The system thrives because governments are corrupt and complicit, feeding off the suffering they swore to end. Local officials pocket bribes while floors in textile factories rot until they collapse. Workers sacrificed on the altar of more profits.
Communities are ripped from the earth, land stolen for resource extraction. Rivers are seized, ecosystems drained dry, and populations die of thirst—because we fear our tap water and so buy bottled instead.
Governments, cartels, and corporations coil together, feeding their greed with violence. Any whisper of revolution is silenced in the streets, gunned down before it can be heard. These humans never had their names recorded, so there is nothing really to erase.
Cartels control the people, the goods, the transport and the sale. Their sole purpose is to ensure that the flow of resources never ceases, that the wheels of profit and exploitation continue to turn.
Laws are just words when no one will enforce them. Why aren’t they enforced? Because the system is working as intended. The government is here to protects the system, not us. For us, there is no law. No protection.
Everyone Knows.
This is not hidden. The evidence is there, brazenly exposed in their own data. They know it, we know it, and we keep our eyes shut.
The scale is staggering – $150 billion each year in forced labor profits go to the cartels, corporations and governments which support them. (International Labour Organization)
It’s everywhere:
Gold, cobalt, coltan, diamonds, shrimp, fish, sugarcane, cotton, bananas, tomatoes, cocoa, coffee, textiles, garments, palm oil, tobacco, leather, automotive parts, coffee, fruit, vegetables, fast fashion, sportswear, footwear, construction materials, electronic components, minerals, wood, coal, tea, rice, sugar, spices, rubber, coconut, soy, wheat, corn, canned goods, tea leaves, carpets, plastics, furniture, jewelry, fishing nets, textile dyes, paints, sewing machine parts, smartphones, batteries, laptops, solar panels, microchips.
The exploitation is woven into the entire infrastructure of our economy, undeniable in its scope and reach. We don’t have to look hard for evidence. With Nestlé, Mars, Hershey, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Cargill, Thai Union, Dole, DelMonte, H&M, Zara, Apple, Nike, Amazon, Samsung, BP, Kroger, Tesco, Gap, Adidas, Walmart, Chevron, Shell, PepsiCo, IKEA, L’Oréal, Ford, McDonald’s, ExxonMobil, Volkswagen, BASF, LVMH, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Macy’s, Chiquita, Costco, TJX Companies, Marriott, J.C. Penney, CVS Health, Target, Reebok, Puma, Under Armour, Burberry, Levi’s, Wrangler, Carrefour, Barclays, HSBC, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Standard Chartered, BP, Shell, E.ON, Eni, Total S.A., Honda, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, BMW, Audi, Ford, Hyundai, General Electric, Siemens, Sony, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Tata Group, Reliance Industries, Adani Group, Lukoil, Rosneft – we can start our search.
At least 152 million children work in these industries. (International Labour Organization)
The labor from their tiny, precious hands ends up on our store shelves and trash cans, fueling our misery and filling the pockets of the elites.
The problem is not that we don’t have evidence. The problem is that the reality is so horrible, so heartbreaking, so destructive and painful that we refuse to see it.
And so we keep powering the machine, its gears grinding on, greased by the bones of the dispossessed.