THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT.

       The Spirit of Revolt is a group that are attempting to archive as much material as possible of anarchist, libertarian socialist, grass-roots activities, from the Glasgow/Clydeside area. To date we have met with considerable success and have now acquired and catalogued a fair volume of material, which we will make available to the general public through the medium of our website, still under construction, and the Mitchell Library catalogue.

      We have also planned to have a series of exhibitions highlighting certain aspects of the collection. The first of these exhibitions will be held from the 14th. to the 19th. of January, 2013, in the foyer of the Mitchell Library. It is called Radical Presses Clydeside it's free and should prove to be fascinating to all those interested in working class struggle. I hope you can all come along, have a chat with members of the group and find out how you can get involved.

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WE ARE THE MAKERS OF HISTORY.

     Wouldn't it be wonderful if our children and grandchildren could read history like the following article? Well only this generation can make that possible, it is up to us to decide what history will look like to our following generations. Will it be a history of leaders and billionaires, of war and poverty shattering the lives of millions, of corporate greed still running rampant while raping and pillaging the planet for the gain of the parasitical few? Or will it be a history of peace, and an economic system that sees to the needs of all our people?  What we do in the coming year will shape our history, will we continue to allow the financial Mafia to pillage the public purse creating deprivation and death, or do we, with one united voice, cry out, enough is enough?

This from A World to Win:

When people decided that enough was enough.

New Year's message

society was being overwhelmed by a series of catastrophes to which there seemed no answers. Unemployment, poverty and inequality were rife as a global crisis took hold. The old capitalist economic system had run its course and was unsustainable.
The world was choked with products, many of them out of date as soon as they came off the production lines. Huge dumps and rubbish piles accumulated and overwhelmed parts of the planet. Waste, some of it lethal, became big business as it was shipped across the globe.
People became poorer as they lost jobs and services were cut by undemocratic governments in the pockets of the corporations. Increasing numbers depended on charity food banks just to survive. Obesity and diabetes epidemics affected the poor – due to the marketing of junk food by agribusiness and supermarkets.

Read the full article HERE:

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FAIR MINDED MR. SMITH.

        So Ian Duncan Smith thinks it is not fair that benefits have increased more than wages, and believes that benefit increases should be capped below the rate of inflation. Of course, in his drive for fairness, the fact that wages have increased less than the rate of inflation doesn't mean that he will call for an increase in wage settlements. What fair minded Ian Duncan Smith fails to mention, is that those on benefit, as a rule, tend to be living near, at, or below the poverty level, and any increase below the rate of inflation will most certainly push them further down that depressing pit. Bearing in mind that a large proportion of those who are working are also at, near, or below the poverty level, any wage increase that is below the rate of inflation is in fact a wage cut, adding more pressure to the endless struggle just to get by. Which is the situation that the ordinary working population of this country have been suffering for more than two years. Will our righteous Mr Smith, in his crusade for fairness, call on employers to make all wage increase at least equal to or greater than inflation. Most certainly not, that is not the direction to go if your are trying to create a UK sweatshop economy. Make no mistake about it, that is the grand plan, not just for the UK, but for the whole of Europe. Bit by bit we are being squeezed, bit by bit our standard of living is being lower. We are not at the level of the people of Greece, yet, but we are going in that direction, it is just a matter of time. Unless of course we decide that we have had enough of being screwed by millionaires, for the benefit of millionaires, and start to take control and change the system to one that sees to the needs of all our people.

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TO GOD, IT'S ALL IN A DAYS WORK.

      To those of us who sometimes wonder why America is the undisputed leader in mass killings by individuals, the article "Newtown Indian Massacre" on Anarchist News, comes up with a plausible line of thought.

