Sinn Fein to send members to Cuba in bid to learn from Communist dictatorship’s ‘shining example’
SINN Fein intends to send members to Cuba in a bid to learn from the Communist dictatorship’s “shining example”.
The party is organising a “solidarity tour” of the Caribbean island nation.
Cuba is lauded by left-wingers for its health and education systems, despite a litany of human rights failures.
Party activists who go on the 15-day trip would “learn more about the Cuban revolution, build solidarity links with Cuba, and support a project in Cuba”, they have been told.
Sinn Fein hopes it will become an annual event with members asked to cover the €1,600 cost themselves.
It is to be organised via the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples.
Sean Crowe TD is among those keen to jet off to Havana.
He revealed: “It is still at the tentative stage but the party is looking at possibly going.
“In the past there would have been work brigades in support of the Cuban people against the US blockade.
MOST READ IN NEWS
"So it’d be part of that and to look at how the system operates there. Others have gone in the past, such as the Workers’ Party and Labour Youth.
“A lot of people around the world would look at Cuba as a shining example of a small country standing up to naked aggression. And we remember what happened with the Bay of Pigs.
“In Latin America, it is looked on as an alternative to the neo-liberal regimes popping up all around that part of the world.”