Noam Chomsky meets Vita Cortex workers in Cork City

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

‘I would just like to express, again, my support for your struggle – not just for yourselves but for everyone who looks forward for a better world.’ – Noam Chomsky to the Vita Cortex workers’ sit-in last year

NOAM CHOMSKY, the world-famous political philosopher and activist, spent 90 minutes in Cork this week with workers who had occupied the Vita Cortex plant for 161 days last year for a fair redundancy deal.

The workers were accompanied by support campaign organisers Darren O’Keeffe (PhD candidate UCC) and Veronica Marshall (graduate of UCC).

The occupation ended on 24 May 2012 with the workers securing a fair and equitable redundancy settlement.

During the six-month protest, Professor Chomsky sent the sit-in two messages of support in which he described the workers’ actions as a “just and crucial campaign for basic rights” and he characterised his advocacy by saying:

“I would just like to express, again, my support for your struggle – not just for yourselves but for everyone who looks forward for a better world.”

During the meeting in Cork on Thursday, Professor Chomsky expressed his fascination and admiration for the way in which the people of Cork and Ireland rallied around the workers in their time of need. He felt the campaign fostered and harnessed appetite amongst the community to defend neighbours who were being exploited.

Thursday’s meeting came about following contacts made with the campaign through the Philosophy Society in UCC after Professor Chomsky had expressed a desire to meet with the workers as part of his visit to the university.

• Noam Chomsky speaking at his meeting with the Vita Cortex workers in Cork

▘The workers at the meeting with Professor Chomsky were: Jim Power, Henry O’Reilly, Seán Kelleher, Greg Marshall, Maurice Carey, Alan Walsh, Helen Crowley and Denis Ryan (Photos by Emmet Curtin)