BRICS and Global Left Debates: Uni-Polar, Multi-Polar or Non-Polar Politics?

This chapter considers whether the BRICS might serve the global left as a source of inspiration. While ‘the multi-polar movement’ rallies around this idea, this chapter sets out the view of the ‘independent left’, who are doubtful about multi-polarity and critical of BRICS regimes. It argues that BRICS countries are not anti-imperialists, but rather sub-imperialists, who combine anti-imperialist rhetoric with the realpolitik desire to advance their own self-interest and that of their corporations and elites within the global capitalist system. The formation of the BRICS bloc was tied in with the imperialist interests of the Northern hegemonic countries as BRICS capital was used to shore up the Western-controlled International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. And since then other trade, investment and finance relations have furthered the assimilation process so that BRICS countries are now even more sub-imperial than anti-imperial in character. In short, the chapter argues that what BRICS elites want is a bigger seat at the table, rather than progressive system change. Instead, the chapter proposes a grassroots, bottom-up, non-polar politics that is both anti-imperialist and anti-sub-imperialist and that advances economic, social and environmental policies and practices truly in-line with left values.