Discuss about the Global Capitalism.
Slavery is an unethical practice which is currently present in the global economy and contribute more than 46% of global production through various industries (Anti-Slavery International.org 2018). With the economic boom followed by globalization has changed the face of employment compactly. The traders who used to limit their production in the domestic markets had started to flourish globally. Globalization has created a huge customers base and benefits these global customers to have whatever they want. This serves as the base of global capitalism. It is the form of economic system which dominate the world economy as well as the politics. Global capitalism takes full chance of worldwide market liberalization which is the result of globalization (Kempadoo 2017). It has molded the global economy in such a way that the new legal as well as regulatory superstructure has been constructed. The globalization has integrated the national economy of the world connecting one industry to depend on other and transforming labors from one county to another for production. This constant demand for employee in the manufacturing or other mass production sector, is the chief reason for the social problem like slavery. The idea cost cutting from the labor cost has fueled the business organizations to depend on the supply chains. These supply chains often do not ethically and employee forced labors and bonded labors who are termed as slaves. Therefore, the business organizations in all over the world are responsible either directly or indirectly to employ slaves in their business operations hence need to take responsibility to end this inhuman act.
Global capitalism is an excuse to avoid responsibilities associated with reducing slavery by the global business leaders.
The term slavery is nothing new to the human kind. According to the International Labor Organization, slavery is work or service that is executed under penalty, and undertaken involuntarily (Ilo.org 2018). These penalties are most of the times, violent, that include beating, starvation, rape, and threats to the families of the slaves. These slaves work jobs meaningless to them with no financial protection. The slaves mostly give their toil due to the threat of penalties. As the benefits slash and rents go up, the slaves work with absolutely free for the employers. The data published by the International Labor Organization, modern slavery has become one of the most lucrative business for the owners as this generates more than $150 billion as the annual profit (Ilo.org 2018). This profit is the outcome of unpaid exploitation of the human forces where men, women and even children are used as labor to increase the profit of the companies.
Slavery has an extremely inhuman connotation which defines the situation of the bonded labors, decent slaves, human trafficking, child labor, debt bondage and force and early marriage. These people are the victims of either war and other natural or artificial human causes which had affected them both socially as well as economically (Kotiswaran 2017). With the rise in the number of political refugees, the number of slaves in also increasing. The owners of these saves have utilized their financial vulnerability and provide sustenance in return of their physical labor. Slavery is the social ill which is coupled with the problem of geopolitical disruptions and other economic and social problems. In this context, the general ideas which manipulate the thought of the people that the slavery is practiced in the developing and under developed nation, can be discussed. To most of the people in this century, slavery is an abolished practiced in the past and even if it has any existence, then it exists in the third world countries (Ireland 2017). it is important to discuss that the modern slaver is actually practiced in the developed nations or backed up by the countries located in the developed nations like European countries as well as the USA.
The idea which dominates the mind of most of the people, that slavery in this 21st century is an impossible term. In this era of technology, where nothing is hidden from media, slavery is an abolished term. However, in reality, modern slavery has an extremely hidden nature. The slave traders use the labor of these slaves and keep the under the threat of punishment. It is true that most of the developing countries are the birth a work place of these slaves and these contributes 58% in the global slave trade (Anti-Slavery International.org 2018). The hidden nature of slave trade shows that in most of the cases, the labors when cannot pay their debts of employment, keep on working for their masters with absolutely no wage. These slaves are taken to work with the promise that they will have better life in the other countries or region but in reality, they are trafficked to the developed nations and employed as normal employees but do not get any payment from the employers except the minimum sustenance of food and shelter. This is the way the slave traders have been working and supplying the business the most important element of production (LeBaron and Rühmkorf 2017). The business leaders on the other had always aim to reduce cost therefore, do not oppose such illegal as well as immoral job. The cost of these labors are much lower from the regular employees, moreover, they do not need any extra benefits but work uninterruptedly supporting the business of the companies.
