Westmont Alum Fights to End Slavery

Westmont alumnus David Batstone, a modern day abolitionist, will stop in the Tri Counties this week as part of a 60-city tour to end slavery and human trafficking. He will speak in chapel at Westmont Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 10:30 a.m. He will speak that evening at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 8180 Telephone Road in Ventura at 7 p.m.

Earlier this year, Batstone authored “Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It,” and he launched the campaign in February.

The Not For Sale campaign has partnered with the movie “Trade,” starring Kevin Kline, which opens in theaters Friday, Sept. 28.

Batstone’s book documents the shocking extent of human trafficking in the modern world. Traveling to five continents, he found child soldiers in Africa and young girls enslaved in Asian brothels. But he was astonished to discover slavery close to home: the owner of a favorite Bay Area restaurant practically imprisoned undocumented workers.

Batstone has also teamed up with Free to Play, a campaign to end child slavery and improve recreational opportunities for kids.

During his nationwide tour and national television appearances, Batstone says he has signed up about 2,000 abolitionist churches.

“They’re part of the modern day underground railroad,” Batstone says. “The congregations are offering their churches as safe havens for these slaves.”

Batstone, a professor at the University of San Francisco, is the author of “Saving the Corporate Soul & (Who Knows?) Maybe Your Own,” which won the Nautilus Award for 2004 Best Business Book. For the last six years, he was executive editor of Sojourners magazine. He is also the executive editor of business magazine Motto and appears regularly in USA Today’s Weekend Edition as “America’s ethics guru.”

His campaign Web site is at http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/.