I love IKEA. Their stuff is cheap. It looks good. They were among the first to use same-sex couples in their advertising. In 2002 the Swedish company ran a print ad in the Netherlands that showed two men kissing while their daughter perched atop a pair of tables, the copy declaring, "My daddies are also a set."
So I was mortified to learn that in the 1970s and '80s they used slave labor. That's what it's called when you use the cut-rate work of political prisoners who get locked up in their cells every night and can't exactly negotiate a raise or even a coffee break.
The news that IKEA used East German forced labor was reported as early as July 2011 in a German television documentary aired on WDR, a regional public broadcasting station. They explained that during the '70s IKEA worked hand-in-glove with the East German government, capitalizing on the cheap labor source. The factory that produced their top-selling Klippan sofa was right next to