Monday, October 04, 2004
the new slavery

Although the direct value of slave labor in the world economy may seem
relatively small, the indirect value is much greater. For example,
slave-produced charcoal is crucial to making steel in Brazil. Much of this steel
is then made into the cars, car parts, and other metal goods that make up a
quarter of all Brazil's exports. Britain alone imports $1.6 billion in goods
from Brazil each year, the United States significantly more. Slavery lowers a
factory's production costs; these savings can be passed up the economic stream,
ultimately reaching shops of Europe and North America as lower prices or higher
profits for retailers. Goods directly produced by slaves are also exported, and
follow the same pattern. It is most likely that slave-produced goods and goods
assembled from slave-made components have the effect of increasing profits
rather than just lowering consumer prices, as they are mixed into the flow of
other products. I'd like to believe that most Western consumers, if they could
identify slave-produced goods, would avoid them despite their lower price. But
consumers do look for bargains, and they don't usually stop to ask why a product
is so cheap. We have to face facts: by always looking for the best deal, we may
be choosing slave-made goods without knowing what we are buying. And the impact
of slavery reverberates through the world economy in ways even harder to escape.
Workers making computer parts or television in India can be paid low wages in
part because food produced by slave labor is so cheap. This lowers the cost of
goods they make, and factories unable to compete with their prices close in
North America and Europe. Slave labor anywhere threatens real jobs everywhere.

slavery is real. nor has it been "abolished".

slavery is not merely labour, it is one's life.

please sign the petitions today:
and visit:




| lily* || 0 || 9:52 p.m. |

Post a Comment

---