Around the world, some 215 million children—nearly one in seven—go to jobs or labor at home rather than attend school. American history, too, is rife with the stories of children made to work in factories and mines.

Even for Newt Gingrich, this is bizarre.

The Republican presidential candidate says child labor laws are “stupid.” But that’s just the start. He says schools should “get rid of unionized janitors” and hire low-income kids to clean the schools. He also says that age nine is a good time to get a job.

While Maine Gov. Paul LePage continues to hold hostage a mural depicting the state’s labor history that he ordered removed from state property in March, the Maine AFL-CIO and artist Judy Taylor arranged for a reproduction of the mural to be displayed at Rockville, Md.’s nonprofit arts center, VisArts.

Iqbal Masih was a Pakistani carpet weaver who was sold into slavery at age four. After escaping from his servitude at 12, he became an outspoken advocate against child slavery.

The global union movement is calling for governments, employers and workers to take action to halt the exploitation of child labor around the world, and especially in Uzbekistan.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R)—the same LePage who was so incensed about a labor history mural that included a depiction of the fight for strong child labor laws that he ordered it taken down—signed a bill yesterday that weakens Maine’s child labor laws.

Wow. I’m blown away. The only-known video and audio recording of Mary Harris ”Mother” Jones is in the clip at left. Recorded in 1930, on what possibly was her 100th birthday (historians aren’t sure of her year of birth), it shows even at an advanced age, she hadn’t lost any of the spark that fueled her life-long activism on behalf of improving the lot of workers.

Why is it that some Republican lawmakers really want to see the return of child labor?

While workers across Egypt and other nations are marching in the streets to advance their countries toward democracy and a better life, workers in the United States are facing attacks on every advance they’ve gained in decades. Case in point: yesterday, three state legislatures tried to weaken unions with so-called “right to work”  laws.

I have been writing about politics and legislation from a workers’ viewpoint for the better part of three decades. I still get angry and my blood pressure jumps when politicians come after workers and unions with the same old lies and bull crap that we are seeing today in states across the country. Just check out here, here and here what’s happening in Wisconsin.