No, BRICS isn't the Answer to US Domination.
All over the world, there are “communists” and “socialists,” many wearing a façade of progressiveness, that support the intergovernmental organisation “BRICS,” due to its opposition to Western, and more specifically, American domination and imperialism. BRICS, as previously mentioned, is an intergovernmental organisation. It consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, along with a few other nations which have joined recently such as Egypt, Ethiopia, the UAE and Indonesia. It is an economic association of rapidly developing countries that formed in 2009 which now has become a stronghold of the other polarity of the capitalist world and a political platform for realising China’s ambitions.
Despite BRICS being in a position of opposition towards the Western world and the United States, we must not forget that it is an organisation of capitalist and oppressive states, not united by the common goal of the abolition of capitalism, but rather the end of US hegemony and its replacement, not with multipolarity as it claims to be working towards, but with Chinese hegemony. One of the methods of achieving this is through de-dollarisation. BRICS is striving towards a single, dominant currency, one that it or one of its member countries are in control of, that would be in a similar position to the Dollar today, such as the Yuan or a BRICS currency though this is unlikely. BRICS is expanding due to the displacement of Western capital and the introduction of its own, specifically Chinese, through projects such as the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) which will increase the dependence of smaller, poorer nations in the Global South on China.
Some may make the argument that China is a socialist nation, however this is incorrect. We will not be discussing in detail why China is no longer socialist as whole articles can and have been written about this topic, however we will provide a brief explanation why. A nation cannot participate in imperialist practices and be considered socialist at the same time as imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism. The criteria a nation must meet to be considered imperialist are, according to Lenin;
“(1) the concentration of production and capital developed to such a high stage that it created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life; (2) the merging of banking capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this “finance capital,” of a financial oligarchy; (3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance; (4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and (5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed”
An article referring to this topic was posted on “In Defence of Marxism,” written by Jorge Martín which we will be quoting, only referring to points (1) and (3).
(1) “China possesses the four largest banks in the world: the Industrial Commercial Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China. These are the four largest banks in the world, and they play a big role in China's economy. They also play a big role in the world economy. While it is true that these banks are all state-owned, as a result of the way in which capitalism emerged in China, the country also has a large ‘shadow banking’ sector, which according to an official report in 2019 accounted for 86 percent of GDP, US$12 trillion.”
(3) “China's outgoing foreign direct investment began to rise after 2000. The annual flow of China's outward foreign direct investment jumped from US$2.7 billion in 2002 to US$200 billion in 2016. In the space of about 15 years, it multiplied by 100. China's foreign aid expenditure (this is also another form of imperialism, because we know foreign aid is not really aid, it is about getting political clout and getting countries dependent on your foreign aid, etc.) was a very small amount, but it's growing very fast. Chinese foreign aid expenditure grew from US$600 million in 2003 to US$2.3 billion in 2016. Now, US$2.3 billion puts China in the range of medium sized capitalist countries like say Belgium or Australia in terms of spending on ‘foreign aid’.”
We recommend reading the rest of this article as it contains more information relevant to these points and the points we did not mention. It accurately highlights how China fits the criteria to be considered an imperialistic, i.e, capitalist nation.
Of course BRICS consists of more nations other than China however these nations do not hide behind a veil of socialism as China does. Russian imperialism is probably the easiest to recognise due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
When colonies gained their independence from Western imperialist powers, the communists of these countries and abroad naturally did not forget the role these Western powers played in their exploitation and oppression. Among the communists of formerly colonised nations such as those in the Global South or countries that were under Western influence, there are many communists who support BRICS. After all, they, their countries, their people and their culture went through oppression by the hands of Western capital and imperial interests. But this should not become an excuse for communists to support the exploitation of the Global South by Eastern capital over Western capital. The materialist analysis of things must always remain in the foreground; for a communist, the fight against capitalism must always be the priority, not defending capitalists from one part of the world from capitalists of another. Both serve the interests of their ruling class alone, not the interests of the working class who themselves are the only group capable of advocating for their own interests.
We as communists and socialists cannot fall into campism. It is not the bourgeoisie that will liberate our class but us ourselves. We must fight together as one, united working class. We must recognise the imperialist desires of BRICS and its members are no different to those of the Western world, the only difference is from which nation(s) the ruling class which reaps the most rewards from the oppressed and exploited comes from.
In Solidarity,
FurInform
