Prison labour is a billion-dollar industry, and the corporate beneficiaries of this slave labour include some of the largest corporations and most widely known brands. There are literally hundreds of corporations and firms that exploit prison labour.
监狱劳工是一个十亿美元的产业，这种奴隶劳动的企业受益者们包括一些最大的财团和最知名的品牌。 有数百家财团和公司剥削监狱劳工。
One year ago the largest prison labour strike in US history took place. More than 24,000 prisoners across 29 prisons in 12 states protested against exploitation and inhumane conditions. It was timed to mark the anniversary of the Attica Prison uprising1 of 46 years ago over prisoners’ demands for better living conditions and political rights. Attica prisoners rioted and took control of the prison, taking 42 staff hostage. When the uprising was over, at least 43 people were dead, including ten prison staff, and 33 inmates.2
一年前，美国历史上最大的监狱劳工罢工发生了。 12个州29个监狱的24,000多名囚犯反抗剥削和不人道的环境。 现在是时候进行46年前阿提卡监狱起义的周年纪念了，当年囚犯要求改善生活条件和拥有政治权利。阿提卡囚犯暴动并控制了监狱，将42名工作人员扣为人质。 起义结束后，至少有43人死亡，其中包括10名监狱工作人员和33名囚犯。
One year on, another major prison strike is now spreading across the US and Canada which has entered into its second week. The strike began on August 21 and is set to last a total of 19 days. Naturally, it has been subjected to a media blackout by the mainstream media in the US; and reliable information about the progress of the strike is difficult to come by.
一年后，另一场重要的监狱罢工正在美国和加拿大扩散，现在已进入第二周。 罢工于8月21日开始，总共持续了19天。 当然，它一直受到美国主流媒体的信息封锁; 关于罢工进展的可靠信息很难得到。
Prison reform advocacy groups liaising with strike organisers, have reported that protests had been confirmed in three states, with further unconfirmed reports emerging from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina as well as Washington State and up to Nova Scotia in Canada.
与罢工组织者联络的监狱改革倡导组织报告称，反抗活动已在三个州得到确认，其他未经证实的报道来自佛罗里达州，佐治亚州，南卡罗来纳州和北卡罗来纳州以及华盛顿州和加拿大新斯科舍省。
One of the intentions of the prisoners in the current dispute is to bring to public attention the spate of deaths in custody, which in some states has reached epidemic proportions. In Mississippi, 10 inmates3 have died in their cells in the past three weeks alone, with no firm indication of the cause of their deaths.
目前的争端中囚犯的意图之一是提请公众注意羁押中的死亡人数，这在一些州已达到流行病的程度。 在密西西比州，仅在过去的三个星期里就有10名囚犯在他们的牢房中死亡，没有确切表明他们的死因的迹象。
In addition to concern over unexplained deaths of prison inmates, the strikers, led by a network of incarcerated activists who call themselves Jailhouse Lawyers Speak4, have put out a set of 10 demands5 to reform the US’s penal system, including more investment in rehabilitation services and better medical treatment for mentally-ill prisoners. High up on the list is an end to forced or underpaid labour that the protesters call a form of modern slavery.
除了对没有解释的监狱囚犯的死亡事件的关注外，由被监禁的活动者网络领导的罢工者称自己为说话的监狱律师，他们提出了一系列项要求，以改革美国的刑事制度，包括增加对康复服务的投资和为患有精神病的囚犯提供更好的医疗服务。在名单上高位的是终结强迫或低薪劳动，反抗者称之为一种现代奴隶制形式。
Among the main tactics that are being deployed in the strike are a refusal to work, a boycott of purchases at prison commissaries, sit-ins and hunger strikes.
