DigiActive.org

Campaign: “Not for Sale” educates consumers on free labor companies

Campaign Description and Background: Co-founded by David Batstone and his former student, Mark Wexler, “Not for Sale” is an online campaign aimed at aiding activists against human trafficking. The campaign attempts to increase awareness of the global crimes of human trafficking and slavery, and provides a platform for finding solutions to the international crisis.  The Not for Sale Campaign “equips and mobilizes Smart Activists to deploy innovative solutions to re-abolish slavery in their own backyards and across the globe.”

As indicated on the campaign website, the motives behind the Not For Sale Campaign are to “bridge knowledge to action.” It claims that the primary obstacle to human trafficking prevention is the veil of secrecy that conceals the truth about and thus supports such crimes. The best way to fight the global trafficking of humans (adults and children) is to expose the slavery that exists throughout our modern world. By educating the public of these humanitarian abuses, Batstone and Wexler believe that “a new wave of activists will respond in creative ways.” Thus, they have taken it upon themselves, as the “pioneer generation of activists against human trafficking,” to “re-evaluate how we communicate the issue to our networks.”

Digital Tools: Website activism, Facebook, Twitter, Free2Work network

What They Do: Most notable and unique to this particular campaign is Free2Work, a project of the Not For Sale campaign. Not For Sale created Free 2 Work as a strategic tool to bring justice to people in labor bondage and empower individuals to be conscious consumers. Companies can make a Free2Work pledge if they subscribe to a policy of “zero tolerance for forced labor inside [their] company operation,” if they promise to “develop an anti-slavery corporate policy,” if they “require all outsource suppliers and contractors to hold the same anti-slavery protocol,” and when they “ensure that the providers of source material for [their] products comply with anti-slavery protocols.” Free2Work publishes those companies who have made this pledge and “encourage consumers to use their purchasing power to support companies that are free from slave labor and employ mechanisms to address forced labor.”

Also important to the Not for Sale campaign is the ease with which interested activists can become participants in the movement. The website, one of the strongest tools of this campaign, provides information and recommended actions for everyone. Whether you are member of a faith-based group, a college or high school student, a businessperson or a teacher, an artist or an athlete, the web page provides detailed information on how you can become involved. There are individual tool-kits designed for “backyard activists” with different availability, be that 1 minute or 1 hour, a day or a week, or a desire to become even more involved in the campaign.

Using social networks like Tiwtter and Facebook, Not for Sale draws special attention to both global and local events. Additionally, the campaign uses these networks to bring activists up to date on any relevant news and events being hosted locally at globally.  This has become a very important digital resources of the campaign, especially Twitter, which now boasts 1666 followers, to date. Because of the vast amount of information and note-worthy news, Not for Sale provides a data base for all of this by Tweeting daily. For example, in a 24 hour period, Not_For_Sale has been known to post over 10 articles, events, links, etc.

Impact: With international projects in Thailand, Uganda, Napal, Ghana, and Peru, Not for Sale is having an actual (not just digital) impact on the lives of those directly suffering or at risk for suffering the crimes of the global trade of human slaves.  So too are local events in the United States, like the the Backyard Abolitionist Tour and the Global Forum on Human Trafficking, both being held this year and both founded and supported by Not For Sale, and projects like SlaveryMap, which “exists to record and display instances of human trafficking across the globe.” All of the above are examples of how Not For Sale has been able to attack a global phenomenon and crime while still making a local, real difference.