Modern slavery has some features which are much different from the slavery of past. Despite the fact that some of the owners of these slaves deny the fact that these employees are treated like slaves and have freedom to leave their organizations. However, in reality, the threat of punishment as well as grinding poverty leaves no option for these laborers but working like the animals of burden. The cause of slavery today is the rise of global capitalism which gives the opportunities to sell the products to the new world (McGregor and Smit 2017). The capitals are created across the borders can the countries and move freely where they can get the best materials of production. It is the impact of globalization that has made the sharing of information, ideas, raw material and employees to be easy. As the global transportation has become more appealing, the business owners have become more enthusiastic to take the opportunities to utilize the global resources. globalization of capitalism therefore is the root cause of increasing slave trade in the third world countries. Due to increased way of transportation, the companies are able to take advantage of supply chain who provide exclusively skilled labors for the specialized business. The priority of these companies are not the development of the economy of the countries by creating scope for employment in these huge population but making profit as much as possible from these employees. The supply chain takes full advantage of the economic and judicial weakness of these countries and run their slave business or human trafficking to the most profitable businesses of the word (Milivojevic, Pickering and Segrave 2017). The feature of capitalism to grab profit by any means, add fuel to this insatiability of these slave traders but also helped them to keep such business masked from the government or the media.
The most important factor of this system of slavery, powered by global capitalism do not leave the children also. The exploitation of child labor has been increased. This has been the preference of these slave owners for very a long time. The children do not need adequate sustenance for their living, neither they stand together to enjoy human rights. On the contrary, these children can perform tasks which do not need high skills (Gold, Trautrims and Trodd 2015). Therefore, these children are used in the mass production combines like garment, food, fireworks and other manufacturing industries. These are mainly trafficked victims who are take into the developed counties for working in the labor-intensive industries for example agriculture as well as construction. Along with this there are women and children who are trafficked only for sexual exploitation. The most shocking matter is the fact that 98% of these people are women and girls (Anti-Slavery International.org 2018). Girl children and young girls are deliberately targeted due to their vulnerability, and it is estimated that one in four victims of slavery in the countries like the UK and USA are children.
According to the research of International Labor Organization, the state sponsored forced labor in various countries support the labors from the children as they do from the women (Ilo.org 2018). It is the severe violation of human rights in the workplace which ultimately pave way for slavery. There are various methods can be applied to mask this business of slavery, so that the real figure of exploitation does not come into light. This lead to inability of the government of the states to find the actual figure and prevent them. Due to global capitalism, the managers are successfully able to enjoy the process of production with no tension with responsibilities.
Globalization has provided with all types of facilities to the modern business, this is the reason why the owners of these companies have tried to take the most out of tit. As mentioned before, the globalization has created much resources for the global businesses to operate across the countries but has created problems for the low income groups. It has fueled the issues of wealth gap in the society for which the government of the countries are chiefly to be blamed (Mota et al. 2015). The business leaders who think that there are no such responsibilities which they should perform to abolish the practice of slavery, follow the view that they are doing business in a country and paving way for the economic development of that particular country. Therefore, the country should provide all the facilities reducing the risks like slavery in the workforce. To them, there should be implicit laws as well as policies so that the supply chain of the country does not use child labors in the business (Gadd and Broad 2018). There need to have a stricter method of identification along with evidences, which may help the countries to the take initiatives to abolish such a malpractice in the society. To these critics, it is the failure of the governments that they cannot manage to provide economic and social security to the refugees who later thrive to be slaves for their living. The social and political systems of the country have supported the inequality of payment system where the labors remain unpaid as the situation of employment have gradually deteriorated.
It is also important to discuss that it is impossible for the big business owners who run various type of business in the numerous countries of the world to take care of the employees’ accommodation as well as well-being. This is why the argument of keeping blind eye to this issue is not actually applicable for the global business leaders (New 2015). Globalization though have created scope for better communication among the various branches of the companies so that an integrated industry can be formed but this needs huge time as well as effort. Hence keeping track of each and every actions of the organization and the subsidizing factors that help the products to ultimately reach the showroom from the warehouse is impossible. According to this view, the global business has created scope for reducing poverty as well as inequalities among the people of the societies (Emberson and Trautrims 2017). The people who live in poverty do not get proper scope to have decent job therefore, become more vulnerable for the practice of slavery. For this, the companies do not have contribution to increase the number of slaves in the global economy.
