1 - Important events have taken place in the world confirming the analyses and resolutions of the 9th Party Congress (held on October 1997) regarding the progress of the objective tendencies of the imperialist-capitalist system and the whole of the political situation. The irreconcilable antagonisms of the system were aggravated - between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the peoples and imperialism and also the internal contradictions of imperialism - which political and social results create explosive situations and a political scenario characterized by intense instability. The contradiction between capitalism and socialism is still present as one of the fundamental contradictions of the present time, even though this situation will not be solved in short time.

THE IMPASSES OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM

2 - The contemporary capitalism produces changes, intensifying the economic internationalization and making use of technological innovations. Nevertheless, its impasses still exist and are constantly being renewed. There is not an evident sign of reversion of the present long-lasting period of hardships towards economic dynamism, along with expressive simultaneous, material and global progress, involving the great majority of nations. The present situation is characterized by enormous difficulties that contrast with the period from World War II to the 70's, which was characterized by a certain uniformity in the growth presented by all the main imperialist countries. Growing instability and frequent crises have marked the world economy. In 1989 and 1990 the main capitalist countries have faced once more a critical situation. Heavy financial crises have occurred during the last two decades, such as the crisis of Latin-American debt in 1982, the downfall of the New York Stock Exchange in 1987, the crisis in Mexico in 1994, in Asia, Russia and Brazil from 1997 to 1999 and, most recently, the crisis in Argentina. Nowadays there are problems with the accumulation of capital; the lack of synchronism among the economic cycles of the main powers is made clear, especially the long Japanese stagnation and the strong signs of crisis that menace the North-American economy, which have grown during most of the 90's. These crises are still partial, either for their duration or for the fact that they are restricted to a determined country or area, but the menace of a global disaster threatens the capitalist economy, which causes derive from the fundamental contradictions and the objective laws of the progress of the capitalist system. Nowadays, due to the evident signs of stagnation presented by the North-American economy and by the other centers of the capitalist economy (Europe and Japan) - what constitutes the first synchronic crisis since the depression from 1929 to 1933, according to many analysts -, we see the vanishing of the illusions - cherished by many, even in the left wing - regarding the "revolution" of the capitalist system, its regenerative abilities, the beginning of a new "golden era" of expansive, systemic and long growth. In the scope of these efforts to make it seem vigorous, the defenders of the North-American imperialism have created the false concept of the "new economy" - originally divulged by the Department of Commerce of the United States -, which is an ideological concept that is being contradicted by the difficult situation of the North-American economy. In fact, the last years have confirmed the existence of a chronic and integral crisis of the capitalist system as the Party has warned during the 9th Congress.

3 - The context of the 90's is marked by profound changes in the production and management of labor. Capitalism preserves its logic of accumulation and reproduction making use of the productive, financial and geopolitical restructuring to overcome obstacles. The general sense of this recycling is placing the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of workers. The 90's have proved that the core of the capitalist changes is to grant medium-term profit rates and search for maximum profit by means of the new wave of brutal exploitation of workers.

4 - The increase of the organic composition of capital and of the industrial army at its disposal results in the policy of devaluating the labor force. Technical transformations are adopted to increase the relative surplus value. At the same time, the labor routines are intensified (absolute surplus value) and labor forms are undergoing a regression, wages are reduced, workers are dismissed for they become expendable due to new technologies, labor achievements are nullified and third-party enterprises are contracted. This is how capitalism accomplishes its offensive against labor.

