The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

COSATU welcomes any opportunity presented by any initiative towards the strengthening of south-south relations and solidarity in a world dominated by a few rich northern countries.
It is estimated that, since the four BRIC countries (before South Africa’s membership) are developing rapidly. By 2050 their combined economies are expected to eclipse the combined economies of today’s industrialised and richest countries of the world. These four countries, combined, currently account for more than a quarter of the world's land area and more than 40% of the world's population.

We view the ascendancy of our country to the BRIC group as an important step towards affirming that central tenet in the struggle to re-organise and change the global economic and political architecture towards equity, but also to participate in influencing not only the affairs of today, but the world’s future.
However, we do have reservations and concerns about the tangibility of the gains from this newly acquired status, particularly in its current form. BRICS is made up of emerging economies with sizeable populations, very high growth rates and stronger manufacturing and industrial capacities than our own. That on its own is not the problem, but the issue is that experience has taught us what that has a potential to do, in for example the case of the South African textile industry and Chinese companies. The cost-benefit analysis and the prevailing balance of payments seem to suggest the possible dangers of this form of engagement, unless we take all necessary steps to mitigate them now.
South Africa needs to clarify further its agenda and guard against such realities and their effects on workers, their families and our country in general.
We also welcome the fact that Joining BRIC presents us with a chance to have a counter-weight in international relations, to the unfettered hegemony and dominance of the US and the EU. We have seen the dangers of their unlimited powers in the UN, IMF, World Bank and the WTO and their total disregard of our interests in the global south.
From the statement released after the first summit of the then BRIC countries held in Yekaterinburg, they called for an “equitable, democratic and multi-polar world order”. It seemed they were moving towards that direction. They followed it up with as similar posture in Brasilia last year, with the summit being held in China expected to make concrete steps in that pursuit.
However, the agenda for transforming the global multilateral system must not be about integrating these countries into the undemocratic monopoly club of the powerful, to the exclusion of the world’s majority of developing countries. The UN Security Council veto system must be abolished, because it is an instrument of monopoly power, perpetuation of inequalities and dominance over the whole world by a few rich and industrialised countries.
Fighting for veto status does not transform the unjust system, but renews its legitimacy and gives a false sense of representativity, whilst entrenching unequal power relations in the interest of the big countries.
We also call for south –south relations that go beyond individual countries to include all the countries and peoples of the developing world in order to effectively represent the interests and aspirations of the peoples of the global south. We need to clarify how the rest of the continent stands to benefit from such an arrangement, if we are to avoid isolating ourselves from the continent and its people, but also to continue an agenda that reflects the urgency of developing our continent and its people.

This also must challenge the tendency to revert to narrow nationalist interests by the countries involved in BRICS, as seen in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the G77 where solidarity is merely an intention, but not a fundamental part of daily practice, hence the continued dominance, division and competition between the countries involved, with very little co-operation and unity in action.

Finally, we hope the BRICS summit shall use the opportunity to assert a bold agenda against the threat to our environment and support a legally binding framework in Durban during COP17 to save our planet from the destructiveness of capital’s insatiable appetite for the resources of the world’s people.

We hope it will also develop a clear and firm response to the trade offensive driven by multinational companies through the US government in the build-up towards the resumption of the Doha round, which threatens to further weaken and erode our industrial development prospects in the global south. We have seen such indicators in our own country, which have cost millions of jobs and caused untold suffering to millions of workers, families and communities.