Groundbreaking BRICS Summit Marks a New Era

brics 2024

21-10-2024: The BRICS Summit in the Russian Tatarstan capital of Kazan from October 22 to 24[1] is set to break new ground in the advance of the bloc, and potentially marks a new era in international history. Perhaps a new name needs to be coined for the BRICS alliance, given that its membership has expanded well past the five original members of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS (or “BRICS +”) now also includes the Islamic Republic of Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. What is more, at the Kazan Summit, it is reported that 10 new member nations and 10 new partner countries will be announced. These could be any of the minimum of 34 countries which have communicated their earnest desire to join the BRICS bloc as either full members or partners. This includes: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Honduras, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Morocco, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, State of Palestine, Syria, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.[2]

Global majority

While the BRICS governments have been careful not to rush ahead too far in joining up new members, the overwhelming support for it amongst developing countries propels it further forward. In fact, the BRICS bloc could well expand to become a global majority. Geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar has suggested that the BRICS Kazan Summit could mark a “new Bretton Woods” moment, given the likely announcement of payment systems that can bypass the old institutions of the West. Indeed, the BRICS Kazan Summit could announce a common unit of account (“The Unit), a platform for settlements and payments in BRICS digital currencies (BRICS Bridge), a blockchain-based payment system that entirely bypasses the US dollar (BRICS Pay), a settlement depository, an insurance system and a BRICS rating agency independent from the Western giants.[3] The BRICS already have an effective BRICS bank which is separate from Western institutions, the New Development Bank based in Shanghai.[4]

These financial moves may well mean the end of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency, and the establishment of a system which offers an alternative to the economic and political domination which the European and American rulers have exerted for centuries. Alternative banking and payments systems means developing nations can avoid sanctions being imposed from Washington, which has routinely done so in recent decades in an attempt to keep other nations “in line”. More than this, the BRICS bloc offers an alternative development model to the exhausted one which the West wielded to maintain its power. No longer do developing nations have to plead for assistance from the Western former colonial powers, who only grant on pain of restructuring their economies to benefit Western corporations – or else be threatened with sanctions, regime change war or occupation. Developing nations do not have to be members of BRICS but can simply open diplomatic relations with the BRICS bloc or the governments of the BRICS members themselves. As the BRICS alliance is a non-imperialist bloc, it has no agenda of domination and exploitation. Rather, it is guided by the aim of mutual benefit and mutual assistance. The BRICS bloc is not even dominated by the stronger powers within it, as decisions are taken with the agreement of all members.

Many have observed that the rise of the BRICS bloc marks the end of a US (United States of America) dominated unipolar world, and the birth of a multipolar world. This is true enough in itself, and many nations from Asia, Africa and Latin America are desperately seeking a switch from unipolarity to multipolarity. However, one major material reason for the rise of the BRICS is the now rapid decline of capitalist imperialism in the West. The system of private production for private profit, the rule of a tiny handful of rich billionaires over millions of working people, is overripe for replacement by a new and higher socio-economic system. The US and the UK (United Kingdom) and especially Germany are in economic and therefore political freefall, which is not just due to some extremely unpopular politicians. Capitalism, the exploitation of the wage labour of billions of workers, has utterly exhausted itself and must be overturned if humanity is to have a future.

The silence of the left

Only socialism has the capacity to replace an ageing and decrepit capitalism, through a revolutionary upsurge of the world proletariat. No one is suggesting that the BRICS bloc is socialist or anti-imperialist in itself. In fact, many of the BRICS governments would much prefer to strike deals with the imperialist powers, cooperate with them, and avoid conflict. But the very process of forming a bloc which offers a material alternative to capitalist imperialism, which easily grows over into a cultural and political alternative – inexorably drives the BRICS process towards socialism. This is certainly not the intention of the BRICS governments, yet non-exploitative development which does not seek to enrich a few at the expense of billions of people will drive its own logic. At the very least, and given its overwhelming popularity amongst the vast majority of developing nations, the BRICS process is one which the left must adapt to – or be consigned to irrelevance.

