaker by General Motors, has recently changed its tune and said it will support the purchase. Last week, 3,700 moderate unionists, facing the prospect that their company might simply disappear, rallied in support of the GM bid so that at least some jobs might be saved. Public exhaustion and economic reality may finally ring the death knell of the unions' annual spring offensive.

http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/nations/0,8782,132153,00.html
A 5-day workweek for South Korea? South Korea has always worked six days a week; last year their average worker put in 2,477 hours, compared with 1,821 in the U.S - Global Work-Life - Brief

Chang Ki Tak ponders what he would do with the extra time, fears it will mean more time to spend money, and hopes banks, at least, would stay open on Saturdays. He'll find out, if the National Assembly passes the legislation drafted by the labor ministry. It will phase in the five-day week over the next four years, to become more compatible with Europe and the U.S. There are objections on both sides. Some complain the law is watered down, and too slow to affect workers in small companies. But a spokesman for business says the five-day workweek is premature for the Korean economy. "It's true," he says, "that we work longer hours than in any other country. But a lot of workers are spending their time on private affairs, talking to friends, sending email messages. Productivity," he says, "is stilt far too low." Counters a supporter, "They'll change their work habits when they see they have a shorter week to do their jobs."

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IJN/is_2002_Oct/ai_92801985#continue

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe expressed the beliefs of the Plateau peoples when he said:

"The Earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was ...
The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it ...
The Earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the measure of our bodies are the same ...
do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land.
I never said the land was mine to do with it as I chose.
The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who created it.
I claim a right to live on my land and accord you the privilege to live on yours."

Smohalla, a religious leader of the Wanapum Indians (The Wanapum Indians are of the Plateau cultural group) had this to say:

"My young men shall never work, men who work cannot dream; and wisdom comes to us in dreams.
You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mothers breast? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest.
You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again.
You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it and be rich like white men. But how dare I cut off my mother's hair."

Each culture has had its own special conditions that it had to learn to live with. Because all cultures of the world have the human ability to think, and discover ways to solve their problems, people have learned how to live in even the most severe regions on earth. Eskimos of the arctic and the Indians of the South American jungles are alike as people but different as cultures. One lives in constant cold, snow and ice while the other lives in constant heat surrounded by trees. Each has learned how to benefit from and adapt to their own environment.

http://www.nps.gov/whmi/educate/ortrtg/2or2b.htm

Globalization: Making the world safe for corporate exploitation and wage slavery everywhere.

[potatoe]

22. Labor unions have been fighting long and hard in S. Korea,

and the give and take, of two steps forward and one step back goes on. Globalization is the first step in increasing the value of labor, and it precedes labor empowerment.

The sweetness of life in an indigenous culture depends a lot on what kind of hand you've been dealt, what kind of skills you happen to have. If you're young, strong, quick footed and sharp eyed, physically intimidating, charismatic, and male, there are nice enough places for you at the top of the heap. If you're a sickly weakling and no good at fishing or weaving or hunting, but you have a knack for programming, or selling insurance, or teaching clarinet, your career opportunities just aren't there. The long slow process of globalization gradually opens up more opportunities for people with more diverse interests and abilities.

[sadiesworld]

23. kick

[chlamor]

25. Whose words are you using?

One way to find out is to read the words of the Great Globalizers say from the Harvard Business School or the Neo-liberal criminals from the Chicago school of Economics or the High Priests of the World Bank-IMF, then re-examine your own and notice the similarities. Then ask yourself-Are those really MY words after all?

The ONLY step to solving the problem is to stop exploiting and stealing peoples LAND. All else is just pretty lies and perversely abstract theory.

Globalization is just a modern term for colonization-Sadly some have bought into or not thoroughly looked into the Global Pillage.

Same old Song

[potatoe]

27. Colonization was a mix of good and ill, gain and loss.

It was brutal and destructive, and it helped break down barriers and reduce isolation, resulting in a lot of cross pollination between cultures. It was all very costly in some ways, and very beneficial in others. European expansionism broadened the horizons and expanded opportunities for both Europeans and indigenous peoples.

Globalization offers more mobility. More chances for people who don't like the situation they were born into to pack up and leave.

[Laughing Mirror]

28. Yes, good for a handful of white people

enslaving when not exterminating everybody else.

[Zorra]

29. The ends justify the means? As long as it is not you that suffers

then it's ok, others must make sacrifices so that you can have the way of life that you desire, and your cheap plasma TV made in China?

