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What is the Price for Freedom? Modern Slavery, Xinjiang, and the Disruption of the Liberal International Order

09 Dec 2022
By Dr James Cockayne
Fer d'esclave. Source: Antoine Taveneaux / https://bit.ly/3HmUELM.

Fixing  globalised slavery requires accountability to begin at home. We must adopt a system response to price the true costs of production and distribution back into the system.

Check a jar of tomato paste in the supermarket and it probably says, “Product of Italy.” But in reality, a large share of those “Products of Italy” are in fact simply diluted from concentrates produced in Xinjiang, China. A place where there is now significant evidence of modern slavery.

It is a stark reality of how global supply chains work. And it is by no means a purely foreign phenomenon. Australian’s see signs of modern slavery in horticulture on the NSW mid-north coast, in cleaning and facilities management, in domestic services, retail services, and in the sex industry, among others.

And the consequences of modern slavery reach further and wider than these industries. Modern slavery, it turns out, leaves us all worse off. The evidence shows that by drawing capital to low productivity sectors, slavery reduces wages for all workers, while also reducing innovation and gender equality. Slavery also reduces multiplier effects in the economy, as individuals are transformed from both workers and consumers into, in Kevin Bales’ memorable phrase, “disposable people.” It increases disease burdens and healthcare costs. And it even worsens environmental outcomes, from carbon emissions to deforestation, over fishing, and biodiversity loss.

The good news is that we have the power in Australia to help prevent and remedy modern slavery – even when it occurs far away from our shores. Even in a place like Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the People’s Republic of China. The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (NSW), which created the role I now occupy, charges the Anti-slavery Commissioner with addressing risks of modern slavery in supply chains. Since 1 July this year, NSW Government buyers – who spend over $30 billion each year – are obliged to avoid buying products of modern slavery.

Now, while taking steps to address modern slavery will leave us all better off in the long term, in the short term, this means there is a price to pay. This raises the question, what is the price of freedom? What price are people willing to pay to end modern slavery?

To answer this question, we need to understand three things. First, there is a need to recognise how the liberal international order sometimes creates modern slavery. Globalisation of trade and finance can sometimes allow powerful individuals and firms to use their political and economic power to legitimise what is formally illegal, treating people as if they are owned and justifying it through lower cost goods and services. And they reap the rewards – lower labour costs, higher profits, and political buy-in. So, while abolishing slavery leaves everyonel better off in the long run, in the short run it means disruption, system change, and loss of vested interests.

Second, Australian’s need to recognise why modern slavery is emerging as a flashpoint in international affairs. Modern slavery and related human rights abuses are so widespread and systematic in Xinjiang, for instance, that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recently concluded they may constitute crimes against humanity. Modern slavery in Xinjiang occurs in the context of global supply chains. But the coercion is organised by the state and is part of a larger strategy of governance and social transformation in the region, forcing minority people into industrialised employment. This is what scholars call structural coercion. Around one in five garments made worldwide are likely to contain cotton made with Xinjiang forced labour,  and a staggering 90 percent, or more, of the on-grid solar energy produced in OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) countries is thought to be made by solar panels that contain polysilicon from Xinjiang – including here in Australia.

Third, Australian’s need to recognise that modern slavery is a system failure, meaning addressing it will require system-level change. Modern slavery is often an unintended consequence of a globalised political economy that allows risk to be externalised onto the most vulnerable without real accountability or remedy for lead firms, end buyers, or investors. Fixing that will require a system response to price the true costs of production and distribution back into the system.

All citizens have a part to play in this change. What you buy shows what you value. What you invest in, perhaps even more so. In Australia, and particularly NSW, with world-leading laws on government procurement already in place, Australian’s have a unique opportunity to contribute to this change. I will be working hard in the years ahead to help government buyers avoid buying goods and services produced through modern slavery, with goods from Xinjiang high on my list of risky products. What we do in NSW may not alone end modern slavery in Xinjiang or elsewhere. But, just as with climate action, that is no excuse for not making our contribution.

Next time you go to buy that jar of tomato paste, ask yourself whether perhaps those products were produced in part through the forced labour of a Uyghur man, woman or child in Xinjiang. Ask yourself one, simple question: What price are you prepared to pay for freedom?

Dr James Cockayne is the inaugural NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner. Prior to his appointment Dr Cockayne was an international lawyer, professor of global politics and anti-slavery leader. A former member of the World Economic Forum Global Futures Council for Equity and Social Justice, Dr Cockayne was a founder of Code 8.7, Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAST) and the United Nations’ anti-slavery knowledge platform, Delta 8.7. Dr Cockayne has previously led the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, the US Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on Human Trafficking, the Center for Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, and the Transnational Crime Unit of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department.

This article, based on Dr Cockayne’s 25 October address to the NSW branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, is published under a Creative Commons Licence and may be republished with attribution.