Intergalactic Summit

This is confrontation of the hypocrisy that both Federation and Republic governments are showing with regard to the contradiction between their stated opposition to slavery and their pro-slavery policies. Let me explain.

The Disciples of Ston have begun a long planned Emancipation and Matriculation program for rescued slaves who wish to become free citizens. We began with 415 slaves who were bravely rescued from jettisons in space and then brought to our center. We have since rescued additional slaves.

If slaves are found in Minmatar or Gallente space, it is highly risky to rescue them. Any would be rescuer faces the following policies by the respective governments:
Minmatar Republic: standing loss 0.50, confiscation in sec 0.00, fine 1000.00% of estimated market value
Gallente Federation: standing loss 0.30, confiscation in sec 0.00, fine 800.00% of estimated market value
Thukker Tribe: standing loss 0.40, confiscation in sec 0.00, fine 900.00% of estimated market value
ETC.
Currently there is no way to communicate to the Governments an intention to rescue and free slaves vs. trade in slaves. Any pilot will think hard before attempting to rescue these slaves.

What happens to these slaves? In the space of two hours, they slowly die of asphyxiation as the radiation of space slowly disintegrates their cells. Men, women and children, die slowly and in agony because governments won’t take the time to provide a means to license pilots to rescue slaves legally. And, government and Concord ships never rescue these slaves, ever. The governments have tacit guilt in the deaths of these slaves. This is barbaric!

Let’s say that we do manage to rescue slaves and transport them into free space. These freed slaves will never be recognized as anything but slaves for the rest of their existence. There is no legal mechanism to change the status of a slave to a free person. None exists. These freed slaves cannot even take a space taxi without being confiscated and the pilot fined. Something is wrong with this picture.

The Amarr government is more benevolent and freedom loving compared to the so called “free governments.” In Amarr space the Disciples of Ston can rescue, transport, and provide sanctuary for slaves without interference from the Amarr Government. Something is turned on its head here.

The Disciples of Ston call for an immediate change in government policy. For the sake of life and justice, we call for a legal, sanctioned means to change the status of rescued slaves to that of “citizen” or whatever name is appropriate. We further call for a means to liberate all said persons at any station in Republic or Federation space.

Pilots can help in this endeavor by indicating support for changes.

The Disciples of Ston are currently training a covert operative to perform rescues and transportation, but this training will take a long time and we will not be ready to begin operations in earnest for some time. In the meantime, slaves are dying in containers in the cold of space. The “free governments” claims to oppose slavery are a joke if these issues are not addressed.

To answer your question, Malcolm, I was under the impression that if a customs ship scans your ship and finds illegal cargo or passengers, it first requests that you jettison said cargo and you pay a fine. Not doing so results in the immediate destruction of the ship carrying the contraband or illegal assengers. However, going from a random point in space to, say, a station should pose much less hassle for rescuers such as the Disciples of Ston because there are very rarely any customs ships on stations. And besides, if you use NeoCom warp bookmarks correctly you can effectively instantly dock as soon as you drop out of warp, thereby eliminating any possibility of being scanned.

For example, I recall raiding a slaver breeding complex in the Illuin system quite a few months ago. I rescued some slaves in the deadspace pocket and took them to the Republic University School there, where they were delivered back into safety.

That is what is even more infuriating. Slaves are treated as contraband but once in station can be bought or sold as any commodity. Even in Minmatar and Gallente space. It is transportation that is forbidden and fined. That is why slave traders will dump slaves at the border systems before entering Federation or Republic space. That is where our rescue efforts are focused. Slave traders who do not want to be scanned, confiscated, fined and standing penalized, dump their slaves while still within the jurisdiction of the Empire. If you rescue these slaves, you are tagged as a thief and the slave trader who dumped them has legal rights to attack you.

Let me give an example: Across the border from Amarr into Caldari space is the system Kaaputenen. While slave transportation is illegal in Caldari space, you can buy or sell slaves on stations in that system. If you are caught transporting them you will be penalized as follows.
Caldari State: standing loss 0.20, confiscation in sec 0.00, fine 500.00% of estimated market value.
Slave traders dump their slave back in marr space so when they enter Kaaputenen they are not scanned down and caught.

I also apologize for the multiple postings. I was trying to include a link and it got all messed up. Sorry.

Understand why I want to keep my servants safe with me?

What you are doing is by no means illegal within the Empire. Quite the opposite, your efforts to save persons, slave or no, whom where left for dead is highly commendable.

Although I am slightly weary of your training program in which it has been less than a week and they are deemed educated and rehabilitated. Damaged slaves, that is ones with mental illness, can take me years of treatment in order to save.

The Federal, Republic and State governments all consider slavery illegal. Customs officials have no way of knowing what you will do with the slaves; as such customs officers will attempt to free them from your cargohold instead of leaving them languishing in your cargohold or hanger.

With buying and selling of slaves on the capsuleer market, no governments are aware of such transactions. All transactions are regulated by the SCC and are kept secret except between the two parties involved.

