Modern Slavery as the New Moral Asset for the Production and Reproduction of State-Corporate Harm

Abstract

The rise of the humanitarian narrative in relation to modern slavery has enabled corporations to profit from large-scale human exploitation with public consensus. Nation-states have legislated on modern slavery on the premise of protection, which has led to the entities involved evading or being exempt from responsibility for such practices by working with their suppliers to combat such practices despite evidence that their supply chains are linked to, or create further, vulnerability for workers. Other third parties praise such mechanism as transparent, reinforcing a moral consensus that is proving difficult to critique. By using the case study of the manufacture and import to Australia of medical gloves, this article unveils the perverseness of the moral, benevolent state-corporation narrative.