Students need to open eyes to slavery abroad and in L.A.

Coffee, cell phones, cotton T-shirts and chocolate are all items many college students use every day. Students probably don’t realize, however, that these items are all made by slave labor around the world.

Last week, I went to an on-campus screening of Call + Response, a documentary about human trafficking that reveals the horrors of slavery across the globe. Made by musician and director Justin Dillon, the film project is a collaboration between artists, politicians and activists to raise awareness. Natasha Bedingfield, Matisyahu and other artists perform inspirational songs throughout the movie, while scholars and activists are interviewed about the issues. In this combination of music and education, the audience glimpses images of the slave trade ““ 8-year-old girls crying in Southeast Asian brothels or African boys toting machine guns. Call + Response highlights the many forms of slavery, not only the sex trade and the use of children in warfare but also in sweatshops for mass production, or labor in small businesses.

The film sheds light on the fact that in our globalized society, we all contribute to this problem by inadvertently purchasing slave-made goods. By demanding the lowest prices, we as consumers force producers to lower their bottom line and resort to free labor. Unless consumers pledge to buy “fair trade” goods, this problem is much less likely to be solved. The Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International controls fair trade certification, ensuring that products baring the fair trade label meet certain standards, including fair labor conditions, direct trade, environmental sustainability and community development. Depending on the product, there is often a slightly higher price for fair trade certification because the producers work on a smaller level than multinational corporations. This markup, however, is insignificant when compared to the difference in living conditions between enslaved workers mass producing cocoa and laborers who actually earn a decent wage. According to the FLO Web site, supporting the principle of fair trade means paying an extra 3 cents for pineapple or 26 cents for raisins.

Even ignoring the interconnectedness of the economy, the issue of human trafficking hits close to home. Though students might think that it only happens in other countries, Los Angeles is actually home to staggering rates of slavery, whether in the garment industry or agricultural workforce. Just this past year, police broke up a sex trafficking ring in Los Angeles that had brought women from Guatemala and Mexico and forced them into prostitution.

Other examples of U.S. slavery have included hearing-impaired Mexicans peddling goods in New York and Southeast Asian women forced to work in a textile factory.

CAST, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, is based in Los Angeles and estimates that out of the 27 million people living in slavery today, Los Angeles is one of the top three points of entry to the U.S. market.

The issues here go back to the abolitionist movement more than a hundred years ago ““ issues of the basic human right to freedom. In our modern society, it’s so difficult to imagine that men, women and children still suffer in slavery, but this is a harsh reality that desperately needs attention.

Some of the hardest parts of the film to watch, for me, were the interviews with victims of the sex trade, girls who had been kidnapped, tricked and sold into forced prostitution at hauntingly young ages. The girls shown in one Asian brothel were 7 or 8 years old, living in tiny rooms decorated with posters of pop stars where they service clients all day. Clearly, there is no line that some people won’t cross to gain the economic benefit of injustice.

According to the film, human trafficking increasingly focuses on children because they are easier to manipulate, threaten and exploit. Three out of four enslaved victims are women, and about half are children.

In the face of this horrible situation, from which we are inherently detached, it is difficult to respond or take action without feeling incredibly insignificant. After watching the film and reading about human trafficking, I wanted to know what, if anything, I could do to help. I doubted that any step I took would make any difference.

CAST is holding events this week on campus to help raise awareness. Involvement in these events helps create an atmosphere of increased knowledge where students can hopefully respond in their own ways to join the activist effort.

Wednesday night there is a panel discussion from 6 to 7:30 in Kaufman Hall and Thursday there is a Jamba Juice promotion all day. I encourage students to get involved in these events and go to CAST’s Web site, castla.org to get more information about these issues. As students, we have the education, opportunity and responsibility to act in whatever way we can to acknowledge and combat this issue.

E-mail Goodrich at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].