Coerced trafficking

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, Bob, I know you think I'm just a liberal wimp, but actually,
coerced trafficking is a big "liberal" issue. You don't need to be a
communist to be out in front on this one. Lots of human-rights and
feminist orgs are involved in campaigning against it -- Amnesty
International just released a big new report. Of course all these groups
-- UN, AI -- will be anathema to a pro-serb.
  Violence against women comes in many forms, as Bob  points out. Just
take Britain -- According to the latest UN Stats on women, 30% of
British women have been beaten by their mates. (I guess they should have
married Serbians!) that's quite a bit higher than the US rate -- so
perhaps Americans are not the only nation with a "psychosis"! those
trafficked women wouldn't be in Britain, if there weren't lots of men
who were happy to take advantage of them.
  Men who are upset about violence against women, as they should be, can
do lots. There are organizations of men who try to confront male
violence and the attitudes behind it -- Men Against Violence Against
Women is a good one. Equality Now, another good group, can always use
money and volunteers. I believe Britain has groups who try to help women
escape from "white slavery" as Mark so quaintly calls it (hmm... what
about the black and Asian women  who are  trafficked?). and of course
you can agitate to change the laws that keep so many sex slaves from
coming forward to testify against their pimps--fear of deportation right
back to the miserable places they left.
   Albanian criminal networks may have brought the women to Britain --
or the pimps might be Israeli, Italian, German, Russian--maybe even a
Belgian, a Britisher, or --oh no! -- a Serb..
 But who are the customers? Are those Albanians also? That is the useful
question for a British man to ask himself.


Katha