9. PRISON SLAVERY IN THE U.S.
On its website, the UNICOR manufacturing corpo-
ration proudly proclaims that its products are “made in
America.” That’s true, but they’re made in places in the
U.S. where labor laws don’t apply, with workers often
paid just 23 cents an hour to be exposed to toxic materi-
als with no legal recourse. These places are U.S. prisons.
Slavery conditions in prisons aren’t exactly news. It’s lit-
erally written into the Constitution; the 13th Amendment,
which abolished slavery, outlaws “slavery nor involun-
tary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted.” But the article
highlighted by Project Censored this year reveals the cur-
rent state of prison slavery industries, and its ties to war.
The majority of products manufactured by inmates are
contracted to the Department of Defense. Inmates make
complex parts for missile systems, battleship anti-aircraft
guns and landmine sweepers, as well as night-vision gog-
gles, body armor and camoufl age uniforms. Of course,
this is happening in the context of record high imprison-
ment in the U.S., where grossly disproportionate num-
bers of African Americans and Latinos are imprisoned,
and can’t vote even after they’re freed. As psychologist
Elliot D. Cohen puts it in this year’s book: “This system
of slavery, like that which existed in this country before
the Civil War, is also racist, as more than 60 percent of
U.S. prisoners are people of color.”
10. HR 347 CRIMINALIZES PROTEST
P H O T O B Y R O B A N D T R A C Y S Y D O R • D I G I TA L L AT T E .CO M
the coop business model’s stunning growth. The U.N.
found that, in 2012, one billion people worldwide are coop
member-owners, or one in fi ve adults over the age of 15. The
largest is Spain’s Mondragon Corporation, with more than
80,000 member-owners. The U.N. predicts that by 2025,
worker-owned coops will be the world’s fastest growing
business model. Worker-owned cooperatives provide for
equitable distribution of wealth, genuine connection to the
workplace and, just maybe, a brighter future for our planet.
8. NATO WAR CRIMES IN LIBYA
In January 2012, the BBC “revealed” how British
Special Forces agents joined and “blended in” with rebels in
Libya to help topple dictator Muammar Gadaffi , a story that
alternative media sources had reported a year earlier. NATO
admits to bombing a pipe factory in the Libyan city of Brega
that was key to the water supply system that brought tap
water to 70 percent of Libyans, saying that Gadaffi was
storing weapons in the factory. In Censored 2013, writer
James F. Tracy makes the point that historical relations
between the U.S. and Libya were left out of mainstream news
coverage of the NATO campaign; “background knowledge
and historical context confi rming Al-Qaeda and Western
involvement in the destabilization of the Gadaffi regime are
also essential for making sense of corporate news narratives
depicting the Libyan operation as a popular ‘uprising.’”
EDGEWOOD
Animal Clinic
HR 347, sometimes called the “criminalizing
protest” or “anti-Occupy” bill, made some headlines.
But concerned lawyers and other citizens worry that it
could have disastrous effects for the First Amendment
right to protest. Offi cially called the Federal Restricted
Grounds Improvement Act, the law makes it a felony
to “knowingly” enter a zone restricted under the law,
or engage in “disorderly or disruptive” conduct in or
near the zones. The restricted zones include anywhere
the Secret Service may be — places such as the White
House, areas hosting events deemed “National Special
Security Events” or anywhere visited by the president,
vice president and their immediate families; former
presidents, vice presidents and certain family members;
certain foreign dignitaries; major presidential and vice
presidential candidates (within 120 days of an election);
and other individuals as designated by a presidential
executive order. These people could be anywhere, and
NSSEs have notoriously included the Democratic and
Republican National Conventions, Super Bowls, and the
Academy Awards. So far, it seems the only time HR 347
has kicked in is with George Clooney’s high-profi le arrest
outside the Sudanese embassy. Clooney ultimately was
not detained without trial — information that would be
almost impossible to censor — but what about the rest
of U.S. population who exist outside of the mainstream
media’s spotlight? ■
Yael Chanoff writes for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. This story,
published earlier this month by SFBG, along with its comment stream can
be found at http://wkly.ws/1dw
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