| JuryFury.com
Now Every 15th of the Month ! Online School of Politics |
|||
| Areas of Interest THE USA American Foreign Policy US House and Senate US Presidents State & Local Politics Regional Politics Politics of China The British Commonwealth Indian Subcontinent Middle East The European Union Africa Latin America ASEAN NATO United Nations The Non-aligned Movement Eastern Europe New Nations of the 20th Century General Topics Constitutional Law Human Rights Nuclear Disarmament & Treaties International Warfare Environmental Law Peace Treaties Economic & Social Alliances International Organizations Journalism & Media Racism and Democracy Women in the Workplace Family Law Courts and Practices The Judicial System Higher Education Education and Government Health Care & Insurance Rights of the Disabled Copyright & Working Online Legal Representation Legal Insurance Pornography Domestic Violence Religion & Law Workers Rights Employers Rights Prison & Life after Social Organizations Welfare & Poverty Taxation and Democracy Third World Aid Programs Space Exploration Alternative Energy Petroleum Industry & Cars Nuclear Power Programs for the Arts Sports Education Policing the Internet Privacy and freedom Immigration Food and Regulation War on Drugs War on Pharmaceuticals Public Housing Pollution and Control Sexual Harrassment Discrimination Electoral Process Consumers Rights Investors Rights Abortion Death Penalty Social Security Gender & Sexuality Grassroots Organization ACLU World Watch Oxfam UNICEF United Negro Fund Ford Foundation (suggestions welcome at our chatsite) Law of the Economy Join I-Traderschool, our sister magazine, for debates and news. |
Corporations & the Global Sweatshop
Wilkinson's Update: Resisting Tony Whiplash And The Prison Slavers by Mark Barnsley, CAPS The Campaign Against Prison Slavery was formed in February 2003 to fight against the exploitation of forced labour in British Prisons. It was decided at our inaugural conference to target the ubiquitous high-street chain Wilkinson’s, which uses slave labour in a number of English and Welsh prisons to package their goods. This company is owned by Tony Wilkinson, one of the country’s richest men, worth around £300 Million, it makes huge profits, and opens new stores regularly, with a wide geographic spread across the country (though the company have not yet spread into Scotland.) Tony Whiplash likes to present himself as a liberal, and on the Wilkinson’s website the company is portrayed as having a ‘caring outlook’, they are supposedly ‘partners in the community’. Yet the reality is that they are a ruthless and greedy company who underpay and underemploy, who are fiercely anti-union, and who wish to further increase their profits by using the slave labour of prisoners in British jails. In terms of targeting Wilkinson’s, and alerting the public to what they are really about, CAPS has organised pickets outside their stores all around the country. Probably at least a hundred have taken place so far, with leafleting carried out most weekends. CAPS has also leafleted several prisons to let prisoners’ families know about the campaign. CAPS is made up of autonomous groups and individuals working together for the common purpose of ending prison slavery. Organising a picket is simple, you can download two different leaflet designs from the CAPS website at www.againstprisonslavery.org and a visit to the Wilkinson’s website will give you the location of your nearest store. Alternatively, the website regularly lists upcoming actions and you can subscribe to the CAPS e-mail list by e-mailing againstprisonslavery@mail.com In addition to the pickets there have been other anti-Wilkinson’s actions, these have ranged from graffiti attacks, sit-ins, and trolley runs (groups of people loading up trollies and then refusing to pay) to more playful ideas like shopping in handcuffs. CAPS even made a short film with a ‘guard’ and ‘prisoner’ shopping and looking for work in the store. Two designs of stickers have also been produced, one is a facsimilie of Wilko’s own yellow ‘Low Price’ label which informs potential customers just how little the company is paying it’s prison slaves, the other reads ‘This product may have been packed by slave labour in British prisons’. Wilkinson’s first reaction to the campaign was to deny that they used prison labour at all, then they admitted they used it, but claimed only a minority of their products were packed by prisoners, and that they were helping "to rehabilitate prisoners and increase employment skills." This is a line taken from the Prison Service, but a recent internal report on Prison Industries in England and Wales obtained by CAPS shows it to be a blatant lie. In the report it is admitted that contract labour "noddy shops" have little value in terms of rehabilitation, that the work is mind-numbing and offers no useable employment skills, and furthermore that the profits of the private companies exploiting prison labour are being subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of more than £7 Million a year. With regular actions and pickets of their stores, and growing public awareness of their involvement in the prison slavery business, Wilkinson’s are certainly beginning to backpeddle on this issue. Their press spokesperson recently told a journalist that if CAPS could prove that prisoners were forced to work they’d cease their use of prison labour. The proof is in the Prison Rules, prisoners can be forced to work for as much as 10 hours per day. So far Wilkinson’s boast to withdraw has been an empty one, but CAPS is growing daily, and we’re constantly thinking of new ways to target this greedy company. Prisoners certainly have a part to play in CAPS and we encourage all actions and initiatives which undermine their role as slaves for slave-labour companies. We also need accurate and up to date information on the companies making profits out of prisoners, and the best source of information for that is prisoners and their families. CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRISON SLAVERY, PO Box 74, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 4ZQ. E-Mail: againstprisonslavery@mail.com. Website: http://www.againstprisonslavery.org and Tel: 07944 522001 About the Author(s): See under Our Contributors to find out about the Author(s) of this article. |
Yahoo! World News Headlines Our Winners Club Our Contributors Research Links Legal Advice ALL Awards & Internships Become an Activist Join an Organization Get Volunteerism Alert Write Letters to a local Politician Start your own Group Applied Politics Projects Suggest a Project Start your Yahoo Groups Get Internship Credit Funding for Projects Encourage Discussion Join Juryfury Chat Promote Juryfury.com Join online discussion Groups Be In the Spotlight Let us Interview you : Authors of political books Activists Journalists Lawyers Law Enforcement Politicians Politican Scientists Be A Columnist Get Internship Credit Write twice a Month Get Heard Start a Yahoo Group Advertise with Us Books (Free) Political Our Staff & Contributors Our Magazines Quietpoly.com I-Traderschool Juryfury.com The Company Our Address: QuietPoly Inc. 240 W. Saunders. Dr. (#146) Flagstaff, AZ 86001 Tel (928) 214-7365 quietpoly@yahoo.com |
|