c. Anti-Slavery Campaign

ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN

Anti-Slavery Campaign; MTV
2007, 1 min 44 sec

Modern day slavery is big business. There are more people in slavery today than at any time in history… The UN estimates that 27 million people can be classified as slaves. Compare this to the 13 million Africans who were transported to the New World in the 350 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The market in slave made products and services is worth $32bn. The only truly new thing about slavery today is the collapse in the price of people. In Alabama in 1850 the average slave cost the equivalent of £25,000. Returns would have been around 5%. Today as slave might cost you as little as £20. Returns can be as high as 800%. People are cheaper and in more plentiful supply than ever. It’s a good business to be in.

Slavery in the 21st Century is essentially no different from slavery in previous centuries. You’re a slave if you are no more than something to be bought and sold. If you play no part in deciding your future and your fate. If yours is a life without options. Today, child soldiers, debt bondage slaves and women who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation are just some of the more obvious examples of slavery. But the countless asylum seekers and immigrants who are forced to work, often without pay, in the industries that inhabit the twilight world of illegality are also enslaved.

This ad as accessed via an e-mail that was sent to big names in the financial world, promising them a ‘hot new investment’. When they clicked on the link in the e-mail, the found a website for a financial company. Four Continents Capital Management, that seemed to be investing in slave labour. The ad introduced their CEO.