3071-The political economy of new slavery

Ivan Manokha 223
less their basic needs. The effects of insufficient world market prices
have been exacerbated by deregulation of agriculture in West Africa,
which abolished commodity boards across the region, leaving small
farmers at the mercy of the market. This economic crisis has forced
farmers to cut their labor costs, and tragically that has meant relying
on slave labor or pulling children out of school to work on family
farms. These small farmers and their children remained trapped in a
cycle of poverty, without hope for sufficient income or access to basic
education or health care.
Global Exchange (a)
The power of capital over the ‘state/society complex’ has also
manifested itself in the perpetuation of workers’ rights abuses, the
employment of child labour and also forced labour by Western MNCs
in Third World countries. Sweatshops with slave-like conditions of work,
beatings and sexual harassment and irregular, very low wages were
operated – especially in the garment industry, by such giants as Nike,
Gap and Adidas, particularly in East Asia (Clean Clothes Campaign;
Corp Watch, 2002; BHRRC).
Multinational corporations have also been accused of using forced
labour. For example, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of 15 Burmese
villagers, who allege that US oil company Unocal used forced labour in
the construction of a gas pipeline (Alden, 2002). As the International
Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Worker’s Union
(ICEM) reported in its newsletter:
together with French-based energy multinational Total and the
Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production
Company, Unocal and MOGE are partners in a joint pipeline venture
to bring gas to Thailand from the Yadana gas field off the Burmese
coast. Since its inception, this project has stood accused of serious
human rights abuses, notably the use of forced labour.
ICEM, 1996
Some famous brands are also accused of using forced labour on
Saipan, one of the islands that make up the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, a United States territory since 1976 (Barnes,
1997). Leslie Jermyn, a member of the Global Aware Co-operative, a
co-operative of writers, academics, journalists and individuals, describes
Saipan as ‘an Export Production Zone that caters to such US American
brand names as Polo, The Gap, Jones New York, Liz Claiborne, Calvin