在罢工中部署的主要策略包括拒绝工作，抵制在监狱食堂中购买，静坐和绝食。
Filling the Prisons
塞满监狱
In 2016 there were 2.29 million people in US prisons which is equivalent to 716 per 100 000 of the population. This is one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world. (In England and Wales the equivalent number is 144 per 100 000 of the population.) The vast majority of prisoners in the US are working class, and a disproportionate number of them are African-Americans and Hispanics. In states like Virginia and Oklahoma one in every 15 African American men6 is put in prison. This is no accident since these groups predominantly come from some of the most deprived parts of towns and cities in the US. It is also no accident that the US bourgeoisie has been deliberately targeting these groups by passing draconian sentences on them in order to fill up the prisons. This policy accelerated in 1994 with the introduction of the “three-strikes law.”7 These laws require a person guilty of committing both a severe violent felony and two other previous convictions to serve a mandatory life sentence in prison. In California, these convictions can even be minor and a prisoner is sentenced for life.
2016年，美国监狱中有229万人，相当于每10万人口中有716人。这是世界上监禁率最高的国家之一。 （在英格兰和威尔士是每10万人口144人。）美国绝大多数囚犯都是工人阶级，其中不成比例的人是非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人。在弗吉尼亚州和俄克拉荷马州等州，每15名非洲裔美国人中就有6人被关进监狱。这不是偶然的，因为这些群体主要来自美国城镇中最贫困的那部分地区。美国的资产阶级故意瞄准这些团体也不是偶然的，这是为了塞满监狱而对他们进行重判。这项政策在1994年随着“三击法”的通过而被加速推行了。这些法律要求一个犯有严重的暴力重罪和其他两个以前的定罪的人被判处终身监禁。在加利福尼亚州，这些定罪甚至可能是轻微的，然后一名囚犯因此被判终身监禁。
In this way, the US has been able to readily fill up its prisons with cheap labour and keep them filled. For example, from 1982 to 2000, California’s prison population increased 500%. To accommodate this population growth, the state of California built 23 new prisons at a cost of $280 million to $350 million apiece.8 California is by no means unique in showing such a phenomenal growth in prisons and prison populations. While California’s prisons are public and are financed by the Public Works Department and operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; many other states encourage the building of private prisons. New Mexico incarcerates over 40% of its prison population in private facilities. Private prisons in the US incarcerated 128,063 people in 2016, representing 8.5% of the total state and federal prison population. Since 2000, the number of prisoners in private prisons has increased 47%.9
通过这种方式，美国能够以廉价的劳动力迅速填满监狱并让他们持续被塞满。 例如，从1982年到2000年，加利福尼亚州的监狱人口增加了500％。 为了适应这种人口增长，加利福尼亚州建造了23座新监狱，每座监狱的费用为2.8亿美元至3.5亿美元。加利福尼亚州在监狱数量和监狱人口中显示出如此惊人的增长并不是独一无二的。 加利福尼亚州的监狱是公共监狱，由公共工程部门资助，由加州矫正和重生部门管理; 许多其他州鼓励建造私人监狱。 新墨西哥州的私人设施监禁了40％以上的监狱人口。 2016年，美国的私人监狱监禁了128,063人，占州和联邦监狱总人口的8.5％。 自2000年以来，私人监狱的囚犯人数增加了47％。
The United States Congress, influenced by enormous corporate lobbying, enacted the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Programme10 in 1979, which permitted US companies to use prison labour. Coupled with the drastic increase in the prison population during this period, and particularly after 1994, profits for participating companies and revenue for the government and its private contractors soared. The Federal Bureau of Prisons now runs a programme called Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR)11 that pays inmates under one dollar an hour. The programme generated $500m in sales in 2016 with very little of that cash being passed down to prison workers. California’s prison labour programme produced some $232m in sales in 2017. Prison labour in the US is referred to as insourcing. Under the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), employers receive a tax credit of $2,400 for every work-release inmate they employ as a reward for hiring “risky target groups.”
