From: Eric Cordian <emc@wire.insync.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 10:55:44 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: All Children Work in Sweatshops
Message-ID: <199712150249.UAA07993@wire.insync.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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One of the interesting things about the child porn crusades is the
terminology manipulation employed to officially describe more and more
innocuous things as officially being "child porn," and by inference,
describing those who object the slightest bit to the government's
violation of the First Ammendment as "child porn supporters." 
 
Now the wonders of government terminology have been applied to a new
problem, the "scourge" of child labor.  While an historical review will
clearly demonstrate that laws preventing minors from working and earning a
living had their origins in times when adult unemployment was high, and
were heavily pushed by the public school teachers labor unions and
immigrant parents outraged that their children had an opportunity for
financial independence, the myth that such laws exist to "protect
children" instead of to economically and politically disempower them
persist. 
 
Enter the current crusade, being heavily trumpeted by the media, to rescue
children from "sweatshops." 
 
What is a sweatshop, you may ask? 
 
According to the official definition, a "sweatshop" is a workplace that
engages in repeated labor violations involving wages, hours worked, or the
age of its employees. 
 
So by the magic of government definitions, all unlawfully employed minors
automatically work in "sweatshops," by virtue of their being illegally
employed. 
 
All people arguing for the right of minors to work of course "support
sweatshops," and all consumers and stores who buy goods produced by these
illegally employed minors are purchasing "goods produced by children
working in sweatshops." 
 
290,200 children are alleged to have been employed illegally last year,
(in sweatshops of course). 
 
And woe to anyone who doesn't support the call to liberate these children
from their paychecks. (er, sweatshops) 

The US is now attempting to export its crusade against so-called "child
labor" to third world nations, citing of course only the most egregious
examples in the case histories it presents.  The US still refuses to sign
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child because it prohibits the
execution of minors, which many US states permit, and guarantees minors
access to reproductive health information.

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"