[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by notyourfiend

oh, i agree. and yes, human trafficking isn't new - it's existed for centuries during all economic climates. maybe i shouldn't have used the word raped in that context. what i was trying to say was that today's issues contribute to make trafficking a really horrific epidemic. patriarchy/racism/divides between the poor and the rich are in no way new, but globalization has added many complicated layers onto age old slavery.

about the illegality issue: the fact that prostitution remains illegal in most locations is often seen as one of the major contributors to sex trafficking. in all actuality, studies show that prostitutes are at the same risk of danger, even of being trafficking, regardless of the country's laws. for example, in amsterdam there are still a lot of underground prostitutes w/ pimps who charge less and will do things that legal prostitutes won't - such as fuck w/o a condom. that being said, it's still a necessity (in my opinion) that prostitution is legalized because it better allows prostitutes to go to officals/report those who are putting their lives in danger. since prostitution is illegal and first world countries tend to be incrediably xenophobic, those whom have been trafficked either wind up in prisons or being sent back to their homelands where they are shamed.

i love it when a good discussion helps me think.

so yeah, i'd say that global capitalism has created new markets for slavery and trafficking that didn't exist maybe 50 years ago, by connecting the powerful and the powerless in a scale not seen since tens of millions of slaves were shipped out of africa to the americas (not that slavery didn't exist there before-- of course it did-- and after). well, not in the same scale probably-- though i don't have figures.

but if we agree that human trafficking is not inherent to capitalism (not in its most vile forms anyway-- working at a pizzeria for minimum wage is bad but not as bad as being shipped in a container to work as a whore for the russian mob) -- sorry, i digressed-- if it's not inherent to capitalism, at least it is being facilitated by global trade networks-- well it always was facilitated by trade networks, or maybe it was often at the core of them, i.e. cause rather than consequence in cases like african slavery.

but anyway, while the subject gives me the fucking willies in a horrible way, i'm wondering if you could recommend a good primer to catch up on the subject of the current state of human trafficking--- since you'ver worked on it, any good pamphlets/publications/websites?