What do unions want from BRICS?

Abstract

The BRICS group of countries is an international Bloc of countries comprising five of the world’s most influential emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, spanning Latin America, Africa, Eurasia, and Asia. The first BRIC meeting (South Africa joined later, creating BRICS) was convened at the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was held as a side event during a Session of the UN General Assembly. Foreign ministers of Russia, Brazil and China and the Indian Defence Minister took part in the meeting. They expressed their interest in expanding multilateral cooperation. Two years later, a Joint Communiqué was issued, with BRIC political leaders meeting as a group later that year, during the G8 Summit in Japan. South Africa joined in 2010. The BRICS Forum was established as a formal international body in 2011, thought it still lacks a robust secretariat – what formal information exists about the BRICS group and its meetings is still largely coordinated by the country hosting each session1. In this regard it follows the G7 / G8 model, rather than the model of the EU, or of NAFTA, or ASEAN, all of which have bureaucracies of varying complexity. Yet despite the lack of a central BRICS office (inviting the old line, ‘who do I call when I want to speak to BRICS’?), the grouping does have a clearly articulated political vision, and it is surprisingly radical, and challenging to the current global economic order. At its most radical this ambition saw Russia mooting the establishment of a new global reserve currency to challenge the dollar. That may have overstepped the ambition of other BRICS parties, for now, and official statements from the BRICS subsequently called only for a more stable and predictable monetary system. Yet the BRICS’ ambition to challenge global economic paradigm took a practical step forward in 2014, with the foundation of the New Development Bank and Contingent Reserve Arrangement, broadly based on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Planned cooperation on currency and trade stability continues, and other projects under development include a BRICS-wide submarine communications cable network, intended to circumvent Westernand , particularly, US-controlled communications hubs, in the wake of revelations about the extent of US spying. The BRICS Trade Union Forum As in a number of other international institutions, most notably the ILO, with its Workers Group, and the OECD, with TUAC, labour is organised into a body that works alongside the BRICS political bloc, the BRICS Trade Union Forum. But the Forum is not strictly a part of the BRICS machinery, but was established independently by the trade unions involved. The concept was mooted and supported at the 2010 Congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and came to fruition with the signing of the BRICS Trade Union Forum Declaration during an ILO Decent Work conference in Moscow in December 2012. Within the Forum, almost all major trade union centres from the BRICS countries are represented, including moderates, socialists and communists, ITUC affiliates, WFTU affiliates, and the ACFTU, which otherwise participates only infrequently in trade union international affairs. Alongside this diverse grouping, the ITUC is a regular participant. The only significant exceptions among relevant national trade union centres are the CITU of India and the (newly established) SAFTU of South Africa. Unions were quick to call for a formal position within the BRICS Forum, but despite their repeated calls for such a body to be established, as yet unions have no formal role within the group. This has been a source of some tension. But as yet bursts of discontent have tended to emanate from one national group at a time, and have been temporary. The unions do meet each year, during the BRICS Forum, as a side meeting, and arising from these meetings has been a series of joint annual declarations issued by the BRICS trade unions, which demonstrate a degree of unity and common FOCUS | THE BRICS COUNTRIES AND TRADE UNION RIGHTS 3 24/4 | International Union Rights | The BRICS group has clear and radical policies WhatdounionswantfromBRICS? Daniel Blackburn is Director of ICTUR in London 4 | International Union Rights | 24/4 FOCUS | THE BRICS COUNTRIES AND TRADE UNION RIGHTS purpose. But the lack...