‘Tectonic shifts are taking place in the world today’

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Lead Editorial

30 August 2023
Vol. 25 No. 35

So observed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the historic BRICS summit in South Africa last week, when Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, UAE, Argentina, and Ethiopia formally joined the existing Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa partnership. As we cover in detail in this week’s AAS (p. 12), the expanded BRICS-11 partnership is now bigger in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms than the G7, and is an oil and gas powerhouse which signals the end of the US petrodollar and therefore US dollar dominance.

This development is the biggest blow imaginable to Anglo-American hegemony, the preservation of which is the driving force behind all conflict in the world today, including the flashpoints in Ukraine and Taiwan that risk global thermonuclear war. Put simply, BRICS-11 confirms Anglo-American hegemony is over, whether the neocons in London and Washington, and their yapping poodles in Canberra, recognise it or not. The world is voting with its feet away from the so-called “Washington consensus” of IMF-World Bank enforcement of City of London-Wall Street control of resources of developing nations so they can’t develop, towards new, respectful, mutually beneficial relationships that prioritise economic development to uplift those nations and their people.

Of course, the centre of economic gravity of the BRICS is China, and its amazing domestic economic development, and international development perspective through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It is China’s irresistible economic pull that persuaded previously implacable enemies Saudi Arabia and Iran to put aside their differences and unite in the BRICS partnership. In the face of this, all the Anglo-Americans have is denial, wishful thinking, and dangerous military fantasies. For an example of wishful thinking, on the same day as the BRICS-11 was announced, the City of London’s rag The Economist attacked China’s economy, illustrated with an image of Chinese President Xi riding a dragon with a snail’s body. “China’s economy is suffering because an increasingly autocratic government is making bad decisions”, The Economist tweeted. “After four decades of fast growth, an era of disappointment is beginning.” Tell that to the now-152 nations that have joined the BRI!

Meanwhile, what is Australia doing (and New Zealand–p. 8)? Despite profiting more from China’s economic boom than any other country in the world, but having already backflipped on its initial embrace of the BRI, Australia is doubling down on its economic integration with the US, UK and Canada, not for genuine economic development, but for integration into the US-centred war machine. While China and the BRICS-11 are focused on roads, high-speed railways, power stations, and water infrastructure, the only jobs the Albanese government can talk about all involve supplying resources for and manufacturing weapons of war. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is even talking about withdrawing Australia from China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which Australia joined in 2015 against the Obama administration’s wishes in a rare display of sovereignty.

The good news is that aftershocks from these tectonic shifts are also shaking positions inside Australia. There’s no better example of this than the impact of Lowy Institute analyst Sam Roggeveen’s paper in the latest issue of Australian Foreign Affairs magazine, “Is the alliance making us less safe?” While the Lowy Institute is itself an Australian mouthpiece for the US war party, Roggeveen has broken from the pack to debunk the myth of the China “threat”, and invoke Malcolm Fraser’s warning that our existing alliances are putting us in danger (p. 10).

Likewise, on the banking front, Temora Shire’s change of mind on the public post office bank (p. 3) signals a larger shift underway across Australia from our efforts to expose the predatory nature of the current banking system, and promote solutions to reorganise the financial system around a national bank to serve the people and the real economy. What we are fighting to do is bring a BRICS-style orientation to real economic development that benefits people back to Australia!

In this issue:

• NAB branch closure convinces NSW Shire to support a public postal bank
• Towns still need banking services
• Former chief regulator blasts ASIC in Senate hearing
• Labor considers conscripting your super for war
• Leaked docs suggest someone is reading TikTok user records, but not who you think
• Self-destructive stupidity, New Zealand style
• Top Lowy Institute analyst punctures the ‘China threat’ bubble
• BRICS Eleven forged in Johannesburg
• Johannesburg II Declaration
• The banks are helping our campaign!
• India celebrates moon landing, a success for ‘all humanity’
• ALMANAC: Hamilton shaped Lincoln’s economics

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