Editing Forced labour (section)

==Modern day unfree labour==
Unfree labour re-emerged as an issue in the debate about rural development during the years following the end of the Second World War, when a political concern of [[Keynesian]] theory was not just [[economic reconstruction]] (mainly in Europe and Asia) but also planning (in [[Developing country|developing "Third World" nations]]). A crucial aspect of the ensuing discussion concerned the extent to which different relational forms constituted obstacles to capitalist development, and why.

During the 1960s and 1970s, unfree labour was regarded as incompatible with capitalist accumulation, and thus an obstacle to economic growth, an interpretation advanced by exponents of the then-dominant semi-feudal thesis. From the 1980s onwards, however, another and very different Marxist view emerged, arguing that evidence from Latin America and India suggested [[agribusiness]] enterprises, commercial farmers and rich peasants reproduced, introduced or reintroduced unfree relations.

However, recent contributions to this debate have attempted to exclude Marxism from the discussion. These contributions maintain that, because Marxist theory failed to understand the centrality of unfreedom to modern capitalism, a new explanation of this link is needed. This claim has been questioned by [[Tom Brass]].<ref>[[Tom Brass]] (2014), 'Debating Capitalist Dynamics and Unfree Labour: A Missing Link?', The Journal of Development Studies, 50:4, 570–82.</ref> He argues that many of these new characteristics are in fact no different from those identified earlier by Marxist theory and that the exclusion of the latter approach from the debate is thus unwarranted.

The [[International Labour Organization]] (ILO) estimates that at least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide; of these, 9.8 million are exploited by private agents and more than 2.4 million are [[human trafficking|trafficked]]. Another 2.5 million are forced to work by the state or by rebel military groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilo.org/global/standards/subjects-covered-by-international-labour-standards/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm |title= Forced labour |publisher= ILO |access-date= 2013-03-20 |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130507094222/http://www.ilo.org/global/standards/subjects-covered-by-international-labour-standards/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm |archive-date= May 7, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.childcentre.info/projects/traffickin/dbaFile14058.pdf |title=Trafficking for Forced Labour in Europe—Report on a study in the UK, Ireland the Czech Republic and Portugal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113080105/http://www.childcentre.info/projects/traffickin/dbaFile14058.pdf |archive-date=2012-01-13 |date=November 2006 |publisher=Anti-Slavery International |url-status=usurped |via=Child Centre }}</ref> From an [[international law]] perspective, countries that allow forced labour are violating [[international labour standards]] as set forth in the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (C105), one of the fundamental conventions of the ILO.<ref>{{cite web|title=Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)|url=http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO:12100:P12100_ILO_CODE:C105|publisher=International Labour Organization|access-date=24 October 2013}}</ref>

{{see also|Global Slavery Index}}

According to the ''ILO Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour'' (SAP-FL), global profits from forced trafficked labour exploited by private agents are estimated at US$44.3 billion per year. About 70% of this value (US$31.6 billion) comes from trafficked victims. At least the half of this sum (more than US$15 billion) comes from industrialised countries.<ref>[http://www.ilo.org/sapfl/Informationresources/ILOPublications/lang--en/docName--WCMS_081971/index.htm Forced Labour and Human trafficking: Estimating the Profits].</ref>
[[File:Freedom from forced labour.png|thumb|Freedom from forced labour by country (V-Dem Institute, 2021)]]