To these critics, the administrative structure of the countries is the sole responsible reason why the owners of the slaves get opportunities to operate openly (Nolan and Bott 2018). The government has limited intention as well as limited power to control this business of slavery and human trafficking. In order to focus on such problems, the governments need to have proper laws and policies so that inequities of the society can be reduced and create more scope of employment so that the people do not grab the underpaid jobs to meet their ends. The geo political issues like natural disaster and war which give birth of a huge number of refugees and create problem of accommodation as well as employment in the country. Therefore, the government of the countries need to become strict of the use of child labors in the domestic or international firms as well as the slavery originated from this crisis.
Modern slavery has become a chain process where these people want to work in order to live their sustenance and they are the victims of financial systems. Now the question why the developing countries score high in the slave employment than those of the developed countries, has a critical aspect. Most of the global businesses are located in the developed countries and they have started to spread globally through various types of ventures. These companies are more attracted to the developing countries due to their availability of cheap labors in these countries (Segrave and Milivojevic 2017). Therefore, most of the business organization mainly the industries like manufacturing and automobile, have shifted their manufacturing units to the developing nations like China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and some of the African countries. The business of these companies are being higher due to the contribution of these labors where in many of the cases, there are unethical tinges associated with the supply chain of the employees. The employers of both developing as well as developed nations have started to take advantage from these workers’ desperate need of money to survive.
The globalization and its result of global capitalism have increased the amount of human trafficking. These trafficked laborers, are abused, underpaid, mistreated and forced to work according to the need of the industries (Barna 2018). They work in the harshest conditions as they are trapped in the vicious cycle of business. They are the competitive advantage of the employers. The chief aim of these employers is to reduce cost so that they can maintain the growth of their profit therefore, these companies take any way to achieve this organizational goal. Due to the fact that these companies mainly depend on the supply chain for these cheap yet skilled labors of these developing nations, they do not check the process of recruitment of these employees (Stevenson and Cole2018). They only have the monetary connection with these supply chains and try to maintain a good relationship with them by not infringing their process of work. This indirect support of slavery has inched the number of such victims and led to eternal suffering of these slaves.
The global economic orders which is basically dominated by the global capitalism, demands cheap goods as well as services. This has geopolitical connection. In the case of accessing the resources like oil, fisheries and minerals, the cost of labor has to be low. This is the reason why the business leaders always try to get better as well as cheaper labors. In meeting the global demand of products which is increasing with growing population, the business has to be potent enough to compete with other firms in the similar industries. This is the reason why they flock in the third world countries that produce higher number of modern slaves.
It is very much unfortunate that slavery directly questions humanity but very few numbers of business have come forward to end this process. The awareness against this system of slavery need to abolish this inhuman process for the second time. The risk of slavery in the supply chains has been so increased that some of the business owners have also become aware of the operation so their supply chain (Wake 2017). Each and every business want to stay clear in their operations so that their do not face any kun of problems in operating in the business in different countries. As these foreign firm need to be bothered about the various types of policies followed by different countries, they need to be more clear about the ethical implications of their services as well as products. Now a day, the media has become more concerned with the business ethics hence there is a pressing need of designing corporate social responsibilities by the modern global firms.
