Social Justice E-Zine #43

[Kim or Ray Goforth]

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"Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is
it
merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is,
first of
all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over
them--and
then, the opportunity to choose." - C. Wright Mills


                  SOCIAL JUSTICE #43
                   April 24, 2001
                      Ray Goforth
                      Kim Goforth


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IN THIS ISSUE:

1) BONDED (SLAVE) LABOR IN BRAZIL

2) CARCINOGENIC WASTE RETURNED TO MANUFACTURER BY
GREENPEACE

3) SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS

4) RAPE CRISIS IN USA PRISONS

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Welcome to the latest issue of SOCIAL JUSTICE E-ZINE. The
name Social Justice encompasses the struggles of people
everywhere who work for gender equality, democratic government,
economic opportunity, intellectual freedom, environmental
protection, and human rights.

Social Justice is an electronic magazine (e-zine) designed for
free distribution through the internet. SJ now reaches
approximately 10,000 e-mail recipients in eight dozen
countries. Stories from SJ are then broadcast on radio stations
throughout the world. Feel free to make copies and share with
friends (or enemies). Think of this as a regular magazine without
the recycling. If there's nothing you want to read in this issue,
just hit delete.


Those wishing to be added to the subscription list (or
conversely, those who want off the list) should write to us at:

sjzine at netscape.net
http://members.tripod.com/~goforth/socialjustice.html

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BONDED (SLAVE) LABOR IN BRAZIL

BACKGROUND

Unemployed Brazilians are frequently tricked into slavery through a
system of bonded labor. Agents convince them to work on isolated
estates, with the promise of good wages, but once they reach the
estates they are charged for the cost of the transport, their tools,
food
and accommodation. They are then forced to work to pay off the debt.

Despite working for 14 hours or more, six days a week, workers are
often paid around US$1 a day. Those who become sick or buy
additional items from the estate shop, find their debts increase. Most
workers are too scared to run away due to the threats of violence
from armed guards, and the remote rainforest locations.

GOVERNMENT ACTION?

In 1995, the Brazilian Government set up a Special Mobile Inspection
Unit to carry out raids on estates where slavery was being used.
Although the Unit has successfully rescued nearly 2,000 workers, the
Government is not providing adequate resources to allow it to carry
out its work effectively.

The Unit does not have enough staff or vehicles to cope with demand.
On top of this, federal police no longer prioritize operations to combat

forced labor, often holding up operations.

Delays are disastrous, as they give the estate owners time to cover
their tracks. Once the Unit arrives there is no evidence of slavery, and

no chance of prosecuting the guilty estate owners.

NO DETERRENT, NO CHANGE

Even when the raids are successful, it is rare that the guilty are
punished. Only four arrests were made between 1996 and 2000,
although 1,684 slave workers were released in this period (see case
study overleaf).

In some cases, estate owners have been fined or forced to sell some
of their land to the authorities. Such a system does not act as a
deterrent as fines are frequently not collected and many landowners
actually profit from the government purchasing their land.

THE BRASIL VERDE ESTATE

Francisco Chagas Diogo accepted an offer to work on the Brasil
Verde estate in Pará State so that he could earn enough money to feed
his family. After working on the estate for one month he received less
than $8. If he had been able to get work as a day laborer in his
hometown he would have earned approximately $2 a day.

Francisco is illiterate and cannot check that the money taken from his
wages actually corresponds to goods that he bought, the food he ate
or days he was ill ($2.60 is deducted from workers' wages if they get
sick). Armed guards prevented most workers from complaining or
trying to escape. Francisco was rescued, along with 86 other workers,
from these conditions of slavery in March 2000.

