Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy by John Bowe

Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy Reviews

• 
  Megan

  I saw the author, John Bowe, on The Daily Show this past fall. He had suprisingly little charisma for someone who wrote a book on such an interesting subject. The book is divided into thirds, each one focusing on a case of modern slavery in the United States. The first takes place in Florida in the tomato and orange grove, the second in Tulsa at a steel mill. Both of these chapters clearly show the effects of our desire for low-cost food and products. The third chapter the author travels to Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth that is a major player in the garment industry and sex trade. His take on what goes on there is much more gray. He does the math and finds there is a clear reason people travel from China to work or run factories there, its profitable. His final conclusion is the most intriguing part of the book. He points out that the marginalized workers far outnumber us, and these people "are not educated, but they're certainly not stupid, and I very much doubt they can be lied to or angered indefinitely." In other words who will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes?
• 
  Isha

  This book was required reading for my job. My understanding of consumer culture and the contemporary slave trade deepened, but I'm short on solutions after reading it. Mainly, it took the joy our of Target for me while not really replacing it with other viable options. It's hard to know what lifestyle changes will actually make a difference to the corporations to the point that they would be motivated to change their practices-and this book didn't really help me with that question. That said, an important thing to read if you're interested in social justice.
• 
  Megan

  The problem I had with this book is that Bowe undercuts his own analysis by too often expressing ambivalence about the labor abuses described in his case studies. Is it really slavery, he asks over and over. Maybe the laborers are just disgruntled? The introduction is a strong, thoughtful argument about how and why the immense, ugly, growing gap between rich & poor might lead us toward a new era of open, widespread slavery. The basic premise is that democratic principles and belief in basic human rights is the firewall protecting the global working class from outright slavery. However, once Bowe gets into his chapters he is often unfocused and undisciplined and falls into a sort of talking to himself about how maybe things aren't so bad after all. The only chapter in which he clearly resolves his doubts about whether the situation constitutes slavery is the farmworker chapter. But this appears to be due to the influence of the group that mentored him, the Coalition of Imokalee Workers. I wish he had been similarly mentored by activists in each of his other locales because in those chapters he sometimes loses the thread completely.
• 
  Lynn

  This is an extremely readable book about slavery in the United States today. Actual slavery - not just low wages. People forced to work for little or no pay and locked up in substandard dormitories or trailers and unable to leave, with their passports confiscated and threats to harm their families back home if they attempt to escape. This country really is becoming globalized in all the wrong ways in its race to the bottom for working people.
  
  Bowe examines cases of Latino agriculture workers in South Florida, Indian welders in Tulsa, and garment workers in Saipan. it answers the uncomfortable questions some of us have but would rather not probe when we purchase stuff that is unrealistically cheap, be it t-shirts or orange juice.
• 
  Jessi

  Summary: Most Americans would be shocked to discover that slavery still exists in the United States. Yet, most of us buy goods made by people who aren’t paid for their labor–people who are trapped financially, and often physically. In Nobodies, award-winning journalist John Bowe exposes the outsourcing, corporate chicanery, immigration fraud, and sleights of hand that allow forced labor to continue in the United States while the rest of us notice nothing but the everyday low price at the checkout counter. Based on thorough and often dangerous research, exclusive interviews, and eyewitness accounts, Nobodies takes you inside three illegal workplaces where employees are virtually or literally enslaved. -- Random House Website
  
  Why I didn't finish this book: It was hurting my soul.
  
  I'm not kidding about the above statement. Because I am currently underemployed, my weekly grocery budget is about $30 (and that includes pet food, bathroom stuff, cleaning products, etc.) so even though it kills my soul a little each week, I have to shop a Wal-mart or I could never get everything I need. I have hopes of one day switching to purchasing organic food that is ethically produced. This book revealed a real-life-modern-day slave ring in the United States - and I'm not talking about sex slaves, but slaves of the physical labor variety. The fact that the food I buy every week is not only full of pesticides, ruining individual farmers and the environment, but is also the result of slave labor makes my heart break even more and so I just stopped reading. I shouldn't bury my head and the minute I get a new job will change my shopping habits, but even that won't do a whole lot to help the people being persecuted all around me. Some real legal action needs to be taken and I hope this book will help take steps in the right direction.
• 
  Lovingkiwi