5 - As for the capital, the increase in the concentration and centralization (mergers, acquisitions, creation of huge enterprises) undergoes a tense coexistence with the intensification of the competition among oligopolies. Great private capitalist groups facing the financial oligarchy increase the degree of monopolization of the economy, relying on the intense privatization of state-owned enterprises. The 500 biggest enterprises in the world have achieved an income of 11.5 trillion dollars, about one third of the gross domestic production of the world. Only 6 of these are Latin-American enterprises. 455 of them are headquartered in the USA, Europe or Japan. The biggest 5 enterprises in the automobile, oil, aerospace and computer sectors concentrate about 60 percent of the world income derived from these sectors. Along with this process of concentration and centralization of capitals, the role of international organizations under the dominion of imperialism (such as the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization) is intensified.
6 - The profitability of the capital is the result of the extraction of the surplus value from the productive sphere, which was the key factor to the so-called period of capitalist prosperity after World War II. Nevertheless, the fall of profit rates and the crisis of the 70's have stimulated the migration of capitals to the financial sphere, which no longer supports the productive sphere. The search for profitability has been exacerbated in the financial sphere, resulting in the inevitable increase in the general economic instability. The world market has limits regarding the movement of the exportation of capitals. The recent reiterated crises deny the idea of efficient financial markets. As fictitious capital goes gigantic, resources are withdrawn from the productive sphere, a phenomenon that is also related to the present difficulties of growth.

7 - Dismembering production among many countries is a means of increasing profit. This new tendency in the organization of the production results in the abandonment of a varied domestic production, avoiding the concentration of the productive chain in only one country. At the same time, measures are taken to ensure directive, financial and technological positions in the countries of origin of big multinational enterprises.
8 - Many efforts have been made to favor the growth of the accumulation and the concentration of capital in an attempt to adopt policies that allow the beginning of a "new stage" of "relaunching" capitalism. This diversity of policies and processes is part of the neoliberal project that consists in the privatization of state-owned enterprises and of the public patrimony; in withdrawing the State from the administration and diminishing its regulatory role in the economy; in deregulation; in open-door policies regarding trade, finances and technology; in fiscal discipline; in monetary stability at the expense of sacrificing the economic and social development; in the promotion of regressive reforms in the social and labor spheres.
9 - The neoliberal recipe is different in imperialist countries and dependent underdeveloped countries. In developed capitalist countries, the State still supports big private enterprises, making efforts to create business opportunities in the rest of the world for the international operation of the capitalist groups. Among the interventionist mechanisms used by States to support capital in every developed country are protectionism, commercial restrictions, agricultural subsidies, tax exemption, currency exchange measures, public indebtedness and scientific and technological development. The accumulation of capital cannot let go the extra-economic help provided by the State. The State has often intervened to protect big banks during episodes of financial crisis.

10 - The idea of the end of the State as a Nation, that economic borders no longer exist, is completely false. The debate on the role of the nation and the struggle against imperialist were never so present. There was indeed the weakening of the State in dependent countries and the strengthening of States in imperialist countries. The idea of the end of the Nation as a State derives from false presuppositions: the neoliberal globalization opened the path to overcome national economies and, therefore, the national States were not able to delineate macroeconomic policies. Such point of view is an apology of the submission to the "global economy" and plays an ideological role to impose the "only way" of neoliberal globalization, with intent to stop countries from formulating their own projects according to the interests of their peoples and nations.

11 - The vulnerable economies of dependent and underdeveloped countries were particularly affected by the neoliberal project. Their currencies were devaluated, some Latin-American countries have already adopted the American dollar as their currency, the interest rates have reached the highest levels, causing the decrease of the economic growth, productive facilities were almost destroyed and the public patrimony has been privatized. Heavy external passives have increased due to the unequal commerce and the deficit in the balance of payments. The IMF imposes draconian structural conditions, obligating dependent countries to follow the precepts of the neoliberal policies.

12 - The economic situation of Latin America shows clearly the setback caused by the adoption of neoliberal policies. According to data presented by the Economic Commission to Latin America, the economic growth reached an average rate of 3 percent from 1990 to 1999. The average rate during the period from 1945 to 1980 reached 5.5 percent under the influence of a different policy. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America, the minimum rate required to enable the growth needed to overcome the harms resulting from this policy would be 6 percent, which would diminish the unevenness among underdeveloped and developed countries.

