Slave Labour That Shames America

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

by Leonard Doyle

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/19/5907/

---SNIP---

Three Florida fruit-pickers, held captive and brutalised by their employer for more than a year, finally broke free of their bonds by punching their way through the ventilator hatch of the van in which they were imprisoned. Once outside, they dashed for freedom.

When they found sanctuary one recent Sunday morning, all bore the marks of heavy beatings to the head and body. One of the pickers had a nasty, untreated knife wound on his arm. Police would learn later that another man had his hands chained behind his back every night to prevent him escaping, leaving his wrists swollen.

The migrants were not only forced to work in sub-human conditions but mistreated and forced into debt. They were locked up at night and had to pay for sub-standard food. If they took a shower with a garden hose or bucket, it cost them $5.

Their story of slavery and abuse in the fruit fields of sub-tropical Florida threatens to lift the lid on some appalling human rights abuses in America today. . . .

[msongs]

1. the bible endorses slavery....get over it nt

[mac2]

11. Slavery in the Bible

Since when is the Bible our law? Maybe secular law is better for a modern society?

Only arrogant bullies have slaves because they are lazy? It is against the law in America...at least the America I grew up in.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

2. K&R n/t

[Captain Angry]

3. If ever there were a clear case for nationalization.

Some company decides to do this to humans, they lose their holdings. Completely.

The land is then either sold/auctioned, or put to use for the community.

It sounds a little too socialist/communist for some, but I'll tell you. Until you scare the ever living crap out of a corporation, they have no incentive to act properly.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

4. Agreed. And lengthy prison sentences as well. nt.

[Captain Angry]

7. All directly involved, life in prison.

All who orchestrated it, life in prison.

Send enough people to a hellish rest of their life in prison, and this type of thing slows way down.


Slavery is not something that any single person can ever defend. I can't even own a goldfish because it feels wrong to "own" something that is alive.

[Union Thug]

15. I agree; prison and loss of property.

And since the death penalty is legal, it may as well be put to good use for once.

[Captain Angry]

16. I can still never support the death penalty.

Justice would be for the State to seize the land, and put these people to work on it. All food raised goes to food banks around the state.

[EFerrari]

5. Damn illegal aliens taking our handcuffs.

:sarcasm:



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400062098/ref=s9_asin_image_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0FPV608A2GQ26C22P9VP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=320448601&pf_rd_i=507846

[NMMNG]

6. Are these the immigrants the RW demonizes?

The ones who "steal our jobs"?

I say let the RWers have those jobs. They deserve them.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

9. I wonder what Lou would have to say about this story...

Does this image come through OK? I'm not seeing it using Foxfire.

[NMMNG]

10. I can see it

Lou would probably think they got their just desserts. :puke:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

14. I believe he said something to that effect...

...regarding the two undocumented men shot dead and in the back while fleeing the scene of a burglary in a Houston suburb by a neighbor.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3855579

[malaise]

23. Lou probably has the farm's owners

on his program as good christian guests.

Anyone seen Cruella Harris recently?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

28. I haven't seen much about the election theft queen lately. nt.

[sadiesworld]

29. Actually, Lou Dobbs regularly goes after employers of illegal immigrants.

But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of your fantasy rant.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

30. And why is it do you suppose he goes after these employers?...

...Is it because he's quite bothered by the gross exploitation of undocumented workers?

Or might there be another reason?

[sadiesworld]

31. His primary concern seems to be the impact of cheap labor on

US workers.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

32. I think Keith Olbermann sizes Lou up pretty well here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNe9EjN53FU&NR=1

I accept that some kind of reasoned immigration policy which is to be enforced does make sense, but considering how our forefathers came to this land essentially just seizing it by force from native Americans, we should not be erring on the side of exclusion, or giving undocumented people caught here unduly harsh treatment (we've already begun doing this), nor should we be imposing lengthy, red tape laden procedures for those who wish to gain legal resident or citizenship status.

What compelling reasons are there for not allowing any world citizen relatively free and unencumbered movement about the planet? Should someone who has the bad fortune to be born to a poor family in the poorest third world country where there is little opportunity be barred from seeking out a livelihood where opportunity exists? I wonder if Lou Dobbs' mother had given birth to him atop the local dung heap in the poorest shantytown in Guatemala, whether he would have chosen to stay there and live in squalor, as opposed to seeking out opportunity in foreign lands where he might not be so very welcome or have any legal status.

The United States is over three and a half million square miles with some of the best and most fertile farm land on the planet. Agricultural workers are an indispensable part of making productive use of this land. Historically, the people who come here from Latin America to do this, and other kinds of manual labor, have always been badly exploited because they lack legal status leaving them no solid standing to organize or negotiate. This exploitation, as we see from the OP, continues unabated today.

[lvx35]

22. This right here IS the status quo that the immigration reform crowd wants to change.

Having illegals here with no rights in slave conditions is the status quo, and only immigration reform is going to change that. Yet the same corporate voices who back the status quo are constantly advancing the argument that it is "racist" to advocate for immigration reform, it is "racist" to demand documented workers with full rights in all these positions.

[slackmaster]

27. No, they move freely about from one area to another following the work

Generally living in shanty towns of their own construction.

[mac2]

8. Industrial prisons are the same

slave labor. The minorities are sent to prison for long periods of time. Their labor free for these industrial prison in America.