受大规模的公司游说影响的美国国会于1979年颁布了监狱行业增强认证计划，允许美国公司使用监狱劳工。再加上在此期间，特别是1994年以后，监狱人口急剧增加，参与公司的利润和政府及其私人承包商的收入飙升。联邦监狱局现在开展一项名为联邦监狱工业（UNICOR）的计划，该计划每小时支付1美元以下的囚犯费用。 该计划在2016年产生了5亿美元的销售额，其中很少的现金到了监狱工作人员手中。 加利福尼亚州的监狱劳工计划在2017年产生了约2.32亿美元的销售额。美国的监狱劳工被称为内包。 根据工作机会税收抵免（WOTC），雇主可以获得他们雇佣的每个工作-释放的囚犯的2,400美元的税收抵免，作为雇用“风险目标群体”的奖励。
Your Favourite Brands
你最喜欢的品牌
Prison labour is a billion-dollar industry, and the corporate beneficiaries of this slave labour include some of the largest corporations and most widely known brands. There are literally hundreds of corporations and firms that exploit prison labour. According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, war supplies and other equipment.
监狱劳工是一个几十亿美元的产业，这种奴隶劳动的企业受益者包括一些最大的财团和最知名的品牌。 有数百家财团和公司剥削监狱劳工。据“左派商业观察者”报道，联邦监狱工业生产100％的军用头盔，战争用品和其他设备。
Prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armour; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Aeroplane parts, medical supplies and much more: prisoners are even raising guide dogs for blind people. While prison workers are generating huge amounts of surplus value, they only receive between 90 cents to $4 a day depending on the prison factory they are incarcerated in. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour which means prison labour is paid between 1/15th and 1/65th of the minimum wage. Below is a review of just some of the biggest US corporations that take advantage of this:
监狱工人为整个设备装配服务市场提供98％的服务; 93％的油漆和油漆刷; 92％的炉子组装; 46％的防弹衣; 36％的家电; 30％的耳机/麦克风/扬声器; 和21％的办公家具。 飞机零件，医疗用品等等：囚犯甚至为盲人养狗。 虽然监狱工人创造了大量的剩余价值，但他们每天只能收到90美分到4美元，这取决于他们被关押的监狱工厂。目前的联邦最低工资是每小时7.25美元，这意味着监狱劳工的支付额在最低工资的1/15和1/65之间。以下是对一些利用此优势的最大的美国公司的回顾：
UNICOR manages 83 factories and more than 12,000 prison labourers who earn as little as 23 cents an hour working at call centres, manufacturing items such as military body armour. In 2013, federal inmates made $100m worth of military uniforms. UNICOR has also provided prison labour in the past to produce Patriot missile parts for defence contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and parts for others such as Boeing and General Dynamics.
UNICOR管理着83家工厂和12,000多名监狱工人，他们在呼叫中心工作时每小时收入仅为23美分，制造军用防弹衣等物品。 2013年，联邦囚犯制造了价值1亿美元的军装。 UNICOR过去还提供监狱劳工为国防承包商Raytheon和Lockheed Martin生产爱国者导弹部件，并为波音和通用动力公司等其他公司生产部件。
Since 2011, Whole Foods has benefited from prison labour. This company, acquired by Amazon in 2016, purchases food from Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy and Quixotic Farming, two private vendors that use cheap prison labour to raise fish, produce milk and herd goats.
自2011年以来，Whole Foods受益于监狱劳工。 该公司于2016年被亚马逊收购，从Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy和Quixotic Farming购买食品，两家私人供应商使用廉价的监狱劳工来养鱼，生产牛奶和放牧山羊。
Walmart, one of the biggest retailers in the US uses prison inmates for manufacturing purposes. The company “hires” inmates to clean products of UPC bar codes so that products can be resold. The company has purchased produce from farms, where women prisoners face bad working conditions, inadequate medical care and very low pay. And Starbucks uses prison labour to cut costs as well. Starbucks’ subcontractor Signature Packaging Solutions hired Washington state prisoners to package holiday coffees.
