Rather than unipolarity, it accelerated advance towards pluripolarity. As neoliberalism locked the West into ever-slower growth, the world economy’s centre of gravity began shifting towards the fast-growing socialist market economy of China and towards large developing capitalist countries that had then pulled back from the worst of free market fundamentalism, such as Brazil, India and Russia.
By the 2010s, these countries demanded reform of international governance institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank. When the West refused to cooperate, they, particularly China, launched new ones. These included the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the New Development Bank, and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America. China and Russia also led Eurasian integration, harnessing China’s growing economic gravity – two thirds of the world’s countries today trade more with China than the US, its Belt and Road Initiative, and Russia’s revived military prowess to the economic and security needs of neighbouring countries. The resulting Eurasian pole, covering nearly a third of the world’s population and over half its territory, overcomes the destructive legacy of the Sino-Soviet split, at least for anti-imperialist purposes.
Africa and Latin America also asserted themselves against the West. Latin America’s ‘Pink Tide’ of left-wing governments refused to go away despite ferocious US efforts to undermine it. In Africa, despite setbacks such as in Libya, national and left forces are rallying. Former French African colonies witnessed mass movements against the neo-colonial CFA Franc. French occupation of the strategically important Central African Republic was opposed and elections organised under the protection of Russian and Rwandan troops. SADC countries opposed British-led regime change efforts in Zimbabwe while a number of neighbouring countries are helping Mozambique fight the ISIS-influenced insurgency in the north of the country.
Africa and Latin America are today economically and politically more independent and are reviving the Pan Africanism and Pan Latin Americanism that generations of revolutionary men and women fought for, demonstrating that their revolutionary seeds are still sprouting.
