{"article":{"id":7383,"heading":"same old pattern: when kids speak up \"inappropriately\" groan-ups can't take it","author":"Chuck D","created":"2001-06-15 00:41:37","modified":"2005-08-15 00:34:51","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:34:51","article":"

It's the same old pattern; the hype *understood* is the hype that keeps people fearful and divided EASILY. Any view daring to stand outside of the confines of the prevailing hype (in the mainstream, Left, or Right) gets categorically ignored (when it really counts) and ultimately silenced. So it was for the kids who dared to organize themselves in the 1970s calling themselves Ann Arbor Youth Liberation. They put out 10 YEARS worth of their desires and articulated challenges to *adult chauvanism*, some of which are published here:

www.geocities.com\/Athens\/Acropolis\/6904\/fpsbk1.html

Did their adults listen? Could they allow themselves to? NOT A CHANCE! Today, we have at least one children's UNION, made up of 15,000 child members and led by child members, and they are attempting to once again speak about their experiences and desires (SOURCE: www.motherjones.com). Can groan-ups listen? I'm TOTALLY skeptical, but i wish the best to the kid labor unions, and hope they LEARN FROM others before them (i.e. the above link) and not be fooled by \"nice\" groan-ups of whatever stripe.

Here are excerpts from the article (by Anthony Swift) which you can read in whole at the url below:

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<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.oneworld.org\/ni\/issue292\/work.htm","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"You might think that adults, seriously bent on ending the oppression of children, would take a close interest in children present [at a recent international conference of adults and younger people,] who had so triumphed over their own oppression as to become articulate advocates for their own cause. You would be wrong.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/06\/same_old_p.txt","filesize":"10.8 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/06\/7383.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":7399,"heading":"Why is Brazil so different?","article":"This is an excellent article, bringing up urgent issues with respect to child labor\r\nin the global economy---something that advocates of child labor apparently lose\r\nsight of. This conference was necessary for advocating the young people's voice,\r\nbut then it didn't seem to really address the issues behind the povery that demands\r\ntheir work in the first place. I suspect that this is a movement to co-opt child labor\r\ninto the global system before resistance to it can be further enacted---and it is \r\nslightly insidious that global capitalism would use young people themselves to \r\nspeak for the legitmacy of such exploitation. I question the participation of UNICEF\r\nand other historically globalizing agencies that are precursors to the IMF, WTO, etc.\r\n\r\nMost of all I am circumspect after reading this passage:\r\nSuch statements deeply troubled certain conference delegates \u2013 not least those from\r\ntrade unions. Some suggested that the children had been \u2018coached\u2019 or manipulated\r\n by adults, an allegation confounded by their conviction in arguing their cause. Others\r\nlatched on to a point of apparent disunity; Lidja Pereira da Silva (15), from the\r\n National Movement of Street Children in Brazil, differed from her colleagues by\r\n supporting a ban on work below the age of 14. However, in their intensive\r\n pre-conference deliberations, the children\u2019s delegates had already decided how to\r\ndeal with this. \u2018We don\u2019t all have to think identically,\u2019 they said. \u2018Circumstances in\r\n Brazil are different and require a different response.\u2019 \r\n\r\nWhat makes exploitation in Brazil so different from other parts in the world where\r\nchild poverty become integrated into the global machine?\r\nThe fact that da Silva's voice was marginalized in that way troubles me, and should\r\nbe an alarm as to how child labor is being co-opted through the ones that\r\nultimately suffer. \r\n\r\nThe beast knows no end to impunity...\r\n\r\n","author":"brownoneyque","parent_id":7383,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-06-15 17:02:22","modified":"2013-11-10 23:37:39","fileurl":""}]}