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BRICS

BRICS Plans ‘Multi-Currency System’ To Challenge US Dollar Dominance

October 20, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , ,
The Global South-oriented organization BRICS has released plans to transform the international monetary and financial system and challenge the dominance of the US dollar. As the chair of BRICS for 2024, Russia proposed the creation of a BRICS Cross-Border Payment Initiative (BCBPI), in which members of the organization will use their national currencies to trade. BRICS will likewise establish an alternative messaging infrastructure to circumvent the SWIFT system of interbank communication, which is overseen by the United States and subject to Western unilateral sanctions. This “multi-currency system” will also include new mechanisms not only to de-dollarize trade, but also to encourage investment in BRICS members and other emerging markets and developing economies, including a BRICS Clear platform, a “new system of securities accounting and settlement”, and financial instruments denominated in national currencies.

Resetting BRICS For The South Slavs, New Europe And The World

October 20, 2024 Batko MIlacic, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
On October 22, in the capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, located less than five hours along the M-12 “Vostok” highway from Moscow, the 16th Kazan BRICS summit opens – an association of 10 countries of a new geopolitical format, ahead of all the slow-moving Western alliances that has fallen into recession or stagnation. Already, Kazan is fully ready to host the leaders of more than 33 countries participating in the BRICS summit in a year when Russia is the chairman of the association of leaders of the multipolar world. The Moscow Kremlin noted that Kazan is fully prepared to host more than 20,000 guests and the summit organizers took into account the interests of more than 30 countries planning to receive an invitation to BRICS or become partner states of this association in the near future.

Between Russia And Iran All’s Well That Ends Well

October 18, 2024 M. K. Bhadrakumar, Consortium News. , , , , ,
The mystery about the hastily-arranged “working meeting” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian at Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, has only deepened after the event. This was their first-ever meeting. Putin didn’t even have the post-event presser. Why such a meeting last Friday was considered necessary becomes an intriguing thought, as the two leaders are to meet in Kazan, Russia, within days on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit on Oct. 22-24. Russia and Iran have had a difficult relationship through centuries.

Cuba Under Intensified US Sanctions Confronts Its Greatest Challenge

October 17, 2024 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Despite draconian coercive measures by the US – overwhelmingly condemned every year by the UN General Assembly, with the next vote slated for October 29-30 – the Cuban Revolution has had extraordinary successes. This small, impoverished, formerly colonized island nation has achieved levels of education, medical services, and performance in many other fields, including sports, that rival the first world, through the application of socialist principles. Cuba has rightly become a model of internationalism and an exemplar of socialism. As a consequence, every US administration for over six decades has targeted this “threat of a good example.”

Applying/Misapplying Gramsci’s Passive Revolution To Latin America

October 17, 2024 Steve Ellner, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
The second wave of progressive Latin American governments that began with the election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico in 2018 does not have the aura of excitement surrounding the first, dating back to Hugo Chávez in 1998. It is not only characterized by pragmatism, but lacks the slogans and banners of radical change associated with Chávez and Evo Morales. As stated by former Bolivian vice president Álvaro García Linera in the face of challenges from an aggressive right, the second-wave left “turned up to the fight in an already exhausted state.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Speaks At UN General Assembly

September 30, 2024 Scheer Post. , , , , , , , , , ,
A few days ago, this building hosted a forum called the Summit of the Future. Russia was supportive of the idea of the Secretary-General to convene it, since the crisis of our Organisation is deepening and something needs to be done about this. We devoted our efforts to preparing the summit. However, we were realistic in our expectations. There have been many ambitious events in the modern history of the United Nations which ended up with loud declarations which were soon forgotten. The Millenium Summit proclaimed the goal to “free the peoples from the scourge of war”. Two years later the United States of America, at the head of the coalition of the willing, invaded Iraq – the country which has yet to get over the devastating consequences of this affair – under a ridiculous pretext, without the mandate of the UN Security Council.

African Nations Push For Urgent United Nations Reforms

September 28, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
In the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, heads of state from African countries reiterated their demand for an urgent reform in global decision making and greater representation of their continent in the Security Council. The African leaders claim that their current exclusion from the crucial decision making institutions is a legacy of colonialism and demanded urgent changes. They underlined that highlighting their exclusion is not merely an attempt to claim representation but to gain real say in crucial decision making on issues directly affecting the African countries and their future, such as peace and security challenges, conflict resolution, climate change, and sustainable development.

