<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2523" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Shamefully, however, the 13th amendment has a backdoor clause for slavery and indentured servitude via the punishment exception.  When I look at US incarceration rates particularly of black males along side the privatization of prisons I can't help but conclude it is a rather large backdoor with the only three strikes to get you through.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Travis  </FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B><FONT face=Arial,Bold size=5>the U.S. Constitution</DIV> <DIV></B></FONT><FONT face=TimesNewRoman> <P align=left>If you mention the labor amendment to the United States Constitution today, most people get a puzzled look on their faces. They know that the first amendment guarantees the right of free speech, and they may even know that the same amendment secures the right of assembly. But few have ever heard of the labor amendment. It takes awhile before they realize that you are talking about the thirteenth amendment, which provides: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” At that point, they are likely to ask what in the world the thirteenth amendment could possibly have to do with labor rights today; after all, the amendment was intended to do away with slavery, a goal that was accomplished more than a century ago.</P> <P align=left>But according to the Supreme Court, </FONT><B><I><FONT face=TimesNewRoman,BoldItalic>the purpose of the thirteenth amendment is not simply to eliminate slavery, but also “to make labor free by prohibiting that control by which the personal service of one man is disposed of or coerced for another’s benefit.” </B></I></FONT><FONT face=TimesNewRoman size=1> </FONT><FONT face=TimesNewRoman>Before the NLRA, unionists understood from their own experience that in a modern industrial economy there was no way to prohibit “that control by which the personal service of one man is disposed of or coerced for another’s benefit” without the rights to organize, bargain collectively, strike, and act in solidarity with other workers.</FONT></P> <P align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bob Mast</FONT></P></DIV> <P><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>