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Comment by abbassix | Hacker News Reader

Our heros fought and died for 8-hour working days and when we stop fighting, we go back to 12-hour working days! That is why you need to search for theinternationalism.org

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With declining birth rates big corporations might get the idea that "you know, child labour isn't really a big problem today with the extra precautions we take"

At the same time having these large companies that operate in emerging economies where they hide under the rug all child work exploitation.

> Sun 22 Mar 2026 11.00 EDT

> The number of child labor violations has risen fivefold in the last 10 years, but Republicans across the US are continuing to propose and pass legislation that rolls back protections or regulations for workers under the age of 18.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/22/child-labor-...

Random anecdote: I worked for years in the digital agency space and we basically just sold billable hours. Hours worked was everything. When crunch time hit, you worked until you were done. I once clocked 110 hours after working straight through two weekends on a remote work site to finish a huge project and when it was done, I was just there by myself. No one said a word. Boss didn't say anything, account manager didn't say anything, client didn't say anything. I never felt more alienated from a job than that moment.

did they also work for 8 hours a day in the gulag?

Gulags were the worst kind of exploitation; that is why we always were anti-Stalinist and always identified the USSR as 'state capitalism'! The fact that a state 'claims' socialism does not mean it 'is' socialist, just as North Korea claiming 'democratic' people's republic does not mean it is 'democratic'. Clear?

What about the millions killed in China and Cambodia? When do you look at the system you are proposing and understand it has been a disaster during its slow and inevitable economic implosion?

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