        How do we know this? Because among hundreds of other tragic events going back to its origins, this country was founded on a two century long wave of massive institutionalized gun violence, the merciless annihilation of Native Americans who, because they resisted the imposition of the market and private property, were destroyed in a holocaust of unprecedented proportions. We question how the German people could accept the destruction of the Jewish people, but never ask the same question of 19th century Americans. Largely, Americans believed that they were doing God’s work. Manifest destiny is the destiny of money ordained by the spirit of Puritanism, and pity those who stood in the way. When it came to expansion, God led the Cavalry charge.

Read the full article HERE:

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A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

      America is seen as the dominant capitalist country in the world, and it follows that, by being the prison capital of the world. America had, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2,266,800 adults incarcerated in U.S. federal and state prisons, and county jails at year-end 2010 – about 0.7% of adults in the U.S. resident population. This is way more than Russia and more than China, which is a country with a quarter of the earth's population.  The American prison population really started to rocket into stratospheric regions from the 1980's onward. It now has more people caged up than all of the other developed countries put together. It is also supposed to be a country based on justice and freedom but still manages to pass sentences 100 years or more on people. Though violent crime had fallen in America between 1992 and 2003, life sentences have risen dramatically by 83% during the same period. The year 2012 saw 43 executions in America, a total of 1,320 since 1976. The prison system has been called a crime against humanity, the death penalty is no more and no less than authoritarian state murder.

     Land of Freedom, leader of the free democratic world? Cage capital of the world!!! 

This from Anarchist News:

      On December 31st, at least 60 people responded to the call for a noise demo outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in downtown Manhattan. The crowd easily filled the street in front of the institution and an aural ruckus filled the air from noisemakers, voices, air horns, a variety of drums, and even a proper brass trumpet.

      Anti-prison and anti-police chants from the crowd accompanied a banner reading "BURN THE PRISON SOCIETY." Rebels in the street cheered on the caged and excluded as they banged on their windows, flicked lights on and off, and gave other signals of life from within an otherwise deadening, lifeless building. We moved back and forth around the building to be sure everyone could hear our screams and tried to be as close as possible to the cell of anarchist hacker Jeremy Hammond as we chanted his name.
     Let's make 2013 a terrifying year for capitalists and state operatives the world over and a joyous year for those seeking the triumph of life over death.
OUR PASSION FOR FREEDOM IS STRONGER THAN THEIR PRISONS
FOR THE ANNIHILATION OF PRISON AND THE PRISON-SOCIETY

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WORKERS, REMEMBER YOUR HISTORY, ATTICA PRISON.

      An event that shocked all sane people that heard of it, now drifts into mist of history, but we should never forget how brutal the state can react, any state, not just those far away despot regimes, but our own Western, so called civilised democratic states. In 1971 in Attica Prison New York the American state unleashed its fury at those who would attempt to defy its authority and a blood bath resulted.

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THE MASKING OF DEPRIVATION.

        While the media was spewing out images of everybody having a great time over the last week or so, we should remember that nothing has changed, austerity is still the plan. With fireworks, tinsel and an array of nicely wrapped boxes, it is easy to forget the misery inflicted the poor on a daily basis by this austerity and it is still there. Christmas has done nothing for the people of Greece who are still being rapidly pushed down the slope to the pit of deprivation. The media would have you think otherwise, with glowing reports of how the financial Mafia have agreed the terms for the next slice of bailout. Which in fact will never go anywhere near the ordinary people of Greece, it is merely to help out the Greek banksters. Just remember, Greece's today is our tomorrow, unless, of course, we change the system.

This from LibCom:

      As more loans have been released to the Greek state a combination of recent surveys and reports show the true effects of years of austerity. There has been across the board reductions in conditions and living standards for large parts of the Greek population.
       The political and financial worlds have been feeling pretty pleased with themselves recently. The next instalment of loans to the Greek state have been released and the country's credit rating has even improved. The Prime Minister and his government tell us that this means Greece is on the road to recovery. The government and it's international lenders have saved Greece, just in time for Christmas.
In contrast to the official optimism(or delusion) a recent round of reports and surveys shows that the situation is in fact getting worse. Unemployment, corruption, suicide and homeless rates continue to rise as living standards and wages fall.
      The latest unemployment rate is around 26% and is expected to rise further still. 26% of the Greek working population comes to over one million people without work. In addition to this it's also possible that up to 500,000 more are unemployed but not included in official statistics. As the economy is expected to contract further in 2013 we should expect this rate to keep rising.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE CORPORATE VIEW OF HAPPINESS???

