A South African academic and activist, Dot Keet has urged countries of the South to work more at developing co-operation among themselves than depending on the rich countries of the North.

This, she said, would end capitalist domination and also open up much greater room for maneuver for governments as against the global system and regimes. "If consciously conceived and skillfully utilized, this could even contribute towards altering the global balance of economic and political power against governmental and corporate forces in the core capitalist countries of the North."

Dr Keet was speaking at an activists training school organized by the Third World Network in Accra, recently.

She said the growing cooperation among Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are illustrative of the different modes of South-South relations that are possible.

"Such actual and potential economic relations could reduce the dependence of the countries of the South on the donor governments' cooperation of the rich North," she said.

The academic said the need for this cooperation is more crucial, considering the looming consequences of the Climate Change, which by itself presents an enormous challenge to developing countries.

"In short, over and above the long-term environmental and climate threats, the established features of oligopolistic capitalism and the immediate crises that have been created by the key economic and social sectors are set to continue for years ahead. The most likely scenario is a period of marked instability and unpredictability, of fluctuations in investment, production and consumption. Above all, the period ahead will see further shifts within and between economies, and in the global distribution of economic and political power", she observed.

She, however, warned that these relations will not be easy, against the backdrop of the different levels of development and resource endowment of such interlinked countries, their different sizes, economic and technological capacities. These factors, she observed, are currently exploited by the various ruling elites in their respective countries and formed the basis for their continued exploitation of the people and natural resources.

Dr Keet, who is also a Research Associate at the Alternative Information and Development Centre, said such efforts should also be cooperative, "with differentiated responsibilities and roles according to resource and capacities."

"The 'give and take', 'mutual benefit' and equity modalities demanded in regional cooperation programmes would have to be informed by the enlightened recognition of directly shared immediate problems and longer-term problems they face."