This piece was written for the November 2024 edition of Postscripts, Shamillah Wilson’s monthly round-up of what’s been happening in feminist circles, her work, and some recommended reading suggestions.
But BRICS offers a foundation on which to build, as the Kazan Declaration, published on 23 October 2024, suggests, “We reaffirm our commitment to the BRICS spirit of mutual respect and understanding, sovereign equality, solidarity, democracy, openness, inclusiveness, collaboration and consensus. (and) commit ourselves to strengthening cooperation in the expanded BRICS under the three pillars of political and security, economic and financial, cultural and people-to-people cooperation and to enhancing our strategic partnership for the benefit of our people through the promotion of peace, a more representative, fairer international order, a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system, sustainable development and inclusive growth”. (The Kazan Declaration is worth reading for BRICS’ vision for global political and economic orders and its institutions, women, sustainability and the environment.)
BRICS is already 25 years old. But the 2023 summit in South Africa marked a phase when the globe sat up and noticed its potential for changing the world order. In 2024 four (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates) of the six countries invited to join in 2023 formally became members. A further 13 countries – Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – became partners, a precursor to membership, with many more expressing interest in joining. That’s quite an increase from the four countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China, that founded the institution in 2009, with South Africa joining in 2010.
Image source: Statista
Two years ago historian, public intellectual and author, Vijay Prashaad, discussed the challenges of considering an alternative to the dollar and that it would be a slow process. As this Sanctions Programs and Country Information list demonstrates, the target of US sanctions are primarily countries of the Global South, including some of the poorest countries in the world, providing an impetus for “de-dollarisation”. Many Global South countries still rely on the US-controlled SWIFT system for money transfers, a precarious dependence since their access can be cut off at any time, preventing citizens working in other countries from sending much-needed remittances home.
At the time of Prashaad’s discussion, de-dollarisation was expected to take at least a decade. However, we are seeing more rapid progress in establishing alternative payment systems that could reshape dependence on the dollar. Some early examples include India’s purchase of Russian oil in rupees and (more recently) China’s use of digital yuan (e-CNY) to buy oil.
BRICS’ trajectory and the progress with “de-dollarisation” reminded me of the well-known saying:
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
This thought has comforted me a little this year as we confronted the reality that the war in West Asia, centred around the genocide in Gaza, appears to have no end in sight. I think of South Africa, my home country, and how the heightened oppression and protests of the last years of the 80s suddenly flipped to a resolution and liberation at the beginning of the 90s. We can only hope that there is no turning back from granting Palestine sovereignty and that the end of the war might happen suddenly and swiftly.
