The Modern Day Slavery Museum, a mobile exhibition that's been
organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers [CIW], rolled
into Charlottesville, yesterday. Its mission is to educate the
public about the brutal conditions that farmworkers in Florida
endure and to encourage the people to do something about it.
"Slavery" probably sounds like an overstatement, but it's
accurate. Farmworkers are too often held against their will by
threats and violence. Since 1997, the federal government has
prosecuted seven farm labor servitude cases in Florida, which
led to the freeing of over 1,000 workers. Slavery is the
extreme, but, as Senator Bernie Sanders has said, poverty and
powerlessness mean that "the norm is disaster." The museum has
been traveling the country. Here's a video about, from the
Naples (Florida) Daily News, about an earlier stop on the tour.
What can be done? The CIW has played an major role in
investigating abuses in Florida, which one federal official has
called "ground zero for modern slavery." Six