#slavery — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #slavery, aggregated by home.social.
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The statue now sits in a place of honor in Freedom Plaza, a square that was renamed, in 1988, for the slain civil rights leader #MartinLutherKingJr., who wrote his “I Have a Dream” speech in the nearby Willard Hotel.
…the statuary ensemble…is one of the most cogent & confrontational expressions of the #Trump admin’s views on race, urban design & public space.
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The statue now sits in a place of honor in Freedom Plaza, a square that was renamed, in 1988, for the slain civil rights leader #MartinLutherKingJr., who wrote his “I Have a Dream” speech in the nearby Willard Hotel.
…the statuary ensemble…is one of the most cogent & confrontational expressions of the #Trump admin’s views on race, urban design & public space.
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…the “Spirit of ’76 at Freedom Plaza” exhibition centers on a large equestrian statue of Caesar Rodney, a Founding Father from Delaware & an enslaver….
…The installation gives the controversial Rodney statue, which was taken down from its original site in Wilmington, DE, during the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests, a prominent new home, perhaps temporary, in the symbolic center of the nation’s capital.
#Trump #WhiteSupremacy #slavery #racism #PublicSpace
https://wapo.st/4qe4mEu -
…the “Spirit of ’76 at Freedom Plaza” exhibition centers on a large equestrian statue of Caesar Rodney, a Founding Father from Delaware & an enslaver….
…The installation gives the controversial Rodney statue, which was taken down from its original site in Wilmington, DE, during the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests, a prominent new home, perhaps temporary, in the symbolic center of the nation’s capital.
#Trump #WhiteSupremacy #slavery #racism #PublicSpace
https://wapo.st/4qe4mEu -
#Gold #mining kills #indigenous peoples 🩸 forcing women and children into sex #slavery! Help #Yanomami people forced violently from their #rainforest homes for the #greed of gold! 🪙⛔️ #BoycottGold #BoycottGold4Yanomami 🫶🌳 @palmoildetectives https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8uY?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer
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#Gold #mining kills #indigenous peoples 🩸 forcing women and children into sex #slavery! Help #Yanomami people forced violently from their #rainforest homes for the #greed of gold! 🪙⛔️ #BoycottGold #BoycottGold4Yanomami 🫶🌳 @palmoildetectives https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8uY?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer
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Content Warning: mass murder for money.
(Stuff the British Stole series 3)
#Abolition #art #booksofmastodon #Capitalism #Colonialism #quilting #slavery #Zong
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Content Warning: mass murder for money.
(Stuff the British Stole series 3)
#Abolition #art #booksofmastodon #Capitalism #Colonialism #quilting #slavery #Zong
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Slavery in the Colonial Caribbean
"This month marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved people in the English Caribbean."
🔗 https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/slavery-colonial-caribbean
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Slavery in the Colonial Caribbean
"This month marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved people in the English Caribbean."
🔗 https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/slavery-colonial-caribbean
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The Nation tours offered one during the pandemic that went to some of these new museums and memorials revealing the struggles and injustices of the institution of slavery in the American south. Too soon for me, but I would be grateful for a redux tour. The art in these new installations is extraordinary.
#slavery #museums #legacymuseum #Montgomery #Alabama #Edinburgh -
The Nation tours offered one during the pandemic that went to some of these new museums and memorials revealing the struggles and injustices of the institution of slavery in the American south. Too soon for me, but I would be grateful for a redux tour. The art in these new installations is extraordinary.
#slavery #museums #legacymuseum #Montgomery #Alabama #Edinburgh -
News – Virginia Planter’s Garden Uncovered https://www.allforgardening.com/1926075/news-virginia-planters-garden-uncovered/ #ColonialWilliamsburg #garden #GardeningVirginia #JohnCustisIV #Plantation #Slavery #virginia
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News – Virginia Planter’s Garden Uncovered https://www.allforgardening.com/1926075/news-virginia-planters-garden-uncovered/ #ColonialWilliamsburg #garden #GardeningVirginia #JohnCustisIV #Plantation #Slavery #virginia
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Australia’s trade in human flesh: blackbirding - follow the money...
