Skip to main content
The ‘Bandung spirit’ lives on in the new multipolar world
China’s huge growth and trade success have driven the expansion of the Brics alliance — now is a good time for the global South to rediscover 1955’s historic Bandung conference, and learn its lessons, writes ROGER McKENZIE
A plenary session during the Bandung Conference, 1955

THIS year is the 70th anniversary of the historic Bandung conference, a landmark moment for the global majority.

It was the first-ever summit-level meeting of independence leaders from Africa and Asia and is a beacon for the new mood of determination to break the largely “flag independence” that followed the end of colonialism.

Bandung provides important lessons for the global majority on how to meet the challenges of creating a new multilateral world.

Take out shares in the People's Press
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Features / 16 April 2025
16 April 2025
From the TUC Race Relations Committee to national union treasurers, a new generation of formidable black women leaders are breaking barriers and transforming the movement through uncompromising politics, writes ROGER McKENZIE
(L-R) Former World Heavyweight Champions Joe Frazier, George
Obituary / 24 March 2025
24 March 2025
ROGER McKENZIE writes about late boxing legend Foreman’s legacy, from his part in Rumble in the Jungle to becoming world heavyweight champion at 45
AFRICAN HERO: A Walter Rodney poster in Georgetown, Guyana
Features / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
The Guyanese scholar’s groundbreaking work revealed how Europe deliberately underdeveloped Africa while using its resources and people to fuel Western capitalism, writes ROGER MCKENZIE
The Great Mosque of Djenne, Mali. The first mosque on the si
Features / 2 January 2025
2 January 2025
The revolutions in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso against the old colonial powers are seldom understood in terms of Africans’ own agency and their rejection of the imperialist humiliation thrust upon them, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Similar stories
(Left to right) Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Egyptia
Features / 17 November 2024
17 November 2024
JENNY CLEGG sets out and then responds to eight key doubts about the Brics+ alliance in light of the developments at Kazan, arguing it represents a significant challenge to US hegemony and provides a path towards a multipolar world
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu (centre) an
Features / 19 September 2024
19 September 2024
New alliances like Brics are forging a multilateral world as the global South nations assert their true independence after almost a century of nominal sovereignty under the reality of crushing economic servitude, writes ROGER McKENZIE
PATHBREAKING: Marcus Garvey (left) George Padmore (right)
Features / 15 June 2024
15 June 2024
In the final part of a series taken from his new book, African Uhuru, ROGER McKENZIE discusses the work of black rights titans George Padmore and Marcus Garvey, plus the significance of the Non-Aligned Movement’s creation in 1955
LIBERATION:  Guerilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Fr
Features / 16 May 2024
16 May 2024
Are we seeing an anti-colonialist resurgence like that in the wake of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, asks PAWEL WARGAN