The extent to which the current austerity policies have devastated living
standards in Europe was underlined by an article published in the French
newspaper Le Monde last week on the return of child labour to the
continent.
Under the headline “Child Labour Re-emerges in Naples”, the
article describes how thousands of children have been forced to quit school and
find jobs in order to help feed their families in the southern Italian
metropolis. The article cites a local government report from 2011 which noted
that 54,000 children left the education system in the Campania region between
2005 and 2009. Some 38 per cent of these children were less than 13 years
old.
The article goes on to record how child labour has become a fact of
life in the region, with small children involved in a broad range of
occupations. The deputy mayor of Naples is cited as saying: “Of course, we were
the poorest region in Italy. But we haven’t seen a situation like this since the
end of the Second World War… At age 10, these kids are already working 12 hours
a day, which is a clear breach of their right to development”.
The Le
Monde article points out that the desperate plight of children and youth in the
region is a direct result of the austerity measures and financial “reforms”
introduced by a succession of Italian governments. These have sharply reduced or
eliminated access to federal welfare benefits for the unemployed and
poor.
The main support for young people and their families in the region
is provided by local associations, which are increasingly being starved of
funding. The article notes that 20,000 workers in such schemes in the Campania
region have not received pay for the past two years.
The re-emergence of
child labour is not an Italian question. Two hundred years after the birth of
the novelist Charles Dickens, who graphically portrayed the consequences of such
practices, child labour is a problem which now confronts all of Europe. It is a
devastating indictment of the political consensus in Europe, including social
democratic parties and the trade unions, which back the euro zone and its
policies.
WSWS
