April 15th, 2023

Dilma Rousseff, the former president removed from office after an impeachment process from which she was later cleared, is the new elected president of the New Development Bank, a financial institution created by the members of the BRICS economic bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) that aims to monetarily support social, sustainable development, and infrastructure projects in their own member countries and other developing countries. Founded in 2009, BRIC, then formed by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, emerged as an alternative to the West, represented by the G7 nations (United States, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom). Now BRICS, the bloc also includes South Africa and has received formal requests from Algeria, Iran, and Argentina to become official members. Such moves in the so-called 'Global South' highlight the importance and relevance that the grouping represents for current geopolitics.

When the five countries are added together, the BRICS make up 40% of the world's population and 24% of the world's GDP, compared to 10% and 30% respectively for the G7. In addition, the member nations are rich in biodiversity, with Brazil being the country with the largest number of species of plants and animals in the world. Comparing a picture of the BRICS leaders with one of the G7 leaders, this diversity is remarkable in ethnic matters. In gender, on the other hand, both blocs are composed exclusively of men. Only during the terms of former president Dilma did the BRICS have a female representative.

Throughout their histories, the countries, especially Brazil, India and South Africa, have suffered several interventions that slowed their development. Brazil was not only colonized, but also suffered military and parliamentary coups. India and South Africa, both were colonized by the United Kingdom, and deep scars remain after the end of the British regime. Apartheid in the African country reflects social and racial inequalities in its people to this day. Such violence committed against the populations of the 'Global South', led the leaders to seek other alternatives to the capitalist logic, which has been exploiting its natural resources and violating the rights of nature and populations for centuries.

For Brazil, South Africa and Russia, China is currently their main trading partner, and although for India the United States remains the number one, this position may soon be replaced by the Asian giant. Since 2009, China has invested $140 billion in Latin America, and the trade volume between the regions reached $400 billion by 2022. The New Silk Road, a set of roads, railroads and waterways that allude to the glory days of Chinese trade with Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, is the most ambitious project propagated by the power, valued at the figure of a trillion dollars. The super-project, however, is not without its critics. Concerns with the environment and with indigenous, riverine and quilombola communities in the Amazon, for example, raise doubts about the project's viability. There is also criticism of the possible strengthening of large landowners, who focus their production on monocultures for export. There is also criticism of other countries, especially Vladimir Putin's Russia, which has been directly involved in the war with Ukraine since 2022. The Russian invasion of the neighboring country has so far resulted in more than 40,000 deaths, 15,000 missing, and 14,000 displaced persons. The largest nation on the planet, it is also today the bloc's elephant in the room, having suffered several sanctions around the world. Brazil, for its part, is trying to regain its democracy, which was strongly threatened during the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The largest Latin American economy remains deeply divided, although the first months of the third term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have been, according to experts, positive, returning to prioritize the social programs that consolidated him as the president who removed Brazil from the world map of hunger and ensured access to university for black, indigenous and low-income people.

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Considering the Latin American country, for more than a century, the United States has been its main commercial partner. This relationship, in many moments almost exclusively on the Brazilian side, is repeated in other countries in the region, especially Colombia and Mexico. This deep dependence on the North American country and the dollar, however, has historically benefited it, to the detriment of the interests of its southern peers. Latin America has a history strongly based on anti-capitalist struggles, struggles often suppressed by the military power of the United States. Operation Condor, a mobilization of cooperation between the military dictatorships of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile, counted on the direct action of the USA in kidnappings, torture, and assassinations of opponents of the regimes, besides the removal of democratically elected politicians, such as the Brazilian president João Goulart in 1964 and the Chilean president Salvador Allende in 1973. This profound violence to which the populations of the continent were subjected is still registered in the memories of Latin American citizens, causing a certain distrust and even repulsion to the neoliberal policies of the United States. The BRICS has become a real possibility of counterpointing a hegemonic world with a multipolar world in which the peripheral countries, mostly south of the Equator, can participate in world decisions in a horizontal and equitable manner.

The 21st century requires leaders to find new directions for development policies. People are also becoming more aware of the importance of respecting and preserving nature. If we take Australia as an example, the country has become a major climate villain, being the third most polluting country per capita, still focusing on the exploitation of its natural resources such as coal and oil to sustain its economic growth. The problem is that, contrary to Australian media claims, these industries are responsible for generating far fewer jobs than their numbers indicate, and as influential as these companies may be in Australian politics, the Australian people demonstrate with every poll on climate change, that it is more important to care for nature than to support polluting industries.

Again, the BRICS also have a significant share in global pollution. China, Russia and India are at the top of the most polluting nations on the planet. However, these are nations that have fought and are fighting against the imposition of capitalism on the world. Brazil between 2018 and 2022 has had record deforestation rates, and is in danger of also making the list. Historically, the Latin American powerhouse has been an important climate agent, and in the 21st century, its role is one of protagonism. Brazil must seek new, sustainable alternatives, so that its economy can continue to grow in a way that does not put nature and its population at risk. The current minister of the environment, Marina Silva, has made it clear that her country should seek alternatives to oil in its development policies. She said of the country's largest state-owned oil company in an interview for the SUMAÚMA portal:

"In my personal opinion, Petrobras cannot continue to be a company of oil."

There are still many challenges on the international scene, and it is not possible to predict with certainty what will happen in the coming years. But there is one certainty: the capitalist order of wealth accumulation and unlimited economic growth has brought us to this point, and it is urgent to find new possibilities to live in communion with Planet Earth instead of exploiting it.

History has demonstrated countless times the rise and fall of empires, such as the Babylonian, Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Russian, Arab-Islamic, Mayan, Inca, Aztec, and Japanese empires. No matter the time or place, the order has always been the rise and fall of vast empires around the world. Today, the United States, which has wielded political and economic power hegemonically since World War II, represents this decaying empire. Will BRICS and its proposal for a multipolar world be the one that decrees its end? Time will tell. Or has it already said?

#BRICS #Brazil #Russia #India #China #SouthAfrica #Geopolitics #World #West #East #Multipolar