The Brasil Verde estate is one of six similar properties owned by the
same family business group in the region and has been denounced for
using slave labor successively in 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1997,
1999 and 2000. Criminal proceedings opened in 1997 against the
landowner, but were suspended in 1999 and, as of November 2000,
have not been re-opened. This case illustrates the ineffectiveness of
measures taken to date to stop the use of slave labor.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Sonya Maldar, Campaigns Officer
(44) (0)20 7501 8933
s.maldar at antislavery.org
http://www.antislavery.org/selection.htm


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CARCINOGENIC WASTE RETURNED TO MANUFACTURER BY
GREENPEACE

Tampico, Mexico

On April 9, 2001 Greenpeace collected four barrels of toxic wastes and
returned them to the company responsible for their discharge, PRIMEX,
one of
the two PVC plastic manufacturers in Mexico.

The barrels were delivered to the company's main gate
wrapped in a banner saying: NO PVC. The environmental group
demanded that the company stops discharging toxic chemicals
into the environment immediately.

Greenpeace also released scientific evidence that shows
PRIMEX is discharging a cancer causing pollutant, vinyl chloride,
in its wastes. A sample of waste water analyzed at the
Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter in the UK
contained levels of vinyl chloride 78.5 times higher than limits set by
Mexican regulations, 58-91 times the US limits for the plastic
industry and 15 times over limits set by European legislation.

Ruth Stringer, senior scientist from the Greenpeace Research
Laboratories at the University of Exeter, UK, where the samples
were analyzed, stated: "Vinyl chloride is a known human
carcinogen and a very hazardous chemical. It can also damage
the lungs, increase cardiovascular disease in workers and
affect the reproductive and endocrine systems. The damage
that this chemical can cause to human health and the
environment is of serious concern and should be addressed
immediately," she added.

Greenpeace called on the company to stop abusing the
environment, to commit to a zero toxic discharge program
and to inform the local community about the emissions of toxic
chemicals. Greenpeace activists also denounced the company
to the Federal Prosecutor Office for Environment Protection
(Profepa), demanding immediate corrective actions.

The company buys part of the VCM it uses as a raw material to
make the plastic PVC from manufacturers in the USA and sells
the final product PVC to several countries including Germany,
UK and Spain.

The manufacture and use of PVC plastic is being questioned
worldwide as evidence of its potential to harm the environment
and human health when it is manufactured, used and disposed
of is overwhelming. In Europe last week, the European
Parliament voted in favor of substitution policies for PVC
plastic because of concerns over its hazardous properties.

"While the European Parliament is attempting to move away
from the use of PVC plastic, its production and use in Mexico
continues unquestioned and unrestricted even though it's
damaging to our health and the environment. Companies like
PRIMEX must stop releasing these poisons," said Adrián Ruiz,
toxics campaigner for Greenpeace Mexico.

For More Information: www.greenpeace.org


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SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
23 April 2001    AI Index :  AMR 01/004/2001

The 34 leaders who attended the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec
City,
Canada, April 20-22, failed to take decisive steps towards stronger
human
rights protection in the region, Amnesty International said today.

"The challenge to address the region's outstanding human rights concerns

remains a pressing need," the organization added.

Amnesty International welcomed the commitment to democracy at the center

of the Summit's closing declaration.

"However, the proposal for an Inter-American Democratic Charter does not
in
itself address the formidable human rights barriers which exist
throughout the
Americas," the organization said. "It is clear that in the region
'democracy' and
human rights abuses continue to co-exist."

"In the aftermath of the Summit, continental leaders must go further in
their
understanding of democracy and truly commit themselves to meaningful
human
rights reform, both nationally and regionally."

As a concrete initial step, Amnesty International today called on all
states who
attended the Quebec meeting to sign on to all of the region's human
rights
treaties and protocols. In addition to the overarching American
Convention on
Human Rights, five other regional conventions and protocols exist,
dealing
with social and economic rights, the death penalty, torture,
"disappearances"
and violence against women.

At present states have only entered less than 50% of the ratifications
needed
for these instruments to be fully operational. Some, notably Canada and
the
United States, have failed to ratify any of the documents.

"The Summit's Plan of Action urges states to consider ratification, but
the time
for consideration is long past," Amnesty International said. "Now is the
time
for commitments."