Unfortunately, much of the Western left remains silent on the stunning rise of the BRICS bloc in recent years. One would imagine that the left would embrace BRICS as potentially the first chance to turn around or at least partially escape from 500 years of Western plunder of the globe. Far from it. One reason for this is that much of the Western left entertain absurd notions of Russia and China being “imperialist” powers themselves, which simply “compete” with the Western imperialist powers of the US and Europe. Debunking these irrational concepts is beyond the scope of this piece. Yet even some left parties who do not have such wild positions on paper, also fall into line with those that do.

The Spartacist League (SL), at least in words, affirms that the Russian Federation is not imperialist, and recognises the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a bureaucratically deformed workers’ state. Yet from this correct basis, they struggle to advance to a recognition of the significance of the BRICS process. In an article dated October 4, the SL asks why no one seems able to stop Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his genocidal war against Palestine, and now Lebanon and Iran. The SL complains that the BRICS bloc is not coming to the rescue of Palestine and write that as the BRICS governments have some conflicting interests, the BRICS is “irrelevant” and “will not play any kind of independent role”.[5] But is this the case in practice?

In fact, one whole session at the BRICS Kazan Summit will be dedicated entirely to Palestine.[6] This might be one reason why Palestine is expected to submit its application to join the BRICS after the Kazan Summit.[7] The BRICS bloc is not a military alliance, so the BRICS itself is not able to come to the military aid of Palestine, or any other nation. Yet this does not mean that BRICS member countries are doing nothing for Palestine. In fact, the SL admit that Russia has been providing military hardware to Iran, including air defence batteries. This is most likely Russia’s state of the art S-400 system, widely regarded as perhaps the world’s best air defence system. Russia may have done this in exchange for hundreds of ballistic missiles which Iran has sent to Russia.[8] Iran, also a BRICS full member, is a staunch defender and supporter of Palestine. Moreover, Russia’s alliance with Iran can only benefit the region which includes Palestine. Military analyst Will Schryver observes that Russia fighting with Iran against US imperialism is not a choice, but an existential imperative. It is also something that Russia has been feverishly preparing for since the summer of 2022.[9]

Not lifted a finger ?

Russia and Iran together in the Middle East pushing back the Israeli proxy state acting on behalf of US imperialism is obviously going to assist Palestine. Yet the SL goes further to claim that the CPC (Communist Party of China) has “not lifted a finger” for the Palestinian cause “beyond empty gestures and pacifist platitudes”.[10] However, the SL is well aware of the twin Stalinist policies of “socialism in one country” and “peaceful coexistence with imperialism” and should know that this would explain why this appears to be the case. On the other hand, the CPC has acted to assist. In July, the CPC hosted 14 Palestinian factions in Beijing, which resulted in the “Beijing Declaration”. This conference brokered a unity deal which included arch foes Hamas and Fatah. The deal calls for unity between all Palestinian factions under the framework of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation), which aims to create an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.[11]

To be sure, the CPC’s Stalinist nostrum of “peaceful coexistence with imperialism” has certainly played an ambiguous role here, which excuses the nefarious deeds of Hamas and Fatah as Israeli state and US deep state collaborators. It is also an attempt to set up a two-state solution for both Israel and Palestine, which is extremely unlikely to be possible. It would also disadvantage the Palestinian working class to be closed off from the Israeli economy. Nevertheless, it is an attempt to broker some kind of peace and potentially put an end to the US imperialist proxy war in the region. The PRC is not doing this as a representative of BRICS per se, but it is a major BRICS power attempting to assist Palestine by at least partially attempting to end the US/Israeli massacre of Palestinians.

The SL whine that South Africa (in reality, the African National Congress led South African government) has only taken a moral stand with Palestine. They mention that South Africa has brought a case of genocide against Israel at the ICC (International Criminal Court), with supposedly nothing as a result. To begin with, the SL has confused the ICC with the ICJ (International Court of Justice). Both the ICC and the ICJ are based in the Hague, but they are not the same. The South African government has lodged its charge of genocide against the state of Israel, with mountains of evidence, at the ICJ.[12] It is the case that the ICC is used by the Western powers to target non-Western enemies of Washington and Brussels, inevitably labelled by them as “dictators”. The ICJ, on the other hand, does not have such a reputation. We can agree that ultimately the ICC and the ICJ are courts of the Western ruling classes wielded against the downtrodden of the world. Nevertheless, the South African government’s actions of launching a case of genocide against the Israeli government, with worldwide publicity, has at the very least contributed to a further delegitimisation of the actions of the Zionist Israeli state and the nefarious designs of its Western imperialist backers.