13 - The opening of the Latin-American trade has proved to be an unprotected exposure to international competition that resulted in the bankruptcy of entire industrial branches, in the increase of the dependence on international capital and on the centers of imperialist power, in the weakening of the internal market and in the decrease of the accumulation of capital, causing a chronic deficit in the balance of trade and payments and the increase of foreign debt, which amounts to 750 billion dollars. The implantation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will aggravate even more these conditions when it becomes effective.
14 - The stagnation of the North-American economy makes it even more difficult to overcome this situation. The intensified integration effected by the globalization mechanisms has placed the economies in a situation of dependence on the events taking place in the United States and its economy, which disturbs the dynamism of world economy whenever it is threatened.

15 - This tendency towards unbalance denies the equivocal conceptions regarding the end of history and the triumph of capitalism. Some have proclaimed the end of the economic cycle and its inevitable crises, which was illustrated by the economic growth of the United States throughout the 90's. The performance of the US economy would be the victory of neoliberalism and the uncontestable restoration of its supremacy among the other imperialist powers. The cyclical growth of the United States was motivated by technological innovations and by financial relations. The political hegemony of the United States was the indispensable tool necessary to make it happen. During the 80's, the USA became the biggest debtor in the world and during the 90's the North-American economy took the first place regarding the income of capitals - amounting to 400 billion dollars a year. Therefore, the United States was supported by a huge external financial support deriving from the centralization perpetrated by its financial market and by their currency, absorbing great part of the capitals available in the world. Paradoxically, the growth of the North-American economy has occurred in proportion to the increase of its parasitical behavior and its dependence on external financial support. In the commercial sphere, the United States presents a huge deficit amounting to 1 billion dollars a day and its balance of payments is also deficient.

16 - All the above makes clear how unstable and precarious the basis of the North-American economy is. The financial speculation cannot be the basis to economic growth, but a component that aggravates the contradictions of contemporary capitalism. The careful observation of the situation reveals that there is a tendency towards a relative decline of the North-American hegemony on the world.

17 - The United States is facing the repeated downfall of the prices of shares, the decline of investments as consumer indebtedness reaches very high levels. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the growth of the 30 most developed countries will recede to 2 percent in 2001, as a downward spiral threatens Japan. Germany, which is the largest economy in Europe, has forecasted a growth rate of 2.25 percent for the current year. Nowadays, the German factories are facing the lowest levels of demand since September 1991. OECD forecasts that the US economy will present a growth rate of merely 1.7 percent in stark contrast to 5 percent in the previous year. Its savings rate has decreased from 5 percent of the DGP in 1990 to zero in 2000.

18 - The world economy is characterized by growing instability and frequent crises. To overcome this situation, the capital develops productive forces but, at the same time, stimulates new difficulties, since it relatively reduces the labor force, which constitutes the basis to the valorization of capital. This contradiction is maintained and aggravated by permanent unemployment. Nowadays, the tendencies in capitalism have taken a more radical form: the concentration and the centralization of capital, the technological development and the enormous growth of financial activities. The system is under constant pressure, being exposed to more dangerous cyclical crises. The concept of crisis does not imply the idea of automatic collapse or the final debacle of capitalism (the latter one being related to the revolutionary political struggle). In its imperialist stage, capitalism is characterized by more acute crises with indefinite and irregular economic cycles, while overproduction and financial crises take turns and its parasitical tendencies increase.

19 - Due to this situation of systemic economic crisis, the Communist Party of Brazil believes that the arguments regarding the possibility of social development under capitalism are false. The general setback that characterizes the present days is evidence to the contrary, as opposed to the period after World War II, when it was possible to introduce the welfare state. Nowadays, the technologic and scientific revolution allows humanity to produce abundant food, goods and services, to experience unimaginable developments in biogenetics, making medicine take great leaps, as new communication techniques reduce distances and eliminate borders. Paradoxically, more than 30 million people die of hunger every year and more than 800 million are underfed, many others die of curable diseases and millions live in the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy. The irrational character of the capitalist system is therefore made clear. In general terms, the world situation is characterized by the imperialist plundering of peoples and nations, by the relentless attack on social achievements, on the rights of the people and on national sovereignties, by the devastation of the environment, by the degradation of human condition. In the turning of the century and the millennium, we are faced with a crisis in civilization. The political and economic world order under the dominion of the imperialist capitalism during its neoliberal globalization stage is unable to guarantee the survival of mankind in conditions of dignity.