  I don't know if I'll ever finish this book, since I only needed to read enough for my project (I read the introduction, the Tulsa case and the conclusion). What I do know is that this is an amazing work. John Bowe managed to be a likable voice, challenging and daring, while unafraid to question his own thoughts, reasoning and perception. His in-depth interviews with several people from both sides of the Tulsa case were very impressive, and I loved the fact that he himself was in doubt of whether this classifies as slavery or not. His conclusion was highly interesting and straightforwardly bold, yet somehow managed to not be preachy nor aggressive at the same time.
  What I do find lacking is the absent of suggestions for potential solutions. I do get that the main purpose of this book is to get an extended understanding of contemporary slavery. I, however, wish he discussed alternative actions more than simply condemning the possible outcome of free trade.
  Aside from that minor critique, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Nobodies. With rich language and a broad scope of perspectives, Bowe successfully captured the essence of modern slavery in the US. Highly recommended!
• 
  Marnie Z

  Didn't finish...
• 
  Malcolm Logan

  John Bowe is worried about the corrupting influences of globalization and issues a credible warning about the dangers of labor exploitation throughout the world; he is an engaging writer and at points this book is a genuine page turner; but, for all that, it fails in its main objective, to expose the sinister problem of slave labor in the USA. It appears that in spite of Bowe's best efforts slave labor is still pretty much an abberation here. He cites three cases: migrant workers in Florida whose illegal status and ignorance of the language are the most coercive elements in keeping them enthrall to their employer; East Indian workers at a welding plant in Tulsa who, he admits, might be sensaltionalizing their bondage in order to attain a more favorable visa status; and the quasi-third-world protectorate of American Saipan where Chinese apparel workers are systematically exploited by a backwater government in league with sweatshop owners. And yet the closest he can come to a clear cut example of slavery is the sex workers in Saipan, who, it occurs to me, are "enslaved" pretty much the same way in every American city, so why travel to Saipan? Well, because the rumors of labor abuse there were so rife Bowe believed he would find evidence of slavery, which was the agenda. Sadly (or not, depending on how you look at it) he came up short. At this point, he might have taken a different tact and written a book about the temptation to abuse labor in a globalized economy, which is pretty much where he ends up anyway, but he hangs on to the notion of slavery to the detriment of his findings and the weakening of his credibility. Look, when you march out a word like "slavery" you'd better have plenty of evidence of physical coercian to compell people to do something against their wills. The presence of labor contracts, freedom of movement and the refusal of the "enslaved" to simply remove themselves from their conditions when they have the opportunity, smacks of a raw labor deal, not a tied-to-the-whipping-post scenario. After all, the worst Bowe can come up with to indict the oppressors who stand in for slavemasters in this book comes from the mouth of a resident of Saipan who says of one such, "He'll get away with as much as he can. If you give him room, he'll abuse people. If you watch over him, he'll comply. Whatever he can do to make money he'll do." A pretty standard observation about the attitude of many American employers and a ringing endorsement of the need for government regulation of labor, but an example of slavery? That's a little too strong, certainly misleading, and perhaps a tad disingenuous.
• 
  Lora

  I was very disappointed in this book. John Bowe reemed Thomas Friedman and The World is Flat throughout. I found it frustrating that he just couldn't stand on his own merits. The idea here is that "our hunger for status overrides our concern for others' dignity. The modern extension of this disregard is the willingness today of First World people to buy things from a global system of production that, we well know, is based on someone, somewhere, getting a raw deal." Now I agree that we ignore the exploitation of the third world to enjoy many of our "deals" and "luxuries" that people expect in our country. I thought Bowe had great material to work with in this book and could have done a much better job in presentation. The stories are fascinating and very necessary to education. His arguments, however, were circular, unclear and extremely negative. Basically saying that humans are greedy and that this exploitation won't stop does not promote any type of improvement. I find myself much more likely to buy into Friedman's arguments that people with consciences can make a difference and are choosing to do so, however small, throughout the world. This idea promotes optimism and change. I don't think that saying that you slept with the prostitutes of the third world and did drugs with them, makes your depressed argument of human greed more viable. We know about human greed. What can we do to change it?
• 
  Heidi

  Just the fact that this book exists means it needs some attention. I didn't finish just because I don't have the time for this...I don't need the details to be outraged by the fact of coerced and forced labor.
  
  How convenient that the general public is so outraged over 'illegal aliens.' This allows for this kind of stuff to happen, hidden in plain sight.
  
  The other day I heard an anecdote of racists in Florida, and I have to wonder if it is just coincidence that today I read in this book of several cases of slave labor in Florida. So much of my world is invisible to me...where my clothes are made, my material goods. Whether WalMart or Target, if things are cheap, I have to wonder, who made these for less than livable wages? Did they receive wages at all?
  
