Nobodies Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, John Bowe. (Hardcover 1400062098)

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Nobodies Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
Author: John Bowe

Most Americans would be shocked to discover that slavery still exists in the United States. Yet most of us buy goods made by people who aren’t paid for their labor–people who are trapped financially, and often physically. In Nobodies, award-winning journalist John Bowe exposes the outsourcing, corporate chicanery, immigration ... more »fraud, and sleights of hand that allow forced labor to continue in the United States while the rest of us notice nothing but the everyday low price at the checkout counter.

Based on thorough and often dangerous research, exclusive interviews, and eyewitness accounts, Nobodies takes you inside three illegal workplaces where employees are virtually or literally enslaved.

In the fields of Immokalee, Florida, underpaid (and often unpaid) illegal immigrants pick the produce all of us consume, connected by a chain of subcontractors and divisions to such companies as PepsiCo and Tropicana. At the top of the chain are stockholders and politicians; at the bottom is a father of six, one of whose children suffers from leukemia, who entered America only to become the unpaid employee of a labor contractor nicknamed “El Diablo” for his cruelty.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the John Pickle Company reaped profits for years making pressure tanks used by oil refineries and power plants. Feeling squeezed by foreign competition and government regulations, JPC partnered with an Indian and Kuwaiti firm to import workers from India. Under the guise of a “training program,” fifty-three workers, including college-educated Uday Ludbe, came to the United States, only to have their documents confiscated and to find themselves confined to a factory building. Pickle laid off Americans and paid the Indians three dollars an hour.

Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific where the author lived for three years, has long been exempted from American immigration controls, tariffs, and federal income tax–a status quo assiduously protected by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Congressman Tom DeLay. There, garment magnates–selling to clothing giants like the Gap and Target–live in luxury while thousands of foreign factory workers, 90 percent of them female, work sixty-hour weeks for $3.05 an hour and spend weekends trying to trade sex for green cards. The garments they make are allowed to be labeled MADE IN AMERICA.

Nobodies is a vivid and powerful work of investigative reporting, but it is also a lively examination of the eternal struggle for power between free people and unfree people. Against the American landscape of shopping mall, outlet stores, and Happy Meals, Bowe reveals how humankind’s darker urges remain alive and well, lingering in the background of every transaction and how understanding them may lead to overcoming them.

ISBN-13: 9781400062096
ISBN-10: 1400062098
Publication Date: 9/18/2007
Pages: 336
Rating:

Currently 4/5 Stars.

4 stars, based on 1 rating

Publisher: Random House
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
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Marco G. reviewed Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy on 9/17/2011 + 5 more book reviews

Interesting for anyone searching for answers on the underground economy that dwells within the U.S.

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Victoria T. (justicepirate) reviewed Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy on 8/13/2011 + 350 more book reviews

This was the most boring human trafficking book I've read (and I've read about 30). Although the background information was nice regarding the history of areas and people for each account (which there were three of) I don't think it focused enough on the hard labor issues as it could have. He was a bit of a rambler to me without being interesting. It is the first book on the subject matter that could not hold my attention to wanting to know more. It did however do a good job of showing how ignorant people are to calling things slavery when they are, and recognizing when it exists in the U.S.

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