NORTH-AMERICAN IMPERIALISM: ENEMY OF THE LIBERTY AND FREEDOM OF THE PEOPLES

20 - The international political sphere is faced with disorder, lack of safety, crisis and instability, although the imperialist circles and its propaganda centers say the contrary. The so-called new world order, which was developed after the dismantlement of the Soviet Union and the debacle of socialism in East Europe, is becoming more and more imperialist in its essence, characterized by the extreme spoliation of peoples and nations, by the intensification of the social polarization, by the increase of the gap between rich and poor countries, by hegemonism, militarism, authoritarianism and the threat of environmental devastation. The beginning of the 21st century is being marked by a tremendous setback in the achievements of humanity. The world panorama is aggravated by the hegemony and aggressive political and military character of the USA. The interventions of the USA have been spread all over the world. The development of the international situation presents serious threats to peace, to safety, to the independence of nations, to freedom and to people's rights. The aggressive and plundering policy of the North-American imperialism lies in the origin of the present instability, since the USA frequently resorts to its strength and its military superiority to impose its hegemony on the world. The North-American imperialism now considers its dominion and its so-called right to interfere with peoples and nations as an uncontestable principle of international politics, nullifying consecrated principles such as national sovereignty, equality, respect to territorial integrity, peaceful resolution of conflicts and non-intervention. The new administration of the USA, under the leadership of an ultraconservative president, has already signaled that they intend to increase the tension being put on their foes in the defense of their hegemonic interests, resulting in less security for the peoples of the world.

21 - Since the attacks against New York and Washington in September 11 the international situation is going through significant changes. These events have caused a widespread crisis in which democracy, peace, civilization and the fate of humanity are facing serious threats. The developments do not constitute, though, a complete change in the world conjuncture. They do not deny nor invert the essential logic of the present phenomena. The present facts constitute the exacerbation of tendencies evolving in the course of time, a violent manifestation of the contradictions of the contemporary world. The war and the danger of an unprecedented intensification were already part of the cruel reality of capitalism under the rule of globalization and neoliberalism and also a part of the policies put into effect by the new administration of the United States.

22 - The Communist Party of Brazil has repudiated the attacks on September 11 for it condemns terrorism as a means of political action. Nothing justifies the death of thousands of innocent citizens resulted by the attack of an enemy without a face, a program, a flag. Delirious acts without political and ideological legitimacy will only increase the power of the right-wing forces, of the enemies of political freedom and civil rights. We share with the democratic forces the opinion that terrorism is an ominous phenomenon to be fought against in the realm of the United Nations according to the norms of international law and with due respect to the sovereignty of nations and civil liberties. The United States has no moral or political authority to condemn terrorism since, as an imperialist country, it has committed revolting acts of cowardice and state terrorism against defenseless populations and sovereign countries. During the fight against terrorism, we cannot accept placing its actions side by side with the revolutionary struggle, the resistance struggle, civil war, different expressions of political radicalism that are related to concrete national and social realities, as well as we cannot accept the attempt at criminalizing the revolutionary movements.