  In the introduction, the author says, "In the United States, most modern slavery involves the coercion of recent or trafficked immigrants. Such cases are incredibly hard to detect, because much of hte time the perpetrators don't rely on chains, guns, or even the use of force. All they require is some form of coercion: threats of beating, deportation, death, or, perhaps most effective, harm to the victim's family back home should he or she eve speak up. These cases occur in out-of-the-way places that are, to quote one activist I met, beyond most Americans' "cognitive map."
• 
  Tom

  A fascinating discussion of slave like conditions, focusing on two main cases...the cases brought to light by the Coalition of Immokolee Workers in the South Florida farm labor, and a case of Indian welders in Tulsa. In the course of the discussion he has insightful comments about how power is really a more basic motivation than profit, about the way that servitude has been around very long in human history, the various legal protections people in First World countries take for granted are of recent origin. I would say that there's always an element of slavery in any system of class subordination, but I'd question wheether this has always existed, as Bowe assumes...it's not clear how true this would have been of hunter/gatherer tribes 40,000 years ago. But tribes did keep captives as slaves, and in the ancient world this was a part of the slave/class systems. He also can't seem to imagine a society where people wouldn't subordinate others at all. That is my main criticism. A classless society is an idea foreign to his thinking, or he assumes it isn't possible. He also discusses servitude in Saipan...an American colony, but I haven't read that part yet.
• 
  Care

  I read this book for the Menage Discussion at CitizenReader.com. (along with the How To Tell WHen You Are Tired book.)
  
  DEPRESSING. NO real solutions offered. Best summed by a quote in the last chapter:
  "We all seek control. Control equals power. Power corrupts. Corruption makes us blind, tyrannical, and desperate to justify our behavior. I state this with less judgment than the words may suggest. I think human nature has both lovely and evil aspects. But let's agree that the evil ones aren't pretty." - John Bowe
  
  Bowe explores the orange pickers in Florida, welders brought from India to Tulsa in a 'training' program, and the garment industry and the economy of Saipan, a US Territory near Guam. All stories are fascinating and sad.
  
  I enjoyed the telling of this book with so much of the author's views and how he 'got the story', his participation in the research. Very readable and he gives a great sense of the people he interviews.
  
  It is encouraging me to consider not only my pocketbook but the effects of my purchasing on the labor that put it in my path.
• 
  Christine

  The first part of this brilliant and ambitious book came out of a piece John did for the New Yorker a few years ago on the situation of migrant workers in Immokalee, FL. From there he manages to draw a picture of how exploitation, coercion and outright chattel slavery can appear "normal" to the untrained eye, and how inhumanity is validated by the traffickers and enslavers who manage to get away with it WITHIN OUR BORDERS (and in US territories like Saipan). It makes you think about how we are all complicit in "slavery" to one degree or another. A must-read.
• 
  Vito Veii

  This book was a real eye opener. I am glad I read it.
• 
  Wilma

  You see Walmart. You see customers of Walmart through Saipan
• 
  Michelle Adamo #EmptyNestReader

  Nobodies: Modern American Slavery and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy is the story of slavery today - in companies that service United States' businesses. Yes, an underground slave trade exists today in our country and outside of it… both intended to support our economy, often in agriculture but also in other businesses. People are trapped in non-paying jobs, often financially, sometimes literally.
  
  Through "outsourcing, corporate chicanery, immigration fraud, and sleights of hand” forced labor continues in this country. Nobodies highlights a few of the illegal workplaces that service companies with famous brands that we are all familiar with. In Oklahoma, a steel mill worked with people in India and Kuwait to import workers from India under the guise of a training program. In actuality upon arrival, the workers legal documents were confiscated and they were locked into the factory’s building. In Florida, immigrants (often illegal) are forced to pick produce locked away at night, treated cruelty and unpaid. The garment (and sex trade industry) in Saipan (a US Commonwealth) is the third area examined by Bowe.
  
  A very readable book that looks at the consequences of companies seeking the cheapest labor in order to offer the least expensive product. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  
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• 
  Ushan

  There is no classic slavery in modern America, a la antebellum South, of course. Yet the worst-off, most exploited workers in America work in conditions not far from slavery. In central Florida, semiliterate illegal immigrants from Central America were made to pick oranges; their pay was mostly taken up by deductions for bad food and housing, and they had to spend the rest at an overpriced grocery store owned by the contractor's wife. The contractor told them that they are deeply in debt to him, and he would shoot whoever tries to escape; he did kill one farmworker and broke the knees of another. In Tulsa, the owner of an oil storage tank factory laid off his American workers and brought skilled Indian welders, ostensibly for training; he paid them a fraction of the minimum wage, housed them in squalid barracks, one bunk standing next to an industrial X-ray machine, and underfed them. On the Pacific island of Saipan, a protectorate of the United States that is free of both American import tariffs and labor protection laws, Chinese and Filipina seamstresses either work long hours in sweatshops for half the mainland minimum wage, or become prostitutes; Jack Abramoff was paid millions of dollars by the island's government to lobby in Congress against extending the laws to the island. The afterword argues against the evils of globalization, but its arguments are unoriginal. It is manifestly not true that "Osama bin Laden is just another name for Osama bin jobs and Osama bin minimum wage, Osama bin social justice," as a cursory look at the terrorist's writing reveals.
• 
  Kristina