沃尔玛是美国最大的零售商之一，他将监狱囚犯用于制造目的。 该公司“雇佣”囚犯清洁UPC条形码产品，以便产品可以转售。 该公司从农场购买农产品，在那里女性囚犯面临恶劣的工作条件，缺少医疗保障和极低的工资。星巴克也使用监狱劳工来削减成本。 星巴克的分包商Signature Packaging Solutions雇佣了华盛顿州的囚犯来包装假日咖啡。
McDonald’s uses prison labour to produce frozen foods and process beef for patties. Workers flipping burgers and frying French fries for minimum wage at McDonald’s restaurants wear uniforms that were manufactured by prison labourers. Prisoners also process bread, milk and chicken products for McDonald’s. McDonald’s rival Wendy’s has also been identified as relying on prison labour to reduce its cost of operations.
麦当劳利用监狱劳工生产冷冻食品和作为肉饼的加工牛肉。在麦当劳餐厅，工人们翻汉堡，炸薯条以获得最低工资，他们穿着由监狱工人制造的制服。 囚犯还为麦当劳加工面包，牛奶和鸡肉产品。麦当劳的竞争对手温迪也被认定为依靠监狱劳工来降低其运营成本。
Sprint, the telecoms company uses prison inmates to provide telecommunication services by using them in call centres and Verizon, another telecoms company, does the same thing. While American Airlines and the car rental company Avis use inmates to take reservations.
Sprint，这家电信公司通过在呼叫中心使用监狱囚犯来提供电信服务，另一家电信公司Verizon做同样的事情。 美国航空公司和汽车租赁公司Avis使用囚犯进行预订。
Victoria’s Secret uses prison labour to cut production costs. In South Carolina, female inmates were used to sew products. Prison workers reportedly have also been used to replace “made in” tags with “Made in USA” tags! While, Kmart and J.C. Penney both sell jeans made by inmates in Tennessee prisons.
Victoria’s Secret使用监狱劳工来降低生产成本。 在南卡罗来纳州，女性囚犯被用来缝制产品。 据报道，监狱劳工也习惯用“美国制造”标签取代“制造”标签！ 然而，Kmart和J.C. Penney都卖掉了田纳西州的监狱中囚犯制作的牛仔裤。
Some proportion of pension and other investments owned by the US public are invested by Fidelity Investments in prison labour or in other operations related to the prison industrial complex. The investment firm funds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has created laws authorizing and increasing the use of prison inmates in manufacturing.
美国公众拥有的一部分养老金和其他投资由Fidelity投资公司投资于监狱劳工或与监狱工业园区相关的其他业务。 该投资公司为美国立法交流委员会（ALEC）提供资金，该委员会制定了法律，授权并增加监狱囚犯在制造业中的使用。
Making America Great Again
让美国再次伟大
One way of trying to “make America great again” has been to ensure wages are suppressed in the US to the point where production becomes profitable again for the US bourgeoisie. Median real wage growth in the US was stagnating before the global financial crisis but has gone down even more since then, so that average wages in the US are lower than they were ten years ago. Prison labour has been an important source of very cheap labour and a means of suppressing wages. Prisoners are not only cheap labour, they are also easier to control. Companies are free to avoid providing benefits like health insurance or sick pay. They don’t need to worry about demands for paid leave, wage rises or family issues. In principle use of prison labour is not very different from Stalin’s gulags. Of course, this cannot be admitted because the US pretends it is the great defender of human rights, American values and so on. The Federal Prisons Industry Inc. actually advertises its services as “bringing jobs back to America” with long lists of services the prisoners can perform which can feed into other US industries. They do not say they are bringing the jobs back for US prisoners and so reducing wages of “free” workers.12
试图“让美国再次伟大”的一种方法是确保美国的工资受到抑制，以至于美国资产阶级的生产能够再次获利。在全球金融危机爆发之前，美国的实际工资增长中位数停滞不前，但自那以后下降幅度更大，因此美国的平均工资低于十年前的水平。监狱劳工一直是非常廉价的劳动力的重要来源，也是压低工资的一种手段。囚犯不仅劳动力便宜，而且更容易控制。公司可以自由地避免提供健康保险或病假工资等福利。他们不需要担心带薪休假，工资上涨或家庭问题的要求。原则上使用监狱劳工与斯大林的古拉格并没有太大区别。当然，这是不能被承认的，因为美国假装它是人权和美国价值观等伟大的捍卫者。联邦监狱工业公司实际上将其服务称为“将工作带回美国”，囚犯可以提供长期服务，这些服务可以用于其他美国工业。他们并没有说他们正在把工作带回给美国囚犯，从而压低“自由”工人的工资。
