Forced labor

"Unfree" or forced labour are collective terms for a variety of work relations in which people are employed against their will, often under threat of destitution, detention, violence (including death), or other extreme hardship to themselves or family members. Unfree/forced labor includes serfdom, debt bondage, prisoners of war, and convict labor, as well as all forms of slavery. "Free labor" is any situation where a worker is free to leave if they see fit. In practice, however, "free" and "unfree/forced" labor are often viewed as extreme points on a continuum, due to numerous situations where nominally free laborers face significant constraints on their ability to leave their jobs, and may not recieve payment above the level of subsistence.

Convict labourers in Australia in the early 19th century.

Types of Forced Labor

Slavery

"Chattel slavery", the legal ownership of a human being, is one of the most well known forms of forced labor. Individual workers may be bought, sold, or otherwise exchanged by their owners, and rarely recieve any personal benefit from their labor. The concept of slavery predates recorded history; mention is made of slavery in the ancient Babylonian "Code of Hammurabi" and biblical texts, and slaves were used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. Slavery was also a large part of ancient Roman society; scholars estimate that as much as one third of Rome's population was enslaved. Roman slaves were employed in households and the civil service, and many had been enslaved after they were conquered by the Romans.

While many claim slavery originated from war and the subjugation and enslavement of one people by another, there are also early examples of slavery due to debt. In areas of Africa, for instance, a man would put up a wife or children as collateral for an obligation; if the obligation went unfulfilled, the wife or children became permanent slaves. Others purport that slavery was a result of the development of an agricultural economy, but numerous instances of slavery in nomadic or hunter/gatherer societies exsist: domestic and concubine slavery exsisted among the Vikings, Native Americans, and nomadic Arabs.

One of the most prominent examples of chattel slavery was the capture and enslavement of millions of Africans, who were forcefully transported under inhumane conditions to the Americas, Asia, and Europe during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The economic success of the United States, particularly the southern states, was largely dependent on the labor provided by slaves in the fields, who were often mistreated, separated from their families, and degraded. It was not until the mid 1800's that legislation was passed abolishing slavery in the United States.

Slavery, often referred to as "human trafficking", remains a major problem in the modern world. In addition to forced labor in sweatshops, domestic situations, and farms, many victims are trafficked in the sex industry. According to Kevin Bales, in Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (1999), there are now an estimated 27 million slaves in the world. It is estimated that 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked anually in the United States alone, and even more are trafficked internally. Human trafficking is particularly problematic in Asian and South American countries, but the problem exsists in nearly every country in the world. Victims are often lured by the promise of a better life; many are transported illegally across borders to find themselves forced to work under threat of violence or other retribution. Young girls are recruited, lied to, raped, and forced into prostitution rings; children forced to labor as beggars are sometimes intentionally disfigured to increase donations. Victims of human trafficking are often kept in inhumane conditions, threatened with violence to themselves or their families or exposure to local authorities. They are allowed little or no freedoms, and told they must work off to pay a theoretical "debt"; often the fee for their original transportation, combined with added "debts"; in prostitution rings, involuntary abortions are added to a girl's "debt". Organizations like the Polaris Project and Humantrafficking.org, as well as governmental agencies are working worldwide to confront the issue.

Bonded labour

A more common form in modern society is indenture, or bonded labour, under which workers sign contracts to work for a specific period of time, for which they are paid only with accommodation and sustenance, or these essentials in addition to limited benefits such as cancellation of a debt, or transportation to a desired country. (Debt bondage or debt slavery is a well-known form of indenture; this is sometimes known as peonage in the USA. However, the word peon is used more generally in Latin American history, and may in some cases imply free labour.) In some cases, indentured workers may receive small cash payments or other benefits. Indenture is still common in developing countries and was perhaps the dominant formal and official form of labour in early modern colonial societies, during the 17th century and 18th century. However, it should be stressed that indenture is often only a formal legal category, and in practice employers sometimes find it difficult or impossible to coerce indentured workers, unless the letter of the law is reinforced by law enforcement systems, threats by crime syndicates (snakeheads) that supply workers (usually illegal aliens), and/or by full acceptance by workers, as a traditional practice. There are also some traditional forms of bonded labour such as the Chukri System in India and Bangladesh that are illegal, yet nonetheless still practised widely.

Penal labour

Prison labour

Convict or prison labour is another classic form of unfree labour. The forced labour of convicts has often been regarded with lack of sympathy, because of the social stigma attached to people regarded as "common criminals". In some countries and historical periods, however, prison labour has been forced upon people who have been: victims of prejudice, convicted of political crimes, convicted of "victimless crimes", or people who committed theft or related offences because they lacked any other means of subsistence — categories of people who typically call for compassion. The British colonies in Australia between 1788 and 1868 are probably the best examples of convict labour, as described above: during that period, Australia received thousands of convict labourers, many of whom had received harsh sentences for minor misdemeanours in Britain or Ireland.

Labour camps

File:Belomorkanal.png

Prisoner labour at the construction of Belomorkanal, 1931-1933

Another historically significant example of forced labour was that of political prisoners, people from conquered or occupied countries, and prisoners of war, especially during the 20th century. The best-known example of this are the concentration camp system run by Nazi Germany in Europe during World War II, the Gulag camps run by the Soviet Union, and the forced labour used by the military of the Empire of Japan, especially during the Pacific War (such as the Death Railway).

Truck system

A truck system, in the specific sense in which the term is used by labour historians, refers to an unpopular or even exploitative form of payment associated with small, isolated and/or rural communities, in which workers or self-employed small producers are paid in either: goods, a form of payment known as truck wages, or; tokens, private currency or direct credit, to be used at a company store, owned by their employers. A specific kind of truck system, in which credit advances are made against future work is known in the U.S. as debt bondage.

