'Ethical Foreign Policy'? Yeah, right ...
It is hard to express how utterly disgusted I am by the Serious Fraud Office dropping its investigation into corruption in the deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.
It's quite bad enough that the British government allows arms supply to a vile oppressive regime like Saudi Arabia to start with. The corruption involved justs makes the whole thing stink even more. Now the investigation has been called off because the Saudi government pulled out of negotiations because it didn't want to be exposed and embarrassed.
But I think what gets me most is the bare-faced admission that yes, the investigation has been dropped to preserve relations with the House of Saud. Tony Blair says that letting the matter drop is 'in the national interest', presumably because Saudi Arabia is an 'ally' and because of the dosh involved.
Remember this New Labour regime coming to power promising an 'ethical foreign policy'? This is about as far from that as you could possibly get.
Some useful information which helps expose the true extent of this scandal:
- Dave Osler's blog has an informative article giving some background, including the Thatcher family's involvement.
- A year ago, Solidarity carried a report about conditions for BAE workers in Saudi Arabia.
- More from Solidarity on how the BAE/Saudi contract was used to grease some very dodgy political deals.
- Janine's blog
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Anti-imperialism
I was having a wide ranging discussion with a militant from the PCS the other night after our local anti-racist meeting. We got on to the issue of globalisation and anti-imperialism. He was making the point that globalisation changes everything because some companies now are bigger than some countries economies. I was making the point so what. These multinational companies are still tied to states even if that has to be modified to some extent in the case of European countries. Companies have the power to move location etc., and employ economic power, but that is just a function of capitalism which applies within a given state just as much as internationally. It remains states that have the monopoly of violence to use or not use in the pursuit of given goals.
He then raised the issue of the BAE/Saudi contract. But of course it is not BAE that are the main movers behind getting the investigation dropped, but the Saudi state. If anything the affair speaks against the idiot anti-imperialist notions - the guy I was speaking too doesn't fall into that category he is very hostile to the SWP, and very thoughtful - because the idiot anti-imperialists would probably consider Saudi Arabia a country oppressed by imperialism. Yet here it is able to assert its own independence to the extent of being able to influence political policy within another - this time actual - imperialist state.
Arthur Bough