       Well the greed, gluttony, over consumption, festival of massive waste is all but over, for the time being. However this is capitalism and over consumption is the name of the game. Even although the illusion that this is happiness is soon dulled by the weight of debt left behind, it seems to repeat itself again and again. This system creates a world of obscene contrasts. Where we have this multitude gorging on all things material, we have millions dying of starvation, where we have millions titillating phony material desires created by advertising propaganda, on the other side of the coin we have millions desperately seeking material things simply for their survival. Surely even an idiot can see that there is something wrong with the system.

This from The Situation:

Thoughts on Christmas, and the Battle Between Materialism and Anti Materialism within Consumption Culture.
       The circus has once again come to town, hundreds upon hundreds upon thousands upon millions of feet are marching up and down streets all over the country (indeed all of the world) on a multitude of separate quests- chasing something, a dream, an image, an impossible reality sold to each and every one of us on our t.v’s, on billboards and in magazines. Like the children of Hamelin running blissfully towards their unhappy [1]ending all of us march glazed eyed and dozy footed through rows of lights and tinsel, eyes shining towards that unattainable moment, that glorious realization that can never quite be reached; because each time we get close to reaching material satisfaction, the advertiser, the store owner, the profiteer, our peers, and even ourselves snatch it away and raise the bar a little higher.
     Yet doggedly we keep on, believing somewhere somehow perhaps that in material we will find salvation, that among the cess pit of new toys, lingerie, and Christmas fucking pudding we might find something that will bring daylight streaming into the underside of the hill[2]- but we won’t. Shopping, the quest for material enlightenment is like masturbation without the orgasm[3]. Yet, when Christmas is done and put away and we go back to working overtime at our nine to fives to pay back the money we owe to loan sharks and credit card companies; we will if nothing else have once again achieved one giant cum stain of waste, broken toys, and half eaten food in the landfill of post consumer commodities.

Read the full article HERE:

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RED AND BLACK.

       There is nothing like a bit of emotion to get you all fired up. I've seen this show three times and if it comes round my way again, I'll probably go and see it once more. Enjoy.

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ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY.

        New year, new year resolutions, great hopes, a time when we aim for our dreams. What is the dream of the ordinary people of this world, and what is the dream of the corporate power of this world? Will your dream be on the right side of history, will you make history and help that dream become a reality.

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WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

    For all those anarchists with an imagination and a vision of their utopian better world, you know, the one that we are all working so hard to achieve. Could you put it into words, what is the anarchist world you're struggling so hard to create, what would it look like? I have no doubt we will all come up with a different picture, but I have no doubt there will be some basics that will be universal, a deep respect for the other, co-operation and mutual aid, will be the basic building blocks.

A wee challenge from Combustion Books:

Introducing the Anarchist Imagination

     Everyone knows the world is a mess. There’s starvation and ecocide, racism and sexism. The rich get richer and the poor get dead, all while species go extinct and carbon warms up the air. It’s not surprising that so much of our fiction is as bleak as our future threatens to be.

      But we can imagine other worlds. We can imagine better ways to organize ourselves, better ways to treat one another, better ways to treat the earth. And specifically, we can imagine worlds without the authoritarianism of the state and capitalism. The question, then, is: what would those worlds look like?

     Combustion Books, a worker-run publisher of genre fiction, is looking to publish a new line of books: The Anarchist Imagination. We are looking for novella-length (15,000-40,000 words) anarchist utopias.

       Our intention is not, of course, to put down blueprints that must be followed line by line. We offer no prescription for future society. Instead, the utopia is a form we can use to explore our revolutionary desires, to showcase ideas we might put into practice, to give us glimpses of what we fight for.

