Meeting Noam Chomsky

Official Noam Chomsky Website

Ok, there is absolutely no excuse for posting such a blurry, bad cellphone excuse for a photograph. Except for the reason that it is a photo of Noam Chomsky and I. In the same room. Shaking hands. He has participated in the Harvard Trade Union Program for the past 23 years and is quite proud of that fact. In the course of an afternoon, he recommends an astonishing number of books or articles to read by authors or scholars he thinks we would find provocative. (I have scribbled each and every one of them into my Hilroy notebook as I plan to read them in my post-meeting-Noam life.)

He is certainly counting on all of us to revitalize the labour movement. He found hope in the dynamism of the Arab Spring. Can Occupiers link with the labour movement? He says many things that stick like a burr in my brain - "Corporations are basically destroying the country. The investment class will clip their coupons." A business-class culture consumed with short-term maximization of profits tends to ignore issues that will affect future generations - like global warming, for example. He is interested in us as labour leaders and encourages us to fight back - "the class war has to be two-sided." I'm so glad Noam is on our side.