the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 21, 2011
In hundreds of brick kilns around Afghanistan, adults and young children work as slaves to pay off debt they can’t escape. They went to work for the kilns after their families borrowed money from the kiln owner and then couldn’t pay it back because of the extremely high rate of interest.
A typical loan may have started as 10,000 rupees, but ended up as 150,000 eleven years later because of the interest. When someone can’t pay, the kiln owners put them or their children into slavery.
A New York Times reporter visited kilns that had 150 to 200 child slaves each, working 12 hours a day, breathing in the smoke. The result is early death from pneumonia and acute respiratory infections.
A spokesman for the imperialist armies, Lieutenant Bashon Mann, said he had no knowledge of using building materials produced by children. But the kiln owners contradict him, openly telling the Times their self-made bricks are used regularly in NATO projects.
The U.S., the richest country in the world, is occupying, bombing and destroying one of the absolutely poorest countries in the world. So, yes, it’s ready to benefit from child slavery.