Freedom & Confinement: Anti-Slavery Art Exhibition

From the 9th-12th of march the Anti-Slavery Society hosted their very first art exhibition in Bristol city centre. Joining forces with ARTofficial (the university fine art society) the exhibition theme was Freedom and Confinement. The theme was chosen to highlight the plight of trafficked men and women, who are confined to a life of servitude. The idea of Freedom and Confinement gave inspiration to all our lovely artists who worked so hard to produce all of the artwork.

The exhibition was held in the crypt of St John the Baptist Church, an ideal, atmospheric location. On the opening night, sounds of jazz wafted through the streets and free drinks were flowing. The crowds drawn from the University and from the general public were far larger than expected. The Artwork submitted was in the running for a friendly competition judged by the curator of the art galleries at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.

Throughout the weekend we collected money for Unseen UK, a Bristol based trafficking charity. Unseen(uk) is a charity established to disrupt and challenge human trafficking at all levels. Through their sponsor a room programme you can directly play a part in providing safety, hope and choice for exploited women. Donations go towards survivors living costs and allows them to access support services.

In the face of recent cuts, Unseen(uk) has championed the effort for a new safe house for trafficked women in Bristol. We are glad to report that we raised almost £200 for the cause!

Anti-Slavery Hosts the Student Restaurant

Last week, the Bristol Anti-Slavery society hosted Student Restaurant in order to raise awareness of modern day slavery. Student Restaurant is a project run by FoodCycle, a non-profit organisation that is operated by setting up groups of volunteers to collect surplus produce locally and prepare nutritious meals in unused professional kitchen spaces, to serve the community.

The night was a great success as over fifty students descended on the Union for a hot, nutritious and cheap meal. It's incredible that approximately 1.3billion tonnes of food intended for human consumption gets lost or wasted each year. The Anti-Slavery team were astounded when we saw the amount of food collected by the FoodCycle team in just one day. There were mountains of bread, veggie curry and even extra doughnuts for dessert, all of which would have been simply thrown away. 

Student Restaurant often asks different societies to 'host' for the night. It's a great platform to talk about different ethical and environmental issues with a wider section of the student population. It was a tad nerve-racking introducing the evening and the cause. Students tend to have varying levels of knowledge about modern day slavery and so we tried to tell them about Anti-Slavery International without being patronising. 

After the main course we screened the 'Hell on Earth' DVD made by Anti-Slavery International. It was a great way to raise awareness about different forms of slavery. The DVD also managed to capture the audience's attention (partially because we turned it up to full volume) and people were really engaged, asking questions about the society.

We also managed to pass out some postcards for the 'Slavery-free London' Campaign and got loads of signatures. Some of the Anti-Slavery team even walked away with some luxury 'taste the difference' bread that wasn't even stale!

No doubt, we'd all love to work with FoodCycle again and we'd recommend setting up a similar activity in a university or community kitchen. 

Amina Makele

Bristol University

Fairtrade & Anti-Slavery Christmas Meal

On the 6th December, Anti-Slavery teamed up with the Fairtrade Society to host a meal celebrating the end of term. Strong links were formed between Anti-Slavery and Fairtrade due to their mutual love of ethically produced goods.

The cakes were all made with fairtrade certified chocolate, meaning there was no use of child slavery in its production. Many attendees were shocked to hear that Anti-Slavery International's research shows the continuation of child trafficking, a form of modern slavery, to cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, which produces almost 40% of the world's cocoa. This knowledge made everyone keener to buy fairtrade and know where their chocolate was coming from.

The turnout was great and not just for the food! There was also an interesting and informative talk from Mike Secker, an intern from Christian Aid, about their work with trade and tax law. Christian Aid estimates that tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year. This is money that should be spent building schools and hospitals.

This talk led into a discussion of EU and US subsidies on products such as cotton which keeps millions of African farmers trapped in poverty. We had been collecting signatures for Anti-Slavery's Cotton Crimes petition and we wanted to highlight the relation between Fairtrade cotton farmers and slavery in Uzbekistan's cotton industry.

Overall the night was a huge success (and not just due to the amounts of fairtrade wine consumed!) And we are looking forward to more collaborations with Fairtrade in the future.


Amina Makele
Bristol University

Unchosen Film Festival

To celebrate Anti-Slavery Day 2011 our society members joined up with the general public for the Bristol Unchosen Film Campaign at Colston Hall.

The film selected was 'The Hunt for Britain's Sex Traffickers', the inside story of Operation Pentameter, the largest co-ordinated anti-sex trafficking operation in British policing history. Enthralled, the public watched police raids on a number of brothels in the Gloucestershire area and the shocking results. The reality of these brothels showed women trafficked into the sex trade against their will, repeatedly abused and too scared to speak out.