"Between 1860 and 1906 up to 62,000 Pacific Islanders were shipped to Australia to work primarily in sugar cane and cotton farming.."
"...The Pacific Islanders came, they died, they were buried like dogs and more were sent for.” >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/10/sydney-sugar-industry-slave-trade-pacific-islanders-ntwnfb
#slavery #Blackbirding #SouthSeaIslander #IndigenousPeoples #FirstNations #PastoralIndustry #sugar #cotton #plantations #PALM #books -
Australia’s trade in human flesh: blackbirding - follow the money...
"Between 1860 and 1906 up to 62,000 Pacific Islanders were shipped to Australia to work primarily in sugar cane and cotton farming.."
"...The Pacific Islanders came, they died, they were buried like dogs and more were sent for.” >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/10/sydney-sugar-industry-slave-trade-pacific-islanders-ntwnfb
#slavery #Blackbirding #SouthSeaIslander #IndigenousPeoples #FirstNations #PastoralIndustry #sugar #cotton #plantations #PALM #books -
Britain abolished #slavery in 1833 parliament granted £20m compensation - for lost income - to former enslavers. Prominent British families moved to the colonies with proceeds of slavery’s abolition, most prolifically in South Australia, which prided itself on being “the free state” devoid of #convicts
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/colonial-australias-foundation-is-stained-with-the-profits-of-british-slavery#Capitalism #Colonialism #labourmovement #workingclasshistory
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Britain abolished #slavery in 1833 parliament granted £20m compensation - for lost income - to former enslavers. Prominent British families moved to the colonies with proceeds of slavery’s abolition, most prolifically in South Australia, which prided itself on being “the free state” devoid of #convicts
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/colonial-australias-foundation-is-stained-with-the-profits-of-british-slavery#Capitalism #Colonialism #labourmovement #workingclasshistory
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Bosses have always been keen to “reduce the cost of labour” https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/10/sydney-sugar-industry-slave-trade-pacific-islanders-ntwnfb
#Capitalism #Colonialism #exploitation #labourmovement #migrantworkers #slavery #Townsville #workingclasshistory
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Bosses have always been keen to “reduce the cost of labour” https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/10/sydney-sugar-industry-slave-trade-pacific-islanders-ntwnfb
#Capitalism #Colonialism #exploitation #labourmovement #migrantworkers #slavery #Townsville #workingclasshistory
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Sydney’s sugar rush: how the colony’s most powerful profited from Australia’s slave trade
By Paul DaleyAustralia likes to think its history is untainted by slavery but a new book traces how a who’s who in the NSW capital profited from the capture and sale of ‘blackbirded’ Pacific Islanders
#Sydney #Slavery #IndigenousAustralians #Australianews #Race #Pacificislands #Vanuatu #Sugar #Colonialism #Queensland #Business #Australianbooks #Museums #Books #Shippingindustry #Forcedlabour #AsiaPacific #SouthPacific #TheGuardian #PaulDaley
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Sydney’s sugar rush: how the colony’s most powerful profited from Australia’s slave trade
By Paul DaleyAustralia likes to think its history is untainted by slavery but a new book traces how a who’s who in the NSW capital profited from the capture and sale of ‘blackbirded’ Pacific Islanders
#Sydney #Slavery #IndigenousAustralians #Australianews #Race #Pacificislands #Vanuatu #Sugar #Colonialism #Queensland #Business #Australianbooks #Museums #Books #Shippingindustry #Forcedlabour #AsiaPacific #SouthPacific #TheGuardian #PaulDaley
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@renardboy ...Carefully for example = #voice #chat + #filters that anonymise voice but don't make it too mechanical.
The win I see (above all wins) is that we can speak freely and not hide / stagnate to the level of being coralled like fish in a corner (if we don't fight out of the corne)
e.g. #Jitsi + voice 'mask' comms t help talk out our mindset (as priority more than just 'working to live #slavery") I think is a good plan.
What do you think (my main question?)
Talking almost anonymously?
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Not Built in a Day: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire
"It traces how people entered, experienced, and left slavery, covering the little known story of slave revolts and the complex realities of enslaved people who themselves owned enslaved people."