23 - The United States have unleashed massive bombardments on Afghanistan on October 7. For weeks, the most colossal and sophisticated war machine is showering bombs on an extremely poor country, exhausted by more than two decades of external conflicts and internal insurrections. The American war has begun, the first one of the 21st century, one that will be, according to the words of president George W. Bush, "long and dirty", extensive, different from any other, "implying the use of every necessary weapon of war". The potential of the forces put into action and the rhetoric aggressiveness of the president of the United States indicate that the objective of this operation is not exactly the arrest of Usama Bin Laden and the defeat of the Taleban regime. By announcing that the attack will include over 50 countries considered by the North-American agencies of espionage as "terrorists or complicit with terrorism", the Bush administration makes clear that its objective is to carry out a strategy that was drawn beforehand, that is, to impose the hegemony and the unilateral dominion over the world by means of the use of force. In fact, with the acts of war initiated on October 7, the United States intends to solve strategic problems in a long-term perspective. And no obstacle of ethic, diplomatic or political nature will stop them in this operation. The North-American imperialists want to impose their tyranny over the world, what may constitute a new kind of fascism. The creation of a military court in the United States with intent to perform secret and summary judgments and proclaim the death sentence to foreigners without the right to appeal constitutes a serious fact, an attack on democracy and human rights. It is a declaration of war against the peoples that may reveal the tendency of establishing the North-American tyranny all over the world. The manipulation of information performed by monopolized media is also offensive to the democratic conscience. Since the attacks on Afghanistan and the proclamation of a "long and tough" war by Bush, the world will undergo a process of militarization in the international relations that will inevitably cause severe consequences to the peoples: limitations of democratic rights, social crises and the loss of national sovereignty.

24 - The present crisis reveals the "military nature of the American hegemony", as put by ambassador Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães in his article published by "Carta Maior". Despite the rivers of ink spent by propagandists of the American empire in order to proclaim the definitive triumph of the US hegemony, the real strategists of this empire are aware of the fact that the military superiority is a decisive factor in imposing this hegemony. The United States undergoes an economic crisis with a deficit in the energy sector considered by many specialists as "terrifying" and the country is aware of the importance of Middle Asia and Middle East for its survival as a power. It is also aware of the power of countries such as China, Russia and India, which are potential adversaries. Zbigniew Brezinszi, former advisor of National Security of the USA, declares in his book "The grand chessboard: American primacy and its geostrategic imperatives": the [starting point] "for global supremacy is Eurasia, the largest continent in the world where 75 percent of the world population live and where great part of the world riches are concentrated, be it industrial or mineral, being responsible for 60 percent of the world GDP and for three quarters of the known energetic resources". The Italian paper "Il Manifesto", in September 4, 2001, reports that "the main preoccupation of the United States - which presence is not hegemonic in that region - is to impede the formation of the alliance among Russia, China and India, heralded by the treaty of friendship and cooperation signed in July by Moscow and Beijing".

25 - The present war plans of the North-American imperialism were not drawn after the events that took place on September 11. The 90's begun with the Gulf War - when former president George Bush proclaimed the "new order" - and ended with the war NATO waged against Yugoslavia. The first external action of the new government of the United States was the unexpected aerial bombardment on Iraqi territory, revealing once again the arbitrary character of imperialism, another episode in which the North-American power ignores the norms of international law. The repetition of such actions was combined with the maintenance of unfair sanctions on Iraqi people, impeding the healing of economic and social wounds caused by the Gulf War in 1991, constituting a crime against humanity since it causes the death of thousands by lack of food and medication. Since the electoral campaign last year, Bush would make references to the "mission" of imposing "the permanent national interests of the USA" in the struggle against "evil".

26 - The first months of Bush administration illustrate the fact that the United States has opted for a unilateral external policy based on the use of force aiming at expansionism and the imposition of the North-American hegemony. The United States has stiffened its policy regarding China, openly provoking the Chinese during the episode involving the espionage aircraft that violated Chinese airspace, stimulating the separatism in Tibet and the "independence of Taiwan"; They have proclaimed the obsolescence of the Anti-Missile Treaty of 1972 and decided to develop an anti-missile system that would grant absolute supremacy regarding nuclear weaponry, the so-called "Star Wars Project"; They have refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, abandoned the Anti-Racist Conference in the UN and supported all aggressive acts of Israel against the Palestinian Intifada. They have implemented in Europe a policy of militarization, ushering the expansion of NATO and creating tenser situations in the Balkans in order to justify the presence of imperialist troops in this strategic region. In Latin America, the Colombia Plan is being put into effect, constituting a new step in the North-American interventionism, and the political pressures for the creation of FTAA are being intensified. During the present year, military exercises took place in Argentina with the presence of North-American troops and armies of several countries in the region.

