Not For Sale Has a New Website.. and Blog!

Attention! I am happy to announce (a little late I know) that Not For Sale Campaign has a new website and a new blog! For information please check visit www.notforsalecampaign.org. Within months of launching this new site we have were named 40 top non-profit websites in the world!

Thanks everyone for following our blog and for being up on everything in Not For Sale Ville!

How To Become A Backyard Abolitionist By Buying Differently

Brant Christopher, Artist in Residence, discusses how anyone can become a Backyard Abolitionist. In the Podcast Brant talks about how every individual can "live differently" by signing up on Free2work to begin buying differently.

Batstone Keynote Address

On February 24th San Francisco held a community forum on human trafficking. Not For Sale had a major presence at the gathering. In the morning I co-moderated a break-out session with the manager of San Francisco's Department of Public Health, Dr. Johnson Ojo.

Not For Sale president, David Batstone, delivered the keynote address. Watch first segment of the keynote below or watch all segments here.



- Mark Wexler

Cadbury to Certify Milk Chocolate as Fair Trade

The Stick... and Now the Carrot

In a landmark announcement Cadbury Chocolate, one of the major chocolate manufactures primarily operating in the U.K. stated that they would certify that their dairy-milk chocolate is Fair Trade by the end of summer 2009. In a statement issued Today, Chief Executive for Cadbury, Todd Stitzer said:
"This is an historic moment for our company. I am proud that the nation’s favourite chocolate bar will display the FAIRTRADE Mark. I was in Ghana last month and saw how vital it is that businesses support their partners and the communities they live in. We believe that by joining forces with the Fairtrade Foundation, we can further improve living standards and conditions for farmers and farming communities, and create a sustainable supply of high quality cocoa for Cadbury."

Through this single decision Cadbury has increased the amount of Certified Fair Trade Chocolate sold by three fold. While Cadbury's decision does not change the need to certify all chocolate produced "Free to Work", it is a step in the right direction.

The movement to ensure all chocolate is produced using free labor began by a small, but persistent, population of people demanding change (the stick) and Cadbury chocolate has responded. Increased responsibility has now turned back to Consumers Advocates. With an increased portion of revenue, we as consumers MUST prove to Cadbury, and the other major chocolate companies, that this behavior will be rewarded with increased profits (the Carrot).

Cadbury's decision will not solve the problem within the chocolate industry, nor do they get a free pass on the rest of their chocolate, but it is a huge step in the right direction.

As consumers we must prove that Fair Trade Certification has a competative advantage over non-Fair Trade Chocolate.

Learn what you can do as a consumer at www.Free2work.org




Kilian Moote
Program Director

New UN Report on Human Trafficking

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is releasing a new global report it conducted on human trafficking today. The report will not mention any new quantitative estimates but instead focus on current global trends.

Some highlights of the report:
-In Central Asia and Eastern Europe 60% of convicted traffickers are woman
-The South African region reported the weakest in combating human trafficking. Of the 11 countries only Zambia has prosecuted suspects since 2003
-79% of the victims were found to be exploited sexually
-Cases of human trafficking previously overlooked included forced marriages, ritual killings, and organ harvesting

Overall the report found that although efforts globally have increased substantially since 2003 the majority of countries still remain ill-equipped to combat human trafficking.

The full-report should be made available on the UN resources page soon.

Kilian Moote

Free2Work Soft Launch!

Not For Sale is excited to announce that Free2Work.org is now up and ready for your consumption.

Free2Work follows in the Not For Sale model of open source activism. It allows you to be a part of the abolitionist process by using your power as a researcher, investigator and news junkie! Free2Work's platform allows you to report information (both good and bad) about companies. If a company deserves recognition as a Free2Work company - which has taken a pledge to independently verify their supply chain - you'll know about them. Conversely if a company needs urging to change their practices they'll be placed on a 'watch list'.

So the next time you're about to buy some chocolate, a new pair of shoes, or even a new car we encourage you to take a look at Free2Work so that you purchase from a company known to do business in a Free2Work manner.

We hope you enjoy navigating around Free2Work and choose to sign up as a Free2Work investigator.


-Mark Wexler

FREE Download - Not For Sale the Audiobook

Get Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It audio book -- for free! This one-time offer only lasts through the end of February so go download the critically acclaimed book written by Not For Sale Campaign, President, David Batstone. The audio book was made available by the amazing folks at ChristianAudio.com.

