Category: Child Labour
This is Capitalism #3 – Two million children are forced to work in Turkey
worker | January 9, 2018 | 9:01 pm | Child Labour, class struggle, Communist Party Turkey | Comments closed

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

This is Capitalism #3 – Two million children are forced to work in Turkey

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2018/01/this-is-capitalism-3-two-million.html

According to soL international, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) protested child labour in front of the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Social Security Institution on January 5. TKP already launched a widespread campaign at the end of 2017, “Child labour must be prohibited”. The recent protest came after the Ministry of Labour and Social Security declared 2018 as “the year of fighting against child labour”.

Revealing the hypocritical stance of the ministry, the TKP members read a press release during the protest. The leaflet also pointed out that the government-imposed workers’ wages are far below the poverty line in the country.
 
TKP: ‘2 MILLION CHILDREN FORCED TO WORK IN TURKEY’
 
“168 millions of child workers are forced to work in the world, in addition to a nearly 800 thousand according to official data. However, it is actually almost 2 million children in Turkey” the statement said, adding that the child workers are everywhere from shopping malls to the textile industry and constructions sites.
 
The statement reminded the official data, according to which, 127 children were killed in 12 years between 2002 and 2014. However, the Workers’ Health and Work Safety Assembly states that at least 300 children were killed as a result of occupational murders in the last 5 years. “Of course, we do not think that such a ministry that lies and falsifies the figures would struggle against child labour,” the TKP statement added.
 
THE ROLE OF THE EU AND FAMOUS TRADEMARKS IN EXPLOITATION
 
TKP pointed out at the role of the European Union in the exploitation of children in Turkey. “Due to the readmission agreement regarding refugees signed between the EU and Turkey, refugee children have been forced to work in agriculture and industry,” the leaflet pointed out.
 
Emphasizing that many worldwide textile brands abuse child force, the statement reminded that such trademarks as Marks & Spencer, Asos, Zara and Mango are known to force Syrian refugee children to work in their branches in Turkey. 
 

ISLAMIST AKP GOVERNMENT USURPS CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO SECULAR EDUCATION

 
TKP also indicated to the role of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). As part of the government-led Islamist social transformation in Turkey, many schools have been turned into religious Ä°mam Hatip schools, violating the children’s right to have a secular education.
 
“Those who abolished the secular education have no right to talk about child labour. Only those who struggle for secular education and the bright future of country have a voice in the struggle against child labour,” the TKP statement said.
 
Saying that they are dedicated to finding a new country where children will live in an egalitarian, peaceful and free society without any exploitation, the TKP members concluded: “Long live the equal, free and bright future of our country!”
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Abolish Child Labour!
worker | June 24, 2017 | 7:43 pm | Canada, Child Labour, Labor, socialism, WFTU | Comments closed

Abolish Child Labour!

Abolish Child Labour!

June 12th marked the annual World Day Against Child Labour, a phenomenon which most people in Canada usually regard as a rare and anachronistic situation. The reality is that millions of children and youth around the world remain trapped in capitalist chains, performing backbreaking and dangerous jobs for the private profit of their bosses.

Socialists have always fought against every form of exploitation, either “disguised” in the form of legal wage labour, or clearly barbarian. Child labour is in the second category, existing since the very beginning of the inhuman capitalist system. As the World Federation of Trade Unions points out, “the fortunes of bourgeois were created by the hands and blood of children.”

Today, an estimated 168 million children work in various jobs around the world. In the Asia-Pacific region, for example, about 9.3% of the child population is forced to work. Since the outbreak of the latest capitalist crisis a decade ago, and the deepening of intra-imperialist rivalries, the exploitation of children is intensifying, always with a view to maximizing the profits of multinationals. Child workers are mainly employed in the sectors of agriculture, fishing and mining, while other children work even as modern-day slaves. Immigrant children often suffer double exploitation, even in Europe and North America, regions that boasted about having eliminated this scourge. Despite declarations by the United Nations and the ILO, millions of children suffer irreparable psychological, intellectual, social or moral injuries, and often sexual exploitation as well.

The WFTU has raised important demands on this occasion, including public, free and compulsory education for the new generation, and full access to leisure, recreation and health care for children and youth. Child labour must be abolished, along with laws which allow children or their parents to “consent” to such work.