The post-talk Q & A highlighted the extent of the problem that the police have when prosecuting traffickers. Detective Inspector Sue Bradshaw answered questions about the aftermath of the raids and emphasized the extremely short amount of time in which the police have to build a case against traffickers. Trafficking is such a hidden crime and involves such a complex network of criminals operating at different levels, it is often hard to build a case against those at the top.

Additional problems with prosecuting traffickers is giving victims enough support so they feel like they can testify. Film directors Amelia Hann and Marta Shaw expressed great sympathy for the plight of the victims and were astounded by the revenue that traffickers can make. It is often estimated that sex trafficking is more profitable than drugs trafficking and many of the audience were clambering for an 'Al Capone' style of justice, get em' on the tax evasion.

The Unchosen film campaign was a great success which engaged those new to the society and those who knew more about the issues. Safe to say we are all looking forward to the next one!



Amina Makele
Bristol University

Slavery in Bristol

‘But wasn’t slavery abolished 200 years ago?’ A common response from my fellow peers when asked what they know about modern slavery.

So what is modern slavery? The Anti-Slavery International Charity claims a slave is anyone ‘forced to work, through mental or physical threat’, is sold like property and is physically constrained.

Who are enslaved? Students confirmed the typical image we have of those who are enslaved: ‘foreign, vulnerable women forced into the sex industry’. However, Corydon Ireland, a staff writer from Harvard, claims that only ‘a tenth of those are in what experts call “commercial sex servitude”’. Although sexual abuse often comes with slavery, women involved in prostitution accumulate to only a small percentage of industries in human trafficking. The Anti-Slavery Charity, for instance, talks about Ricardo who was forced to work in Florida on a farm picking tomatoes that were sold to UK fast-food chains. All industries are corrupted by human traffickers who indebt or force humans of any age and either gender to work.

Surprisingly UK nationals are often enslaved internally. Dr Christien Van de Anker, a human rights lecturer at the University of West England talked about British primary school girls who are picked up at school by traffickers and forced into prostitution across all the major UK cities. Slavery penetrates all industries all around the globe and many have called for the new abolition, which has been sparked by the 200^th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007.

The anniversary inspired new charities and coalitions such as the Bristol Counter Trafficking Coalition, who for the past year have held talks and workshops to promote awareness of human trafficking. Partnering with the Bristol City Council and the civil service has allowed the Coalition to provide help for those who have been trafficked. UnSeen (UK), a Bristol based human trafficking charity, has also been establishing links with civil society with focus groups, and the creation of a safe house in Bristol in 2011 is their main priority, as other safe houses in Britain have been at full capacity.

Why Bristol? Dr Anker states we are ‘most effective where you live and work yourself’, which has been proved with the success of the Coalition. Furthermore, Bristol is buried in history; you only have to see the street names ‘White Ladies Road’ and ‘Black Boy Hill’ to see the racist attitudes of the British during the slave trade. Being one of the major cities today, it is likely that many vulnerable humans are being trafficked into Bristol.

So how can we help? The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) focuses on the ‘three-Ps’: prosecution, prevention and protection. Through education we can send the criminals to the police, educate the vulnerable and provide protection to those enslaved. Students themselves can join the Amnesty and Anti-Slavery societies’ campaigns and attend talks to gain more knowledge about the issues. So bear in mind, who, what and how were our products made when buying them, as slavery is much more prominent across the globe than you initially may have thought.

Jess Goodwin, Bristol University

Slavery and the Tobacco Industry

Last year Channel 4's Unreported World investigated the tobacco industry in Malawi and found harrowing news. Children as young as six are being forced to work in the tobacco fields for as little as £18 a year, the price of three packs of cigarettes. Farm owners keep the wages extremely low so that families are forced to accept loans to live on the land. High interest rates and low wages tie the families to the tobacco fields meaning that child and forced labour are happening in Malawi. We cannot just blame the farm owners; a lack of minimum prices means big companies such as Marlboro cash out very little money for tobacco leaves. If the multi-national companies were to pay more for their products and commit to Fairtrade then slavery in the Malawi tobacco fields may cease.

Now, an ethically sourced cigarette has been launched in the UK. A small company called 1st Nation aims to help tobacco farmers in the same way that Fairtrade coffee helps coffee farmers. For every tonne of tobacco purchased at market prices 1st Nation makes a voluntary donation to an indepent local organisation that invests in agricultural projects. Despite the desire of the Fairtrade Foundation to help, 1st Nation has not received accreditation due to the sensitivity of the issue. Yes, smoking is bad for your health. Despite health warnings many students continue to smoke. It is important for people to know where their tobacco comes from and that there is an ethical alternative.

Jess Goodwin, Bristol University