Abstract

Firstly the paper focuses on forms of slave work which persist in the world at present, not only in developing countries, though in the latter they possess specific cultural roots and socioeconomic reasons. Secondly the attention is highlighted on what are known as «extreme forms» of work: the author underlines their complete integration in the chain of value creation of multinational companies and their functionality to pro¬duce a progressive worsening of working conditions in the most ancient industrialized countries. In the final remarks the author mentions the present debate about the demand of a more incisive regulation of the capital at a global level to avoid such a drift.