The business CSR aims to perform the various type of ethics which will give the firms opportunities to gain more popularity socially as well as economically. The business CSR lead the firm to have a sustainable growth (Westmoreland 2018). This business CSR helps the organizations to balance between their functions and bring positive outcomes through performing necessary responsibilities to the human kind. These responsibilities have four facets based on which the companies operate in the international markets. These are economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. From this perspective, the firms do have a huge responsibility in abolishing slavery from their supply chain. These responsibilities mandate the fact that the business leaders need to focus for ensuring that their companies conduct their business in a such way that are both legal as well as ethical. As mentioned before, due to globalization, the communication gap has been reduced and the connection between the customers with the companies has increased. The global customers have become more aware of the fact that they should boycott the products of the companies which produce their products illegally or unethically. Since slavery in the supply chain or any sect of business is illegal, the sale of the companies reduces as they face mass opposition regarding their ethical responsibilities. the awareness
Therefore, it can be concluded that there are various reasons which lead the business organizations to use bonded labors in their organizations but in most of the cases, they do not intentionally employ these labors. However, whatever the reasons are, the business leaders need to take responsibilities to make their business more ethical and legal so that they can get competitive advantage more than their competitors and support from the government of the countries.
References:
Anti-Slavery International.org (2018). What is modern slavery? – Anti-Slavery International. [online] Anti-Slavery International. Available at: https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/ [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].
Barna, A.G., 2018. The Early Eight and the Future of Consumer Legal Activism to Fight Modern-Day Slavery in Corporate Supply Chains. William & Mary Law Review, 59(4), p.1449.
Emberson, C.A. and Trautrims, A., 2017. Managers’ perceptions of modern slavery risk in a UK health-care supply network.
Gadd, D. and Broad, R., 2018. Troubling recognitions in British responses to modern slavery. The British Journal of Criminology.
Gold, S., Trautrims, A. and Trodd, Z., 2015. Modern slavery challenges to supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(5), pp.485-494.
Ilo.org (2018). International Labour Organization. [online] Ilo.org. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/global/lang–en/index.htm [Accessed 30 Apr. 2018].
Ireland, R., 2017. Rights and Modern Slavery: The Obligations of States and Corporations in Relation to Forced Labour in Global Supply Chains. UCLJLJ, 6, p.100.
Kempadoo, K., 2017. ‘Bound Coolies’ and Other Indentured Workers in the Caribbean: Implications for debates about human trafficking and modern slavery. Anti-Trafficking Review, (9).
Kotiswaran, P. ed., 2017. Revisiting the Law and Governance of Trafficking, Forced Labor and Modern Slavery. Cambridge University Press.
LeBaron, G. and Rühmkorf, A., 2017. Steering CSR through home state regulation: A comparison of the impact of the UK bribery act and modern slavery act on global supply chain governance. Global Policy, 8(S3), pp.15-28.
McGregor, A. and Smit, J., 2017. Risk management: Human rights due diligence in corporate global supply chains. Governance Directions, 69(1), p.16.
Milivojevic, S., Pickering, S. and Segrave, M., 2017. Sex Trafficking and Modern Slavery: The Absence of Evidence.
Mota, B., Gomes, M.I., Carvalho, A. and Barbosa-Povoa, A.P., 2015. Towards supply chain sustainability: economic, environmental and social design and planning. Journal of Cleaner Production, 105, pp.14-27.
New, S.J., 2015. Modern slavery and the supply chain: the limits of corporate social responsibility?. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(6), pp.697-707.
Nolan, J. and Bott, G., 2018. Global supply chains and human rights: spotlight on forced labour and modern slavery practices. Australian Journal of Human Rights, pp.1-26.
Segrave, M. and Milivojevic, S., 2017. Gendered exploitation in the digital border crossing? An analysis of the human trafficking and information technology nexus. In Gender, Technology and Violence (pp. 28-44). Routledge.
Stevenson, M. and Cole, R., 2018. Modern slavery in supply chains: a secondary data analysis of detection, remediation and disclosure. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.
Un.org (2018). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [online] Un.org. Available at: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].
Wake, N., 2017. Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery: When Victims Kill. Criminal Law Review, 9, pp.658-677.
Westmoreland, J. (2018). Modern slavery finds its roots in capitalism. [online] Counterfire. Available at: https://www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/18456-modern-slavery-finds-its-roots-in-capitalism [Accessed 30 Apr. 2018].
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