Slavery in Seafood

“They kept me chained up, they didn’t care about me or give me any food...They sold us like animals, but we are not animals - we are human beings.”

This heart-wrenching quote is from a man sold from ship to ship in Thailand, caught in the trap of slavery and forced to work on a boat that supplies feed to the prawns we buy at the grocery store.

The three largest grocers in the world -- Walmart, Carrefour, and Costco -- were named specifically in a new investigation by the Guardian for selling prawns and shrimp whose production relies upon slave labour. One week later, those companies are still refusing to take two simple steps to rout out slavery from their supply chains -- and that’s where we come in.

Human rights activists are demanding Walmart, Carrefour and Costco join Project Issara, a Thailand-based initiative to end modern slavery, as well as institute a zero tolerance policy on slavery based on conditions on the ground. Before the spotlight of the Guardian expose fades, it's up to the free people of the world to raise their voices to speak out against slavery in the prawn industry.

The world’s largest prawn and shrimp farmer, Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, is the prime supply offender, buying from suppliers that work directly or indirectly with slave-manned fishing boats. Worse still, the problem isn’t limited to CP Foods. Indeed, human rights advocates have been raising alarms about conditions in the Thai seafood industry for years.

Project Issara was founded by Anti-Slavery International to eliminate slavery within export-oriented industries in Thailand. The project seeks to push brands that may be buying slavery-made products to use their brand power to eliminate slavery within global supply chains.

Testimony from escapees reveals the gravity of this exploitation. One trafficking victim said he had seen as many as 20 fellow slaves killed in front of him. “If you buy prawns or shrimp from Thailand, you will be buying the product of slave labour,” said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International.

SumOfUs have targeted Walmart in the past over its involvement in Thai slavery in fishing. It cut ties with the supplier in question -- but clearly no policies were in place to prevent this from happening again. This is why signing up to Project Issara and devising policies to prevent this from happening again are essential if meaningful change is ever going to be made.

Walmart customers exist all around the world -- it is a global company that owns Woolco stores in Canada, Walmex in Mexico, Bompreço in Brazil and Asda in the UK. Costco is planning a big expansion into Australia and Carrefour has stores in 34 countries. The companies are hoping their customers across the globe won't make the connection between CP Foods and the prawns we buy at the grocery store. Let's stand up together and show them how wrong they are.  If you want to help, here's the link to:
 
Sign the petition to tell Costco, Walmart and Carrefour to take concrete actions to end slavery in their supply chains.

Tony the Tiger - Truck Stop Attraction

For more than ten years, a tiger named Tony has been kept in a tiny cage of only 3,200 square-foot at a truck stop in Louisiana. Even though a law passed in 2006 prohibits the ownership of tigers in Louisiana, Tony's captor, Michael Sandlin, has continued to imprison him. And now, lawmakers in Louisiana are trying to pass a law that would make it legal to keep Tony imprisoned at the truck stop.

A truck stop is no place to keep a wild creature like Tony. Every day, diesel fumes from the enormous trucks passing through hurt Tony's eyes and lungs; the loud honking and other highway noises could be damaging his sensitive ears. Plus, Tony's bare cage has few toys for him to play with. Even though tigers love swimming, he doesn't have a pool to give him any relief from the blazing hot Louisiana sun.

And that's not counting the truck stop visitors who torment Tony, reducing this gorgeous, graceful tiger into a cowering, confused animal.

A few years ago, the Animal Legal Defence Fund won a case that would forbid Sandlin from renewing his permit to keep Tony. Yet he has refused to set him free -- and now the state Senate has passed a bill that would grant him a one-person exception to the law forbidding tiger ownership. The bill (S.B. 250) that would allow Michael Sandlin, the owner of the truck stop, to keep Tony, in defiance of Louisiana's own laws. Legislation passed in 2006 banned ownership of tigers in Louisiana but anyone who had owned a tiger prior to 2006 was grandfathered in.  I'd call this a betrayal of the law abiding citizens of Louisiana.

