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!mmt
trb@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