Contemporary State Anti-‘Slavery’ Efforts: Dishonest and Ineffective

Abstract

Contemporary state anti-"slavery" efforts are dishonest with respect to the types of anti-"slavery" methodologies that states implement, including the use of slavery terminology. State anti-"slavery" efforts demonstrate three types of dishonesty: (1) the rhetorical misrepresentation to the public, and within state entities themselves, of the nature of the contemporary exploitation targeted by states; (2) hypocritical protestations of concern, coupled with the pretense that the types of initiatives that states support can succeed (this despite state failure to address the root causes and the fundamental interrelationships of the exploitation with state- supported and -implemented policies and structures); and (3) a form of willful innocence that refuses to acknowledge or deliberately ignores the interrelationships among state policies and the types of exploitation that are targeted by the anti-"slavery" initiatives. In addition, state efforts are ineffective in addressing the types of exploitation that states purport to target. State anti-"slavery" efforts are largely ineffective because the conceptual paradigms supported by states do not challenge the role of states or existing modalities of wealth and resource allocation upon which they depend.