You ask for a way to change the slaves into 'citizens' but that would change nothing, they would still be under your rule, still sitting in your hanger and still unable to live their lives.

If you truly want to free the slaves, then free them already.

Although I am personally not familiar with this, I have a friend who served with the Federation Navy in the past. He is now on the beach, but we talk, and he mentioned this:

Up to few years ago, some agents for both Federation and Republic would help liberate slaves. Slaves could be delivered to these people and released as Freed Slaves. Unfortunately, it would seem recent events such as Nation Incursions, limited warfare between empires, and so on has depleted funds for this program and it has been discontinued. At least he does not know if it still goes on or not.

There is never any glorified end to slavery, ever.

You can think of freedom as a table covered with cups, and as such, they have water in them. Let's call water freedom.

Some cups will run over with water, others will be bone dry.

But there will always be a specific given amount of water in the entire picture.


With slavery, to simply put it, one person owns the labor output of another. If I was to raise a crop of grain, for example, and then after the hard work of planting, growing, and harvesting, haul it to a trade hub and sell it - hopefully for a profit - I could say that I owned my labor.

But if there were slaves to work the fields, it would be said that the owner of the slaves also owned the labor.

Would the slave have an empty cup, and the owner to have an overflowing cup?

The owner of the slaves must house them, clothe them, feed them, and since owning someone's labor is not profitable if you kill them, provide medical attention as well.

Now let's go to where there is no slavery...

how many factories have countless souls working long hours, with low pay, having to provide their own housing, feed themselves, cloth themselves, and perhaps even supply their own tools? And medical help? If they get sick there are scores of people outside the very door of the plant or factory waiting to take the job.


Even more so, we could cry "socialize the costs!" and provide free housing, food, and medical to all those "slaves" who need assistance paying for such things - but where does the money come from in such cases?

So how many who manage to get ahead in life get taxed for their success to pay for such programs? How many will work longer hours to pay those taxes? What happens to the planet-dwellers when they don't pay their taxes? They get in trouble.



So what changes? With all of our glossy declarations, listing of rights, credit for great sacrifices, and other tripe, we have only managed to trade one kind of slavery for another. If you are not getting whip cracked over your back, you have the fear of starvation instead, and if successful of secure in your job and assets, you have the threat of uniformed functionaries with badges pointing weapons at you.


How many capsuleers are "renters" in the far off places? Free, are they? I doubt it.

Sure one man looks to have more freedom than the other, but those who have more merely have more to be dangled over them - more to lose means less work to threaten. To give you an idea, I once watched a cargo of livestock get slaughtered and one cow was too slow going up to chute to die. The handler screamed "get up that chute or I'll kill you!" The animal, if it had perception, had every reason to resist until it had to be dragged up that chute.

And I don't use the livestock example lightly. If the masses had any real grasp of what freedom really is - and that's basically the ownership of BOTH your labor AND your means of production - there would not be any slaves, nor empires to complain about having them, allowing it, or pretending to be against it an any form.


As for actual slaves, when I find them, returning them is next to impossible, and they never really ask to go back. Things must be bad enough for slaves, but look at how the "other slaves" don't want to go home either. You know those others - the crews on our ships. Yes we don't buy them, we don't crack whips over them, but how many millions have died over the years because of the little grudge matches of capsuleers? And yet they clamor for more work in space. Whatever is driving them is as unatural as one person owning another.

If you ignore all differences, two things will look quite equal - shocking. What you are playing is a semantics game. You are reducing slavery to a single condition ("working for another person"), which is already a faulty abstraction. Then you turn the continuum on which that condition exists (i.e. the amount of freedom of choice of the work you can do, or who you can work for) to a single black-and-white argument, stating that no one can fully choose everything, hence everyone is equally restrained. This is the second fault in your argument.

Communication happens when one party has an idea, encodes it into language, another party decodes the language, and understands the idea. If you wish to communicate with people who talk about "slavery", you have to try and understand what they mean with the term, not try and tell them what they mean.

The term "slavery" is used when certain choices are limited to a very strong degree removed. No choice is ever fully present, but that doesn't mean that you never have any choice (excluding "full causality" arguments, if you accept that, nothing we do will change this discussion anyhow, so no need to tell me not to lead it). Choices can also be limited either by nature (if I choose not to eat, I will die), or by arbitrary human decision. These can also not be equated. (This doesn't mean that all human-made choice limitations are "slavery", by the way - again, it's about "what" and "how much", not "whether")

Typical choices that are excessively restricted under slavery are the choice to travel, the choice of work (type and quantity), the choice to seek a different "master" (including "none"), and others.

In the specific case of the Minmatar enslaved by the Amarr, we want to have the choice of following our own culture, we want to have the choice of living with our own clans, we want to have the choice of deciding on our own who we mate with, and we want the choice of exile from the Amarrian culture. (This list is exemplatory, not exhaustive.)

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