     The utopia is a peculiar form of fiction to write, to be sure, and we’re looking for stories that balance the exposition of society with compelling narrative and character. The stories can be set in our own world–past, present, or future–or in fantasy. The politics can be anything anti-state, the economics anything that isn’t capitalism. As this series goes on, we hope to showcase just how wide this terrain can be.

Submissions can be sent to submissions@combustionbooks.org.
You can also view our regular submission guidelines.

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WHOSE RIGHT DIRECTION?

       David Cameron in his new year speech has said that Britain “is heading in the right direction”, and he really means it. As far as our millionaire parasite Prime Minister and his millionaire corporate cronies are concerned, we are “moving in the right direction”. Two years of shrinking incomes due to wage freezes/cuts and wage increases of less than inflation, have taken the country nearer to that corporate dream of a low wage sweatshop economy. It is all falling into place, low wages, part-time workers desperate to hold onto their carp job, temporary contracts that can be cancelled at a moments notice and a massive erosion of workers rights and entitlements. A few more years of this and our corporate masters will be able to compete with any sweatshop in the East. Their other success story is of course the cuts in social spending. To the corporate greed merchants, social spending is tax money, if we can get rid of all that mamby-pamby social spending nonsense, it would mean a reduction in taxes and therefore, an increase in their profits. In their philosophy of greed and exploitation, if people want services of any kind, social or otherwise, they can purchase them from the corporate world. Of course if you can't afford that, well, tough, that's not their problem.

     Yes Mr Cameron, you can hold your head up high among your millionaire corporate cronies, you have been successful in taking the people of this country well down the path of transformation from workers to serfs. However, if I were you, I would not get too confident and complacent, I do expect the people of this country will start to stand up and do to you, what you have done to them, and kick the shit out of you, and those millionaire corporate cronies. We will not quietly crawl into serfdom, we have been there before. 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY PANAGIOTI.

        In Glasgow in February 2012 I arranged an Earth First talk/discussion/meeting with two America Earth Firsters, Panagioti and his partner Carla. The evening was a great success. They have been life long campaigners in trying to get us all to treat our precious planet with more respect. As usual I am a bit late with the birthday wishes, it was Panagioti's birthday on the 28th December, happy birthday comrade. It appears it will be a double whammy for him and Carla as the birthday will be followed by the birth of their first child. Congratulations.

This from Earth First Magazine:

        If industrial civilization were to collapse any time soon–and its looking like it could happen any day now–it’d be in no small part due to the rather outrageous and tireless misadventures of a little known biocentric biped called Panagioti. 
    Though he has no formal education past 10th grade — “diploma-free and proud” as he’d say — you’d be hard pressed to find a smarter and more politically influential animal amongst the more radical environmental milieu, especially in the South. He’s also a real sweetheart, a soon-to-be-father, my best friend and all around nice guy and superhero.

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FROM THE HEART.

    Perhaps instead of theorising we should start to follow our emotions and when we discuss, we should speak from the heart, not from the book. The following short piece might sound soppy to some, but would it be bad if lots more spoke and felt like this?

From united99:

      I typed this just now in an argument with others who feel workers make what they deserve. There are typos, there are things that are not worded right, but it is from the heart...Right now I am in a state in the USA which is sooo anti-workers that it makes my heart weep! I feel that this is the sortof place where this sortof speech needs to be given. The workers who are making 7.00 working at factories which make millions are incredibly dangerous, this men need to know that they are worth more than minimum wage. Workers who are forced to be without their families on holidays and for the vast majority of the day and night deserve to know that they are worth more than money, they are priceless. Workers have lost their pride, their heart, their motive, their souls so to say. It would be easy to give a speech and wage a war in an area which already has a strong labor movement, but in a right to work state, which is really a right to fire state, these men need their muscle back. I will die for my fellow workers, I will gladly spend time in prison for my fellow worker, I will be poverty stricken if it means that I am doing it on my terms and not those of some shitty business, some call center, some factory, some fast food place, some warehouse. Tonight I decided that my years of travel and activism, that it would all mean nothing if I did not finally put MORE action to my words, and those actions and words are following in the footsteps of Eugene V Debs or Bill Haywood. Tonight I begin my steps toward real freedom.

