Corporations, Forced Labor, and Fair Trade

"You can't hold a man down without staying down with him."

 Booker T. Washington 

 In the world, there are an estimated 29.8 million people enslaved. That is approximately 600,000 more people than the populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Austin, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and Columbus (Americas fifteen largest cities) put together (29,207,368 total). 29.8 million is about two million less than the population of the world’s two largest cities, Shanghai and Istanbul (31,690,873 total), put together. 29.8 million is approximately .4 percent of the world’s population, about one half of one percent. Regardless of how this number is presented, we are in agreement, it is too large. What contributes to an enslavement equal to 9.5 percent of the United States population? The simple answer is business. Slavery is profitable to many people. Slavery is profitable to the people who enslave and to the corporations that utilize this labor in their supply chain. While looking at corporations as a whole entity is tempting, it is also overwhelming. The amount of corporations that benefit from slave labor is immense and near innumerable. Instead, I will look at the facets of production that I believe encompass a fair amount of the forced labor being exploited and that certain corporations find most beneficial. Columbite- tantalite mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, cotton production in Uzbekistan, and tobacco farming in Kazakhstan. I would like to add a caveat: this, in no way, portrays all or even a large portion of forced labor, this is simply a list of three productions that are well documented and extremely profitable for those involved, for a more complete view of products that involve forced labor, check out this info-graphic.

What do Apple, Boeing, Intel, the Carlise Group, Compaq, Dell, IBM, Nokia, and Siemens have in common? They all profit from the exploitation and forced labor of children in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. Columbite- tantalite (commonly refereed to as coltan) is an ore from which tantalum is extracted. Tantalum is used for electrical capacitors in almost all electronic devices, including all cell phones and personal computers. The Democratic Republic of Congo posses about 64%. It is mainly mined from areas in, and around, the Kahuzi Brega National Park, one of the most bio-diverse tropical forests on the planet. This causes wide spread deforestation. As a result of invasions by Rwanda and Uganda and a political campaign called Rally for Congolese Democracy, the DRC is now home to a number of political dissident splinter groups (including the RCD-Goma, RCD-Kisingani, and the Congolese Liberation Front) that run the mining and processing of coltan. The price has recently gone as high as 500$ per pound. The ore is highly toxic and difficult to mine. Children are used because, "Children are essential to the process because they can get into smaller holes dug into river beds." About 5000-6000 children are currently enslaved mining Coltan in the DRC. Nearly every electronics manufacturer uses and benefits from this process.

         






What do H&M, Victoria's Secret, Nike, Marks & Spencer, Ikea, and Adidas have in common? They all profit from the exploitation and forced labor of children and adults in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is the 6th largest producer and the 2nd largest exporter of cotton in the world. Cotton is Uzbekistan's main cash crop, earning the nickname "white gold". In Uzbekistan the cotton production is controlled by the government. Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan since 1989 (just after the fall of the Soviet Union), forcibly mobilizes one million children and adults every year. These people are forced to work and the only people profiting from the production are the Karimov government. This system of slavery is unique. It is completely controlled by the government. The cotton farmers are forced to meet state imposed quotas and children are regularly taken out of school to help plant and harvest cotton. This cotton is bought by clothing manufacturers around the world (some uses the fair trade labeling) to produce textiles. "The Karimov administration detains, tortures, and exiles, Uzbek citizens who call for recognition of human rights, violating their human rights and denying freedoms of speech and the press."    

This segment will only target one corporation- The Altria Group. The Altria Group, formerly known as Philip Morris Companies Inc., produces about 800 billion cigarettes a year. This results in yearly revenues of approximately 75 billion dollars. Altria makes a large portion of this profit by utilizing slave labor in Kazakhstan to purchase the tobacco it uses for cigarettes sold only in the former soviet republics. Kazakhstan officially prohibits any person under the age of 18 from working on farms. The work is intensive and dangerous (due to high levels of nicotine and pesticides). Many children work with their families for eight or nine months a year, expecting one lump sum payment at the end. This payment model makes exploitation particularly easy. There are between 300,000 and 1,000,000 migrant laborers working on tobacco farms in Kazakhstan throughout the year. The amount of those workers enslaved is relatively small but it is important to realize how dangerous this work is for children. "Experts consider tobacco farming one of the worst forms of child labor, meaning children under the age of 18 should not be working in it." Philip Morris Kazakhstan has done little, almost nothing, to try and prevent abuses.

This should give an appropriate introduction to the topics I will be discussing in class tomorrow. I don't want to present my argument but it regards the benefits and deficits of fair trade and whether or not the individual consumer can make an impact with their purchases. I ask everyone to consider what they're wearing, what they're typing on, and what they're (possibly) smoking.