North of the North Carolina Triangle area are six or seven prisons. Wonder why black women can't find mates? Most of them are felons or prisoners. I'm sure the punishment does not fit the crime.

One program on Oprah was about she and her best friend going to Charlotte, NC to find single black men. They said, there were lots of them there. I can't understand why they would do that. Many are not making good money or have a clean record. Yet Oprah fails to talk about the huge prison population making it hard for black females to find husbands. Even the college black male population is low in that state.

Let's face it. No black prisoners have committed crimes as bad as many of our WH political leaders. Yet they go free and will walk away with their plunder.

Yes..slavery is back in America but it is hidden by the media.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

12. Yes, and I'm afraid it's going to get much worse...

...I think they're going to be imprisoning people at the drop of a hat after the next false flag operation.

[mac2]

13. You are right

We Americans are going to be in big trouble because they will do anything for profit.

Even the so called RW elite will find themselves victims since that type of society destroys everything around it. Remember the Nazis turned on each other?

[undergroundpanther]

18. Yeah

Slavery by any other name is still slavery


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x928350

[undergroundpanther]

17. Slavery

is profitable to the wealthy owners.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=2981327
Sex slavery is common too.
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/news1.html
http://www.indypressny.org/article.php3?ArticleID=2809
Two rich people from india in the US were recently busted owning slaves they used them as maids
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/nyregion/20slave.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

20. Thanks for these links. nt.

[undergroundpanther]

19. how can this be slaves in a democracy

....modern democratic societies are under repressive domination, a quasi-invisible and sophisticated, which is more efficient than the harsh despotic regimes, for it occurs under the guise of formal tolerance and through a general application of human and civil liberties.

According to Marcuse, this tolerance is formally applied in the Western democratic countries also to oppositionary, "negative" contents and anomalous views, but it is precisely the ostensibly tolerant and indifferent attitude towards such phenomena (a kind of "repressive tolerance"), that succeeds in sterilizing the negating potential inherent in them. Marcuse introduced this argument explicitly in One Dimensional Man (28), and dedicated to it the greater part of the discussion in his famous essay "Repressive Tolerance."(29) In view of the assimilation and integration of the "negative" element into the "positive" reality, tolerance is perceived by him as "repressive"; it ceases to be an emancipatory target and becomes a mere tool—an efficient one—of manipulative, sophisticated domination.(30) Democracy is reduced under these circumstances to a formal principle of "majority rule", whereas the tolerance applied by it serves in actuality to strengthen the "tyranny of the majority, against which," says Marcuse, "authentic liberals protested."(31)

This refers, of course, not only to the elimination of the humanist value of "tolerance", but also to the elimination of the emancipatory effect of the contents comprising it, namely—the human and civil rights and liberties: freedom of thought and speech, freedom of conscience, the right of free association, etc. These are not invalidated by any law, but their critical-emancipatory efficacy is lost.(32) We are not concerned, then, with a harsh and overt oppression, but rather—as Marcuse described it—with "a comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic unfreedom," which can be regarded as "voluntary servitude."(33)

The material foundation of this "convenient self-enslavement" is the immense production capacity and the affluence typical of late-capitalism. Under such conditions, there is an institutionalization and commodification of the democratic values themselves, values which served, at the time, in the struggle for human emancipation, whereas now it seems there is no longer a vital, concrete social need in their negating-emancipatory effect. Marcuse maintained that, "once institutionalized, these rights and liberties shared the fate of the society of which they had become an integral part. The achievement cancels the premises."(34)

http://www.new-thinking.org/journal/totalitariandemocracy.html

And through the twisting of what freedom means,we have slavery in a democracy..

[Chovexani]

25. You always speak truth Panther

And always leave me with things to think about.

[Djinn]

21. kick

[madmom]

24. that's it..boycott Florida fruit!

[hootinholler]

26. 26 replies and 7 recs. Shameful DU!

SHAME!

-Hoot

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

33. Opportunity, Exploitation and Resistance

---SNIP---

Who/What is a migrant worker?

The United Nations defines a migrant worker as ‘a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national’. In simple terms a migrant worker is someone who works in a country in which they’re not a citizen.

Migrant WorkersAn International Labour Organisation (ILO) report stated that many migrant workers “are not looking simply for better work. Propelled by poverty and insecurity, they are looking for any work.” Some travel great distances to find opportunities to earn enough money to make them and their families better off. However, while some find opportunity in their host countries many others find that they’re treated terribly by their bosses, paid low wages, are victims of racism and harassment by the police and immigration authorities, and are treated as invisible by their host country’s people.

Latin American migrant workers tend to move to the US to find work, Africans journey to Europe. Workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand tend to leave for richer parts of Asia, such as Hong Kong and Japan, while from those from the nations of the Pacific, such as Tuvalu, Tonga and Samoa come to Aotearoa New Zealand or Australia.

Money WorldMigrant workers have become extremely important to their home and host countries. According to the Financial Times migrant workers in the United States (US) last year sent home US$62.3 billion to their families in Latin America and the Caribbean, while in their host country, the US, they do unpopular jobs at a price few locals would work for. Worldwide, money sent home by migrant workers is worth about US$232 billion!. . .

http://www.justfocus.org.nz/articles/2007/09/07/opportunity-exploitation-and-resistance-the-life-of-a-migrant-worker/

[Orwellian_Ghost]

34. Un-People

Kicking