Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's despot King Abdullah bin Abdul Azaz al Saud will be coming to Britain on an official state visit at the end of October. Saudi Arabia is one of the most oppressive societies on earth: an Islamist hell hole in which there are no workers' organisations, political parties or independent media; in which women are kept in apartheid-like purdah, religious minorities harrassed and gay people systematically persecuted; and in which floggings, torture and public beheadings are the norm. (For more on Saudi Arabia, including an interview with a Saudi worker activist who fled to Britain, see...

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched a criminal inquiry into the dodgy business practices of BAE Systems, the worlds fourth largest arms supplier. The investigation will delve into BAE’s £40 billion Al Yamamah weapons deal with Saudi Arabia – signed in the 1980s – and the apparent ‘special arrangement’ with a member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Bandar. But why is the DoJ so interested in a deal between a British company and a Saudi royal? Why, if there are allegations of wrong-doing, are there no criminal proceedings here? It is alleged that Prince Bandar received secret...

Amnesty International has recently published its “league table” of rates of execution in countries around the world. 80% of executions worldwide were carried out by just one country. There are no prizes for guessing which... Yes, it’s China. 1700 people were murdered by the Chinese state last year. The other big offenders were Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US; those countries were responsible for 14% of executions. Gay and human rights activist Brett Lock (brettlock.blogspot.com) has done a useful analysis of the figures. He worked out at the rate of executions in each country relative to the...

Yahya al Alfaifi worked as a communication engineering technician (command post technician) at the British Aerospace plant at Dharan in Saudi Arabia for four years. He was sacked in 2002 for organising a meeting of BAe workers, considered a “a trade union action” in Saudi Arabia. Yahya will be speaking at the No Sweat conference in London on 26 November. He spoke to Cathy Nugent. BAe Systems does military aviation work for the Saudi Ministry of Defence. There are different gradations or demarcations among workers there. The British and American workers were considered “first class”. There were...

Around 25 lesbian and gay activists went to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London on 17 May to protest at the arrests and punishment of 105 men in the country, after allegedly attending a gay wedding in March this year. The protest, organised jointly by Outrage and the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association. It was one of hundreds that took place in more than 40 countries to mark the first International Day Against Homophobia. Thirty-five of the men have been sentenced to floggings. Some are being punished with up to 2000 lashes, which can be fatal. All 105 men have been sentenced to a year's jail...

By Cathy Nugent In February Saudi Arabia held the first round of municipal council elections — the country’s first direct elections since 1964. As democratic elections go they are very poor: only half the council seats are to be elected, the rest are appointed; the decision-making power of these councils is limited; no party affiliations are allowed (because all political parties are banned in the country); women were not allowed to vote, despite election rules which say that all Saudi citizens over the age of 21 are eligible to vote. A US spokesperson’s comment on the election was, “Saudi...

SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit Press Release: 17/01/04 The Scottish Socialist Party Parliamentary group today issued a warning to the Scottish Executive that they would be 'dining with despots' if they were to accept an invitation from His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al Faisal for dinner at the Caledonian Hilton Hotel on Monday, 26th January. Scottish Socialist Party National Convenor Tommy Sheridan denounced the visit in the strongest possible terms, saying; "Jack McConnell and his band of tinpot democrats are going to commit an act of breathtaking hypocrisy. "They were cheerleaders for...

THEIR DISASTER RELIEF, AND OURS The gross neglect and incompetence with which the US government responded to the New Orleans disaster is now well known. It is equally notorious that this has more than a little to do with the population of New Orleans being 67% black and 40% illiterate, with more than 30 % living below the poverty line; and even more to do with the Bush regime’s laissez-faire capitalist dogma, which can no more cope with natural crises than it can with market crises. It seems, though, that Bush and Co. have shut eyes and ears to reality and are planning to rebuild New Orleans...