The event will
start at noon on the southeast corner of 30th Street and El Cajon
Boulevard in North Park. There will be a march east ending at the south-side
bus stop at the intersection of El Cajon Boulevard and the Route 15 on-ramp,
where there will be a dynamic group of human-rights advocates attesting to
their own fight against human trafficking, as well as a speak-out for all to
share their stories of modern-day slavery.
Confirmed
speakers include a representative of Af3irm San Diego’s Purple Rose Campaign
against sex trafficking on a transnational level; Estela de los Rios, executive
director of the Center for Social Advocacy; Dilkhwaz Ahmed, M.S., executive
director for License to Freedom, on forced marriage and torture in Middle
Eastern cultures; Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels, on immigration and
trafficking; and more to come.
Human
trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which people profit from the
control and exploitation of others. As defined by U.S. law, victims of human
trafficking include children involved in the sex trade, adults 18 or over who
are coerced or deceived into commercial sex acts, and anyone forced into
different forms of labor or services, such as domestic workers held in a home
or farmworkers forced to labor against their will.
The factors that
each of these situations have in common are elements of force, fraud or
coercion that are used to control people. That control is tied to inducing
someone to perform commercial sex acts, labor or services. Numerous people in
the field have summed up the concept of human trafficking as “compelled
service.”
Every year,
human traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits by victimizing
millions of people around the world, including the United States. Human
trafficking is considered to be one of the fastest growing criminal industries
in the world. Already it has surpassed illegal weapons trafficking as the
number two source of income for criminal gangs in the U.S. (the illicit drug
trade remains number one). Law enforcement agencies in San Diego have
identified this city as an international gateway for sex trafficking and one of
the 13 U.S. cities with the most trafficking of children for the commercial sex
trade.
Human
trafficking affects every country in the world, regardless of socioeconomic
status, history or political structure. Human traffickers have created an
international market for the trade in human beings based on high profits and
demand for commercial sex and cheap labor. Trafficking is estimated to be more
than a $40 billion industry, affecting 161 countries worldwide. In the U.S.,
sex trafficking has been found in a wide variety of venues in the overall sex
industry, including residential brothels, hostess clubs, online escort
services, brothels disguised as “massage parlors,” strip clubs and sale of sex
on the streets.
The Radical Feminists of San Diego, sponsors of the April 7
event, are a group that sprang up out of Occupy San Diego (OSD) with the
intention of increasing women’s participation in OSD and helping build a
feminist movement. They describe themselves as “a dynamic bunch of feminist
rebels of all colors, sexualities and ages” who “gather to take actions, share
our stories, educate each other and more.” For more information, visit http://www.facebook.com/phoenonimalcat
or http://www.change.org/profiles/lilladybigimpact