27 - It is still early to evaluate the repercussions of the present crisis on the correlation of forcer and on the allied blocks. But it is not true that the USA has achieved the automatic alliance of all countries in its war policy or that all have surrendered due to the threat presented by the president of the USA: "either you are with us or with the terrorists". Declarations made by many governments were characterized by caution, diplomacy and sincerity in the intent of fighting against terrorism, by interest in containing separatist movements of fundamentalist inspiration. Some powers among the allies of the USA have even tried to take advantage of the situation in order to accumulate power, such as Germany and Japan, which offered troops with intent to create precedents to open the way to militarization. In order to strengthen its position, the USA has presented as a trump the supposed cooperation of China, but the great socialist country has not supported the bombardments, though the contrary has been divulged. "The Security Council must play its role. Any military action must respect the principles and the objectives of the Chart of the United Nations as well as the norms of international law", declared the Chinese president Jiang Zemin. Once the objectives of the USA become clear, the divergences among those who claim to be strategic allies will inevitably prevail and the economic, commercial, politic and diplomatic conflicts will be of chief concern again.

28 - There is no doubt that such a strategy will set the vast majority of countries and peoples against the North-American imperialism. In Pakistan, Indonesia, Palestine and Arab countries the North-American policies arouse hate and revolt. In Europe and in the Americas protests against the war that threatens civilization are being intensified. The peoples of the world, more than ever, must wave the flag of PEACE against the IMPERIALIST WAR. It is necessary to organize movements for peace everywhere with the pluralism and the diversity that such movements demand. The single front and the unity regarding the struggle for peace must be forged. This is a task to which communists and other left-wing forces must contribute. The struggle for PEACE - an expression of the struggle of the peoples for democracy, national sovereignty, social justice in opposition to the gloomy plans of domination perpetrated by the North-American imperialism - becomes a paramount matter as the main task of the revolutionary movement, an essential branch of the struggle for socialism in the present days.

29 - In Latin America, the Colombia Plan is already in effect, which configures once more the intervention of the United States on the region. On the pretext of combating the trafficking of narcotics, the USA keeps hundreds of military specialists in Colombia and provides its army with modern weapons. In fact, their intention is to fight against the local revolutionary forces and occupy a strategic position in the Amazon. Lately, with the intent to involve the South-American countries in its aggressive actions, the North-American imperialists make references to the "regionalization" of the Colombia Plan, describing it as an "Andean initiative". The intensification of the military presence of the USA in Latin America is part of this scenario. They are present in military bases in Puntumayo (Colombia), Manta (Ecuador), Iquitos (Peru) and there are also troops in Suriname and Panama, as well as military operations in Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. The existence of military bases and the presence of North-American troops in Latin America affect indistinctively every people in the region and deserve the vehement disapproval of the progressive forces. As for the Colombia Plan, its cancellation is a democratic and patriotic demand of the democratic conscience of the Latin Americans.

30 - Along with the reinforcement of its presence in Latin America, the United States is intensifying its politic pressure on governments to establish FTAA, by means of blackmail, threats and machinations with the intent to weaken Mercosur. All nations and peoples of America should not doubt that the creation of FTAA would constitute the subordination of their economies to the US economy, a definite strike on the independence of every country. The true integration to which the American peoples aspire must be one that respects the principle of equality, an integration that reinforces independence and stimulates progress according to the heroic fighters who have freed the continent during the struggles for independence in the 19th century.
31 - The policy of North-American imperialism regarding Latin America shows its conservative and reactionary character in the reiteration and prolonging of the blockade to a socialist Cuba, that resists bravely waving the banner in defense of its independence and of the achievements of the revolution.