It comes as no surprise that “making America great again” also involves the use of foreign prison labour in countries where conditions are even worse than in the US prisons. China uses prison labour to make commodities a lot of which are directly exported to the US or form parts of products exported to the US. According to research by the Financial Times, China, which has a prison population of 2.3 million, virtually the same as the US, is using prison labour to offset the reduced profitability of its manufactures caused by rising wages. This is more or less what the Federal Prisons Industry is arguing for its services in the US. Agricultural products such as garlic, consumption products such as handbags and assembly of wiring for industrial products are examples of the type of work carried out by Chinese prisoners. Although the US tries to disguise the fact that the work of prison labour is imported into the US this often cannot be concealed. A woman in Arizona, for example, found a note, written in Chinese, hidden in a handbag she bought from Walmart saying:
毫不奇怪，“让美国再次伟大”也涉及在条件比美国监狱更糟糕的国家使用外国监狱劳工。中国使用监狱劳工制造大量商品，这些商品直接出口到美国或组成出口到美国的产品的部分。根据英国金融时报的研究，中国监狱人口为230万，与美国几乎相同，中国正在利用监狱劳工来抵消工资上涨导致的制造业盈利能力下降。这或多或少是联邦监狱行业在美国提供服务的主张。大蒜等农产品，手袋等消费产品以及工业产品的配线组装都是中国囚犯开展工作的例子。虽然美国试图掩盖监狱劳工的产品进口到美国的事实，但这往往是无法掩盖的。例如，亚利桑那州的一位女士发现了一张用中文写成的纸条，藏在她从沃尔玛购买的手提包里，上面说：
“Prisoners in the Yingshan Prison in Guangxi are working 14 hours every day. Whoever does not finish his work will be beaten…being a prisoner in China is worse than being a dog in the US”
“广西英山监狱的囚犯每天工作14个小时。 谁没有完成他的工作将被殴打…在中国作为一个囚犯比在美国做一条狗更糟糕。“
The prisoner obviously realised his work was going to the US but clearly has no idea that US prisoners are in a similar condition. Another prisoner who had been in Tonghua prison in Jilin province told the FT:
囚犯显然意识到他的产品是去美国，但他显然不知道美国囚犯处于类似的状况中。 另一名曾在吉林省通化监狱的囚犯告诉英国金融时报：
“We often needed to work from five in the morning to nine at night so the prison is able to make more money.”
“我们经常需要从早上五点工作到晚上九点，这样监狱才能赚到更多钱。”
A spokesman for China Labour Watch Mr Li states that in China:
中国劳工观察的发言人李先生表示在中国：
“Prisons are run like companies, with their own sales teams.”13
“监狱就像公司一样，拥有自己的销售团队。”13
This is exactly how US prisons are being run as shown by the Federal Prisons Industries website mentioned above.
正如上面提到的联邦监狱工业网站所示，这正是美国监狱的运作方式。
But what lies behind the increased exploitation of the US and world labour force is the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Increasing the rate of exploitation, reductions in working benefits, reducing pensions, as well as simple wage cuts are all ways to offset the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in an attempt to make production profitable again. Of course the phenomenon of falling profit rates is not just a US one and the capitalist crisis is hitting the US’ rivals equally hard. The financial crash in 2008 was an indirect product of the fall in the rate of profit because firms have been reducing investment in production, because it is simply not profitable enough, and have been investing in speculation instead. And ten years since the last financial crash the global capitalist system now has ten times the debt it had when the system last collapsed to the tune of some $250 trillion!
