#child labor

This is the world capitalists want to return to.

Source

"There are more than 20 million fewer children in child labor today than in 2020...

This reduction is especially welcome news given that so many development trends, including child labor, stalled or reversed during the pandemic. Experts weren’t sure if or how quickly the world would get back on track.

Here is the even better news: since 2000, there are 108 million fewer children in child labor, even as more and more children were born during that same time period. 

To be clear, the child labor I am talking about isn’t your teenager pulling some shifts at the local ice cream shop. These are kids as young as five in poor countries who are out breaking rocks or working the fields when they should be in school.

Per a joint report by UNICEF and the International Labour Organization, since 2020, progress has occurred across all global regions and also included a substantial dip in hazardous work, defined as work that is likely to compromise a child’s health, safety, or morals.

The global goal was to end child labor by this year. With 138 million children still engaged in it worldwide, we are clearly far from success. But, the report says, “most regions could see the near or total elimination of child labor in the coming decades,” with the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, where birth rates remain high, conflict rife, and economic growth slow...

If the current pace of progress continues, child labor in Asia and the Pacific will be eliminated by 2060 and near zero in Latin America and the Caribbean...

What is behind the downturn in child labor? One big factor is that old, familiar song of economic growth—parents who aren’t cash strapped don’t need an extra pair of hands. A second is better access to schooling, and a third, social protections for children like healthcare and cash transfers."

-via The Progress Network, July 3, 2025

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Note: Something that article, which is pretty short, doesn't get into is that progress WILL increase and speed up significantly in sub-Saharan Africa. A number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing huge revolutions in access to basic needs, economic development, and quality of life. Child labor rates in sub-Saharan Africa are NOT going to continue declining at the current rate, they are going to increasingly decline at a FASTER rate as access to clean water, plumbing, electricity, and sanitation will all drastically change the labor landscape of Africa and reduce child labor. These trends are already happening in a number of countries, as they have in the other regions of the world.

and as im searching for them, one of the results that comes up is this preschool talking about how they have their kids make their own tea as like. a fun activity and a grounding exercise. and also as a way to build independent skills. all these cherubic lily white children dipping little bags of tea into their cups of warm water.

and at first i'm hit with the overwhelming horrific irony of the situation. like i guarantee you no one involved is really thinking about the violence against children that produced that tea. or the racial and class dynamics of who produced it and who is consuming it.

but then there's Another level of like. these children are the lucky ones, but they still have no say about being sent to this institution that's meant to train them for induction into global capitalism. and their images are still being used without their consent (and probably even their knowledge) in the marketing for this institution in order to generate profit. for the adults who own it.

and all this is happening on a platform that is notorious for using image data in massively privacy violating ways for surveillance and consumer analysis. again, in order to generate profit for the adults who own it.

and then i'm seeing this post and reading these reports using my laptop and smartphone, which both use cobalt, lithium, and copper mined throughout central/sub-saharan africa and latin america. minerals which are mined by tens of thousands of children.

What does it mean to grow up during the genocide of your people?

Today is the first of December, 2025. Last Friday, the United Nations committee on torture released a report on the "de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture" in Israeli detention centers, noting the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge" and that imprisoned Palestinian children "have severe restrictions on family contact, may be held in solitary confinement, and do not have access to education, in violation of international standards."

What about the children who have not been kidnapped by Israelis and tortured in prisons? Many of these children are laboring in the streets instead of learning in schools.

Israel has targeted and destroyed the overwhelming majority of schools in Gaza, denying children their education. At least 39,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both parents. Many young people, like my friend Ahmed, are now responsible for bringing in enough money for shelter, food, and water for their families.

"Made in Pakistant," Neckpiece by Abbe Mandegar

Made in Pakistan (2024) reflects Abbas Mandegar’s (b. 1999) own experiences with pain and anxiety as a child labourer in garment factories in Pakistan. A refugee from Afghanistan, Mandegar’s childhood was filled with sewing tools, instead of toys. Now a designer based in Sweden, Mandegar incorporates the tools of fashion – scissors, pins and sewing machine bobbins – into the garments as symbols of struggle and survival.

The geometrical ornamentation pays homage to the Hazara, the designer’s native Afghan tribe. Mandegar is reclaiming his childhood and immigrant story, as well as highlighting the human suffering involved in global, fast fashion.