Building a new world order, one brick at a time
International systems based on fear and coercion don’t last long
Printed in The National, October 29th, 2024. There was a fascinating juxtaposition of meetings last week. At one, the elderly king of a bygone colonial empire and the hapless leader of his most recent government were together in Samoa for the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), a gathering of the empire’s former colonies, now independent nations, who come together to rub shoulders with their former oppressors.
Not even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could be bothered to fly to Samoa but sent Ottawa’s high commissioner in his place. Nevertheless, the aging king and his government head put on a brave face despite several of their former colonies calling for the erstwhile colonial hegemon to pay reparations for its part in the slave trade.
At the other, 38 heads of state, several of them Commonwealth members including India’s Narendra Modi and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, were in Kazan Russia for a meeting of the BRICS nations along with those interested in joining the bloc, to discuss, among other things, the development of a new global financial and trading structure to replace the sclerotic and corrupt current one dominated by the former empire’s former colony, the United States.
The 9 BRICS members - Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (40 more have expressed interest in joining) - represent 37.4% of global GDP vs the G7’s 29.3%. Their collective economic growth is expected to reach 4% this year, compared to 1.7% for the G7 nations. BRICS nations are responsible for a quarter of the world’s exports and are dominant in essential markets such as energy, metals and food.
The collective west must have been freaking out to see President Putin and Russia, who it has tried so hard to vilify and isolate, host the world’s top leaders on such a prominent stage. Even the seating arrangement, a huge round table, echoed the BRICS goal to be a forum of equal sovereign nations, not bullied and dominated by a single hegemon.
Venezuela and Iran, two nations the west has ostracised and punished, were given legitimacy and an opportunity to speak. Venezuela’s Maduro dressed down the west and the United Nations in front of General Secretary Guterres who was in attendance:
“Every time a high precision missile hits an apartment building in Gaza, every time a missile hits Beirut or southern Lebanon, those missiles set fire to and destroy the United Nations system. Where is the International Court of Justice? Or was it only created to persecute countries in the south? Are the lives of Palestinian children worthless? Let us raise our voices loudly, a practical and bold plan for a refoundation of the United Nations system.”
The BRICS summit adopted a joint declaration condemning Israel’s assaults in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon.
And BRICS is growing. 13 partner nations were approved, a prerequisite for full membership.
The US-led west has facilitated the rise of BRICS not only by bombing and invading sovereign nations over many decades, but also by weaponising a global financial system it created and has controlled up until now to try to achieve geopolitical goals including weakening Russia. The IMF, the World Bank, SWIFT, the US dollar, Euroclear, etc, have all been used against the global south, Russia and China. If the US had an understanding of history, it would know that international systems based on fear and coercion don’t last very long, which is why an alternative system is being developed. The Kazan Declaration, agreed with BRIC member states, revealed some elements of this new financial architecture - BRICS Bridge, a unified payment system,
BRICS Clear, an independent depository system,
and BRICS Pay, a cashless payment service for foreign nationals (including those from non-member states), expected to launch in Russia by the end of the year.
The objective is to enhance financial cooperation between the members, facilitating cross border payments and enabling settlements in local currencies, all on a voluntary basis. A BRICS grain exchange is being established to “promote fair and predictable price indicators for products and raw materials,” and will later develop into a general product exchange, paving the way for an inter-BRICS currency system to eventually replace the dollar.
In addition, the Kazan Declaration said that all sanctions imposed (by western powers) which haven’t been authorised by the UN security council are illegal, as are all tariffs not approved by the World Trade Organisation. In other words, the new system won’t be weaponised against other states - no sanctions, punitive tariffs or lectures - but will be used to facilitate trade and cooperation.
A major change is coming. World trade will no longer be focused on the Atlantic coasts but will shift towards the Pacific. And where trade goes, so goes finance, followed by economic activity and then by science and technology.
The big question is: will the collective west change its behaviour and approach to other nations before it’s too late? If it does, it may have a chance to save itself from economic, cultural and technological marginalisation and stagnation. But if it continues on its present disastrous course of bullying, bombing and dominating other nations, it will be left behind, and deservedly so.
I hope that an independent Scotland will be a fully fledged member of the coming new global system. We have the people, the resources and, most importantly, the desire to cooperate and trade with the world’s nations. This faux and failing union was never a good fit. Let’s end it and move forward.
100%. I want an independent Scotland to be part of BRICS, not the neoliberal and imperialist EU.
By the way, any idea what the penalty is for treason in the highest order in Scottish Law?