South Africa has been catching quite a bit of flak as of late from the Western media. The ruling ANC has refused to openly condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and worse, they are planning to participate in military exercises in February with both China and Russia.
For the past two years the Biden administration has attempted
to re-assert US dominance and hegemony across the globe and with no small
degree of success. Washington has manipulated events in Europe and reinvigorated
the Atlanticist paradigm and the primary military arm of empire – NATO. The
European states have been largely brought into compliance and Washington is
celebrating.
However the record is mixed in places like Latin America,
Southeast Asia, and Africa. The US has scored some diplomatic and economic
victories but there's also a growing wave of resistance – nations that don't
necessarily want to 'join' with the likes of Russia, China, and Iran, but are
at the same time resistant to American pressure. During the Cold War the
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) represented this position – a position that was met
with considerable hostility in the United States.
South Africa for its part is certainly the leading power in
Sub-Saharan Africa and while the ANC was willing to overlook Washington's long
tacit support for Apartheid, the sunshine period of the 1990's and early 2000's
is over. Pretoria is happy to do business with Washington but it's no longer
willing to simply submit. Once again the chaos and recklessness of the Trump
presidency played a role in this.
Secondly, South Africa and many other nations in the Global
South are tired of US and Western hypocrisy. We are subjected to
round-the-clock propaganda about Russia but then the Israeli murder machine is
given a pass as are the brutal wars and massacres conducted by American and
French troops (and their proxies) within Africa itself. The Yemen War is
largely ignored as are America's ongoing operations in places like Somalia.
The BRICS bloc which became viable in 2009 was set up as a
means of countering the domination of Western finance – another key plank in
the Atlanticist hydra. Between Trump, the clear US campaign to engineer war
with Russia, the re-election of Lula in Brazil and with it the potential
reinvigoration of BRICS – South Africa is willing to take a stand, even if it
is a small one. BRICS is a potential rival to the G7 (itself an expansion of
Rockefeller's Trilateralism), and as such is an object of hostility.
Brazil under Bolsonaro represented a defection from BRICS,
and in many respects both India and South Africa have been oriented toward the
West in recent years. But clearly this is changing as apart from its border
issues with China, New Delhi is clearly triangulating and looking to carve out
its own position. South Africa apparently feels strong enough to do the same.
Just as Modi is increasingly facing Western scrutiny and is
now the subject of media attacks, the ANC's Ramaphosa has plenty of skeletons
in his closet and these less than Western-oriented moves on his part are sure
to generate a series of journalistic attacks on him.
Not all members of the Global South will be willing or eager
to sign on with Russia or even China, but unlike the Western audience they can
see what is happening – and in the case of Ukraine, the role NATO played in
fomenting the war. Lula dared to say so publically and right in front of Olaf
Scholz. Russia and China are not viewed as benevolent actors but in some
respects are counted more honest and less hypocritical. The West's
proclamations about democracy and human rights ring hollow and with the
instability in Washington, some of these mid-tier nations are starting to make
their move. The US Empire is facing threats from without and within. Clearly
the praetorians in Washington and New York hope that the war in Ukraine will
provide the opportunity to reassert power, channel energies, and force the hand
of nations who would maintain their liberal identity and narratives. But
clearly not everyone is buying it and the window of opportunity (to break free)
is limited, even as the dangers of a wider and potentially catastrophic war
increase.
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