That bill is currently sitting on Governor Bobby Jindal's desk for him to sign. If we don't stand up for Tony right now, he could be trapped in that cage forever.  If you agree that a law is no law if you can buy exception from it then here's a link to the petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/589/086/506/last-chance-to-help-tony-the-tiger/

Vodafone and the Tax Dodging Scam

Vodafone has not paid a single penny in taxes since 2011, despite making a post-tax profit of £59.4 billion last year. Vodafone recorded this huge profit because it funnelled its revenues to Luxembourg -- despite having virtually no presence in the country.

While Vodafone is happy to take money from the pockets of people in the UK, it doesn't want to give anything back to the communities that keep it in business. Vodafone openly admits on its own website that it actively avoids paying tax so it can line the pockets of its shareholders.  So I guess that it should be given points for honesty, even if it is being honest about being dishonest.  Hang on isn't that a contradiction in terms?  Rather like the oxymoron 'an honest politician'?

In India too, Vodafone have sought to avoid a further £1.6bn tax bill. However, the Indian authorities, unlike the British, have successfully pursued Vodafone for the money, forcing it to pay up.

Companies like Vodafone are crippling the UK’s social housing sector. Without corporations paying taxes, the government cannot afford to build much needed social housing. The amount of tax Vodafone owes the British government could pay for thousands of new homes.  Not to mention shoring up the failing NHS.

 

Vodafone’s AGM is coming up in six weeks. It's time to show Vodafone that customers will no longer stand for the injustices that let multi-billion pound companies get away with anything, while ordinary people are left to pick up the pieces of a destroyed housing market.    Here's the link if you want to add your voice to the chorus of protest.

Vodafone: It’s time to pay your fair share. Stop avoiding taxes by moving your operations to tax haven Luxembourg.

The Nike Nine

Guess what?  Turns out that there is yet another big business with dirty little skeletons in the closet.

Nike says it respects its employees' rights to join a union 'without harassment, interference or retaliation.' But it fired nine workers in Indonesia for doing exactly that.

The 'Nike Nine' formed a union at Nike's Chang Shin shoe factory to negotiate for better wages, better health insurance and the payment of promised bonuses. First management ignored their demands. Then when demonstrations began, the bosses started to intimidate them. Ultimately, they were all fired, and the police were called on the group's leader, Ato.

It's ridiculous for Nike to allow its factories to crush workers' demands for decent pay and conditions. The global sportswear giant made $25.3 billion in revenue last year. It can afford to pay its employees a living wage, even if it has the decency to pay it's taxes.

After they were fired, Ato and the other eight workers set up camp outside the Chang Shin factory gates. They were soon joined by other union members for a peaceful solidarity demonstration. This was met by a heavy and intimidating security presence, including police, Indonesian military, factory security and hired thugs.

This is blatant union-busting. Nike claims it is building a 'more empowered and equitable supply chain' but the reality for its workers on the ground is disempowerment, fear and intimidation.
It's vital that we stand up for the Nike Nine, to show this hypocritical company that the world is watching, and it can no longer build its empire on exploitation.

This sort of behaviour belongs in the history books of the eighteen hundreds (1800), when the Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported to Australia for daring to form a trade union.  If you want to you can use the link below to put this over sized business back in its place.  In the mean time, I'm not buying anything from Nike.

Tell Nike: reinstate the 'Nike Nine' with full back pay, and clean up your supply chain so that joining a union is genuinely respected.

Least We Forget

June 6th 1944.  The day the world changed.  The day the slaughter of thousands began to end.  The day that the madness of one man began to crumble out from underneath him and his.

Much has been said about the Second World War and the Holocaust, the truth remains - it was a blood bath.  The D-Day landings embodied six years of struggle in one day when the water turned pink with blood.

Can the mind comprehend the silhouettes of nine hundred bodies laying on the sand? Can the mind comprehend the attempted genocide of more than entire people?

What is sad is that the blood still flows.

We have had the Korean War, Vietnam, Bosnia, Ireland, Afghanistan, Iraq (twice), Africa and now Ukraine.

Can we honesty say that the Second World War ever stopped?  When all soldiers still die on beaches and beach heads?  When they lie bleeding on deserts and dust fields?  When the bombs and the bullets still rip the life from soldier and civilian alike?

In two thousand years can we say that mankind has come any where, when all that changed is that we have perfected our methods of killing to the point where we can wipe out all life on the planet with the push of a button?

Some how I can't say that we have.

In Memorium - least we forget.