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On November 6th, US citizens will be voting for representatives, governors, ballot initiatives, and state constitutional amendments. For example, Colorado will be voting on abolishing enslavement. Like the US Constitution, Colorado's constitution forbids enslavement "except as punishment for a crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This means that people convicted of crimes can be forced to perform forced, unpaid, and sometimes dangerous labor.

In fact, the International Labor Organization estimates that of the nearly 25 million victims of forced labor worldwide, approximately 4.1 million (16%) are trapped in state-imposed forms of forced labor such as prisons. This is particularly true in the United States, where over 2.2 million people are incarcerated, making it the country with the largest prison population in the world and the second largest per capita. 13th, an original Netflix documentary, goes deeper into these statistics.

Click the button above to watch "13th" and learn more about how incarcerated labor is a form of modern day enslavement. If you want to host a viewing party, visit End Slavery Now's Pinterest page for fair trade entertaining ideas. Finally, if you're in the US, don't forget to vote on November 6th!

Update: Colorado voters approved Amendment A by a vote margin of 65% to 35%, stripping out language from the state constitution mirroring language in the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This was well above the 55% needed to pass an amendment. Colorado's constitution now simply states that "There shall never be in this state either slavery or involuntary servitude."

Forms of Abolition:
 Awareness, Policy Making

Forms of Slavery:
 Forced Labor