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FIGHTING FOR OURSELVES.

     For those interested, the Solidarity Federation's new book, "Fighting for Ourselves" gets a detailed review in The Commune.

"---- Yet it is not quite. Despite a few caveats about SolFed not being the be all and end all, this is a SolFed-centric vision. This is maybe most evident in the passage about the SolFed Local:

“At the heart of the anarcho-syndicalist union is the Local, which aims to be at the centre of community and workplace struggle in the surrounding area. But the role of the Local goes beyond that. It provides the physical space where a diverse range of groups, such as oppressed, cultural, and education groups can organise. The Local acts as the social, political, and economic centre for working class struggle in a given area. It is the physical embodiment of our beliefs and methods, the means by which workers become anarcho-syndicalist not just on the basis of ideas but activity.”

     Such bodies will need to exist. But if there is a particular reason why they should be part of – or mainly facilitated by – SolFed, it is not described within these pages. Thinking of Liverpool radical politics right now, I would love to be in such a group with the SolFed comrades, but I’d want AFed comrades there too, as well as the many unaligned comrades who make up the overwhelming majority of radical class struggle activists.----"

Read the full review HERE: 

      You can buy hard copies of Fighting for ourselves for £6 (including p&p) from Freedom Press (UK – £5 in the shop), and for $10+p&p from Thoughtcrime Ink Books (North America). It can also be viewed or downloaded for free from the ‘Selfed’ website.

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REMEMBER THOSE OTHERS WANT TO FORGET.

     Even in those least democratic areas of the developed world, people will celebrate, to welcome in the new year, passing greetings between friends and neighbours. However, in these areas there are those who cannot celebrate with friends and families. They are prisoner of the state. Locked in their cramped conditions, suffering isolation, loneliness and repression, we should not forget them. 

This from Contra Info:

      “Persons locked up behind bars stop living, they just survive in prison. Every one of them makes their own mold into which they’re supposed to fit, finding refuge in standardized behaviours and reactions (…) one becomes simply a number, another accusatory brief scattered on an iron bed, in a narrow prison cell. A number less, who cares. In any event, the punitive system thinks that inmates haven’t ever been born but just sprung up from somewhere, and they can just as easily be uprooted.” [excerpts from a comrade’s letter on prisons]
      Monday, December 31st, 2012 by 23.30pm Solidarity gathering outside Koridallos women’s prisons
      From Santiago to Montreal, and from Thessaloniki to Chania: 10, 100, 1000 solidarity gatherings outside prisons, juvenile detentions centres, immigration concentration camps
When all others celebrate, we remember those that others want to forget
—anarchists

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A HARD AND POVERTY NEW YEAR TO YOU!!!!

        Well it is that time of year when we start to think of what the next year will bring. You can rest assured that as far as the ordinary people are concerned, it will not be a year of prosperity, though it most likely will be for the corporate world. For them, profits up, taxes down, for you and and I, continued wage freezes/cuts, as pay increases stay below inflation, more part-time jobs, less job security. We will also face increased prices in food and energy, poverty and deprivation will be on the increase, more "austerity" cuts, more attacks on the most vulnerable in our society. This is the plan for many years to come, when will we as the general public, say, enough is enough? This article from The Guardian points the path that our millionaire parasites have in store for us, the ordinary people of this country. The one line I might disagree with is "---with workers maintaining a 'grin and bear it' attitude", I sincerely hope not. I would expect to see greater organisation and resistance from the workers. Why should we "grin and bear it" to the benefit of the corporate parasites when we don't have to. There are alternatives.

