NEOLIBERALISM'S NEWEST PRODUCT: THE MODERN SLAVE TRADE
by Ignacio Ramonet
Inter Press Service
Two centuries after the abolition of slavery we are seeing the reintroduction of an abominable practice: human trafficking. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 12.3 million people each year are taken captive by networks tied to international crime and used as forced labour in inhuman conditions, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish.
In this analysis, Ramonet writes that responsibility for the expansion of human trafficking lies largely with the current dominant economic model. In effect, the form of neoliberal globalisation than has been imposed over the last three decades through economic shock therapy has devastated the most fragile levels of society and imposed extremely high social costs. It has created a fierce competition between labour and capital. In Europe many employers threaten their workers with savage competition from cheap labour in distant countries. The result we now see clearly before us: social dumping on a planetary scale.
If we are to avoid this form of corrosive social regression, we will have to begin to question the current workings of globalisation - and begin the process of deglobalisation.
Global Issues