Slave Next Door (34 page)

and America pay about 1 percent of the cost of the carpet to Rugmark.

This money supports schools and rehabilitation programs for children

who have been freed from slavery in the carpet industry. In this way the

former child slaves are safeguarded against being caught and enslaved

again. To date, hundreds of child slaves have been freed and rehabili-

tated by Rugmark.

T H E E N D O F E AT I N G A N D W E A R I N G S L AV E RY ?

America is caught in a strange dilemma. The bitter fruits of slavery are

found in our shops and homes, and our marketplace is shot through

with slavery. Yet although slavery is ubiquitous, it is also present in very

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small amounts. If slavery in the U.S. economy were measured like air

pollution, it would be registering in “parts per million”—tainting our

lives in concentrations that are small but disturbing. When American

consumers discover slavery in the products they buy, many are disgusted

and want to take action. Recent consumer research showed that more

than 80 percent of Americans asked were deeply concerned about slave-

made goods. It doesn’t matter that the total amount of slave-made goods

is small; any amount is too much. Americans understand that their con-

sumption drives much of the global economy, that the flow of goods and

raw materials to the United States is vast. That great river of goods,

pulled by the purchasing power of Americans, carries slavery into our

lives. Somehow that slavery must be filtered out; our laws require it.

So what is going on here? With a strong foundation in our laws and

courts, our trade regulations, and rules that govern imports, why are we

still eating, wearing, driving, and walking on slavery? A key reason is

lack of leadership. No political party, no political leader has made slav-

ery a priority. While the government has clearly, in its laws and regula-

tions, taken responsibility for ending this crime, it has never supported

these laws in such a way as to make a difference. Expenditure on all

forms of slavery and human trafficking by the U.S. government equals

around $200 million a year, only a small fraction of which goes into

stemming the flow of slave-made goods.26 Compare that to the $12 bil-

lion spent in 2005 attempting to stop the movement of drugs into the

country.27 If we judge by results, then taking slavery out of the things we

buy is a low priority. We have to combat that as consumers by looking

hard at the supply chains that bring us our goods.

While it rarely happens now, there are ways to cooperate in manag-

ing the supply chain without hurting poor people or honest businesses

around the world. This cooperative approach is important because if

the existing laws were suddenly and rigidly enforced, the resulting eco-

nomic havoc would probably increase slavery, at least in the short run,

and would certainly harm many farmers, workers, and businesses in

other countries who have nothing to do with slavery and hate it as much

as we do. No one would want that to happen. Our purchasing power

can make or break innocent lives in the developing world; we have to

use it carefully.

The lesson of the chocolate industry is that one way forward is to

work and organize by economic sector, bringing together the compa-

nies that use a particular raw material or product that is known to be

touched by slavery. In a globalized economy, many companies will be

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buying from the same sources and will be able to trace their product

chains to the same regions, mines, and even prison factories. That cost

of investigating a product chain can be high for a single company but

affordable if spread across a number of companies. The government can

support industry partnerships by offering incentives for cleaning up

product chains. A significant decrease in slave-made imports would

occur if the U.S. government required, and helped, businesses to police

their supply chains. Tax credits, grants, or tax breaks could help com-

panies to meet the cost of investigating their product chains. Incentives

could also apply to funds spent to free and rehabilitate the slaves who

will be discovered when the product chain is cleaned up, as well as for

setting up ways to monitor and certify commodities and products.

Senator Harkin and Congressman Engel, in bringing the chocolate

companies together in forging the Cocoa Protocol, were able to cut

through the companies’ normally competitive positions and get them

working together. The result was positive, but having the occasional

politician unilaterally decide to bring companies together is not an

organized or efficient way to accomplish this end. Given the antislavery

laws of the United States, and the absolute mandate that businesses

avoid even the imputation of profiting from slavery, why not set up a

small unit, possibly within the corporate social responsibility section of

the State Department, charged with helping businesses come together?

Government officials could make clear the legal responsibilities of each

company and then explain how the businesses could join in a protocol-

type agreement to jointly monitor and clean up their product chains.

The carrot of cooperation is so clearly preferable to the stick of sanc-

tions that few businesses would choose to go it alone.

Every day brings more information to consumers about slavery in the

products they buy. It took some time for shoppers to become aware of

environmental concerns and ask for dolphin-friendly tuna and other

green products. It will also be some time before consumers fully com-

prehend the slavery in the goods they buy. But when American con-

sumers figure this out, many will be asking, as many are asking today,

why there are not agreements like the Cocoa Protocol in other indus-

tries, such as those using cotton, sugar, coffee, or pig iron. Americans

will be asking their elected representatives why the Customs Service

and other law enforcement agencies don’t have the money needed to

stop the flow of slave-made goods into the country. As this awareness

grows, hopefully people are going to want their retirement funds

invested in businesses that police their product chains for slavery.