🔗 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Not-Built-in-a-Day/Emma-Southon/9781668089552
#Ancient #History #Histodons #Slavery #Reading #Nonfiction #Book #Books #Bookstodon #Booksky
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Not Built in a Day: How Slavery Made the Roman Empire
"It traces how people entered, experienced, and left slavery, covering the little known story of slave revolts and the complex realities of enslaved people who themselves owned enslaved people."
🔗 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Not-Built-in-a-Day/Emma-Southon/9781668089552
#Ancient #History #Histodons #Slavery #Reading #Nonfiction #Book #Books #Bookstodon #Booksky
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#Duped, an AU Four Corners ABC investigation into food fraud on iView.
Corporate capture of Australian governments federal and state exposed.
Fish, eggs, tumeric & tomato sauces are shown to not be what they're claimed be.
Slave labour in the global tomato growing.
Hospitalisations due to allergens being present when the label explicitly states otherwise.
#AgedCare too.
#FoodFraud #FourCorners #FourCornersABC #Slavery #AnthonyAlbanese #CorporateCapture #FoodLabelling #Disaffection #AusPol
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#Duped, an AU Four Corners ABC investigation into food fraud on iView.
Corporate capture of Australian governments federal and state exposed.
Fish, eggs, tumeric & tomato sauces are shown to not be what they're claimed be.
Slave labour in the global tomato growing.
Hospitalisations due to allergens being present when the label explicitly states otherwise.
#AgedCare too.
#FoodFraud #FourCorners #FourCornersABC #Slavery #AnthonyAlbanese #CorporateCapture #FoodLabelling #Disaffection #AusPol
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the human auctioning house on Sabaody Archipelago (a slave-trading hub) is euphemistically referred to by the Marines as the "Public Employment Security Office." Damn
Comrade Oda 🥹
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A quotation from Frederick Douglass
Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New YorkMore about this quote: wist.info/douglass-frederick/8…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #frederickdouglass #America #enslavement #hypocrisy #pretension #slavery #systemicracism #tyranny
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A quotation from Frederick Douglass
Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen. You hurl your anathemas at the crowned headed tyrants of Russia and Austria, and pride yourselves on your Democratic institutions, while you yourselves consent to be the mere tools and body-guards of the tyrants of Virginia and Carolina.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New YorkMore about this quote: wist.info/douglass-frederick/8…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #frederickdouglass #America #enslavement #hypocrisy #pretension #slavery #systemicracism #tyranny
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Focus on Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley
"NSW modern slavery report calls for urgent reform to protect migrant workers."
"A NSW parliamentary report into modern slavery has detailed "harrowing stories of mistreatment and harm..The report asked the government to investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley."
"NSW Anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said in a statement the report was "informed by evidence from almost 100 witnesses across NSW, including victim survivors of modern slavery, and 60 submissions"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-anti-slavery-report-urgent-reform-to-protect-migrant-workers/107003130
#exploitation #PALM #MidNorthCoast #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #CoffsHarbour #NambuccaValley #food #harm #slavery #plantations #regulation -
Focus on Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley
"NSW modern slavery report calls for urgent reform to protect migrant workers."
"A NSW parliamentary report into modern slavery has detailed "harrowing stories of mistreatment and harm..The report asked the government to investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley."
"NSW Anti-slavery commissioner Dr James Cockayne said in a statement the report was "informed by evidence from almost 100 witnesses across NSW, including victim survivors of modern slavery, and 60 submissions"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/nsw-anti-slavery-report-urgent-reform-to-protect-migrant-workers/107003130
#exploitation #PALM #MidNorthCoast #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #CoffsHarbour #NambuccaValley #food #harm #slavery #plantations #regulation -
Debt traps are not personal failure or hardships. They are the failure of the elites, those who hold capital in the first place, and the central bank, which is eager to force their currency on us. The difference is that they shift blame and risks to the people who borrow the money. It is by design that they hold no liability. This is modern slavery.
