EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR MONDAY AUGUST 21, 2023

Colonial Dinosaurs Frantic To Subvert BRICS Summit That Begins Tuesday

Aug. 20, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—The BRICS Summit will be held Aug. 22 through Aug. 24 this week in Johannesburg, South Africa. Attending in person will be all the leaders of the five BRICS members, except Vladimir Putin, who was threatened with an arrest by the imperial powers if he traveled there, for the “crime” of saving children from Ukrainian shelling of their homes in the Donbass. He will attend by live video. On the agenda is the request from 23 countries to join the BRICS; a discussion of the evolving plans for a new financial system for world trade free of the U.S. dollar; and the urgency of a global campaign for the development of Africa. Every head of state in Africa has been invited. There will also be a meeting of the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue, co-chaired by Presidents Xi Jinping of China and host President Cyril Ramaphosa.

This is seen as a dire threat to the continuation of the rotting and degenerate remnants of the colonial powers huddled in the G7 and NATO. It is increasingly clear to the world that the nations of the Global South, the former colonial nations of Asia, Africa, and South and Central America, are throwing off the colonial chains which have been maintained after the supposed political freedom granted by their colonial masters, through the economic controls of the IMF system and the control over the trading system through the hegemony of the (financier-controlled) U.S. dollar. Global South nations are fleeing the use of the dollar in their trade relations, using local currencies when possible, or sometimes the Chinese renminbi. They have been driven to do so by the militarization of the dollar, where unilateral, illegal sanctions are placed on anyone or any country which uses dollars to trade with a “sanctioned” country, and even stealing outright the reserves of targeted nations held in Western banks. How far the BRICS can go toward establishing a new trading system is not clear, but it is to be a leading subject of discussion by BRICS members and those countries attending from around the world.

What will not be on the agenda are the demands from Washington and London to join the sanctions regime against Russia and to de-couple from China.

The Western powers have been busily subverting countries involved in the BRICS process. Argentina, a leading candidate for BRICS membership, is being subjected to massive financial warfare, causing such turmoil in the country that President Alberto Fernández has announced that he will not attend the BRICS Summit as planned. Russia is being subjected to similar, escalating financial warfare and induced capital flight. Niger is being threatened with military invasion by several members of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) which are themselves under intense pressure from NATO. Niger’s “crime” is that of overthrowing the pro-imperial government in July, the fourth such coup against colonial-controlled governments in francophone West Africa. While there is strong opposition to such a move from within Africa itself, should a military invasion be carried out, the entire region would quickly descend into yet another NATO-instigated war at the expense of the lives of millions of innocents.

Meanwhile, the “Global NATO” campaign to extend the NATO colonialist system to Asia is rushing ahead at full speed, even while the proxy war on Russia in Ukraine is revealed as a total failure—to all those other than the Malthusians who delight in the slaughter of mankind. The demented U.S. President Joe Biden brought the leaders of Japan and South Korea (Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol) to Camp David on Friday, Aug. 18, to begin the process of constructing an “Asian NATO,” preparing to expand NATO’s proxy war on Russia into a proxy war on China in Asia. The agreement was reached to establish a military pact, including the promise—like that of the NATO agreement—that an attack on any one of the three would bring about a response from all.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in an open letter to both the participants in the BRICS Summit and the citizens of the Global North, begins with:

“The summit of the BRICS countries, which will take place from August 22-24 in Johannesburg, South Africa despite all Western attempts to disrupt it, will demonstrate to the whole world that a new world economic order has emerged, opening a new chapter in human history. Nations of the Global South, which already represent the vast majority of the world’s population, are expressing their effective resolve to end forever the past period of some 600 years of colonialism, and to establish an economic system that encourages the sovereign, equitable development of all states of this Earth, the elimination of poverty, and the creation of a decent standard of living for all. We, the citizens of the Global North, must wholeheartedly congratulate this development and support it through practical cooperation!”

The letter concludes:

“Our entire future, that of the nations of the Global South, and not least of all world peace, will depend on whether we can win enough forces in the European nations and the U.S.A. to seize the extraordinary opportunity that presents itself in the possibility of cooperation with the BRICS-Plus states. We are currently experiencing an epochal change of the kind that happens maybe once in a thousand years, and the great thing is that we can all help shape this new era through our contribution. We can help end the shameful phase of colonialism and begin a human chapter in universal history.”

EIR has posted the full letter for you to read and circulate: