Between August 22 and 24, the XV BRICS Summit was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, a bloc made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

This association of countries that emerged in 2008 as a parallel structure to the G7 (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom), has been trying to consolidate itself and, at this meeting, the incorporation of six new members was approved: Argentina, Egypt, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia; whose participation will begin on January 1, 2024.

This meeting cannot be analyzed without taking a political position on the stage in which humanity is living today. Imperialism is highly developed and concentrated capitalism, whose essence is the emergence of monopolies, cartels and economic groups that concentrate capital and commodities. This confrontation leads the imperialist powers to contest influence over markets, which leads to strong trade wars, and which in several cases even converge into great conflagrations.

The resolutions taken by the BRICS show the strengthening of the bloc within the framework of the contest between the imperialist powers. It is not the emergence of a counter-power to the hegemony of the North, as many revisionists, Trotskyite and “progressive governments” point out. It is not a model for independent development of the peoples, it is an anchor of several countries to the imperialist powers such as China and Russia.

Among the main elements identified in the final declaration are: (a) Strengthening of the coordinated macroeconomic measures and promoting local instruments of payment as opposed to the dollar; b) Reform of multilateral institutions such as the UN Security Council, as well as reform of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank; (c) Strengthening of the New Bank of Development, joined by Bangladesh, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates; (d) Reiteration of their national positions on the war in Ukraine and taking note of proposals for mediation for the peaceful settlement of the conflict. From this summary, it is worth highlighting the incentive to local currencies for the payment of international commercial transactions, an option that aims to build a BRICS currency that is not tied to the interest rates of the Federal Reserve of the United States.

The BRICS resolutions show the strengthening of the partnership at a time when China is beginning a process of economic slowdown and requires a market to increase its investments. The same is happening with India and Russia, which is why this meeting allows for the strengthening of these mechanisms in the contest for the markets that these imperialist powers (China and Russia), have been carrying out with the United States. Therefore, they [the United States] do not like the idea of de-dollarizing the world economy so that the yuan and the ruble can become more broadly means of circulation and they do not need to depend on Washington’s fiscal policies.

While it is true that the new additions can mean an advance in Chinese influence, they also aggravate the management of agreements because the heterogeneity of the bloc can create contradictions, since countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are clearly subordinate to the United States.

It must be clearly seen that this association does not represent an alternative for the workers and peoples of the world. On the contrary, we must put an end to imperialism and capitalism, sweep away their institutions and, on their ashes, build a society without exploited and exploiters.

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