While you're there download the brand new Set the Captives Free Bible study brought to you by Not For Sale... again, for free.

Remember, Not For Sale offers many free resources to gear up the abolitionist movement.


- Mark Wexler

HandShadow Props

We've had our HandShadow spot on our homepage for several months now... we'd like to note the praise Minneapolis-based Martin/Williams has been receiving within the PR industry for the stunningly powerful piece created pro bono for Not For Sale. We're also glad to report that the video has been running on the Setanta Sports Network internationally.

- Mark Wexler

No Really... Smash My Car

Thanks to Amanda Kloer at Change.org for alerting us about this dose of creative activism. Do you have any fun/creative examples of advocacy? Post 'em below.

Photo Credit: Beth Suda/Missourian

- Mark Wexler

Hillary Clinton Comments on Slavery

As we've been following over the past few weeks there have been numerous calls for modern-day slavery to find its way onto the radar of the new administration. From our own wildly successful petition to, New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof's illuminating articles it looks as if our collective voices are beginning to be heard.

During today's confirmation hearing of Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton answered a question on human trafficking:

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA):
I don't think we can look away from the plight of women around the world. Nicholas Kristof confronts this issue in a series of compelling articles… Kristof tells us the story of a Vietnamese girl who was kidnapped at age 13. She was sold into sex slavery in Cambodia. When she refused to see customers, she was tortured brutally with electric shocks and locked in a coffin filled with insects. And Kristof details another story in a piece called "If this isn't Slavery than what is?" in which a young Cambodian girl had her eye gouged out by a brothel owner after taking time off to recover from a forced abortion. I'm introducing some legislation—one is a companion piece to Rep. Carolyn Maloney and another is the Afghan Women Empowerment Act. That's just the beginning. Senator I know how deeply you feel about this so I wanted you to take a little more time to talk about your commitment to this particular issue and obviously I would be so pleased if we could work on legislation to fight this immorality.

Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton:
As Secretary of State I view these issues as central to our foreign policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser from all of the other issues that we have to confront. I too have followed the stories…this is not culture, this is not custom, this is criminal. And it will be my goal to persuade more governments as I spoke with Beijing some thirteen years ago that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way. I've also ready closely Nick Kristof's articles over the last many months on the young women he's both rescued from prostitution and met who have been enslaved, tortured in every way—physically, emotionally, morally and I take very seriously the function of the State Department to lead the US Government through the Office on Human Trafficking to do all that we can to end this modern form of slavery. We have sex slavery. We have wage slavery and it is primarily a slavery of girls and women. I look forward, Senator, to reviewing your legislation and work with you as a continuing partnership on behalf of these issues we care so much about. And finally, the work that the women of the Senate did in connection with First Lady Laura Bush on behalf of the women of Afghanistan has been extremely important. That program started in the State Department. It was assisted by an organization I helped to start in the White House called Vital Voices. Mrs. Bush has been outspoken on behalf of Afghan women…and other women facing oppression around the world… We're going to have a very active Women's Office a very active Office on Human Trafficking. We're going to be speaking out consistently and strongly against the discrimination and oppression of women and slavery in particular because I think that is in keeping with not only our American values but American national security interests as well.

Many thanks to Sara Guderyahn at The Sheridan Group for the transcription.

-Mark Wexler

Backyard Abolitionist Tour Kick-off and Radio Interview

The Backyard Abolitionist Tour, an innovative presentation on human trafficking combining music, video, and information by David Batstone and musician/activist Brant Christopher Manswar kicked off this week in San Diego California.

To mark the occasion Maureen Cavanaugh of KPBS interviewed David on her morning radio program. Listen to broadcast by CLICKING HERE.

For more information on the Backyard Abolitionist Tour, or to bring David and Brant to your University, Church, High School or Community, CLICK HERE

Not for Sale Campaign

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Designated by the US Congress, January 11th, 2009 marks the second annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Without a doubt education is deeply important to building a full fledged abolitionist movement. We at Not For Sale want to encourage you to bridge your awareness to action. Download abolitionist handbooks, toolkits and more.

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Nicholas Kristof continues to shed light upon sexual slavery in Cambodia by looking at the economics of the crime.

