December 2nd is UN Slavery Abolition Day and we should take notice. It is estimated that there are at least 27 million people enslaved around the world today. At 27 million, more human beings are in bondage than at any other time in history. According to the Christian Science Monitor:

Slaves are cheap these days. Their price is the lowest it’s been in about 4,000 years. And right now the world has a glut of human slaves – 27 million by conservative estimates and more than at any time in human history.

Although now banned in every country, slavery has boomed in the past 50 years as the global population has exploded. A billion people scrape by on $1 a day. That extreme poverty combined with local government corruption and a global economy that leaps national boundaries has produced a surge in the number of slaves – even though in the developed world, that word conjures up the 19th century rather than the evening news. Slavery is not dead, just less recognizable

When I first read this news, I felt hopeless. But Dr. Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves (www.freetheslaves.net), a nonprofit in Washington, has developed a more proactive way of framing this human tragedy and for fighting back against it.

Yet despite this new largely unacknowledged slavery epidemic, Dr. Bales is optimistic. While the real number of slaves is the largest there has ever been, he says, it is also probably the smallest proportion of the world population ever in slavery. Today, he adds, we don’t have to win the legal battle; there’s a law against it in every country. We don’t have to win the economic argument; no economy is dependent on slavery (unlike in the 19th century, when whole industries could have collapsed). And we don’t have to win the moral argument; no one is trying to justify it any more.

The fact that it’s still thriving, he explains, comes down principally to ignorance about the institution and lack of resources directed at eradicating it. [ ]

For instance, between 14,000 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually, according to the US government, most forced into the sex trade, domestic servitude, or agricultural labor. At any one time, between 52,000 and 87,000 are in bondage. And much of that is in plain view, in towns and cities across the country, experts say. People simply don’t recognize it.

Here’s what YOU can do:

Read – ‘10 Shocking facts about Global Slavery in 2008′ - Matador Change

Visit FreetheSlaves.net and get involved.

Visit Anti-Slavery Giving Guide at Razoo Make a contribution. Give up the lattes for a week.

Inform yourself – read more -  ‘Slavery today, a clear and present danger’