Counterpunch.png
Putin Leads BRICS Uprising
Mike Whitney, Counterpunch, USA, 10 July 2015
There's been a virtual blackout of news from this year's seventh annual
BRICS summit in Ufa, Russia. None of the mainstream media organizations are
covering the meetings or making any attempt to explain what's going on. As
a result, the American people remain largely in the dark about a powerful
coalition of nations that are putting in place an alternate system that will
greatly reduce US influence in the world and end the current era of
superpower rule.
Let's cut to the chase: Leaders of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa) realize that global security cannot be entrusted to a
country that sees war as a acceptable means for achieving its geopolitical
objectives. They also realize that they won't be able to achieve financial
stability as long as Washington dictates the rules, issues the de facto
"international" currency, and controls the main levers of global financial
power. This is why the BRICS have decided to chart a different course, to
gradually break free from the existing Bretton Woods system, and to create
parallel system that better serves their own interests. Logically, they have
focused on the foundation blocks which support the current US-led system,
that is, the institutions from which the United States derives its
extraordinary power; the dollar, the US Treasury market, and the IMF.
Replace these, the thinking goes, and the indispensable nation becomes just
another country struggling to get by. This is from the Asia Times:
"Leaders of the BRICS. launched the New Development Bank, which has taken
three years of negotiations to bring to fruition. With about $50 billion in
starting capital, the bank is expected to start issuing debt to fund
infrastructure projects next year. They also launched a foreign-exchange
currency fund of $100 billion.
"The two new endeavors are statements that the five largest emerging markets
are both looking out for each other and, simultaneously, moving away from
the western financing institutions of the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund.
"The BRICS states intend to actively use their own resources and internal
resources for development," Putin said, according to Reuters. "The New
(Development) Bank will help finance joint, large-scale projects in
transport and energy infrastructure, industrial development."...Birthing the
two initiatives in Russia had been Putin's top priorities."
(" <http://atimes.com/2015/07/putin-scores-points-at-brics-summit/> Russia's
Putin scores points at Ufa BRICS summit", Asia Times)
Can you see what's going on? Putin has figured out the empire's
vulnerabilities and he's going straight for the jugular. He's saying:
'We're going to issue our own debt, we're going to run our own system, we're
going to fund our own projects, and we're going to do it all in our own
currency. Kaboom. The only thing you're going to be doing, is managing your
own accelerating economic decline. Have a good day.' Isn't that the gist of
what he's saying?
So can you see, dear reader, why none of this is appearing on the pages of
US newspapers or on US television? Washington would rather you didn't know
how they've bungled everything by alienating the fastest growing countries
in the world.
The Ufa conference is a watershed moment. While the Pentagon is rapidly
moving troops and military hardware to Russia's borders, and one bigwig
after another is bloviating about the "Russian threat"; the BRICS have moved
out of Washington's orbit altogether. They are following the leadership of
men who, frankly speaking, are acting exactly like US leaders acted when the
US was on the upswing. These are guys who "think big"; who want to connect
continents with high-speed rail, lift living standards across the board, and
transform themselves into manufacturing dynamos. What do America's leaders
dream about: Drone warfare? Balancing the budget? Banning the Confederate
flag?
It's a joke. No one in Washington has a plan for the future. It's all just
political opportunism and posturing. Check this out from The Hindu:
"China and Russia have described BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation (SCO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) as the core of a
new international order.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin said. 'There is no doubt - we have all
necessary premises to expand the horizons of mutually beneficial
cooperation, to join together our raw material resources, human capital and
huge consumer markets for a powerful economic spurt.'"
Russia's Tass news agency also quoted Mr. Putin as saying that the Eurasian
continent had vast transit potential. He pointed to "the construction of new
efficient transport and logistics chains, in particular, the implementation
of the initiative of the Silk Road economic belt and the development of
transportation in the eastern part of Russia and Siberia. This may link the
rapidly growing markets in Asia and Europe's economies, mature, rich in
industrial and technological achievements. At the same time, this will allow
our countries to become more commercially viable in the competition for
investors, for creating new jobs, for advanced enterprises," he observed."..
The summit also acknowledged "the potential for expanding the use of our
national currencies in transactions between the BRICS countries." ("
<http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/brics-sco-eaeu-can-define-new-wo
rld-order-china-russia/article7407865.ece> BRICS, SCO, EAEU can define new
world order: China, Russia", The Hindu)
The dollar is toast. The IMF is toast. The US debt market (US Treasuries) is
toast. The institutions that support US power are crumbling before our very
eyes. The BRICS have had enough; enough war, enough Wall Street, enough
meddling and hypocrisy and austerity and lecturing. This is farewell. Sure,
it will take time, but Ufa marks a fundamental change in thinking, a
fundamental change in approach, and a fundamental change in strategic
orientation.
The BRICS are not coming back, they're gone for good, just as Washington's
"pivot to Asia" is gone for good. There's just too much resistance.
Washington has simply overplayed its hand, worn out its welcome. People are
sick of us.
Can you blame them?
. MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1849351104/counterpunchmaga>
Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is
also available in a
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007X497NM/counterpunchmaga> Kindle
edition. He can be reached at <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected].
From: <http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/10/putin-leads-brics-uprising/>
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/10/putin-leads-brics-uprising/
--
--
You are subscribed. This footer can help you.
Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this
message.
You can visit the group WEB SITE at
http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options,
pages, files and membership.
To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You
don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put
anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this
address (repeat): [email protected] .
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"YCLSA Discussion Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
