labor21

The word "slavery" clubbed me in the face as I sat deeply in a leather chair in a bright and
fashionable Hollister store. Surrounded by ruffled, wrinkled clothes and the beautiful middle
class shoppers of the Towson mall, I read these brain shattering words in an article from
Rolling Stone: "Around the world, an estimated 27 million people are held in bondage --
more than at any other time in human history." ("In the Land of Slavery," Rolling Stone,
Sep. 2005).
These were the words of Osha Gray Davidson, a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone.
Davidson's main concern focused on slavery in Brazil, but speaks to a worldwide problem.
And yes, the United States is part of that world.

Slavery in the good ol' U.S. of A was supposed to have ended over 100 years ago. The
problem is that now, contemporary forms of slavery have grown to proportions never
before seen in the history of human bondage. And, I'm dismayed to say, most of us don't
even know about it, or simply don't care. For once, I would like us to endeavor to know --
and certainly to care -- about something we don't want to know: Slavery still exists. There
are 10,000 slaves in this country alone.

The United Nations defines slavery today across a broad spectrum of human rights
violations. According to a fact sheet published by the Office of United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, (http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/
docs/fs14.htm), along with traditional forms of slavery, "these abuses include the sale of
children, child prostitution, child pornography, the exploitation of child la-bour, the sexual
mut-ilation of female chil-dren, the use of children in armed con-flicts, debt bondage, the
traffic in per-sons and in the sale of human organs, the exploitation of prostitution...."

These forms of slavery continue unabated and unopposed across the globe. And, for the
most part, they are abuses on the most vulnerable of social groups: typically, children.