AASG covered in the Boston Globe

From the Boston Globe, 11/24/06:

Hanging With Gloria Steinem
In Kenmore Square for the day, the famous feminist talks about slavery and making a pie with Stephen Colbert.

Whatever Gloria Steinem is to the rest of the world -- feminist icon, gender warrior, or that sexy woman's libber who went undercover as a Playboy bunny -- in her own mind she is, and always has been, an organizer.

"People may identify me with [founding] Ms. Magazine or the Ms. Foundation, or I don't know what, but most of my life has been spent being on the road, being an organizer," she says, leaning forward in her chair in a room at the HotPublishel Commonwealth.

And that's why the 72-year-old is in Boston this day: She's organizing for a new cause, which is really an old cause for New England: abolishing slavery. Steinem has contributed a forward to "Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery," edited by Jesse Sage and Liora Kasten, directors of the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group. Now she is lending her not inconsiderable celebrity appeal to promoting this collection of first-hand slavery accounts.

Read the full story

Find more recent coverage of AASG events and people in the In the News section of our site.

Trafficking now 'worse than African slavery'

According to CNN: Human trafficking, including women forced to become prostitutes or minors forced to do child labor, is worse now than the trade in African slaves of past centuries, a top Vatican official said on Tuesday.

"This trafficking in human beings has intensified, persons put into slavery because they depend on certain criminals who take possession of these human beings," said Cardinal Renato Martino, former longtime Vatican envoy to the United Nations and current head of the Holy See's office concerned with migrant and itinerant peoples.

"It's worse than the slavery of those whose slaves who were taken from Africa and brought to other countries," Martino told a news conference to present Pope Benedict XVI's annual message dealing with the problems of migrants.

The cardinal singled out modern-day forms of slavery -- minors who are sold to do child labor or who are forced to be soldiers, as well as women forced to prostitute themselves -- and challenged countries to combat these problems.

"In a world which proclaims human rights left and right, let's see what it does about the rights of so many human beings which are not respected, but trampled," the cardinal said.

In the papal message, Benedict noted that more women were leaving their homelands in search of a better life. "However, women who end up as victims of trafficking of human beings and of prostitution are not few," the pope said.

In the last decade or so, many women in Eastern Europe have traveled to the West after being promised what appeared to be honest jobs, but upon arrival in the countries were forced to work as prostitute to pay off the cost of their trip.

Young Activists Make Big Impacts

Joseph Liss, of Wyncote PA, has certainly demonstrated that you don’t have to have a driver’s license to be an abolitionist. Joseph, 13, brought Simon Deng, a member of the American Anti-Slavery Group Speakers Bureau, to his Middle School. Simon is a refugee from Darfur and was sold into slavery when he was 4 years younger that Joseph. Now an activist, Simon travels around the country speaking on behalf of AASG.

In an interview Joseph said that he felt very strongly that the United States and its citizens are not doing enough to help in Darfur. He has approached the situation with an extremely positive attitude and feels that if we can put a man on the moon then we can certainly bring peace to Darfur. He also stated in the interview that “very few people know about the horrors of modern day slavery” and this is why he was compelled to act. In addition to bringing Simon to his middle school he has created a lesson on modern-day slavery to be taught to other students.

Joseph is a shining example of how much the will of one person can accomplish. Joseph certainly wasn’t alone in bringing Simon to his school, but it was his passion that rallied others around his ideas. By spreading awareness through the appropriate channels he was able to convey the anti-slavery message to a much larger audience. We applaud him for his accomplishments and hope that he will serve as an inspiration to others!

Check out the whole interview with Joseph here.

Refugee Camps Raided in Darfur

Earlier this week, refugee camps in Darfur's Jebel Moon area were raided by militia killing civilians and causing thousands to flee.

According to the New York Times: Nov. 2 (Reuters) — Militia attacks on refugee camps in Sudan’s Darfur region this week killed scores of civilians, including 27 children under the age of 12, the United Nations said Thursday, condemning the raids.

The militias attacked eight settlements, including a camp sheltering 3,500 people who had been driven from their homes by the violence in war-torn Darfur, a United Nations spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said.

The attacks took place in Darfur’s Jebel Moon area on Sunday and Monday, forcing thousands to flee, Ms. Okabe said.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, urged all parties in the area to end attacks and appealed to Sudan’s government to do all it could to protect civilians from such attacks, she said.

At least 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur over the past three and a half years, and the violence has forced 2.5 million people to flee to poorly protected camps.

United Nations officials say that the fighting in Darfur among government troops, rebels and militias is increasing despite a peace agreement brokered this year by the African Union.

The United Nations has been trying to deploy a peacekeeping mission to Darfur, taking over from the poorly equipped African Union force there, but it has been stymied by opposition from Sudan’s government.