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Consumer movements may be slow to start, but once begun they almost

never quit. Businesses that are smart enough to think about what their

customers want, and where they are going, are already finding ways to

police their product chains.

If, as Calvin Coolidge said, “the business of America is business,”

how do we build a positive business case for ending slavery and not a

risk-based case? In other words, how do we find a way for the end of

slavery to be positive for American businesses and consumers, instead of

threatening companies for failing to clean up their supply chains? That

is a challenge, but it is possible if consumers
and
producers work

together and make the collective decision that there is no place for slav-

ery in our shops and homes. Every time we walk into a shop, we vote

with our dollars in the marketplace. Often we are voting for or against

slavery whether we realize it or not. America is already committed to a

strict legal code that absolutely forbids slave-made goods from entering

the country. Somehow we have allowed our laws against importing the

products of slavery to go unheeded while the flow of tainted goods and

raw materials has increased. It is time to put those laws to work and

spend the money to get them enforced. When that happens, then

Americans will stop eating, wearing, driving, walking, and talking on

slave-made goods.

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PA R T I I

T H E F I N A L E M A N C I PAT I O N

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7

S L AV E S I N T H E N E I G H B O R H O O D

Slavery has been identified in over one hundred of our cities; the real

number is undoubtedly much higher. When we hear about slavery in

our midst, the tendency is to think, “Not in my town.” In a way, we

consider ourselves above it, especially if we live in comfortable, rela-

tively trouble-free communities. The harsh truth is, modern-day slav-

ery
is
in your town. You are not protected from it by nationality, race,

gender, or income. It can afflict anyone—the gardener down the

street, the construction crew on a local office building, your neigh-

bor’s housekeeper, your daughter on her way to the mall. Americans

are going to have to adjust to the fact that people are enslaved all

around us and that the solution to this problem lies, in large measure,

within ourselves.

K N O W I N G I T W H E N W E S E E I T

The message is clear: if you spot a trafficking victim, you should say or

do something. It sounds simple; it’s anything but. The hard part isn’t

taking action; it’s knowing slavery when you see it. Slavery in America

tends to be hidden. Chances are, you could be staring full on at a human

trafficking situation and not recognize it. Guidelines are clearly needed.

The Washington, D.C.–based NGO Free the Slaves has printed and dis-

tributed a handbook entitled “
Slavery Still Exists and It Could Be in

Your Backyard: A Community Member’s Guide to Fighting Human

Trafficking and Slavery
(available at www.freetheslaves.net). In it, they

offer a list of things to look for, pointing out that the trafficked person

“might be a domestic worker, work in a restaurant, on a farm, in a

shop, in a factory, or as a prostitute.” The worker “is likely to be

enslaved if he or she:

•

Is working or being held against his or her will

•

Is not free to change employers

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•

Does not control his or her earnings

•

Is unable to move freely or is being watched or followed

•

Is afraid to discuss himself or herself in the presence of others

•

Has been assaulted, or threatened with assault for refusing to work

•

Has been cheated into payment of debt upon arrival

•

Has had his or her passport or other documents taken away

“If any of these apply, the person might be a victim of modern-day slav-

ery.”1 And you should consider calling the National Human Trafficking

Resource Center’s information hotline at 888–373–7888.

The U.S. Department of Education has also provided a list of warn-

ing signs of trafficking especially designed for students and young

people.2 Sadly, this is needed; sex traffickers target children because of

their vulnerability and gullibility, as well as the market demand for

young victims. Recruitment can take many forms, including kidnap-

ping; solicitation by other women or girls recruiting on behalf of the

sex trafficker; and the “loverboy” approach of appearing genuinely

interested in a romantic relationship while gradually coercing the

victim into prostitution. A student or young person caught in human

trafficking:

•

May have unexplained absences from school for a period of time

and may therefore be a truant

•

May be unable to attend school on a regular basis

•

May chronically run away from home

•

May make references to frequent travel to other cities

•

May exhibit bruises or other physical trauma, withdrawn behavior,

depression, or fear

•

May lack control over her or his schedule or identification documents

•

May be hungry or malnourished, and inappropriately dressed (based

on weather conditions or surroundings)

•

May show signs of drug addiction

Clearly, there are a number of warning signs, but we have to take the

time to look. In a society in which many of us go through our day avoid-

ing eye contact and keeping human interaction to a minimum, this

requires a deliberate commitment and a change in our normal behavior.

One antislavery worker explained, “Sometimes as Americans we don’t

want to be nosy, but really, we could be the person that saves [a] life.”3

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G O O D S A M A R I TA N S

Every day, Americans meet or observe people in slavery situations—

usually without knowing what they’re seeing. Yet with a little aware-

ness, some sensitivity to the situation, and some genuine perseverance,