Amnesty International remains concerned as well that the need to reform
and
strengthen the human rights institutions of the Organization of American

States, a crucial piece in ensuring strong rights protection in the
Americas,
continues to receive insufficient attention at the highest levels of
political
leadership.

Leaders mandated the upcoming OAS General Assembly to consider an
increase in resources and to otherwise move to improve the OAS human
rights
system.

"The people of the Americas have waited a long time for such
improvements.
They can wait no longer," Amnesty International said, urging states to
act now
to provide those institutions with financial resources and visible,
unconditional
political support. "The OAS General Assembly, which will meet in Costa
Rica
in June 2001, must ensure that the wait is over," the organization
added.

Amnesty International welcomed the opening by the Canadian government of
a
groundbreaking, if limited, opportunity for an exchange of views between

some sectors of civil society and the region's governments.  The
organization
is now urging Argentina, the next Summit host, to maintain and build on
this
important first step, in keeping with the Summit Declaration's
acknowledgment of the importance of the contribution of civil society.

"There is still ample room for improvement in the way civil society is
consulted," Amnesty International said, noting that the process of
consultation
in Québec was restricted, that the selection process was unclear to many
and
that there was limited time for an exchange with ministers and no
audience
with leaders themselves.

Background

In the lead-up to the Summit Amnesty International released a new
report,
Americas: Putting human rights on the agenda, highlighting the wide
range of
serious human rights concerns which exist in the region. The report is
available
on the web at http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/amr010012001.


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RAPE CRISIS IN USA PRISONS


(New York, April 19, 2001) A ground-breaking new report by Human Rights
Watch, No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons, charges that state
authorities
are responsible for widespread prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in
U.S. men's prisons. The 378-page report is based on more than three
years of
research and is the first national survey of prisoner-on-prisoner rape.
There are
some two million inmates in U.S. prisons and jails.

"Rape is in no way an inevitable consequence of incarceration," said
Joanne
Mariner, deputy director of the Americas division of Human Rights
Watch, and author of the report. "But it is a predictable one if prison
and
prosecutorial authorities do little to prevent and punish it."

Human Rights Watch warned that by failing to implement reasonable
measures to prevent and punish rape and, indeed, in many cases, taking
actions that make sexual victimization likely state authorities permit
this
physically and psychologically devastating abuse to occur. The group's
findings
are based on correspondence with more than 200 prisoners spread among
thirty-four states, inmate interviews, and a comprehensive survey of
state
correctional authorities.

Certain prisoners are targeted for sexual exploitation the moment they
enter a
penal facility: their age, looks, sexual preference, and other
characteristics
mark them as candidates for abuse. Human Rights Watch's research
revealed a
broad range of factors that correlate with increased vulnerability to
rape. These
include youth, small size, and physical weakness; being white, gay, or a
first
offender; possessing "feminine"characteristics such as long hair or a
high voice;
being unassertive, unaggressive, shy, intellectual, not street-smart, or
"passive";
or having been convicted of a sexual offense against a minor.

In the most extreme cases, Human Rights Watch found that prisoners
unable to
escape a situation of sexual abuse may find themselves the "slaves" of
their
rapists. Forced to satisfy another man's sexual appetites whenever he
demands,
they may also be responsible for washing his clothes, massaging his
back,
cooking his food, cleaning his cell, and a range of other chores. They
are
frequently "rented out" for sex, sold, or even auctioned off to other
inmates.

No conclusive national data exist regarding the prevalence of
prisoner-on-prisoner rape in the United States. But the most recent
statistical
survey, published in the Prison Journal, showed that 21 percent of
inmates in
seven Midwestern prisons had experienced at least one episode of
pressured or
forced sex since being incarcerated, and at least 7 percent had been
raped in
their facility. And an internal departmental survey of corrections
officers
in one southern state found that line officers   those charged with the
direct
supervision of inmates  estimated that roughly one-fifth of all
prisoners were
being coerced into participation in inmate-on-inmate sex.

