Shafi Ahmed Al-Sheik, Al-

Born May 2, 1924; died July 26,1971. Figure in the Sudanese and international working-class movement.

After graduating from a technical school in the city of Atbarah, al-Sheik worked in railroad workshops and took part in the communist and working-class movement. He was a member of the Politburo of the Sudanese Communist Party, and in 1950 he became general secretary of the Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation. He was subjected to repression by the reactionary authorities several times. In 1957, al-Sheik became vice-president of the World Federation of Trade Unions. In 1965 he became a member of the World Peace Council. In 1971 the Sudanese authorities accused al-Sheik of taking part in an attempted coup d’etat, and he was executed by order of a military tribunal.

In 1970, al-Sheik received the Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Nations.