mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (12/22/83)
============
A former prisoner of several USSR camps, Mr. Shifrin, whom I saw as he
spoke in Denver recently, documents over 2000 labor camps, prisons,
and psychiatric camps. This information comes from an intricate
network of inmates, Soviet citizens, and former prisoners; this
information was obtained by people willing to risk their lives to tell
the story.
In the book he has maps, photographs, and names of prisoners and their
"crimes." Many of these people, wanting nothing more than to leave
the Socialist paradise, were sent to camps and charged with
"misjudgement of reality."
...
Mr. Shifrin also documents conclusively the extent of Soviet slave
labor. All uranium mining is done by slave labor, the oil pipeline
under construction from the USSR to West Germany is being done by
slave labor, many of the goods from the Soviet Union sold in this
country are made by slave labor.
============
It's interesting that this article should appear here just after an
article in the Toronto Star describing the slave labour camps in the
Southwest and Midwest states. (In case you think it is Communist
propaganda, the information came from a House of Representatives
Subcommittee on labour standards). Extracts:
INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE IN THE US -- IT'S SLAVERY
...
For almost a year, a House of Representatives subcommittee on labour
standards has been hearing testimony on the federal government's failure
to adequately investigate numerous reports of migrant farm workers
being held in illegal bondageand peonage in remote parts of the
Southwest and Midwest United States.
...
At a hearing on Sept 23, a Roman Catholic nun told Congressmen that since
1980 she has been operating an improvised "underground railroad" and
escape route for "slaves" in Southwest Virginia whose pleas for help
had been ignored by local law enforcement officials.
...
[A former slave said] "It was just horrible, the things I seen at those
camps. I seen men beat with rubber hoses. I seen women beat. There was
always someone guarding and watching you. You couldn't get away because
they were sitting out there with guns."
...
Any attempt to leave the camp is met with threats of physical violence.
While working, they are watched by armed guards. There have been cases
where dissatisfied workers have been set upon by dogs, locked up, or
put in chains. Some who have escaped have found local sheriffs unsympathetic.
Often they are returned to the custody of their crew leader.
...
Brothers Dennis and Richard Warren had recruited migrant workers and
unemployed street people in cities along the eastern seaboard. One of
their recruits later collapsed and died when forced to work after
complaining that he felt ill. Ironically, the Warren brothers are black.
Both received long prison terms. [This was in N. Carolina, which recently
passed an anti-slavery law -- MMT]
...
... In Beverly Hills ... at least 30 Indonesians had been sold into
servitude as domestics for $3000 each. They had been recruited in Jakarta
and brought to the United States under false pretences by slavers who
confiscated their documents.
...
========
The big difference between this kind of slavery and the Russian kind
is that the senior levels of the US government don't support it, and
slavery is not imposed by the government. But apparently the US is not
doing much about it, either. The total antislavery effort seems to be
two people (federal). The article doesn't say what effort is put in
by the States.
--
Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmttrb@drux3.UUCP (12/31/83)
If anyone should have any doubt that citizens in the USSR live in fear
and are imprisoned for moral and religious beliefs, may I suggest you
read "The First Guidebook To Prisons And Concentration Camps Of The
Soviet Union" by Avraham Shifrin (Bantam Books, 1982).
A former prisoner of several USSR camps, Mr. Shifrin, whom I saw as he
spoke in Denver recently, documents over 2000 labor camps, prisons,
and psychiatric camps. This information comes from an intricate
network of inmates, Soviet citizens, and former prisoners; this
information was obtained by people willing to risk their lives to tell
the story.
In the book he has maps, photographs, and names of prisoners and their
"crimes." Many of these people, wanting nothing more than to leave
the Socialist paradise, were sent to camps and charged with
"misjudgement of reality."
And what are these prisons like? From the book:
Some prisoners have been driven to the point where they
tattoo slogans on their foreheads: "Death to Communism!"
"Down with the Soviet regime!" Previously, these tattoos
were cut out of their flesh, without any anesthesia. Now
such offenders are tried in secret and shot.
Mr. Shifrin also documents conclusively the extent of Soviet slave
labor. All uranium mining is done by slave labor, the oil pipeline
under construction from the USSR to West Germany is being done by
slave labor, many of the goods from the Soviet Union sold in this
country are made by slave labor.
This 390 page book is extremely well documented and written, and I
would encourage all who have an interest in this subject to read it.
If you can't find it, a bookstore here in Denver has about 2 dozen
copies, last I was in there.
Tom Buckley