Rolling Back Protections for Child Labor in the Name of ‘Parental Rights’ + Notes

One hundred years ago this month, I was reminded by Portside’s “This Week in People’s History” feature (5/29/23), a constitutional amendment passed both houses of Congress, with large majorities, and went to the states for ratification. It remains a proposal, not a law, to this day, because the necessary three-quarters of states didn’t accept it.

In April 2023, the Washington Post (4/23/23) reported on the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank with a lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, that’s crucially behind these state-level moves to undermine rules to keep children from working long hours in dangerous conditions. The Iowa state senate had just approved an FGA-maneuvered bill letting children as young as 14 work night shifts.

Does every story on child labor need to mention the advocacy group? Of course not. But if you consider the rollback of child labor laws a problem, connected to other problems, then calling groups like them out adds something key to understanding that problem and how to address it.

Rolling Back Protections for Child Labor in the Name of ‘Parental Rights’

Related SourceWatch Articles:

Foundation for Government Accountability

Opportunity Solutions Project

American Legislative Exchange Council

Atlas Network

Bradley Foundation

Cato Institute

Ed Uihlein Family Foundation

Franklin News Foundation

Koch Family Foundations

Sarah Scaife Foundation

State Policy Network

The 85 Fund

There’s more, but I’m not going to beat a dead horse with this one. They’re basically the same groups that have been trying to privatize education, destroy unions, etc.

Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger + More

Let us travel back in time to April 9, 1999. It was the middle of hot season in the West African country of Niger and 120 degrees in the shade. Jocelyn, one of the authors, was a newly minted Peace Corps volunteer and had recently arrived in a rural community 60 miles south of Niamey, the capital, where she would spend the next two years. That day, President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara and five other people were shot dead at the airport, a mutiny by his presidential guard. But there was no international outcry, no evacuation of Americans and Europeans. Jocelyn was told to stay put in the small community where she was living. Life went on as usual.

Why the U.S. Government Cares About the Coup in Niger | Opinion

Related:

“Divide and Rule”: Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni Is Biden’s “Political Asset”. U.S. Behind Niger Coup d’Etat. America’s Hegemonic Wars Against Europe and Africa

Climate Activism Isn’t About the Planet. It’s About the Boredom of the Bourgeoisie | Opinion

Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Ms. Cat’s Chronicles.

The downfall of capitalism will not come from the uprising of an impoverished working class but from the sabotage of a bored upper class. This was the view of the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942. Schumpeter believed that at some point in the future, an educated elite would have nothing left to struggle for and will instead start to struggle against the very system that they themselves live in.

Climate Activism Isn’t About the Planet. It’s About the Boredom of the Bourgeoisie | Opinion