'See workers' democracy in action,' group says
Ian Jack, National Post Online, Canada. September 13, 2000
OTTAWA - Members of the New Democratic Party are planning a tour of Cuba, one of the world's last Communist dictatorships, to "breathe the fresh air of a workers' state!"
"Tour members hope to return to Canada with lessons and examples for the New Democratic Party," says a draft itinerary for the trip, timed to coincide with May Day, 2001. Up to 75 members of the NDP Socialist Caucus intend to spend one or two weeks visiting such landmarks as Lenin Park
in Havana, a sugar cane fibre cardboard factory, and Varadero Beach, which the itinerary says, "hosts numerous parks, museums and recreational opportunities."
Most Canadians know Varadero more for the beaches, resorts and prostitutes who hang out nearby, hungry for U.S. dollars to buy food and other necessities.
Wayne Harder, communications director for the federal NDP, said the group is not officially sanctioned by the party and will get no funding.
"It's a group of people within the party. It is not an official caucus," Mr. Harder said. "The Web site's not ours. The party is not organizing any tours to Cuba."
A Web site for the socialist caucus trumpets the trip as the first-ever tour of Cuba by NDP rank-and-file. "See workers' democracy in action," it urges. "Witness a society committed to meeting the needs and wants of all of its citizens."
The trip to the one-party state will allow participants to "encounter the enthusiasm of a people in charge of their own destiny," according to the Web site.
The socialist caucus was founded in 1998 and rejects the "third way" espoused by Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Britain. It wants the party to return to its socialist roots.
Mariela Ferretti, spokeswoman for a group opposed to the rule of Fidel Castro, was appalled at what she called the group's naiveté.
"It's really shameful that self-proclaimed defenders of workers' rights would go to Cuba," Ms. Ferretti, of the Cuban-American National Foundation, said from Miami. "Far from a workers' paradise, Cuba is a workers' nightmare. Cubans are powerless and exploited."
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