Harry Targ and Stephen David
Behind the turmoil of the Ukraine and Israeli wars, tensions between the
United States and China, African contestation over neo-colonial political,
economic, and military influence, and US meddling in the politics of Latin
America, there are fundamental forces in play that seek to rearrange and change
the architectures of global social relations. Simply put: the world, especially
the Global South has had enough of Western oppressive systems and its imperial
thrust.
New institutions and solidarities, beyond the control and wishes of the
West, are emerging in the Global South. These involve changing patterns of
trade, finance, uses of national currencies in place of the dollar and Euro,
and new expansive trade corridors and routes. Perhaps most importantly, in the
Global South, the voices of criticism of the unjust and dictatorial conduct of
the United States and its allies is on a sharp rise. There is a renewed belief
in sovereignty and a new form of political economy that supports more just
international social relations then were institutionalized in the Bretton Woods
system after World War Two. In short,
the hundreds of years of forms of
“linking” of North and South are increasingly being challenged.
And now candidate Trump on the campaign trail is warning his supporters
of the “dedollarization” movement that is advancing around the world and
promises to crush it if he is elected. The link below is to a recent Trump
campaign speech and a useful discussion of dedolarization and the rising of the
BRICS movement.
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/09/13/trump-threat-punish-dedollarization-dollar/
In short, there is much happening in what might be called “the new
international realities” which must concern progressives around the world.
These changes require us to include them in our analyses and long run struggle against the “rules based” capitalist
empire.