#capitalism #debt #economics #slavery #injustice #systems #elites #centralbank #accountability #truth #awareness #exploitation #labor #power
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Debt traps are not personal failure or hardships. They are the failure of the elites, those who hold capital in the first place, and the central bank, which is eager to force their currency on us. The difference is that they shift blame and risks to the people who borrow the money. It is by design that they hold no liability. This is modern slavery.
#capitalism #debt #economics #slavery #injustice #systems #elites #centralbank #accountability #truth #awareness #exploitation #labor #power
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#OtD 5 Aug 1993 the Japanese govt admitted it forced women to work in military brothels from 1932-1945. 200k women and girls, mostly from Korea and China, but also Japan, the Philippines and Dutch Indonesia were abducted/tricked into these brothels https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10496/japan-admits-sex-slavery
#Japan #History #Slavery #WW2 #Abuse #NeverForget #NeverForgive #Asia
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#OtD 5 Aug 1993 the Japanese govt admitted it forced women to work in military brothels from 1932-1945. 200k women and girls, mostly from Korea and China, but also Japan, the Philippines and Dutch Indonesia were abducted/tricked into these brothels https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10496/japan-admits-sex-slavery
#Japan #History #Slavery #WW2 #Abuse #NeverForget #NeverForgive #Asia
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Blackbirding by Ryan Butta
* "Australia has long reassured itself that, despite genocidal treatment of First Nations peoples, at least it has no heinous past of slavery, unlike Britain and the US. Ryan Butta shatters this historical self-deception. The term “blackbirding” (its etymology in the African and West Indies slave trades) involved the coercion and kidnapping of up to 62,000 Pacific Islander people, many children, to labour mostly on Australian sugar cane plantations between 1860 and 1906."
"Long portrayed as somehow “other” than slavery, Butta uses forensic archival work and compelling prose to disturbingly illustrate why this was Australia’s slave trade – and how a colonial who’s-who profited handsomely from it. – Paul Daley " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/aug/05/best-books-to-read-australia-august-2026* Book :"As Australia becomes more willing to confront the violence and trauma of its colonial past, one chapter has remained largely hidden: the Australian slave trade known as blackbirding." >>
https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Blackbirding/Ryan-Butta/9781923135703
#slavery #history #EngineeredForgetting #OceanicPeoples #blackbirding #Australia #sugar #plantations #books #EuropeanColonisation #violence -
Blackbirding by Ryan Butta
* "Australia has long reassured itself that, despite genocidal treatment of First Nations peoples, at least it has no heinous past of slavery, unlike Britain and the US. Ryan Butta shatters this historical self-deception. The term “blackbirding” (its etymology in the African and West Indies slave trades) involved the coercion and kidnapping of up to 62,000 Pacific Islander people, many children, to labour mostly on Australian sugar cane plantations between 1860 and 1906."
"Long portrayed as somehow “other” than slavery, Butta uses forensic archival work and compelling prose to disturbingly illustrate why this was Australia’s slave trade – and how a colonial who’s-who profited handsomely from it. – Paul Daley " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/aug/05/best-books-to-read-australia-august-2026* Book :"As Australia becomes more willing to confront the violence and trauma of its colonial past, one chapter has remained largely hidden: the Australian slave trade known as blackbirding." >>
https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Blackbirding/Ryan-Butta/9781923135703
#slavery #history #EngineeredForgetting #OceanicPeoples #blackbirding #Australia #sugar #plantations #books #EuropeanColonisation #violence -
Australian town defends its ‘long-valued and admired’ statue of an enslaved African American child
By Kat WongMaitland city council condemned an art exhibit challenging the 150-year-old statue, which the artist says ‘does not represent Black skin with any dignity’
#NewSouthWales #Australianews #Slavery #IndigenousAustralians #TheGuardian #KatWong
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Australian town defends its ‘long-valued and admired’ statue of an enslaved African American child
By Kat WongMaitland city council condemned an art exhibit challenging the 150-year-old statue, which the artist says ‘does not represent Black skin with any dignity’
#NewSouthWales #Australianews #Slavery #IndigenousAustralians #TheGuardian #KatWong
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I suspect that we really need a better definition of “slavery”.
