During the Abolition 200 events, at the same time as making it clear that slavery did not end in 1807 (not even British involvement in slave trading) it?s important to look at the issue of modern day conditions of some of Britain?s exploited and abused people, especially migrant labourers and people from both EU and non-EU countries who are treated like slaves in Britain because they are held captive by their ?bosses?.
During the Abolition 200 events, at the same time as making it clear that slavery did not end in 1807 (not even British involvement in slave trading) it?s important to look at the issue of modern day conditions of some of Britain?s exploited and abused people, especially migrant labourers and people from both EU and non-EU countries who are treated like slaves in Britain because they are held captive by their ?bosses?.
After the horrific deaths of cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay a national, but Nottingham-based, Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) was set up in 2005 to attempt to regulate the owners of more than 1000 British ?work-gangs? who are the labour force that plants, sprays, picks, processes, sorts and packages food for many British supermarkets. The ?gang-masters? of Chinese workers who died on the mud-flats in Morecambe supplied a company Bomfords in Worcester who in turn supply packaged food to Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda.
A small number of raids (in comparison to number of gang-masters) by the GLA in the West Midlands on Bomfords, Atherstone & Salford Priors in Warwickshire and one called Dynamic Workforce Ltd. of Smethwick, as reported in newspapers this week, revealed hours of overworking and pay under the minimum wage (which is already less for agricultural workers than the usual national minimum), no work contracts, no holiday pay, lack of proper breaks, and lack of training. In addition some workers reported intimidation by their bosses. Every single one of Bomfords ?labour providers? was found to be ?below standard?. It is likely that gang-masters also take a dim view of any collective organisation by workers against these conditions!
We have also recently had press stories of young women from Eastern Europe and Asia who are being held captive as unwilling prostitutes, and even Vietnamese cannabis ?sprinklers? who water the plants by hand and are forced to live in tiny rooms or hallways of growing houses while they ?pay off? their travel to Britain.
So examples of exploitation and abuse are known. But these cases are continually reported as an immigration ?problem? rather than an abuse of power by people who care about money instead of human life, not unlike the slave traders and plantation owners of the past. If you look carefully enough at Home Office paperwork, the government claims it will use its new immigration laws against the exploiters and stop abuse by funding organisations like the GLA. But at the same time all the political hysteria about immigration (whether legal or ?illegal?) that the state and mainstream media are contributing to will obviously prevent most abused and exploited people from speaking out (or escaping from) these horrific conditions, for fear of arrest or deportation. Knowing about the conditions in Britain?s jails and detention centres, these fears are real.
As a solution to this we are told that that even tighter border controls are needed, or that the state should make everyone in Britain have an ID card to show they are legitimate and are paying taxes. Nonsense! The opposite is true ? we need less state control not more. Removal of border controls along with any idea of different people being either legal or illegal would reveal that the enemy is not migrant people themselves but their inhuman masters. It would give those affected more confidence to organise and fight for their freedom from abuse and exploitation. It would also expose the villains like supermarkets who make massive profits for their shareholders from buying cheap food, and the men in our society who think it?s acceptable to pay money to abuse women. It might even show just how much Britain?s capitalist economy is dependent on massive exploitation both inside and outside its shores, and the racist attitudes that degrade the worth of people who are leaving poverty or fear in the countries they have come from.
References:
Gangmaster raids expose illegal working conditions – The Independent, 19 Mar 2007
Gangmasters Licensing Authority
Notes from Hansard about number of gang-masters licensed
Government minimum wage information, including leaflets in Polish, Lithuanian & Slovak
Anarchist Federation ? Resistance 92 ? SLAVERY TODAY
Nottingham and Slavery – Hidden History