3071-The political economy of new slavery

Ivan Manokha 219
‘certain groups – such as women, ethnic or racial minorities, migrants,
children, and above all the poor – are particularly vulnerable to these
contemporary forms of forced labour (ILO, 2001, p. 2).
Now this, of course, is not to say that the relationship between poverty
and slavery is that of direct necessity or inevitability, for there are many
poor regions where slavery does not exist. However, it is undeniable
that poverty facilitates slavery, as it facilitates sweatshops and extremely
low-paid jobs, as well as child labour. These latter practices may sometimes
resemble slavery, as conditions of labour are often slave-like. As a
report by the Indian government observes, ‘labour may be forced not
only owing to physical force...but also owing to hunger and poverty
which compels him [a worker] to accept employment for remuneration
which is less than the statutory minimum wage’ (cited in ILO, 2001,
p. 9). However, slavery implies an important difference from sweatshops
for it involves labour under threat or force of actual violence and the
workers cannot leave (see Chapter 1 in this volume).
Modern slavery and extreme forms of exploitation such as sweatshops
and child labour have, in recent years, generated campaigns and
protests within the realm of global civil society, the ‘supranational sphere
of social and political participation’ (Anheier, Glasius, and Kaldor, 2001,
p. 4). A large number of NGOs, social movements and private thinktanks
have tried to develop strategies for combating abuses of workers’
and children’s rights associated with forced labour and slave-like conditions
of work. One such strategy has been Fair Trade which constitutes
the subject of this chapter.
Fair Trade is an equitable and fair partnership between marketers in
developed countries and producers in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
A Fair Trade partnership works to provide low-income artisans and farmers
with a living wage for their work (Fair Trade Federation [a]). It is a
form of direct trade, which allows participating producers to sell their
commodities not through the world market but directly to the distributors.
As such, prices paid for their goods are higher and do not depend on the
current world prices, although in some cases the economic difference
to the producer may be insignificant as premiums are used for social
investment in communities (see Chapter 9 in this volume). Fair Trade
has been set up to contribute to development and poverty reduction by
enabling producers to earn more money to sustain their businesses and
by investing in communal development. According to the Fair Trade
Foundation website, Fair Trade standards stipulate that traders must:
(a) pay a price to producers that covers the costs of sustainable production
and living; (b) pay a ‘premium’ that producers can invest in