TRADE unions have raised £100,000 for the Cuba Vive blockade-busting medical aid appeal, Labour conference delegates heard on Monday night.
And a packed Cuba Solidarity Campaign fringe meeting at Liverpool’s iconic Casa bar shook the rafters with cheers as Prison Officers Association general secretary Steve Gillan announced his union was pledging another £10,000.
Cuban ambassador Ismara Vargas Walter thanked British trade unionists for their solidarity with the socialist island, saying every delivery of medical equipment, no matter how small, made a difference to Cubans denied essential medicines by the 62-year illegal US blockade.
Where normally only the US and its ally Israel vote to strangle Cuba economically, there have been special efforts to slander and isolate the besieged socialist island nation year — so we must redouble our solidarity, writes TARIQ ANDERSON
Cuba Solidarity Campaign secretary BERNARD REGAN says the inhuman blockade of Cuba not only continues, but the Donald Trump administration is ratcheting up aggression against both Havana and Latin America more widely
During visits to Cheney School and Oxford Brookes University, Ismara Mercedes Vargas Walter highlighted how Cuba devotes half its budget to education, health and social security despite the US blockade, reports ROGER McKENZIE



