Towards a Theoretical Framework for Understanding Capitalist Violence against Child Labor

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.10.2.0191
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019
• Pages: 191-219
• Author: Raju Das,Ashley Chen
• Subject Matter: capitalism,logic of accumulation,labor unfreedom,child labor,violence

World revieW of Political economy vol. 10 no. 2 Summer 2019

TOWARDS A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

FOR UNDERSTANDING CAPITALIST VIOLENCE

AGAINST CHILD LABOR

Raju Das and Ashley Chen

Raju Das (right) is a professor at York University, Toronto. He published

Marxist Class Theory for a Skeptical World (Brill, 2017), and will publish

Critical Reflections on Economy and Politics in India: A Class Theory

Perspective (Brill, 2020). He is currently writing Marx, Capital, and

Contemporary Capitalism: A Global Perspective (Taylor and Francis,

forthcoming). Email: rajudas@yorku.ca

Ashley Chen completed her MA at York University in 2013. She is

an independent scholar in Toronto as a part of a network of scholars

disseminating ideas for progressive social change. Email: ashley_chen@edu.

yorku.ca

Abstract: More than 150–200 million children work for a living in the world. A large

number of them experience violence. The economic aspect of child labor has received

much attention (as has the topic of violence against children as children), and rightly

so. But the extra-economic aspect of child labor (i.e., the sheer violence against children

as workers in the market-place and the workplace) has been relatively neglected. It

is necessary to conduct empirical studies on the topic, which, however, require prior

theoretical work. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework on violence

against child labor. Central to this framework are three inter-connected arguments: the

fact that under certain circumstances, and contrary to a widely-prevalent standpoint,

capitalism produces, and makes use of, a pool of workers who lack the freedom to enter

and exit a labor contract; the universal logic of capitalist accumulation interacting with

the context where some workers are children; and finally, the fact that violence against

child labor is enabled by a specific cultural aspect of capitalist society, “childism.”

Key words: capitalism; logic of accumulation; labor unfreedom; child labor; violence

Introduction

In contemporary society, violence against the human body is a normal phenome-

non (Browne-Miller 2012). Violence comes in many forms. Violence is collective

when it involves groups of people, as in a riot, a civil war and a mob lynching. This

has been widely studied (Sartre 1961; Arendt 1969; Das 1990; Spencer 2003).

192 RAJU DAS AND ASHLEY CHEN

WRPE Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/wrpe/

Violence can also be less spectacular (or everyday violence) when it is experi-

enced in the home, school or the workplace. Often most vulnerable sections of the

humanity (i.e., those with the least ability to cope with violence) experience it.

Violence against children, especially, children as workers, is a case in point.

More than 152 million children work for a wage in the world. A large number

of them experience everyday violence.1 The economic aspect of child labor has

received much attention (as has the topic of violence against children as children).

However, the sheer violence that marks children’s working lives—violence

against children as child laborers2—has been relatively neglected. There is a need

to fill this gap. It is necessary to conduct concrete empirical studies on the topic,

which require prior abstract theoretical work. The aim of this paper is to provide

some theoretical arguments, which are illustrated with some empirical evidence.

We hope that our theoretical arguments constituting a framework for understand-

ing violence against child laborers would help scholars and activists produce theo-

retically informed empirical studies on the topic.

The quality of a society is best judged on the basis of how well it treats its

women and children. All children—male and female children, children of differ-

ent ethnic/racial backgrounds, and children of poor and rich parents—should

have an opportunity to flourish in a loving, nurturing, safe environment and with

an adequate access to resources for their physical, emotional and intellectual

development. Yet, millions of children have to work for a wage for a living just

like the adults do, and many of them experience violence in the workplace

(UNICEF 2015).

Violence against children has consequences for society as it increases the

chances of them becoming violent as adults (Moser and McIlwaine 2006), and

violence has a dehumanizing effect (Sartre 1961). Violence against children raises

an ethical question (McDougall 2007), the question about the ethical nature of the

society we live in. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF (United Nations

International Children’s Emergency Fund), made the following remark on child

labor in a UNICEF press release:

That so many children should be forced to work—and endure the hardship and

abuse that so often comes with it—is more than simply unacceptable. It is

unconscionable. These children need to spend time learning and developing, not

labouring in a desperate attempt simply to survive. (UNICEF 2002)

Violence against children has been a historical phenomenon (Nardinelli

1982, 1990; Bolin-Hort 1989; Cunningham 1990). However, only in 1989 was

this recognized as an important global issue, when the UN Convention on the

Rights of the Child came into force. This issue received particular attention when