Many scholars have suggested that employers use such systems to exploit workers and/or indebt them. This could occur, for example, if employers were able to pay workers with goods which had a market value below the level of subsistence, or by selling items to workers at inflated prices. Others argue that truck wages, at least in some cases, were a convenient way for isolated communities to operate, when official currency was scarce.

By the early 20th century, truck systems were widely seen, in industrialised countries, as exploitative; perhaps the most well-known example of this view was a 1947 U.S. hit song "Sixteen Tons". Many governments around the world enacted legislation (often known as a Truck Act) to outlaw truck systems and require payment in cash. However, it is still common for employers to provide compensation, with the approval or requirement of the government, in non-cash benefits such as health care.

Serfs

Serfs are sometimes referred to as unfree labourers, although they are generally not referenced with this term in academic journals. They meet the definition in that they were bound to the land and required permission to move. They usually fared far better than most other unfree labourers in that they have the exclusive use of some land and/or means of production, legal or strongly traditional human rights, economic security, and free time to a much greater extent than slaves, indenturees, and many wage labourers. In the Middle Ages, some serfs were able to escape to a city, beyond the reach of a feudal lord.

Trafficking

Trafficking is a term to define the recruiting, harbouring, obtaining and transportation of a person by use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjecting them to involuntary acts, such as acts related to commercial sexual exploitation (including prostitution) or involuntary labour.

The present situation

The International Labour Organization estimates that:

• 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour
• more than 2.4 million have been trafficked
• 9.8 million are exploited by private agents
• 2.5 million are forced to work by the state or by rebel military groups

The profits from forced trafficked labour are estimated to be in excess of $30 billion dollars.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• George W. Hilton, The Truck System, including a History of the British Truck Acts, 1465-1960. Cambridge, UK: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, 1960.

• Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1848. London: Verso, 1988.

• Theodore W. Allen, The Invention of the White Race (2 vol.) New York: Verso Books.
  • Vol. I: Racial Oppression and Social Control, 1994.
  • Vol. II: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, 1997.

• Tom Brass, Marcel van der Linden, and Jan Lucassen, Free and Unfree Labour. Amsterdam: International Institute for Social History, 1993.

• Tom Brass, Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour: Case Studies and Debates, London: Frank Cass Publishers, 1999.

• Tom Brass and Marcel Van Der Linden (eds.), Free and Unfree Labour: The Debate Continues (International and Comparative Social History, 5). New York: Peter Lang AG, 1997.

• Robin Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800, London: Verso, 1997.

• Kevin Bales. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. UC Berkeley Press, 1999

External links

• Slavery in the 21st century - BBC
• Sex trade's reliance on forced labour - BBC

Penal labour or penal servitude is a form of unfree labour. The term may refer to two different notions: labour as a form of punishment and labour as a form of occupation of convicts.

Punitive labour

Purely by its nature one can distinguish productive labour (the fruits going to the authorities and/or the prisoner) and intrinsically pointless tasks, serving merely as a primitive occupational therapy and/or physical torment, such as the treadmill (in Victorian prisons, the inmates painstakingly produced energy not being put to any use, which became proverbial for a pointless procedure); and shot drill (i.e. carrying cannonballs around, that aren't needed anywhere; e.g. in Canadian military prisons)

Prison labour

Convict or prison labour is another classic form of unfree labour. Convicts subjected to forced labour have often been regarded with lack of sympathy, because of the social stigma attached to people regarded as "common criminals". In some countries and historical periods, however, prison labour has been forced upon people who have been: victims of prejudice, convicted of political crimes, convicted of "victimless crimes", or people who committed theft or related offences because they lacked any other means of subsistence — categories of people for whom compassion is typically called for. The British penal colonies in Australia between 1788 and 1868 are probably the best examples of convict labour, as described above: during that period, Australia received thousands of transported convict labourers, many of whom had received harsh sentences for minor misdemeanours in Britain or Ireland.

Sometimes authorities turn prison labour into an industry, as on a prison farm. In such cases, the pursuit of income from their productive labour may even overtake the preoccupation with punishment and/or reeducation as such of the prisoners, who are then at risk of being exploited as slave-like cheap labour (profit may be minor after expenses, e.g. on security).

The British Penal Servitude Act of 1853 substituted penal servitude for transportation. Sentences of penal servitude were served in convict prisons and were controlled by the Home Office and the Prison Commissioners. After sentencing, convicts would be classified according to the seriousness of the offence of which they were convicted and their criminal record. First time offenders would be classified in the Star class; persons not suitable for the Star class, but without serious convictions would be classified in the intermediate class; and habitual offenders would be classified in the Recidivist class. Care was taken to ensure that convicts in one class did not mix with convicts in another.

Labour camps

Another historically significant example of forced labour was that of political prisoners and other persecuted people in labour camps, especially in totalitarian regimes since the 20th century where millions of convicts were exploited and often killed by hard labour and bad living conditions.

The best-known example of this is the concentration camp system run by Nazi Germany in Europe during World War II. Nazi camps served a variety of purposes, the most notorious being extermination camps and labour camps.

For much of the history of the Soviet Union and other Communist states, political opponents of these governments were often sentenced to forced labour camps. The Soviet Gulag camps were a continuation of the punitive labour system of Imperial Russia known as katorga, but on a larger scale - together with executions and forced migrations the Stalinist oppression may have made more victims then the Nazi occupation.

See Laogai and Reeducation through labour for the People's Republic of China's case.

Non-punitive prison labour

In a number of penal systems the convicts have the possibility of a job. This may serve several purposes. Some say it gives a convict a meaningful occupation and a possibility of earning some money. It may also play an important role in resocialization: convicts may acquire skills that would help them to find a job after release. Others argue that it is an opportunity for corporations to generate large profits from a captive population.

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