The terrible conditions under which workers particularly child workers of the nineteenth century had to labor inspired much of Marx's writing. Yet many of these conditions continue today. The International Labor Organization estimates that 218 million children work today. According to a 2010 report of Human Rights Watch, many U.S farm companies have children working for them Maria started working for a farm at age 11: You sweat. You walk until your feet hurt, you have blisters, and until you have cuts all over your hands... The ages [of fellow child workers] were always varied, 11 and 12 year olds, even10 year olds... The growers know that [children are there). They see that-they would pass when they drop off water. No one was going to say anything The pay You had to go really fast... You had to bend down for hours until your next break... There were people who got sick [from pesticides]. They never told us they were spraying pes- ticides], they would just say "waterin One summer... they were spraying things we didn't know what they were. We heard it was chemicals.