It is likely that this court action was taken in behind the scenes coordination with the leaderships of the other BRICS powers. There is no doubt that the millionaire South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (the “Butcher of Marikana”)[13] is a class enemy of South African workers, and of the working class internationally. Nonetheless, the vast majority of the South African working class has been historically pro-Palestine, going back some decades. There is little doubt they would not oppose the South African government taking the Israeli state to court on a charge of genocide, despite their entirely understandable opposition to the ANC led government on most other issues. In fact, South African workers could use this in their campaigning to get rid of Ramaphosa and its neoliberal “government of national unity” with the even further right-wing Democratic Alliance.[14] They can say, if Ramaphosa can stand up for Palestine, why doesn’t he stand up for poor South Africans?

With BRICS against Empire

SL alleges that some are putting faith in “rotten regimes that conciliate and support the status quo” and that workers should have “no illusions in BRICS”.[15] To be clear, the SL in recent years is well versed in conciliating with rotten regimes supporting the status quo. This was most evident during the fraudulent “Covid pandemic”, in which the SL swallowed the entirety of corporate media lies of a false “health emergency”, politically merging with the Western capitalist and imperialist states along with the reformist “left” they formerly denounced. After 12 months, they came out with a half-hearted position against lockdowns,[16] but did not join or help build arguably the largest mass movement in Western history against lockdowns, vaccine mandates, Covid concentration camps and other mind-boggling forms of working-class repression – including the banning of protest and mass censorship!

Of course workers should have “no illusions in BRICS”, in a similar way in which workers should have no illusions that, say, a trade Union will lead a struggle to overturn the rule of finance capital. But the conservative Union bureaucracy is no reason for workers to throw the entire concept of Unions out of the window, to not struggle against overpaid officials, or even form new Unions. In a similar way, workers should not throw away the reality of the BRICS + alliance, which is a non-imperialist bloc which offers at least some protection against the ravages of a declining and dangerous Western imperialism. With billions of workers in Asia, Africa and Latin America in favour of dismantling the US/European Empire and replacing it with something approaching a confederation of nations with equal status, the left would be “worse than useless” if it stood in the way of such a groundswell.

The BRICS governments will not lead an anti-imperialist struggle, which can only be a political struggle for international socialism. The conservative CPC leadership of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will not either, hidebound as it is to the uber Stalinist edict of “socialism in one country”. Nevertheless, the BRICS process represents the progressive forward movement of history, the banding together of nations and classes as an alternative to the multiple economic, environmental and political crises forced on the world by crumbling capitalism. Of course, nations and classes combining can also work against the interests of the working class. Therefore, the task of Marxists is to help prepare socialist revolutions in the West, combined with proletarian political revolutions in the East. The forging of workers’ vanguard parties will be key for this enormous task, which will nonetheless be propelled forward by those seeking a just international order – many of whom see the BRICS + alliance as a step forward to the emergence of a world without war, exploitation and underdevelopment.

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] www.brics-russia2024.ru/en/summit/ (16-10-2024)

[2] www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/34-countries-including-palestine-syria-and-myanmar-apply-for-brics-membership/ar-AA1sbXw2 (16-10-2024)

[3] www.unz.com/pescobar/will-a-brics-bretton-woods-take-place-in-kazan/ (16-10-2024)

[4] www.redfireonline.com/2024/09/09/brics-surges-ahead/ (16-10-2024)

[5] www.iclfi.org/spartacist/en/2024-zionist-carnage (16-10-2024)

[6] www.bricsconnect.co/2024/09/04/palestine-to-seek-brics-membership-after-kazan-summit/ (16-10-2024)

[7] www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestine-to-apply-for-brics-membership-after-upcoming-kazan-summit/3313609 (16-10-2024)

[8] www.reuters.com/world/iran-sends-russia-hundreds-ballistic-missiles-sources-say-2024-02-21/ (16-10-2024)

[9] www.globalresearch.ca/israel-attacks-iran-russia-not-sideline/5870078 (16-10-2024)

[10] Ibid, 5.

[11] www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/07/beijing-declaration-china-brokers-hamas-fatah-unity-deal-what-we-know (16-10-2024)