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The Leonard Lopate Show

Slavery in Contemporary America

Many Americans complain of feeling overworked and underpaid, but few realize that serious labor abuses and even outright slavery can still be found in the United States. Journalist John Bowe visited sites in Florida, Oklahoma and the U.S.-owned Pacific island of Saipan to record employees' appalling first-hand accounts in Nobodies, an eye-opening look at the most exploited workers in contemporary America.

Purchase Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy at amazon.com.

John Bowe will be speaking and signing books
Tuesday, October 9th at 7:00 pm
Upper West Side Barnes & Noble
2289 Broadway, at 82nd Street


Listener Comments Comment | Refresh | Back to Episode
[1]
Posted by: chestine
October 09, 2007 - 12:15PM
NY

aren't prisons selling slave labor?

[2]
Posted by: Erin
October 09, 2007 - 12:16PM
Brooklyn

Can we find out what specific products that are made by slave labor so we can avoid purchasing them?

[3]
Posted by: Erin
October 09, 2007 - 12:26PM
Brooklyn

Mentally retarded people make around 10 cents an hour for their labor - in Brooklyn!

[4]
Posted by: ab
October 09, 2007 - 12:39PM

...and this is why the idiotic Ayn Rand inspired the "marketplace solves all", "don't regulate" philosophy is just plain stupid and wrong-headed.

[5]
Posted by: chestine
October 09, 2007 - 12:43PM
NY

i know someone who imported indentured servants and had her children marry them. true.

[6]
Posted by: Toots
October 09, 2007 - 12:59PM
Brooklyn

The time posted here for Bowe's reading is incorrect: it's at 7 pm, not 8.

[7]
Posted by: Stephanie Davy
October 09, 2007 - 01:48PM
Long Island

In answer to how can we find out where to buy things not made from salve labor (I paraphrase)

#1 do NOT shop at Wal-Mart...

#2 Look for "fair trade" items. There are businesses that work with companies overseas, esp. have-not countries, to make sure they get a fair deal.Warning- you won't pay $5 for a fair trade item of clothing-but you will know the workers are benefiting from the sale.

I will buy that book!

[8]
Posted by: Herbert Fair
October 10, 2007 - 12:28AM
Queens

Prisoners in the United States are legally GOVERNMENT slaves and are leased to companies as workers, both skilled and unskilled.

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