"European expansionism broadened the horizons and expanded opportunities for both Europeans and indigenous peoples."
:wow:
I think maybe you should head out to the nearest Rez, and shout that statement out really loud while inside the "War Bonnet" tavern on a crowded Saturday night.

Later, when you get out of the hospital, you can tell us about what indigenous people think concerning the issue of European expansionism broadening their horizons.

[potatoe]

30. Your right that the gains and losses don't get

doled out fairly. And the end doesn't always justify the means. But others making sacrifices so that some can improve their lifestyle is pretty much the story of human history. To get the rich to part with their cash, the poor have always had to either offer the rich their labor, or, come up with a product or work of art that pleases them. Globalization offers the poor a larger market for their labor, their products, and their art, and therefore the likelihood of a greater return.

By the way, the Native Americans where I live are doing quite nicely, and they don't seem to get drunk or fight as much as the whites. They like to discuss the vagaries and what ifs of history as much as anyone, without getting angry and whacking you.

[Megahurtz]

11. This IS the philosophy that is destroying this planet!

:puke:
It makes me sick and it makes me so angry.:mad:

(Everyone should read your link)

We are all the slaves.:(

[JDPriestly]

12. Actually,

the fundamental structure of the master/servant, master/slave relationship is the same in the workplace today -- once the wage slave is there.

We no longer have the choice to claim 40 acres and a mule, so, unless we are born with enough money to invest in a business, or we have the talent and social ability that enables us to rise to be masters, we become the servants/slaves. This applies to many of the managers who enforce the rights of the master corporations and companies.

Theoretically the worker and employer enter into a contract, however, as we all know, the negotiations are rather one sided. In today's job market, the average employee is just grateful for a chance to get a paycheck and says yes to the terms the employer offers.

The boss is the dictator/slave driver in the workplace. The rights guaranteed to workers by law are minimal, difficult to enforce -- and in jeopardy. So you say -- but the whips, the slave drivers enforced their rules with whips. Bosses don't whip employees nowadays. Really? Who needs whips when student loans, mortgages and excessive rent costs just to survive are more effective. And the runaway wage slave can't just camp out for very long because of anti-vagrancy laws. If you want to survive, you submit. It's as simple as that.

Wage slaves may be worse off than the servants and slaves of yesteryear because it used to be that servants and slaves could run away. Wage slaves, however, have nowhere to run, and escape is becoming more and more difficult what with no free land, Social Security numbers, national IDs, credit cards, bankruptcy law reforms, etc. Try fading into the woodwork and living without a job for a while. You'll find out how free you really aren't.

[Megahurtz]

13. Kick.

n/t

[SoCalDem]

16. Yep.. when you cannot make enough from your labor to support your family

you are enslaved.. Enslaved in a cycle of "never enough", and no way to better your own condition.

I love how suggestions are made to down and out people.."You should be your own boss".."You should start your own business"....

The people who make these suggestions have no idea just how impossible and frustrating those "ideas" are.. Most low-wage/no-wage people are having a hard time keeping a roof over their heads, without coming up with money for permits, rent on "work space", insurance, etc..

.....

There are MILLIONS of people who are a paycheck away from financial disaster..Bosses KNOW this, and that adds to the wage-slavery, because they can push their employees around..and lots do.

[One_Life_To_Give]

20. Slavery is alot worse than being a wage slave

Last I checked wage slaves are not normally Hobbled. Or kept strung out, so they will service their Johns.

[chlamor]

7. Headline Missed by One Letter

As Pointed out in earlier post. Delete 'M' add 'B'.
The avaricious rent seekers shall reside in the Inferno

[emad]

8. "The Broad and Narrow Way"

Always wondered why they had it in for the Sunday Train....

[lovuian]

17. Marx said it when it gets bad the Working class will rise up

History proves it over and over again...

Were getting ready for some revolutions!!!

[Robert Oak]

18. 12 million in forced labor - U.N.

Globalization and the demand for cheap labor have helped force at least 12.3 million people into slave-like work worldwide and create a multi-billion-dollar human trafficking industry, a U.N. agency said on Wednesday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/05/11/labour.forced.reut/

rah rah free trade...gee wiz, it doesn't quite work out when
we trade people! oh well. (sic)

[struggle4progress]

24. kick

[drduffy]

26. I am ashamed

that the powers that currently control this country contribute to the existance and furtherance of the enslavement of humans. May those 'powers' all rot....