BRICS, The Dollar, And The End Of US Empire, With Ben Norton

September 27, 2024 Mnar Adley, MintPress News. , , , ,
The United States is socially, politically and economically in crisis. As an increasingly large number of people are priced out of the economy, fewer and fewer buy into the sham of electoral politics. On the world stage, too, the U.S. is suffering. Countries everywhere are beginning to drop the dollar as the standard unit of exchange, and Washington’s prestige has been severely shaken due to its relentless, unequivocal support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Ben Norton joins MintCast host Mnar Adley to discuss all this and more. Norton is an investigative journalist and founder of Geopolitical Economy Report, a news source dedicated to looking at the world and seeing the big picture. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Beijing, China.

BRICS Plus, FOCAC And The Battle For The Global South

September 20, 2024 Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report. , , , , , ,
A media conference was held in Russia during the weekend of September 14-15 as a precursor to the upcoming Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa Plus Summit to be held in October. This gathering of journalists, editors, publishers and other media workers represented efforts to create a narrative that provides an alternative to the news reports and analyses that dominate western media outlets and their surrogates in the Global South. The media conference was hosted by the Russian state news agency, TASS, which on September 1, celebrated its 120th anniversary. TASS and many of the other media agencies visiting Russia for the conference are presenting different views on world events than what is routinely highlighted by the corporate and governmental networks in the United States, Britain and the European Union (EU).

Defending Humanity

September 20, 2024 Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News. , , , , , , , ,
Anyone taking up the question of our shared humanity in the late summer of 2024 must begin with mention of the Gaza crisis, or — with the escalating violence in the West Bank — the wider Palestine crisis. These events are of world-historical magnitude. They challenge any idea of humanity we may have until now held as truths held to be self-evident, as we Americans would say. That seems to be over now. It is as if an era in the human story has ended, and we enter upon one that requires us to think again, maybe for the first time since the 1945 victories, when those who came before us looked back upon the wreckage of the 1930s and 1940s and asked, “Where is our humanity?”

Trump Threatens To Punish De-Dollarization

September 14, 2024 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , , , ,
Countries across the planet are seeking alternatives to the US-dominated financial system. However, former President Donald Trump has pledged that, if he returns to the White House, he will punish nations that de-dollarize. “We will keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency”, Trump promised at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin on September 7, 2024. “It is currently under major siege. Many countries are leaving the dollar”, the Republican presidential candidate lamented. “They’re not going to leave the dollar with me”, Trump insisted. “I’ll say, ‘You leave the dollar, you’re not doing business with the United States, because we’re going to put 100% tariff on your goods'”.

Lavrov At United Nations On Avoiding WWIII

July 17, 2024 Consortium News. , , , , ,
“Let’s face it: not all countries represented in this chamber recognise the key principle of the U.N. Charter which is the sovereign equality of all states,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. “Speaking through its presidents, the United States has long declared its exceptionalism. This applies to Washington’s attitude towards its allies, whom it demands to be unquestioningly obedient even to the detriment of their national interests. Rule, America! This is the thrust of the notorious ‘rules-based order’ which presents a direct threat to multilateralism and international peace.”

Why The SCO Summit In Kazakhstan Was A Game-Changer

July 10, 2024 Pepe Escobar, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , ,
Let’s start with the final declaration. As much as SCO members state “tectonic shifts are underway” in geopolitics and geoeconomics, as “the use of power methods is increasing, with norms of international law being systematically violated”, they are fully engaged to “increase the SCO’s role in the creation of a new democratic, fair, political and economic international order.” Well, there could not be a sharper contrast with the unilaterally-imposed “rules-based international order”. The SCO 10 – with new member Belarus – are explicitly in favor of “a fair solution to the Palestinian issue”. They “oppose unilateral sanctions”.

Is The Reign Of The Dollar Coming To An End?

June 21, 2024 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. , , ,
In early June, a rumour began to circulate – which was widely reported in the Indian press as true – that the government of Saudi Arabia had allowed its petrodollar agreement with the United States to lapse. This agreement, made in 1974, is quite straight-forward and fulfils various needs of the US government: the US purchases oil from Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia uses that money to buy military equipment from US arms manufacturers while holding the income from the oil sales in US Treasury Bills and in the Western financial system. This arrangement to recycle oil profits into the US economy and the Western banking world is known as the petrodollar system.

Competing Global Economic Initiatives: A Tale Of Two Routes

June 20, 2024 Mohamad Zreik, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , ,
In recent years, two major economic initiatives have emerged in Asia, particularly in West Asia: China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). These initiatives represent a strategic contest between global powers vying for influence and economic dominance in a rapidly changing world. The Belt and Road Initiative, conceived by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is a modern resurrection of the ancient Silk Road. This initiative aims to connect China to the rest of the world through extensive infrastructure investments, including ports, roads, railways, and industrial zones.
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