We are so awash in USian media (entertainment as well as news) that we have a very distorted notion of what slavery SHOULD look like."The USA became embroiled in a long civil war from 1861 to 1865 over the right to own slaves in new states and, perhaps partly because the losing side never really believed the war was over, the scale and nature of the slavery system in the USA are openly acknowledged as part of that country’s national story (though the details are often in dispute)…
"If we think (aloud, like a certain Australian Prime Minister) that there was never slavery in Australia, because nothing like US slavery happened here, that’s almost understandable. It isn’t part of Australia’s national narrative the way slavery is in the USA. But it *should* be part of our national story, because slavery did happen here, and in lots of other places, in a variety of forms, and for a very long time. It’s still happening.Slavery really has always contributed to both human and economic development, throughout history,
and the list of people enslaved includes, but is not limited to, people like 12th century serfs in England; people press-ganged into the British army or navy; 19th century serfs in Russia, or Italy; people “purchased” to work in Australia’s pearling industry;
Indigenous people both unpaid and confined to place under various Australian “protection” systems;Pacific Islanders in Australia; British Migrant Children in Australia; concentration camp prisoners in Nazi Germany; Anzac prisoners of war in Asia; 21st century prisoners in western prisons… and so on.
Repeatedly throughout history, groups of people have been forced to work for nothing but food and shelter, and have not been free to leave. The idea all the advances in living standards we enjoy today came from a free market system where only good things can happen, guided by an <invisible hand> and <voluntary exchange> is an absolute nonsense. “
speaking of “economics” … when someone is willing to work for extortionate rates in appalling conditions, because they are better off than not working, this suggests we are not paying some “natural market price” but simply exploiting their desperation
as for calling the Pacific Islander visa the PALM visa it’s hard to credit “someone thought this was clever” - oh wait, not hard at all
sorry for the rant — this all makes me furious
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-09/slavery-in-australian-pearling/10217488
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I suspect that we really need a better definition of “slavery”.
We are so awash in USian media (entertainment as well as news) that we have a very distorted notion of what slavery SHOULD look like."The USA became embroiled in a long civil war from 1861 to 1865 over the right to own slaves in new states and, perhaps partly because the losing side never really believed the war was over, the scale and nature of the slavery system in the USA are openly acknowledged as part of that country’s national story (though the details are often in dispute)…
"If we think (aloud, like a certain Australian Prime Minister) that there was never slavery in Australia, because nothing like US slavery happened here, that’s almost understandable. It isn’t part of Australia’s national narrative the way slavery is in the USA. But it *should* be part of our national story, because slavery did happen here, and in lots of other places, in a variety of forms, and for a very long time. It’s still happening.Slavery really has always contributed to both human and economic development, throughout history,
and the list of people enslaved includes, but is not limited to, people like 12th century serfs in England; people press-ganged into the British army or navy; 19th century serfs in Russia, or Italy; people “purchased” to work in Australia’s pearling industry;
Indigenous people both unpaid and confined to place under various Australian “protection” systems;Pacific Islanders in Australia; British Migrant Children in Australia; concentration camp prisoners in Nazi Germany; Anzac prisoners of war in Asia; 21st century prisoners in western prisons… and so on.
Repeatedly throughout history, groups of people have been forced to work for nothing but food and shelter, and have not been free to leave. The idea all the advances in living standards we enjoy today came from a free market system where only good things can happen, guided by an <invisible hand> and <voluntary exchange> is an absolute nonsense. “
speaking of “economics” … when someone is willing to work for extortionate rates in appalling conditions, because they are better off than not working, this suggests we are not paying some “natural market price” but simply exploiting their desperation
as for calling the Pacific Islander visa the PALM visa it’s hard to credit “someone thought this was clever” - oh wait, not hard at all
sorry for the rant — this all makes me furious
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-09/slavery-in-australian-pearling/10217488
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"The number of people pressed into forced labor in King Leopold’s Congo was staggering, and scholars have estimated that between five and ten million Congolese people died as a result."
