The leader of the left-wing and terrorist-linked Sinn Fein party in Ireland, Mary Lou McDonald expressed her “solidarity” with the murderous communist regime in Cuba and blamed the lack of freedom on the island on the United States embargo.
Amid widespread and historic protests against the dictatorship across Cuba, in which the people have demanded their freedom from socialist tyranny, the one-time political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has come out in support of the “just cause” of the communist regime.
Speaking on the 68th anniversary of the Fidel Castro-led communist revolution, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said: “We send our ongoing message of support and solidarity to the Cuban people and to their president Díaz-Canel.”
“We say again, that your cause is just and the blockade of your country is unfair, unjust, and must end.”
“We urge all international leaders, but particularly those in the United States of America to end the sanctions, to end the blockade, and to allow the Cuban people to breathe again and to live freely.”
The leftist MP went on to heap praise on the Cuban regime’s slave doctor system, the Henry Reeve Brigade, for its role during the Chinese coronavirus crisis. The dictatorship’s medical system has long been propped up as a shining example by leftists figures across the world, however, in reality, defectors from the programme have likened the system to slavery.
A 2019 report from the Wall Street Journal found that some 50,000 Cuban doctors have been forced by the regime to work in dangerous and squalid conditions throughout Latin America, Africa, and the South Pacific, with the government in Havana taking as much as 75 per cent of their wages, earning the communist government some $11 billion per year.
The Sinn Fein leader concluded by raising her fist and saying “Venceremos”, a socialist phrase in Spanish meaning “we will win”.
In response to the message of solidarity for the communist government from Sinn Fein, Irish MP Neale Richmond of the centre-right Fine Gael party said: “Cuba is a barbaric dictatorship where those who dissent from the regime flee in makeshift rafts across shark-infested waters to avoid persecution. This is Shinner solidarity purely with the elites of this dictatorship, not the people of Cuba. Shameful. #CubaLibre.”
Many on the political left have argued that the failures of the Castro regimes and the incumbent Díaz-Canel are a result of the United States embargo on the island. However, the restrictions do not apply to medical or humanitarian aid and Cuba is still free to trade with giant economic players such as the European Union and China.
Far-left figures in the United States, such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Marxist revolutionary Black Lives Matter movement have both attempted to shift blame for the abject poverty in Cuba away from communism and onto the restrictions imposed by the U.S.
The head of Political Economy for the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, Dr Kristian Niemietz noted in response to McDonald’s statement: “The best argument for lifting the US trade embargo on Cuba is that it would deprive commies of their favourite excuse for Cuba’s poverty.”
Sinn Fein has been characterised as “inextricably linked” to the terrorist Irish Republican Army (IRA), which throughout the 20th century waged a campaign of terror throughout Britain and Ulster, including bombings of pubs, shopping centres, school buses, and Remembrance Day memorials for servicemen who died during World War II.
The party has also had long ties to the communist regime in Cuba, with the former leader of the party, Gerry Adams personally attending the funeral of the former dictator Fidel Castro in 2016. The Republic of Ireland has even issued postage stamps with Che Guevera’s face on.
Adams praised Castro at the time, saying that the murderous leader had was “very affable, very [open and] good-humoured” and that he received a “Christmas card every year” from the Cuban dictator.
The former Sinn Fein leader went on to call Castro “one of the great revolutionary leaders – a hero and friend of Ireland”.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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