Like most Americans, I grew up thinking that slavery was something that divided the nation 150 years ago and resulted in the 14th Amendment which officially ended it. Confined to history books, I eventually developed some notions that slavery might exist somewhere in world. News outlets occasionally throw out a story about sweatshops, debt-bondage, or victims of sex trafficking, carefully dancing around the word “slavery” or “slave”. A well-educated person should be able to realize that slavery is as real today as it was 150 years ago. Perhaps more astonishing, by some estimates, in absolute numbers, there are more people in some form of bondage by force of intimidation or violence than prior to the American Civil War. More than 25 million people!
This statement is outrageous and you should be outraged by it. In this day and age, slavery should be something of the past. Furthermore, we have never been more capable to accomplish that feat.
If you read the above with thought of slavery elsewhere, let me assure you that slavery exists in your backyard. Whether you live in Singapore, Sao Paulo or San Francisco, people are breaking laws to exploit and enslave other people. Even if you live in a small town, chances are that your supermarket or clothing store stocks products made by slaves somewhere in the production chains.
Living in Cambodia, I do not have to look far to find slavery. As I ride my bicycle home, I pass six different massage and karaoke parlors where young women are force by circumstances or plain brute force to prostitute themselves. This problem is huge and fueled by an insatiable domestic demand for sex. In the grand scheme, there are a handful of government workers, non-governmental organizations, and intra-governmental organizations attempting to break down an entrenched criminal system of global trafficking and slavery worth tens of billions of dollars.
However, these individual actors and organizations are making progress. Although it is slow, I have hope that more and more people will take action. For myself, I am trying to make the business I work for more aware of its responsibilities. Specifically, I want to provide valuable vocational training to former victims of trafficking. (If former prostitutes are not provided with skills to find high paying jobs, they are easily tempted back into a trade that provides quick profits.)
If you are living in a developed country, consider joining a local coalition to end slavery production in your community. In Seattle, there are contemporary abolitionists working to stem slavery through education and advocacy at Seattle Against Slavery or Washington Anti-trafficking Response Network | WARN.
The Jewish holiday of Passover is fast approaching. Passover celebrates the Exodus from Egypt – “Remember that you were a slave”. However, the holiday also makes clear that although we are out of Egypt our freedom is not complete. “This year we are slaves; next year may we be free people. [...] This year we are in exile; next year in Jerusalem.” I take this to mean that our freedom is collective, and our destination is singular, Yerushalayim, “the place where peace resides”. One person cannot be free when another is under the yoke of tyranny. My freedom and humanity are inherently tied to all others. Peace can only exist when we are all free.
Whether your are celebrating Passover, Easter, a New Year, or the first day of spring-like weather, I encourage you to reflect on the freedoms you have and the ones you have not yet obtained. Slavery exists and it is our responsibility to end it!
Other resources:
www.castla.org
www.freetheslaves.net
http://www.hagarinternational.org/
www.polarisproject.org/take-action
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