By Alessandro Stanziani

For the first time, this book provides the global history of labor in Central Eurasia, Russia, Europe, and the Indian Ocean between the 16th and 20th centuries. It contests common views on free and unfree labor, comparing the latter to many Western countries where wage conditions resembled those of domestic servants. This gave rise to extreme forms of dependency in the colonies, not only under slavery, but also afterwards via indentured labor in the Indian Ocean and obligatory labor in Africa. Stanziani shows that unfree labor and forms of economic coercion were perfectly compatible with market development and capitalism, proven by the consistent economic growth that took place all over Eurasia between the 17th and the 19th centuries. This growth was labor intensive: commercial expansion, transformations in agriculture, and the first industrial revolution required more labor, not less.

New York; Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books , 2014. 270p.

By Verité

Verité’s research indicates that Peru is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of gold. Verité’s research also suggests that over 20 percent of Peru’s gold is produced illegally, and that indicators of vulnerability to forced labor are present in the illegal mining sector. Verité found evidence that illegal gold is often “laundered,” after which it makes its way into Peru’s exports and the global supply chain. Although there are few official statistics on the amount of illegally produced gold that makes its way into global markets, Verité found cases in which gold exported to Switzerland could be traced back to areas in which the vast majority of gold is produced illegally and/or in which indicators of vulnerability to forced labor and human trafficking were present. In addition to using a large amount of gold in its banking sector, Switzerland is a global clearinghouse for gold, with much of the gold it imports eventually making its way into gold bullion, jewelry, watches, and electronics that end up in the hands of consumers in countries around the world.

Amherst, MA: Verité , 2013. 120p.

By Human Rights Watch.

Millions of children in India toil as virtual slaves, unable to escape the work that will leave them impoverished, illiterate, and often crippled by the time they reach adulthood. These are India’s bonded child laborers. A majority of them are Dalits, so-called untouchables. Bound to their employers in exchange for a loan, they are unable to leave while in debt and earn so little they may never be free of it. The Indian government knows about these children and has the mandate to free them. Instead, for reasons of apathy, caste bias, and corruption, many government officials deny that they exist at all. Somewhere between sixty to 115 million children are working in India, most in agriculture, others picking rags, making bricks, polishing gemstones, rolling beedi cigarettes, packaging firecrackers, working as domestics, and weaving silk saris and carpets. Since Human Rights Watch’s first investigation in 1996, the Indian government has taken some positive steps to address the plight of working children and bonded laborers of all ages. At the same time, there are serious problems with implementation on the ground. In the last decade, efforts in some regions have driven bonded child labor out of factories and into households, which are partially exempt from the law, changing bonded child labor’s manifestation but not its prevalence or intensity. In many areas, bonded child labor still flourishes openly.

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2003. 89p.