Modern Slavery Bill Progress & Campaign Update - 24th February 2015

Modern Slavery Bill Progress

The Modern Slavery Bill reached the Report stage yesterday (Monday 23rd February), where the legislators have a further opportunity to examine and make amendments to the bill. This will be followed by two more stages before it gains royal assent and becomes law. The provisional date for the 3rd reading in the House of Lords is March 4th. Since it was first introduced in June last year, the bill has undergone a series of tweaks and due diligence to craft it so that it is fit for purpose, although some groups still feel it does not go far enough particularly in addressing the rights of victims.

The bill is clearly aimed at providing the legal place for defining and prosecuting criminals, protecting and supporting victims and promoting accountability through corporate responsibility. Alongside this is the Modern Slavery strategy document issued in November last year which is intended to be a comprehensive cross-government approach to fighting modern slavery.

This was undoubtedly a necessary move in the right direction given the fragmented understanding of a new problem. However, on a local level, many police authorities have had to play catch-up as they formulate a coherent system to recognise the problem. They have had to devise a protocol for recording incidences and nominate a pivotal person as the central source to collate and recognise emerging patterns.

Historically it takes activists to affect change and again it has taken many groups including Anti-Slavery International, Salvation Army, Hope for Justice etc as well as local groups such as Hull: Slave Free City and ourselves to encourage focus, education and training. The reality is that as well as frontline staff, it needs a wider audience to be vigilant as it takes every person to notice and respond.

Campaign Update

The monument has been in the press again but the inference is that it is unlikely to move given the funding issues relating to the move. Also the re-modelling of the centre of Hull and Queen's Gardens needs to be taken into account. Our stance on this has always been neutral and we remain committed to lighting the monument in whatever location it is situated.

Thank you to Mrs Andrews at Biggin Hill Primary School in Bransholme for inviting us to look at the follow-up work after their visit to Wilberforce House.

There is still time to buy tickets for the Wilberforce Annual Quiz at Cottingham Parks Golf Club. Please email us - tickets are £3 per person and it is 4 people per table/team.

If you plan to run the Hull Marathon, why not get sponsored and do it for the Fund? You can make the event even more memorable by helping us to light the Wilberforce monument to raise awareness of historic and modern day slavery. Please email your interest today or come and join us at our welcome meeting at Kardomah94 on 7th March.

We thank Freedom Festival and Hull Marathon for showing their support.

The image is an official government poster for their current modern slavery awareness campaign, and is taken from the Lincolnshire Police website.

Become A Modern Day Abolitionist – Campaign Update January 2015

Become A Modern Day Abolitionist

In the time of Wilberforce, much of the evidence used in pro-slavery propaganda was of dubious origin and in some instances it was fabricated to salve the conscience of the masses. As American novelist Toni Morrison has commented, “Slavery broke the world in half, it broke it in every way. You can’t do that for hundreds of years and it not take a toll. They had to dehumanise, not just the slaves but themselves. They had to reconstruct everything in order to make the system appear true”*.

Each age of abolitionists used the tools they had at the time. In Wilberforce’s and Clarkson’s time they used firsthand accounts, signed petitions, artefacts and the visual representation of slave experiences in their anti-slavery material. Whilst the true horror of the experiences of the enslaved is so enormous and appalling that it is often beyond visual depiction or expression of language, it has to be represented in some ways.

Some of the constructs and values held by the anti-slavery camp were not without reproach. Sometimes they reinforced racial stereotypes and perpetuated the notion of white benevolence that was so prevalent in subsequent commemorative memorabilia. In common with the past however, it is necessary to stir people’s consciousness with the truth of the violence and injustice suffered by many.

Enslaved people cannot be seen as a collective as each person’s suffering is individual. Indeed, the multiracial aspect of modern slavery makes it less prone to the sort of religious or racist belief systems that helped keep it in place for centuries. We are slowly waking up to the fact that as consumers, slavery touches all of us in some form. The world is a smaller place.

Now slavery is not socially acceptable but rather a practice in all its forms. Many people find these forms abhorrent and therefore slavery hides in the shadows, only flourishing through deception, concealment and cunning. It can only be addressed by talking about it, recognising it, legislating against it and having strong anti-slavery campaigns wrought by individuals and governments.

The campaign to light the monument serves not only as a memorial to the voices of past abolitionists but also as a declaration of the new voices recognising the injustice of oppressive behaviour still present today by those who want to benefit through other people’s suffering.

Be a modern abolitionist by literally shining a light on the subject of slavery and educating yourself into awareness so slavery finds less dark corners in which to flourish.

Campaign Update

Run the Hull Marathon for Wilberforce! The Hull Marathon this year will start and finish at the Wilberforce monument. We are appealing for runners to run to raise money for our charity. The event can be run on an individual basis or as a member of a 4 person relay. Get in touch with us via email, then get sponsored and help us light the monument in recognition of Hull’s connection with William Wilberforce. We have 10 runners to date! Donations and sponsorships can be made through Virgin Money Giving or by emailing us.

Our thanks this month go to the artist Quentin Budworth and Clare Huby from Roots and Wings for some excellent advice on funding. Thank you to Glynis Neslen for putting our name forward to receive Liz Dees’ model of the monument made for the parade at Freedom Festival – this has now become an excellent resource.

The image is taken from the World Trade Women and Finance blog.

*This was quoted in the essay ‘Small Acts’ by Paul Gilroy which can be found in Blind Memory: Visual Representations of Slavery in England and America by Marcus Wood).

Update 23rd December - Education, Education...

The prevalence of modern slavery has recently been thrown into sharp focus with yet more high profile discoveries that sit alongside the many more invisible ones occurring quietly in the background.


The very exploitative and criminal nature of slavery means that the true scope of the problem is like shifting sand and much of it is down to estimates. There are thought to be 35 million people in slavery worldwide and up to 13,000 in the UK alone based on analysis recently conducted for the UK government. However, for some time, academics have been trying to make the facts behind the statistics more concrete and reliable using various indicators such as that used in the recently published Global Slavery Index.

23rd Nov - One year of the William Wilberforce Monument Fund

ONE YEAR IN

Today marks the first anniversary of the creation of the William Wilberforce Monument Fund. When we started, slavery was still in the shadows; the past was barely mentioned and the volume on the issues surrounding modern day slavery had not even reached a murmur in the public’s consciousness. Since then, critically acclaimed films covering the subject such as 12 Years a Slave and Belle have been released, the UK government has shown an increasing interest in modern day slavery and numerous newspaper headlines have documented incidents of slavery here and across the world. What a difference a year makes.

Update - 29th October: Modern Slavery In Industry

MODERN SLAVERY IN INDUSTRY

At the time of the transatlantic slave trade, slaves were looked upon as a different species for whom the populous could feel no sympathy. Today we are not living in a world where slavery is considered to be the norm; we all know different. But, as a wider issue, this fight should be addressed in industry to cut out the ability of individuals to acquire financial gain through the exploitation of others.

Campaign update - 5th October

Hull City Council’s City Realm team have showcased their vision for the city at pop-up exhibitions in the main shopping centres. This has been with the purpose of getting public views on moving the monument. We have been told that their decision will be made public soon.

Freedom Festival Q&A - 7th September

We were proud to be at the Freedom Festival in Hull this weekend since the inspiration behind the annual event is William Wilberforce himself. We would like to thank the visitors to our stall over the weekend and we felt supported and encouraged by the comments you gave us.