Fellow travellers

The founder of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin, is supposed to have referred to them as “useful idiots”. Other folk refer to them as “fellow travellers”. I am sure you could come up with even more imaginative terms.

Whatever you call them, here is news to make you jump for joy.

The official propaganda sheet of the Castro regime, Granma, reports today that there has been an increase in the number of “solidarity groups” established around the world to “support the Cuban Revolution”.

So many groups are being formed all over the place the newspaper says “solidarity with Cuba is now unstoppable”.

Isn’t that terrific?

The paper quotes figures issued by the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People (ICAP) that show 66 such groups were formed during the year, taking the total number around the world to 1,932.

These supposedly independent groups operate much in the same way as the old Soviet or East German “friendship societies” that sprung up during the Cold War.

In fact, these solidarity groups are closely watched by the ICAP, which was set up in the mid 1960s by Fidel Castro to help spread his message internationally – with considerable success.

In the early days, many of the groups were said to have been funded directly from Havana.

Their role has always been to essentially parrot the Castro line, writing letters to newspapers, organising “educational” tours of Cuba, distributing copies of speeches and other official propaganda, and hosting occasional visits by Communist Party officials.

In other words, useful idiots.