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Did anyone have ‘the return of child labour’ down for 2025?

Incredibly, US Republican states are systematically dismantling child labour protections, with children transformed back into the cheap, disposable workers of the Dickens era, reports ANDREW MURRAY

BACK TO THE DARK AGES: A child mill worker in the US, 1908

IN the chancelleries of the world, all the talk is of a return to the 1930s, when tariffs and war preparations walked hand-in-hand.

US monopoly capitalism is more ambitious. In terms of the exploitation of labour, it is going back all the way to the 19th century.

Lift the lid on the high drama of the moment, and the dull rhythms of capital accumulation are still grinding away — grinding ever finer in fact.

Vic Heath: the colours of working-class resistance

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