  Bowe goes deeper into the sound bites that are buried in the nightly news to reveal the extents of the pandemic of slave labor. As previous reviewers have mentioned, the book is divided into three sections: Florida (migrant farm workers), Tulsa (immigrant welders from India), and Saipan (factory workers and sex workers.)
  The bulk of the book is by far in the section on Saipan, which delved into the many roots of the problem (who knew that Abramoff could be involved in this one!) For me, I felt that the author was a little long winded, but brought up many interesting first person researched information.
  The most engaging part of the book was the section on Tulsa where I truly felt Bowe went out of his way to describe all sides of the story. It was far more balanced than conventional news and really kept me captivated.
  The author proposed some solutions for ameliorating the fortunes of farm workers (at a cost of $50 per household), but did not offer many ideas on what can be done to Saipan. An eye opening book, but could have been a bit more...
• 
  Anthony

  This quick read by John Bowe gives the reader into contemporary labor slavery through three recent American stories (migrant farmers in Florida, Indian welders in Oklahoma, and garment workers on Saipan). While his journalism focuses on his America, he makes the case that this is a broader human phenomenon, which he concludes is about control and power. His account of Saipan is his most sustained attempt to examine the effects of slavery on a society, if perhaps also a bit disorganized in its approach. This book is worth reading if for no other reason than to bring home the reality that you have likely recently bought, or will buy before too long, some product that is a result of forced (or coerced) labor. But my take-away is that stories like these should push us to re-imagine our labor system.
• 
  Kathleen (itpdx)

  The League of Women Voters has been studying immigration in the US for the past year and half. I started into the study with the idea that we could come up with a workable and fair immigration system in the US. My conclusion has been that our immigration laws and their enforcement are not going to solve the problem. We now have a system of "free trade" in which capital and goods are allowed to move freely but labor is not. This leaves an unbalanced system where workers are subject to exploitation.
  
  Bowe provides examples of Mexican and Central American farmworkers in Florida, Indian welders in Oklahoma and textile workers in Saipan. This is an interesting and well-written book. He comes to the scary conclusion that if we don't find a way to provide just compensation for the world's workers our way of life may come unraveled in fairly short order.
• 
  JusticePirate

  This was the most boring human trafficking book I've read (and I've read about 20). Although the background information was nice regarding the history of areas and people for each account (which there were three of) I don't think it focused enough on the hard labor issues as it could have. He was a bit of a rambler to me without being interesting. It is the first book on the subject matter that could not hold my attention to wanting to know more. It did however do a good job of showing how ignorant people are to calling things slavery when they are, and recognizing when it exists in the U.S.
• 
  Amanda J

  A disturbing but important book about a shameful practice. Bowe offers a searing report on recent immigrants enslaved as workers in out-of-the-way places in modern-day America. (I am not going to rate this book because I didn't read it cover-to-cover. I read certain sections of it that pertained to a paper I was writing about globalization. The narrative style is very readable, but while Bowe does a good job at examining 3 specific situations, this book does not provide a general overview of labor practices as they pertain to migrants etc.)
• 
  Suzanne

  This book caused me to contemplate my own thoughts on what it means to be treated justly and with compassion in our country. I'm grateful that the laws of our country were written to be applied to everyone -- regardless of education, income, legal status, language -- everyone. That is sometimes a difficult concept to grasp, but it is what sets us apart. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with this stance. This book did such a great job of not only calling attention to ways in which humanity is stolen from individuals, but also looks at what those inhumane actions cause for all of us.
• 
  Holly

  The three part format of this book ended up being its downfall--after the first section I felt like the author had simply plugged in new names and exotic locales, but the story was the same, but not in a this-is-connected-and-profound kind of way. In a boring way.
  
  At the same time, it was a great reminder that the food we eat, the clothes we buy, the cars we drive, have all come from places we can rarely identify, so if nothing more, the book helped renewed a sense of responsibility in me.
• 
  Andrew Rothstein

  I read this right after reading Fast Food Nation. So I am up on my mistreated worker literature. This is a logical companion book to Fast Food Nation and the authors refer to each other.
  
  It is never fun to read about mistreatment of people, so there is no lightness here. On the other hand, it is valuable for us to pay attention to the overall climate of decline in the workplace and realize that we are all under pressure, with the most vulnerable feeling it the most.