Are we as a
culture agreeing that in order to have “cute” clothes or cheap appliances that
we are willing to live with slave labor? Can we at least all agree that there
are some minimum standards that we as a culture should live by? Do we really need to continue to find the
worst of the worst stories of brutality to bring attention to this continual
problem in our society?

I am
generally an optimistic person and I believe that workers around the world will
fight with all of their strength for their rights at work. I hope that I can
continue to believe that consumers and activists in the global north will join
them.

What can we
do to break through the apathy?

“‘When you are poor, environmental conservation is a luxury
that you cannot afford,’ says David Woollcombe , president of Peace Child
International, a nonprofit organization that works with local young people to
promote sustainability in less developed countries. ‘If you are cold, you don’t
care about conservation of forests, you care about keeping warm. This is why
many people say that poverty
is the greatest enemy, the greatest polluter of the environment.’” Thus, it
really is in our interest to support workers abroad who are fighting for better
working and living conditions. As

The ILO estimates that around 75 million children lacking primary
education start working at an early age.  They also estimate that
approximately 165 million children are involved in some kind of labor.

The director named the focus on education as

Below are quotations from the affidavits of two children working on Firestone's rubber plantation in Liberia.  You can read more affidavits here and here.   Brothers Daniel Flomo (16 years old) and Boimah Flomo (12 years old) describe their experiences on the plantation.