#forced labor

The U.K. government has walked back a promise to banish forced labor from the supply chains of its state-run clean energy company, as ministers rush to hit climate goals.  

The Labour government promised last spring that GB Energy, the government-owned energy company, would “secure” supply chains free of forced labor in countries like China when it invested in renewable power like wind and solar.  

But the company has since funded firms that cannot guarantee their solar supply chains are not exposed to that risk, according to data released under a Freedom of Information request and information provided by the firms.

That includes awarding contracts to companies that human rights experts have identified as having a high risk of exposure to forced labor.

“We have strict procurement controls in place to ensure that any solar panels are free from forced labour, as far as possible,” a government spokesperson said when POLITICO asked about this funding — introducing a new caveat to the initial pledge. 

The shift comes as ministers try rapidly to scale-up the country’s solar capacity — including through investment from GB Energy — in a bid to wean the country off fossil fuels and cut energy bills by 2030. MPs, including Labour backbenchers, have warned that this leaves the U.K. reliant on importing panels from China, which dominates global solar manufacturing.   

Western governments have accused China of forced labor abuses against the Uyghur population in the country’s northern Xinjiang province — allegations the Chinese government denies — while human rights experts have identified exposure to materials from the Uyghur region in global solar supply chains. 

Mordecai’s Greatness

1 Then King Ahasuerus set forced labor upon the land and the coastlands of the sea. 2 And the entire work of his authority and his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king had made so great, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus and was great among the Jews and pleasing to his many fellow brothers, one who sought the good of his people and one who spoke for the peace of all his seed. — Esther 10 | Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. Cross References: Genesis 41:40-44; 1 Kings 4:21; 2 Chronicles 9:26; Ezra 4:20; nehemiah 2:10; Esther 2:23; Esther 6:1-3; Esther 9:20-22; Daniel 6:3

We were taught that the 13 colonies were built by “hard‑working settlers” who carved a new life out of the wilderness. But the real story is not one of grit and determination — it’s one of conquest, exploitation, and violence.

The colonies didn’t rise because of freedom or opportunity. They rose because colonizers took land, extracted labor, and built an economy on systems designed to benefit a few at the expense of many.

Indigenous nations were displaced through warfare, starvation tactics, scorched‑earth campaigns, and broken treaties. Enslaved Indigenous people were forced into labor in households, farms, mines, and ports. And as populations collapsed under disease and violence, colonizers expanded the transatlantic slave trade — trafficking millions of Africans to build plantations, wealth, and political power.

The prosperity of the colonies wasn’t accidental. It wasn’t noble. It wasn’t earned through “hard work.”

It was engineered through forced labor, land theft, and policies that treated human beings as resources to be exploited.

This chapter is about naming that truth — the violent foundations beneath the origin story we were taught, the systems that shaped early America, and the legacy that still echoes through the present.

If you want to read the full chapter — the records, the evidence, the myths, the reality — it’s here: https://lifewithsevence7.blogspot.com/2026/01/chapter-8-how-13-colonies-were-really.html

The story of colonization is often told as a tale of “brave settlers,” “hard work,” and “building a new world.” But the real backbone of early America wasn’t courage or innovation — it was forced labor.

Long before African slavery became the engine of the colonial economy, Indigenous enslavement was widespread. Indigenous people were captured, traded, sold, marched across regions, and forced into labor in mines, plantations, missions, and colonial households. Entire economies in the South, the Caribbean, and New England were built on their exploitation.

And when Indigenous populations collapsed under disease, warfare, and displacement, colonizers turned to the transatlantic slave trade — a system so vast and brutal that it reshaped the entire world.

African slavery didn’t just “support” the colonies. It built them.

Plantations, ports, shipping industries, textile mills, banks, insurance companies, and global trade networks all depended on enslaved labor. Wealth accumulated in Europe and the colonies because millions of people were stolen, trafficked, and forced to work without rest, rights, or recognition.

This chapter is about naming that truth. About understanding that the prosperity of early America — the farms, the cities, the industries, the fortunes — was constructed on the backs of enslaved Indigenous and African people. About acknowledging the human cost behind the myths we were taught.

If you want to read the full chapter — the systems, the records, the stories, the evidence — it’s here: https://lifewithsevence7.blogspot.com/2026/01/chapter-6-hidden-backbone-of.html