The fourth BRICS Summit met in New Delhi, India, on 29 March 2012 under
the theme, ‘BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and
Prosperity.’ From the press reports coming out India, we have learnt
that the leaders of Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa signed
two pacts to stimulate trade in their local currencies and agreed on a
joint working group to set up a South-South Development Bank that will
raise their economic weight globally.
The participating banks for this new international financial struggle
include the Export Import Bank of India, Banco Nacional de
Desenvolimento Economico e Social (BNDES) of Brazil, State Corporation
Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs of Russia, China
Development Bank and Development Bank of South Africa. At the end of the
meeting the five leaders issued the 50 point Delhi Declaration
declaring their intention to further strengthen “our partnership for
common development and take our cooperation forward on the basis of
openness, solidarity, mutual understanding and trust.” [1]
In our commentary this week we reflect on the seismic changes in the
global economy and the reality that Europe has suffered so much from the
capitalist crisis that the major capitalist corporations are making
preparations for the collapse of the Euro. [2] With each passing day
there are reports in the financial press that ‘investors are taking huge
sums out of eurozone bonds. [3] Where the BRIC leaders had started a
formation to facilitate their expanded trading relationships, the
collapse of the dollar zone and the Eurozone has accelerated so fast
that the policy makers are now improvising without a clear road map as
to a project of real international solidarity. To their credit, the
BRICS leaders have seen concretely that there is no alternative to
moving from a unipolar world to a multipolar world in the 21st Century
that is based on mutual respect and an end to hierarchies. Yet, as we
will argue in this extended commentary, the focus of the planning of the
peoples of the South should no longer be on the basis of bargaining for
better terms with western capitalist states. We will maintain that for
genuine social and economic transformations to take place in these
countries representing 45 per cent of the world’s population, it will be
necessary to make a clean break with the ideas of ‘historic
capitalism.’ [4] Whether the BRICS formation will be the embryo of a
‘new wave of independent initiatives from the South’ or based on
regional hegemons will be dependent on the extent to which the forces of
social justice and emancipation engage the political and ideological
struggles around BRICS. A 17 point action plan focused on issues
relating to finance, health, population, food security and multilateral
energy cooperation within the BRIC’s framework provides spaces for a new
research and policy agenda that could strengthen and consolidate the
goals of a new framework for economic cooperation. In this way
progressive scholars can give meaning to the call for the expansion of
the channels of communication, exchanges and people-to-people contact
amongst the BRICS, including in the areas of youth, education, culture,
tourism and sports. [5]
The current leaders of India aspire for a BRICS and the ‘development bank’ to be an auxiliary institution of the World Bank. Read more

Horace Campbell is Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University. His recent book is Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya. He is author of: Rasta and Resistance From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney; Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation; Pan Africanism, Pan Africanists and African Liberation in the 21st Century; and Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics. Follow on Twitter @Horace_Campbell.
- Order Horace Campbell's recent book, Global Nato and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya
- Welcome to horacecampbell.net. Horace Campbell is Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University, New York. His recent book is Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya. He is the author of: Rasta and Resistance From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney; Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation; Pan Africanism, Pan Africanists and African Liberation in the 21st Century; and Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics. Follow on Twitter @Horace_Campbell.