Bonded labour, India. Photo: © Bharat Patel, courtesy of Anti-Slavery International.
Bonded labour, India. Photo: © Bharat Patel, courtesy of Anti-Slavery International.
How certain can we be, as Friends, that we are not supporting slavery?
Sadly, we cannot be more sure than anyone else that we are not supporting slavery. And that is despite the fact that it was Friends who first invented the concept of conscious consuming and originated the first consumer campaigns to support human rights.
There are some products, especially those that come through the Fairtrade network that can be thought of as ‘safe’, likewise locally-sourced goods are more likely to be slave-free, as well as goods from those companies that make it clear in their labelling (like Monkee Genes) that they are slave-free. For the rest it can be a puzzle and a challenge to trace the supply chains all the way to the criminal first link where slavery exists.
"If you truly want to be led you must put yourself in a position that allows following" (PYM)
Though written within a Quaker and Christian context, this book can be used by anyone of any religious faith or secular inclination. The only requirement is a desire to follow, to be guided by, to align with the richness of the ineffable, which this book calls "the Way". This book seeks nothing less than to aid readers in aligning their lives with the same power and richness that animated the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
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