"These rapes are unimaginably vicious and brutal," said Mariner. "Gang
assaults are not uncommon, and victims may be left beaten, bloody and,
in the
most extreme cases, dead."

One of the most tragic and violent cases the report documents is that of
Randy
Payne, a twenty-three-year-old incarcerated in Texas. Within a week of
entering prison, Payne was attacked by a group of some twenty inmates.
The
inmates demanded sex and money, but Payne refused. He was beaten for
almost two hours, and died of head injuries a few days later.

Victims of rape often suffer extreme psychological stress, a condition
identified
as "rape trauma syndrome." Many inmate victims with whom Human Rights
Watch has been in contact have reported nightmares, deep depression,
shame,
loss of self-esteem, self-hatred, and considering or attempting suicide.

"Deliberate Indifference"

Correctional authorities generally deny that prisoner-on-prisoner rape
is a
serious problem. Human Rights Watch surveyed correctional authorities in
all
50 states on the prevalence of rape and sexual abuse. In that multi-year
survey,
not one state reported abuse rates even faintly approaching those found
by
academic researchers. For example, New Mexico prison officials said,
regarding "the 'problem' of male inmate-on-inmate rape and sexual abuse"

(internal quotation marks are theirs), that they had "no recorded
incidents over
the past few years." Nearly half of all states do not even compile
separate
statistics on sexual assault.

The authorities' reluctance to acknowledge the problem of
prisoner-on-prisoner rape is reflected not only in misleading official
statistics,
but also in a glaringly inadequate response to incidents of rape. "U.S.
state
prisons have failed to take even obvious, basic steps necessary to
tackle prison
rape," Mariner said. "This deliberate indifference has had tragic
consequences."

A central problem is the deficient   and, in many instances, callous and

irresponsible   response of correctional staff to complaints of rape.
When an
inmate informs an officer he has been threatened with rape or, worse,
actually
assaulted, it is crucial that his complaint be investigated and that he
be
protected from further abuse. Yet Human Rights Watch found that
correctional staff frequently ignore or even react hostilely to inmates'

complaints of rape.

"Another important contributing factor to the prison rape crisis is the
failure of
the criminal justice system to address these crimes," said Mariner.
"Perpetrators of prison rape rarely face criminal charges, even when
rape
is accompanied by extreme physical violence."

The case of M.R., a Texas inmate, is illustrative. M.R. was violently
raped and
beaten several times over a period of several months by the same
prisoner.
Fearful for his life, he reported the abuse to the prison authorities,
but found no
protection. In fact one investigator dismissed the problem as a "lovers'

quarrel." Finally one day the rapist showed up in M.R.'s housing area
and
attacked M.R. again. The rapist hit M.R. so hard with a combination lock
that
when M.R. regained consciousness he could read the word "Master"   the
lockmaker  on his forehead. In all, during the rape, M.R. suffered a
broken
neck, jaw, left collarbone, and finger; a dislocated left shoulder; two
major
concussions, and lacerations to his scalp that caused bleeding on the
brain.

Notwithstanding the extreme violence of the attack, and despite M.R.'s
best
efforts to press charges, the rapist was never criminally prosecuted.

Another devastating consequence of prisoner-on-prisoner rape discussed
in the
report is the transmission of the HIV virus. Several prisoners with whom

Human Rights Watch is in contact believe that they have contracted
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, through forced sexual intercourse in
prison.

"Prison rape is part of the mythology of prison life. But in reality, it
is
devastating human rights abuse that can and should be prevented," said
Mariner. The report includes extensive recommendations to federal and
state
authorities, urging them to step up their efforts to address this gross
violation
of human dignity.

www.hrw.org

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For those who have inquired: Kim and Ray Goforth hold
undergraduate degrees in political-economy from The Evergreen
State College and law degrees (juris doctor) from the University
of Washington. Ray works for a labor union and Kim advocates for
victims of domestic violence. Ray and Kim are active in a wide
variety of progressive causes and live a happy life in Seattle,
Washington USA.

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