Thank you so much. Allow me first of all to greet the organizers of the important meeting. We need this more than at any time because of the times that we are going through at this moment. We are living through very dangerous times. Tensions, wars, and threats of war are the dominating features of our period.
Why, one may ask, are we at a point of great uncertainty? To paraphrase Antonio Gramsci, it appears that the old order has become bankrupt. It has achieved its usefulness and now it is not able to solve the new situation. But a new order is yet to be born, and the danger the old order is creating is immense.
The United States and European Union current policies are based on wars and threats of wars. These include sanctions against countries and now against organizations and even against individuals. In our region in the Caribbean, Cuba has probably been the country under sanctions for the longest time, and it is just because they want to find a new path, a more humane path of development. So, they are being severely harassed and sanctioned. The situation with Russia and Ukraine is also part of that dying system that wants to control everything, and is probably a holdover from the attitude of the West towards the Soviet Union. They see Russia as an inheritor of the Soviet Union, and at least some aspect of that policy, the peace policy in particular of the Soviet Union, and which they need to crush.
But nothing has shown us more clearly the decadence of the system that we are living under than what is taking place today in the Middle East. There the old order is in decay, as is seen most glaringly in Gaza, the West Bank, the Jordan River area, and in East Jerusalem. There is a genocide taking place in plain sight of the world, but no attempt to stop it is being done by the people who have the power to do so. Instead, we see a brazen barbaric way in which human lives are being crushed. Among them are children; children are deliberately being targetted, as are women. And special groups such as doctors and medical workers, rescue workers are all being brutally murdered. Journalists and their families are being marked for death. This situation is diminishing our humanity.
In the Western world, the U.S. and the NATO members in particular, are not just complicit in this barbarism that is taking place. They are participants and facilitators to the gruesome destruction of these lives. To protect the fascist apartheid regime in Israel, the Western powers have even moved to violate international laws and to destroy international institutions. On last June 13th, Israel made a surprise attack on Iran, and killed many of its leading scientists and senior military personnel who were at home at the time. Tragically, it appears that the IAEA was used by Israel and the United States in this attack on these individuals. This, in my mind, is state terrorism in its clearest form. Iran has accused the IAEA of informing the U.S. and Israel in particular of the location and identities of these people. That is why they are accusing them of being part of the killing of those people—civilians and military people. The U.S. and its allies have targetted the ICJ—the International Court of Justice—because they dared to charge Israel and its Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Defense Minister. They are also very critical against the International Criminal Justice, where they are joining with Israel to defend the charge of genocide.
Most recently, the vicious attack against Francesca Albanese because she has been exposing what has been taking place in Israel and pointing out that many companies are making profit from the genocide that is taking place in Gaza. I believe that this is an extremely brave woman, and she is more deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize than those who are hankering for it. She deserves it for her contribution in defending humanity and opposing the genocide that is taking place there. In her recent report, she convincingly exposed the immorality of the corporations in the bourgeois states. Imagine not only the companies, but the states, like pension funds, being used to make money in this desperate time.
But in this darkness that we are going through, hope is once again arising and being kindled. This is due an awakening in the Global South as to the systemic nature of our underdevelopment. Global South countries that fought so gallantly for independence for decades found themselves in poverty and moving from one debt crisis to the next. Yet, it will be surprising to know that although they talk about the debt crisis in the developing countries, the developing world is still a net contributor of capital to the Global North. In fact, some estimates are that from 1960 to now, a net transfer of $152 trillion from the South went to the North, due to the mechanism that is used to continue to bilk our countries.
Whenever any country from the South tries to break the vicious cycle, they are confronted with a variety of sanctions—as I mentioned just now in Cuba—threats, and military invasions. For instance, the killing of Colonel Qaddafi in Libya, because he was trying to go toward another system. For a while the then-former colonies banded together in the Non-Aligned Movement and exerted some influence internationally. However, with the collapse of the Eastern European socialist countries in the late 1980s and early ’90s, that influence waned somewhat.
Today, new hope has been restored. This is coming from the decisions of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa; countries that are determined to uphold their independence and defend their sovereignty have come together to try to create a new path of development which will be fairer and will distribute the world’s wealth in a more equitable manner. The contrast of the policies of these countries with the Western countries which use their current policy to blackmail and create wars; here they are trying to create prosperity. That is because they recognize that prosperity must be neutral. We cannot go on with one part of the world in abject poverty, and another part living in wealth at the expense of the other.
That is the proposal of the Schiller Institute; to create prosperity for all so that we can all develop together. That is behind the thinking, I believe, of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is opening up and creating new possibilities for countries in the Global South. It is that win-win philosophy and mutual benefits that I believe is what we have to look forward to. In the process, new institutions are being created, like the BRICS Bank. And hopefully, other institutions that will look into justice and prevent wars by creating more development that can take place.
However, we will have to continue to guard against all of the machinations of the West. Many times, they use new-found wealth in countries to create tensions between different countries so that they can send more weapons. Therefore, not only milking the resources of those countries, but selling them weapons to destroy each other. I hope that the Global North will be able to see the developments in the BRICS not as a threat to them in the sense that they are aiming to destroy their prosperity. I don’t think that is what is happening. I hope that there will be leaders in the West who will see that as an opportunity to try to partner with the BRICS countries in order to help the Global South to develop and create the conditions for them to prosper.
In the meantime, let me say that we must redouble our efforts in solidarity to the people of Palestine in particular, but also to the people of Russia who have been forced to carry out military operations to defend their people and the world from a complete takeover by NATO countries.
Let me reiterate my position that Russia has an equal right to security as every other state; and that right is causing what is taking place today. Let me also say that we must fight to defend the international institutions and many of the brave individuals who are there, like Francesca Albanese. We must defend her for the great work and contribution that she is making, not only as a job, but a contribution that she is making to our own humanity. She is saving us from the destruction of what makes us human beings. Once more, let me congratulate all of you who are participants for a fight for a better world, and to say that we must organize, organize, organize for a better world. Thank you for your attention.
[Donald Ramotar was the President of Guyana from 2011 to 2015]
