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Emmet Curtin
Vita Cortex

Vita Cortex workers meet with Noam Chomsky in Cork

During their protest last year, Chomsky send workers messages of support commending them for their “courageous and honourable actions”

A GROUP OF former workers at the Vita Cortex plant in Cork met today with renowned scholar and political activist Noam Chomsky who has been in Ireland for the last number of days.

The workers who spent 161 days on a sit-in protest at their former workplace last year were accompanied by campaign organisers Darren O’Keeffe and Veronica Marshall.

The meeting took place this afternoon during which the workers and Chomsky discussed the campaign which ended on 24 May last year with the workers securing a fair and equitable redundancy settlement.

During the six month protest, Chomsky sent the workers messages of support, commending them for their “courageous and honourable actions”. He described their action as a “just and crucial campaign for basic rights”.

(Image: Emmet Curtin)

During today’s meeting he 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 said he felt the campaign fostered and harnessed appetite amongst the community to defend neighbours who were being exploited.

Professor Chomsky will speak on ‘The Threats to Humanity’s Freedom and Existence’ to an attendance of close to 450 people at the Devere Hall in the UCC Student centre this evening. The event which is sold out follows on from his appearance in The RDS in Dublin last night.

Read: President to meet with former Vita Cortex workers>
Read: Noam Chomsky backs Vita Cortex workers>

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