-Sven Beckert, Capitalism: A Global History"The Force Publique, Leopold's private army, regularly employed torture, carried out reprisals against the relatives of suspected rebels, and subjected Congolese people to flogging and sexual abuse. It also destroyed villages accused of resistance and, most notoriously, enforced the cutting off of hands, including those of children."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo
#colonialism #capitalism #slavery #Congo #Africa #genocide #Belgium #indigenous
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"The number of people pressed into forced labor in King Leopold’s Congo was staggering, and scholars have estimated that between five and ten million Congolese people died as a result."
-Sven Beckert, Capitalism: A Global History"The Force Publique, Leopold's private army, regularly employed torture, carried out reprisals against the relatives of suspected rebels, and subjected Congolese people to flogging and sexual abuse. It also destroyed villages accused of resistance and, most notoriously, enforced the cutting off of hands, including those of children."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo
#colonialism #capitalism #slavery #Congo #Africa #genocide #Belgium #indigenous
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Vulnerable workers bearing the cost of providing Australia with cheap food
"Across Australia's fruit and vegetable industry, Fair Work Ombudsman investigations have repeatedly uncovered widespread non-compliance...: systemic worker exploitation, forced labour, debt bondage and, in some cases, human trafficking and servitude."
"In Coffs Harbour, 61 per cent of growers and labour hire companies inspected were found to be breaching workplace laws, including underpaying workers. The figure rose to 72 per cent in the Riverina and 83 per cent in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley....Oz Group, a co-operative representing more than 140 berry growers across NSW's Mid North Coast, said in its 2020 statement it "does not accept any form of slavery-like practices within the co-operative or throughout its supply chain".However, in its 2025 statement, the co-operative said, "addressing modern slavery requires ongoing effort and collaboration" and it remained "committed to continuous improvement"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-04/australias-hidden-modern-slave-labour-workforce-exposed/106968610
#exploitation #work #ForcedLabour #food #slavery #CoffsHarbour #HorticulturalIndustry #governance #regulation #ModernSlaveryAct #TokenisticLaw #NSW #MidNorthCoast #blueberries -
Vulnerable workers bearing the cost of providing Australia with cheap food
"Across Australia's fruit and vegetable industry, Fair Work Ombudsman investigations have repeatedly uncovered widespread non-compliance...: systemic worker exploitation, forced labour, debt bondage and, in some cases, human trafficking and servitude."
"In Coffs Harbour, 61 per cent of growers and labour hire companies inspected were found to be breaching workplace laws, including underpaying workers. The figure rose to 72 per cent in the Riverina and 83 per cent in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley....Oz Group, a co-operative representing more than 140 berry growers across NSW's Mid North Coast, said in its 2020 statement it "does not accept any form of slavery-like practices within the co-operative or throughout its supply chain".However, in its 2025 statement, the co-operative said, "addressing modern slavery requires ongoing effort and collaboration" and it remained "committed to continuous improvement"." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-04/australias-hidden-modern-slave-labour-workforce-exposed/106968610
#exploitation #work #ForcedLabour #food #slavery #CoffsHarbour #HorticulturalIndustry #governance #regulation #ModernSlaveryAct #TokenisticLaw #NSW #MidNorthCoast #blueberries -
Are ubiquitous LLMs changing the economics of modern slavery?
I’ve been reading recently about the terrifying scale of modern slavery underpinning the online scam industry. Victims are recruited internationally with the promise of reliable work only to be bundled into cars and taken to heavily fortified compounds, where they are forced to meet targets for online outreach under threat of torture or even death. For example the Guardian report the experience of a Kenyan man forced into ‘cyberslavery’ in Myanmar:
The men were being taken to neighbouring Myanmar, where Okindo found himself inside a walled compound guarded by rebel militia.
I was in a cell just so I could be determined to be a trafficking victim and get my freedom. If I hadn’t, I’d have rotted away there
He was set to work every day for the next three months, forced to send thousands of messages from fake social-media profiles, posing as a rich American investor to swindle US real estate agents into cryptocurrency scams.
When he failed to reach daily targets, he was beaten, locked inside a freezing-cold room and deprived of food for up to two days. He prayed he would avoid the electric shocks and sexual torture others endured at the hands of a Chinese criminal gang that ran the centre.
“It was hell on Earth,” he says. “I broke completely, to the point of losing hope entirely.”