-Mark Wexler

Doubting Modern-day Slavery

Responding to skeptical New York Times readers columnist Nicholas Kristof writes some painful, but truthful, words about the reality of modern-day slavery. Read his column, If This Isn’t Slavery, What Is?, about Long Pross a girl who was forcibly held in a brothel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Learn more about what the Not For Sale team in Cambodia, Transitions, does to assist teenage survivors of sex trafficking.

-Mark Wexler

Happy New Year - A Call

If you aren't familiar with Nicholas Kristof, op-ed columnist for the New York Times, I'd recommend that you start by reading his most recent column. Kristof makes a stirring call to our leaders, "I hope that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will recognize slavery as unfinished business on the foreign policy agenda. The abolitionist cause simply hasn’t been completed".

Read our policy asks and sign our petition to make human trafficking a priority in the next administration here.

-Mark Wexler

Slumdog Millionaire

Last night I had the opportunity to watch Slumdog Millionaire, no doubt one of the best films of the year. I was surprised to be confronted with human trafficking as a major theme. It’s funny because, depending on the city you live, the film has been out for nearly two months and usually I receive a slew of emails about ‘this new trafficking film’ or ‘that show about modern-day slavery’. Not once have I been told, “go see Slumdog Millionaire because touches on human trafficking.” Not once.

I truly enjoyed Slumdog. Slumdog didn’t try to package itself as a movie “about human trafficking”. It certainly was. But it didn’t need to make the statement bluntly and it shouldn’t have. It’s our job to learn and understand the context and story for what it is: a story about human trafficking.

Slumdog isn’t perfect, no film about trafficking (or any subject) is. But it comes close. It deftly paints a stinging reality in our world, the trafficking of children for the purpose of exploitation through begging, forced sex and more.

Our job as backyard abolitionists -you and me- is to give name and meaning (visceral understanding) to the crime and work to end it in our neighborhoods and around the world.

-Mark Wexler

Policy Reform Suggestions

To effectively combat human trafficking as a cohesive movement we need to continuously evaluate and urge policy reform so we can better serve and protect human trafficking victims. To do this we have partnered with other leading abolitionist groups across the country; together comprising the Action Group to End Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery. Over the past year the Action Group has endeavored to create a transitions report for the next presidential administration. In this document we outline our specific recommendations for President Elect Obama as well as suggestions for each Governmental agency working to combat this issue.

The United States government has led the global fight against human trafficking and we hope through reform the Obama Administration will continue to develop and define what this leadership role entails.

A few recommendations from the Action Group to End Human Trafficking and Modern-Day Slavery and the Not For Sale Campaign include:

Interagency Coordination and Leadership:
Given the width and complexity of this issue and the United States’ efforts to oppose human trafficking nationally and internationally, a Presidential Directive should be enacted to improve coordinated efforts and establish executive oversight and accountability for the various governmental agencies working to combat it.

Prevention:
To address trafficking within corporate supply chains the next administration should assemble international and domestic sector leaders representing businesses, workers, and advocate organizations to encourage the private sectors’ engagement in this issue.

The State Department’s Tier II Watch List should be reformed to support innovative initiatives for countries within this list. Additionally, a two-year limit should be enforced for countries on this list to either progress to Tier II or regulated to Tier III.

Protection:
Specific measures to protect trafficked minors from being unjustly charged and processed within the juvenile offenders system needs to be established, and the provision requiring victims to cooperate with law enforcement needs to be disassociated with services provided to victims.

Prosecution:
Increased executive branch support for state and local law enforcement training to identify and investigate human trafficking cases.

To read the full Transition document you can download it at our political action center. CLICK HERE


We need you to add your voice to ensure that the Obama Administration understands combating human trafficking should to be a priority. Sign our online petition appealing to the Obama administration to take an active role in combating this issue.
CLICK HERE

Kilian Moote
Program Director

Craigslist Agrees to Curb Sex Ads

By BRAD STONE
Published: November 6, 2008
The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — The online classifieds company Craigslist said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with 40 state attorneys general and agreed to tame its notoriously unruly “erotic services” listings.

Prostitutes and sex-oriented businesses have long used that section of Craigslist to advertise their services. Along with their ads, they often include pornographic photos.

Early this year, the attorney general of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, representing 40 states, sent a letter to Craigslist demanding that it purge the site of such material and better enforce its own rules against illegal activity, including prostitution. The two sides began a series of conversations about what Craigslist could do to prevent such ads from appearing.

