Oct. 21: Special Guest Austin Wiggin; Farm Internships, Prison Strike

[Jerry Russell]

Joe went down with the flu this week. We wish him a speedy recovery.

I brought on our farm intern, Austin Wiggin, to talk about the WWOOF internship program (World Wide Opportunities at Organic Farms). This led into a discussion of the role of unpaid internships in the modern economy. Another example of unpaid labor is the prison system, which is legalized slavery. We spoke about the ongoing prison strike.

Links:

https://wwoofusa.org

Intern Nation book: https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKIwtm79dAMC

Fair Labor Standards Act fact sheet: https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf

Prison Strike: http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/10/19/13306178/prison-strike-protests-attica

 

[Marcilla Smith]

Woot! woot! for WWOOFers!

Coincidentally, I just recently came across the historic legal precedent of Johnson v Parker. This case is cited as the legal precedent which pivoted the patron-client relationship of indentured servitude into the owner-property relationship of full on "slavery" (please excuse the quotes, but I find the term ethnically problematic).

Prior to this ruling, humans could only be held in indefinite involuntary servitude for criminal offenses. Looking at your comment, Jerry, and thinking about the precedent, I can't help but envision a possible future in which ownership of private prisons demands that the government not deprive them of the fruits of their investment in prisoners by granting said prisoners parole. "Just because they've completed their sentence, why should incarcerated offenders be permitted to re-victimize society by denying law-abiding investors their due profits?"