Okindo, who was finally released from Myanmar’s KK Park compound in April, is among a fast-growing population of Kenyans, Ugandans and Ethiopians trafficked to south-east Asia as criminal syndicates increasingly look to expand their ranks with east African labour.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/sep/09/cyberslavery-kenya-uganda-ethiopia-southeast-asia-myanmar-scam-centresA UN report estimated hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked in this way to work as online scammers. Until recently I had no idea about the scale of this crime which can be seen in the sheer size of the fortified compounds where it takes place:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nenr0ejizFs
A grim thought has plagued me while I’ve been reading this stuff: are LLMs not a cheaper way to do this? What I found so unsettling about watching these videos are the familiar trappings of the office bureaucracy alongside the inhuman brutality of what is taking place there. This is evil but it’s also banal. It’s a bureaucracy optimised to run an operation at scale… anyone who could put this together would also be primed to think about how new technology could be used to streamline the activity. So are ubiquitous language models going to change the economics of this multibillion dollar criminal industry? I asked Gemini if language models could replace scam cities and it offered this interesting response:
Why AI Cannot Replace Human Victims
- Emotional Nuance: Cyber-scams like “pig butchering” require weeks or months of deep, customized emotional grooming to build romantic or platonic trust.
- Adapting to Suspicion: Human scammers can instantly pivot, improvise, and use emotional intuition when a target starts asking difficult questions or shows suspicion.
- Live Verification: Targets frequently demand live proof, requiring victims to hop on voice calls, send real-time selfies, or manipulate live video streams on command.
- Low Human Costs: Because syndicates use forced labour, the financial cost of sustaining a human victim (minimal food and shared dorms) is incredibly low, competing directly with the costs of high-end computing power.
How Syndicates Use AI as a Force Multiplier
Instead of replacing humans, criminal networks use AI to make their human workforce vastly more efficient.
- Mass Translation: AI translation tools allow non-English speaking captives to message victims worldwide with perfect grammar and localized slang.
- Deepfake Technology: Scammers use real-time AI deepfakes to alter their faces and voices during video verification calls, tricking targets into believing they are talking to the person in the profile photos.
- Script Generation: Large Language Models (LLMs) generate highly convincing, personalized conversation templates and icebreakers, which human captives then customize.
- Target Profiling: Machine learning algorithms scrape data from social media to help captives identify high-value, vulnerable targets automatically.
I think ‘low human costs’ is undoubtedly correct. But think about what that means: slaves are cheaper than compute. I guess I’d hoped that an unintended consequence of LLMs (particularly the open-weight models that are rapidly catching up to the frontier) would be to reduce the demand for coerced labour. However I suspect it’s more likely that we’ll see an intensification of labour in the compounds, structurally analogous to the reorganisation of work which models are driving in other domains. This Interpol report describes technology as a ‘force multiplier’ in which AI-infused fraud comes to be substantially more profitable than existing techniques. Indeed it has democratised access to tools for fraud through criminal P2P marketplaces:
Criminal peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces provide full-service hubs for financial fraud syndicates. These networks offer end-to-end criminal infrastructure including phishing tools, fake trading platforms, AI-powered chatbots for victim
grooming and encrypted communication channels.If I’m inferring correctly from this, it means the capital investment in building an online scam operation with coerced labour is essentially much lower. Does this mean we might see it spread from beyond the fortified compounds into much smaller units? Which by their nature are possibly harder to identify and detect?
#crime #criminology #fraud #humanTrafficking #interpol #LLMs #slavery -
A brilliant episode of #American #HistoryHit with Don Wildeman talking with General Ty Seidule about the complete lack of punishment for all who participated in the Sourh Confederacy war against the United States of #America. Listening to this tells me one thing for certain - #Trump and every single person connected to him or supporting him will face zero consequences for their actions. Americans neither have the stomach or will to do the right thing.
#CivilWar #Slavery
https://open.spotify.com/episode/629w8VAApsrFcKpniKHMKv?si=5AsOhebYQcOgXXdRHfBhAQ&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A55b6UvOmsBHAZaQjHM7Wfw
