p The world capitalist system draws its economic, political and military strength mainly from the USA, Japan, the United Kingdom, the FRG, France, Italy and other advanced capitalist countries, primarily Canada and the smaller West European states.

p Possessing highly organised production apparatus the developed capitalist states, and above all the major imperialist powers, account for over 90 per cent of the industrial and about 50 per cent of the agricultural output of the capitalist world.

p Indicative of the economic potential of the advanced capitalist states is the fact that the volume of their gross national product is equal to over 80 per cent of the gross product of the entire capitalist world. The advanced capitalist countries considerably surpass the developing countries in the absolute volume and in the per capita distribution of the national income. In 1970 the national income of the United States, Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, Britain, France and Italy, which have a total population of 530 million, reached $ 990,000 million, while the national income of India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Brazil, Mexico, Tanzania and the Congo (Kinshasa) with their total population of more than 860 million, was about $ 80,000 million.

p It should also be borne in mind that in the capitalist countries a considerable portion of the national income is appropriated by the bourgeoisie and other exploiter classes that comprise an insignificant minority of the population.

p Gold, which is mined in many developing countries, in the final count ends up in the strongrooms of the imperialist powers. Their total gold reserves in 1968 were ten times bigger than the gold reserves of the developing countries.

p Thus, the gap between the advanced capitalist states and the majority of the developing countries is widening. Imperialism, with the major capitalist powers as its bulwark, is continuing to oppress many nations and is still a permanent threat to the cause of peace and social progress.

p Striving at whatever the cost to weaken the positions of socialism, put down the national liberation movement of the peoples and suppress the struggle of the working people in capitalist countries, the imperialists are pooling their efforts and intensifying the activity of aggressive military-political blocs. One of their main objectives is to strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), their principal military bloc.

p But there is an increasing discrepancy between the policy "from positions of strength" pursued by the United States and other imperialist powers, on the one hand, and the actual possibility of translating this anti-popular policy into reality. "Imperialism,” the Main Document of the 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties points out, "can neither regain its lost historical initiative nor reverse world development.”

p The major capitalist countries are beset by the most profound internal contradictions that are undermining capitalism as a system of social and national inequality, oppression and violence. The basic contradiction, that of between labour and capital, is deepening more rapidly than all the others. Though socialism’s successes and the class struggle are forcing the capitalists into making certain social concessions to the working people, capitalism as a social system cannot rid society of poverty, unemployment and guarantee the working people a life free of the threat of war and uncertainty about their future.

p The chronic creeping crisis on the domestic scene in the capitalist powers is characterised by periodic economic slumps and the growth of mass unemployment. There are 6-7 million registered unemployed in the advanced capitalist countries. The number of people without steady jobs or those who do part-time work is several times greater. A crisis has 99 also gripped the currency and financial system of the major capitalist states.

p The law of the uneven economic and political development of the capitalist states formulated by Lenin is manifesting itself in increasing measure in the capitalist world.

p The growing unevenness in the development of individual imperialist powers sharply aggravates internal and interimperialist contradictions. What goes on in the capitalist world today shows that the partitioning of spheres of influence, sales markets and raw materials sources, in the course of which the stronger and the richer countries get a bigger share, does not abolish rivalry, but, on the contrary, intensifies the struggle between the imperialist powers and also between their monopoly associations. International state- monopoly organisations which are being established under the slogan of “uniting” and mitigating the problem of markets, are in effect, new forms of partitioning the world capitalist market.

Besides possessing common features, each capitalist country has its own distinctive characteristics. These are examined below.