“They identified ads that were crossing the line,” said Jim Buckmaster, chief executive of Craigslist. “We looked at those ads, we saw their point, and we resolved to see what we could do to get that stuff off the site.”

Click HERE to read more!

San Francisco Defeats Proposition K!

Helps to Ensure Victims of Human Trafficking are not Overlooked!


We at Not For Sale would like to take this opportunity to thank the voters of San Francisco for taking an analytical look at Proposition K and realizing the dangerous implications it contained for victims of trafficking.


As an organization Not for Sale, along with the “No On K” Coalition, actively worked to defeat this Proposition and on November 4th San Franciscans came out and voiced their opposition to K. Proponents to K attempted to hide the dangerous implications of K by downplaying the significant role human trafficking plays within the industry in San Francisco and characterizing the efforts of Not for Sale and other organizations as “racial profiling”.

Upon first glance Proposition K, a proposition to decriminalize prostitution, might seem like a ballot measure that would increase the rights of individuals working within the sex industry. In reality this proposition, masquerading as a progressive measure, would have greatly undermined the efforts of local law enforcement to prevent and combat human trafficking. This initiative would have essentially tied the hands of San Francisco law enforcement when attempting to combat human trafficking. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris voiced her opposition for Proposition K stating it “would expressly bar the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking crimes… Many people in the commercial sex trade have been trafficked and forced to participate in commercial sex. This measure would attempt to provide safe harbor to their traffickers.”

The dark secret about Proposition K, discovered by many San Francisco voters, is that Prop K would have created a legal loophole emboldening human traffickers within San Francisco by providing them with virtually free reign. Not for Sale and many others worked tirelessly to ensure that victims of human trafficking were not further marginalized by the passage of Proposition K.

Lets continue to work together to ensure the victims of human trafficking have the rights and services they desperately need and deserve.

Thank you San Francisco for your support!

Kilian Moote
Program Director

If you would like to receive updates, action steps and more sign up to get Not For Sale's Underground E-zine.

(don't) VOTE

Voting NO on San Francisco's Prop K

Tomorrow the citizens of San Francisco will be voting on Proposition K. Popularly known as a measure aimed at legalizing prostitution, the horrible truth behind Prop K is that it will make the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases nearly impossible.

Supporters of Prop K use a familiar refrain for supporting the legalization of prostitution: legalization will actually help cutout the exploitation of women by allowing for proper oversight of a mainstreamed economic industry. This line of thought was employed in Amsterdam, Germany and other places where legalization was the chosen route. (NOTE: only one country appears to have a proven model for protecting women and children: Sweden. Instead of going after prostitutes, Sweden vigorously prosecutes the men that exploit and drive demand.)

For many San Franciscans it's easy to take the knee jerk perspective that we should employ whatever is deemed progressive. Unfortunately Prop K misses the point badly... especially for a so-called 'progressive model'.

Let's peel back the onion just a touch. Instead of making a call for more thorough oversight Prop K actually calls for exactly the opposite. Prop K is worded in a way that makes oversight more difficult, if not impossible. The language in Prop K would make it illegal for police and law enforcement to garner state and federal funding to investigate and prosecute crimes of human trafficking by falsely deeming it 'racial profiling'. Read the Prop for yourself (make sure to get to the first paragraph of "The Proposal").

According to Kamala Harris, San Francisco's District Attorney:

[Proposition K] would expressly bar the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking crimes. Human trafficking is a serious problem in San Francisco. Many people in the commercial sex trade have been trafficked and forced to participate in commercial sex. This measure would attempt to provide safe harbor to their traffickers.

Prop K is written from a prospective that all individuals that sell their bodies do so because they have the free will to make the choice. This might be fine if it were true. The (unthinkable) reality is that many women (and children) are being forced and coerced into the sex industry -- many times to pay off a 'debt'. Just because we as a society have yet to realize this truth, it doesn't make the reality any less true for the victims. Women, children and, yes, men are forced into (sexual) labor under duress and fear. Cases continue to pile up in our country.

If Prop K wanted to be taken seriously as an argument for legalization it should go out of the way to protect potential victims... not strip the city of its ability to hold traffickers accountable for their crimes. But Prop K explicitly forbids oversight, by taking money away from law enforcement while also directing police to ignore California laws aimed at stopping the exploitation of women and children.

Prop K is simply and utterly broken. If you are a citizen of San Francisco I would ask you to join me in voting NO on Prop K.

Mark Wexler