Modern Slavery Is an Enabling Condition of Global Neoliberal Capitalism: Commentary on Modern Slavery in Business

Abstract

One hundred eighty seven years after slavery was abolished in the United Kingdom, there are now more slaves in the world than when slavery was legal: a 2016 International Labour Office (ILO, 2017) report estimates there are 40.3 million (a "very conservative" estimate according to the report) victims of modern slavery. The same report suggests that 71% of modern slaves are women and one in four victims of modern slavery are children. This special section on modern slavery in business is thus both timely and relevant given the paucity of research on the topic in our field, which is worrying given that it is business that exploits much of slave labor. For instance, the construction, manufacturing, agricultural, and fishing industries accounted for 44% of all forced labor, according to the ILO (2017). Slavery is also a very profitable business: Profits per slave can range from a few thousand dollars a year to a few hundred thousand dollars a year, with total annual slavery profits estimated to be as high as US$150 billion (ILO, 2014). Slavery is an abhorrent practice and while it is technically a crime under international law, it is important to realize that it remains a viable and profitable management practice for business. Modern slavery, far from being an aberration, is a logical outcome of the way our political economic system is organized and its historical origins in the colonial enterprise. For example, colonial expansionist practices of the British Empire in the 1800s involved both land and resource appropriation as well as permanent destruction of manufacturing capacities in the colonies. The "technological superiority" of the British textile industry was established as much by technological advances as by a systematic destruction of India's indigenous industry involving innovative competitive strategies such as the severing of the thumbs of master weavers in Bengal, forced cultivation of indigo by Bihar's peasants, and the slave trade from Africa that supplied cotton plantations in the United States with free labor (Banerjee, 2008). Just as historical slavery was an enabling Editorial 898478B ASXXX10.

Confronting the Business Models of Modern Slavery

“…What this means is that the business models we identify—as with the business models of traditional slavery—do not appear out of a vacuum, or simply as a result of individual criminal intent, but are embedded within a broader capitalist global economy that makes their emergence somewhat predictable (see LeBaron et al 2018 for an overview and typology of how capitalism gives rise to both a supply of vulnerable workers and business demand for forced labor). As Banerjee (2021 , p.415) argues, [S]lavery is an abhorrent practice and while it is technically a crime under international law, it is important to realize that it remains a viable and profitable management practice for business. Modern slavery, far from being an aberration, is a logical outcome of the way our political economic system is organized and its historical origins in the colonial enterprise.…”

Modern slavery statements and the UK's largest housebuilding companies: an exploratory research paper

“…Bannerjee (2020, p. 415) suggested that while slavery is a crime under international law, it remains “ a viable and profitable management practice for business ” and that “ modern slavery, far from being an aberration, is a logical outcome of the way our political economic system is organized and its historical origins in the colonial system ”. While slavery has been officially banned throughout the world, it still exists, but now revolves around illegal control rather than legal ownership.…”

Supply Chains’ Failure in Workers’ Rights with Regards to the SDG Compass: A Doughnut Theory Perspective

“…We cover each of the elements in the order they are presented in Table 1 and In supply chains, providing decent conditions in terms of workers' basic needs is not a priority. The priority is the low-cost production of products to maximise profit [26]. This is not just occurring in developing countries where there is limited visibility of suppliers, but also occurs within Europe.…”