LOVE, Rockets, and Skateboards PRESENTS
YES, YOU CAN FIGHT SLAVERY
BY SELLING MORE STUFF
“You can’t fight people being sold by selling more stuff.”
It’s a criticism I’ve heard a few times of the anti-trafficking movement’s use of ethical consumerism and social enterprise to fight slavery.
But it’s misguided.
Sure, nobody is naive enough to assume that selling more organic, sweat shop free t-shirts is suddenly going to force traffickers to end their ways. And yes, there are legitimate questions to be asked about a world where we are quicker to buy an “ethical product” than cast a vote.
But trafficking victims and survivors need certain things:
1) They need support, therapy and shelter. Lots of it.
2) They need a platform so their voice can be heard by those in power.
3) They need a realistic path out of exploitation.
A carefully designed approach to social enterprise and commerce can deliver all of these things. It can raise funds for support networks and for campaigning alike. It can act as a direct platform for engaging more minds. (I can buy a Coke and learn about, well, nothing - or I can buy a bottle of REBBL and become engaged in the issue of modern slavery.)
Perhaps most importantly, business can provide jobs, training, skills and opportunity for victims, survivors, and vulnerable populations alike to break the cycles of debt and exploitation that keep them in bondage.
Political debates over the pros and cons of a market-based economy have been raging for centuries. These debates will (and should) continue so we can craft a better, more intelligent future for all of us.
But in the meantime, people are being exploited in every town and city across the Globe. Let’s not reject ANY tool to improve their lives without first assessing whether it works based on facts - not ideological assumptions.
