Jack Abramoff's "Forced Labor" Camp

Jack Abramoff Papers, Vol. 2 Slave Labor’s favorite Lobbyist in The U.S. Congress

The Mariana Islands
An American “Protectorate” in the Pacific known for its resorts.
Also known for its “slave laborers” that came from China. They thought they were going to America and ended up working in “sweat shops”.

Made in the U.S.A.
Chinese factories benefited from cheap labor and the “Made in the U.S.A” label at the same time.
Congress had “exempted” the Marianas from the Minimum Wage and other labor laws.

Forced Labor Camps in America
Workers lived in small shacks behind barbed wire fences making half the U.S. Minimum wage.
They were forced to work 12 hour days-7 days a week.
Then their checks would “bounce” and they borrowed money going deeper into debt to their “masters”.

Team Abramoff Gets hired …
Sweatshop owners, worried that Congress was going to “shut them down” hired Jack Abramoff as the Official Lobbyist for the Government of the Marianas Islands.
He personally collected $8 million dollars in fees from the “Islands.”

Norquist Stepped In .
The Mariana Islands got on the “K-Street Agenda.”
The objective was to “shut down” any Congressional legislation that threatened the sweat-shop’s profit margins.

Tom Delay did his part :
He made sure that any “anti-sweat shop” legislation relating to the Mariana Islands never got on the Agenda in the House of Representatives.
Even when the Senate passed the reforms, it never came to a vote in House.

In Return …
One Mariana “Sweatshop” Owner donated $650,000 to Delay’s:
U.S. Family Network.

In the United States?
A 23-year-old woman sold into sexual slavery in the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States, told her story of kidnapping, rape and a lucky escape to members of Congress today,
"I was scared. I started crying. I told him, 'I don't like. I don't like.' He then started to rape me ," Kayleen Entena testified today…. conditions in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).
(ABC News)

On American Soil ?
BRIAN ROSS: In fact, American authorities have discovered many Chinese workers are forced to sign secret agreements, known as shadow contracts, before they leave China, severely and, in some ways, illegally restricting their activities while on American soil. For example, in this agreement translated into English by American authorities, workers are forbidden to participate in any religious or political activity or to ask for a salary increase or even to fall in love or get married , much as might be the case in mainland China.
(From “Democracy Now!”)

Where’s Congress ?
ALLAN STAYMAN: To allow them to bring that on to U.S. soil is a very deep concern. We've now documented the facts that management coerces female workers who become pregnant into having abortions. BRIAN ROSS: Several of the cases, the government says it has documented, were at this factory, the one with a contract to make Ralph Lauren Polo t-shirts. This Chinese woman, Tu Xiao Mei, made t-shirts and pants at the factory until she became pregnant. TU XIAO MEI: When I told them I was pregnant, they told me to have an abortion. (From Democracy Now!)

American Samoa ?
In American Samoa, workers at a garment factory called Daewoosa were charged $200 per month to live in rat-infested company barracks, often 36 people to a room . The factory's principal owner was charged with holding workers in involuntary servitude. The court also found that Daewoosa and several recruiting companies illegally charged the immigrants up to $8,000 to obtain their jobs. When workers complained about conditions, it is documented that the owner allegedly withheld food for days and locked them out of the compound.
(From: Progressive Jewish Alliance)

“ Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free …”

The Marianas
“ The young Chinese woman believed she had come to America. But how could this be the American Dream? Li Li, 26, found herself working 18-hour days in a factory cutting textiles. At night she and 700 other workers were locked up in company barracks infested with rats and equipped with just one outside toilet for every 50 people . The residents were allowed out only on Sundays for a maximum of one hour. When she complained about conditions, according to her account, she and another female worker were beaten by factory foremen wielding heavy dressmaking scissors.” (TIME Magazine)

Jack Abramoff’s Paradise .
"The managers did not treat us like human beings," she says, adding that she would not have gone to Saipan if she had known what the working conditions were like. But having borrowed the equivalent of $2,800 to pay the "recruitment fee" in China, she cannot return until she has earned at least enough to pay off the loan. "That comes close to the definition of indentured labor," (TIME Magazine)

To See The Video on the Mariana’s “Forced Labor” Camps Click the Link
http://www.witness.org/index.php?option=com_rightsalert&Itemid=178&task=view&alert_id=7

Jack Abramoff's "Forced Labor" Camp

by Mormons4justice on May 15, 2007

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 18

Statistics

Jack Abramoff’s "Forced Labor" Camp — Presentation Transcript