但是，对美国和世界劳动力的剥削增加背后的原因是利润率下降的趋势的规律。 提高剥削率，减少工作福利，减少养老金以及简单的降薪都是抵消利润率下降趋势的方法，以使生产再次获利。当然，利润率下降的现象不仅仅是美国的现象，资本主义危机也同样严重打击了美国的竞争对手。2008年的金融危机是利润率下降的间接产物，因为公司一直在减少对生产的投资，因为它根本没有足够的盈利，相反进行投机。 自上次金融危机爆发的十年之后，全球资本主义体系现在的债务已经是该体系最后一次崩溃时的250万亿美元的债务的十倍！
The Trump administration clearly thinks continuing the exploitation of prison slave labour is the way to go. It has decided to reverse the Obama-era plan to phase out private prisons and enact new law-and-order policies to increase arrests and keep the prisons filled. This is an acknowledgement that in order to try to maintain profits the working class must be exploited even more ruthlessly. It will also increase opportunities for the US government’s corporate donors and lobbyists to profit from their many investments in mass incarceration.
特朗普政府显然认为继续剥削监狱奴隶的劳动是可行的方法。 它已决定推翻奥巴马时代的计划，这一计划试图逐步淘汰私人监狱，制定新的法律和秩序政策，以增加逮捕并使监狱塞满。 这是一种承认：为了保持利润，工人阶级必须更加无情地被剥削。它还将增加美国政府的企业捐赠者和游说者从大规模监禁的投资中获利的机会。
In recent years there have been leftist campaigns to reform the prison system and end prison labour. But this is similar to other reformist campaigns such as calls to restore social housing. It is simply never going to happen under a capitalism that is now in its fifth decade of open crisis. Despite the assurances of left politicians like Bernie Sanders in the US and Corbyn in the UK that capitalism can be reformed, the system simply cannot afford to make any concessions. Sanders’ and Corbyn’s election promises will never be kept. There will be no free education in the US, just as there will be no scrapping of student debt in the UK, to take just a couple of examples.
近年来，有一些左翼运动尝试改革监狱系统并终结监狱劳工。但这类似于其他改良主义运动，例如恢复社会住房的呼吁。 在现在处于第五个十年的公开危机中的资本主义下，它永远不会发生。 尽管美国的伯尼·桑德斯和英国的科尔宾等左派政客保证资本主义可以被改良，但该制度根本无法承受做出任何让步。 桑德斯和科尔宾的选举承诺永远不会被保持。 美国将不会有免费教育，就像在英国不会取消学生债务一样，这只是举几个例子。
Capitalism is in an advanced stage of its crisis. Short of a massive devaluation and destruction of capital, which has come about in the past through imperialist world war, the only other course open to it is ruthless exploitation of the working class. This means real cuts in wages, increases in the rate of exploitation, reductions in pension provision, cuts in social benefits, housing and healthcare, etc.
资本主义处于危机的后期阶段。 除了过去通过帝国主义世界大战而产生的大规模货币贬值和资本毁灭之外，对其开放的唯一的其他方法是对工人阶级的无情剥削。 这意味着实际削减工资，提高剥削率，减少养老金供应，削减社会福利，住房和医疗保障等。
The only way the US and world working class can find a way out of their daily exploitation and, at the same time get rid of prison factories, is to put an end to wage labour, commodity production and the law of value. We can replace this rotten system, which cares only about profits with a world of “freely associated producers”. We need to recognise that capitalism is long past its sell by date. Let’s get rid of it and scrap the wages system at the same time!
美国和世界工人阶级唯一可以找到摆脱日常剥削的，和同时摆脱监狱工厂的方法，就是结束工资劳动，商品生产和价值规律。我们可以将这个只在乎利润的腐烂的系统替代为一个“自由人的联合体”的世界。我们需要认识到，资本主义早已超过保质期。让我们摆脱它，同时废除工资系统！
ERGOSUM
29 August 2018
https://libcom.org/blog/new-us-prison-strike-takes-us-dark-heart-capitalism-03092018