Workers face 'hard year of slog' in 2013

      New year will bring longer hours, continued squeeze on pay, fewer new posts and more job insecurity, warns economist. Workers can expect longer hours, a continued squeeze on pay and fewer jobs being created in 2013, in a "hard year of slog", a new report has warned.

    Job insecurity will remain high, with workers maintaining a "grin and bear it" attitude, said John Philpott, director of The Jobs Economist. Unemployment is forecast to increase by 120,000 to 2.63 million in 2013 because growth in the workforce will exceed the number of jobs being created, Philpott said.

Read the full article HERE:

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THE CORPORATE WORLD FOSTERS CHILD SLAVERY.

        An appeal from AVAAZ regarding child slave labour in India. Slavery is abhorrent in any form, but child slavery must rank at the bottom of the barrel. No child should be denied an education, no child should have its potential destroy, no child should be denied its childhood.

  
Dear friends,

India is stalling the toughest child labour law in its history... because politicians say it’s not a ‘priority’! But the majority of MPs support it and all they need is a massive public push to bring it to a vote. Let´s raise our voices for India´s children. Sign now:

     The Indian Parliament is closing without passing the toughest child labour law in its history. Worse, the bill is supported by the majority of MPs, but it was ignored for weeks, because they felt it was not a ‘priority’!

     India is the world’s child labour capital -- kids as young as five are sold to traffickers and forced to work as modern-day slaves, abused and beaten. The historic new bill would ban outright any child labour under 14 and provide stipends for poor families to keep their children in school. But MPs have let it fall off their agenda, and Indian child rights groups say they badly need our help, now, to ramp up the public pressure.

     If the Avaaz community comes together, we can create a wave of attention to the bill, and push MPs to vote. Sign this urgent petition and forward it widely -- when we reach 1 million we’ll deliver our message to the Parliament with former child workers:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/india_child_labour_g1/?bwqhjab&v=20550

    A staggering 215 million children work in mines, quarries, and factories around the world. All nations have signed an agreement to put the eradication of child labour at the heart of their national education plans. But, India is home to the largest child labour force in the world. If the new law passes, it would ban all child labour for under 14-year-olds and all harmful work for under 18s. The law even has provisions to ensure it doesn’t hurt the poorest families -- enshrining the right to free education and proposing stipends to compensate any losses.

     Critics say the real problem isn’t the law, it’s bad enforcement. And it’s true that in the last three years in India less than 10% of the 450,000 reports of child labour were prosecuted under the existing, weak, law. But the new law packs some serious punch. The police will no longer have to wait for a court order to act. All forms of commercial child labour under 14 will be criminalised, and instead of meaningless fines or short prison sentences, the criminals will face tough penalties.

    While the majority of MPs say they'll support the bill, there's no political urgency to bring it to a vote. But each day they delay, more children are forced into a life of sweatshop misery. It’s up to us to push them over the edge. Sign the petition to India's MPs now, and share widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/india_child_labour_g1/?bwqhjab&v=20550

     The Avaaz community has campaigned to protect the children and the most vulnerable, time and time again. Just weeks ago, 1.2 million of us got together to help pass the most comprehensive education plan in Pakistan. How we treat our children is a reflection on our moral compass -- and it´s time to take firm steps against their abuse. Let’s join together to speak out for the future of India’s suffering children.

With hope and determination,

Jamie, Alice, Alex, Alaphia, Lisa, Jeremy, Ricken, Dalia, Rewan, Michelle and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION:

India proposes ban on child labor (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/india-proposes-ban-on-child-labor/2012/08/29/ef9d802a-f1f2-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_story.html

Getting ready for the new law against child labour (The Hindu)
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3878212.ece

Over 60 million child laborers in India (India Tribune)
http://www.indiatribune.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2884:over-60-million-child-laborers-in-india

35 child workers rescued from Delhi factories (Business Line)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/35-child-workers-rescued-from-delhi-factories/article1694550.ece

End Child Labour and Educational Disadvantage - report and film
http://educationenvoy.org/

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