32 - The North-American imperialism keeps making use of a policy of force that consists in increasing the military power of the USA and its allies. After the war in Kosovo, NATO has announced a new strategic concept that takes an offensive character. At the same time, NATO is widening the range of its action to Eastern Europe. The renovation of the military agreement between the United States and Japan and the presence of North-American troops in Asia have also a hegemonic sense. Now the government of the USA is willing to create an antimissile shield, a multibillion-dollar project titled "Star Wars", a frank contradiction as regarding Russia, China and even their European allies. The antimissile shield affects dangerously the control of nuclear weapons, the efforts to restrain the proliferation of those weapons and the strategic balance established by the treaty signed in 1972.
33 - The consolidation of China as the great socialist nation has resulted in demonstrations of animosity by the USA. Facts, incidents and provocations have revealed the hostility of imperialism towards China. Even the literary and movie industries have started trying to forge the idea of China as the new menace. In 1997 Richard Bernstein and Rosso Munro published a book titled The imminent conflict with China. China has repealed the publication in its magazine Beijing informs, affirming that the United States suffers from a "lack-of-enemies syndrome, which is a product of the Cold War mentality". Under these circumstances, the Chinese embassy in Belgrado was bombed during the Kosovo War in 1999, constituting a clear provocation to China that was considered by the USA to be "a lamentable incident". The hostility and provocative stance towards China have increased during the government of president George W. Bush, which have intensified the hegemonic policies and the use of power. The facts have become frequent. Among those incidents, we can mention the spy plane forced to land in Hainan airport in April 1, 2001 after its interception by Chinese fighter planes; the decision taken by the United States to sell more weapons to Taiwan; the declaration that they "would do the necessary to help Taiwan to defend itself from China", which constitutes a clear interference on Chinese internal affairs; the changes announced by the Ministry of Defense on May 2001 regarding the strategic directives of the United States, according to which more attention would be paid to China than to Europe. Recently, in an attempt to delineate even more the provocative character of the North-American policy towards China, the president of the United States accepted the visit of Dalai Lama and Taiwan authorities.

34 - In Middle East the crisis caused by the growing hostility of Israeli Zionists supported by the North-American imperialists against the Palestine people remains unresolved. All agreements signed so far have proved to be insufficient in the search for peace. The conflicts have intensified, particularly since February of the present year. Hundreds of Palestinians were brutally murdered by the Israeli army so far this year. The policies made effective by the government of the fascist general Ariel Sharon, who has a long record of crimes committed against Arabs and Palestinians, has stimulated antagonisms and made it more difficult to reach a solution for the conflict.

DIVISIONS AMONG THE IMPERIALISTS

35 - The North-American imperialist propaganda pretend that its hegemony is consolidated and uncontestable and that its rule on the world is eternal. Nevertheless, their own economic leadership is historically threatened by the formation of other imperialist centers. In Asia, Japan fights for hegemony, is spite of the prolonged stagnation of its economy. In this respect, it is important to take into account the attitude of the government of Malaysia during the crisis in Asia refusing to be monitored by the IMF and demanding the creation of a single Asian currency in the scope of the South East Asian Nations. The consolidation of the European Union constitutes the formation of a powerful group that objectively interferes in fields previously under the exclusive influence of the United States, such as Latin America. This situation of imperialist competition is also marked by the failure in the attempts to impose the Multilateral Agreement on Investments and the prolonged stagnation of the negotiations within WTO, of which the flawed meeting in Seattle in November 1999 is a good example. It is clear that the economic war does not exclude the collaboration and machination within the realms of G7, especially when the interests of dependent countries are vilified. We cannot underestimate he implementation of the "Euro zone" and the existence of different interests in Europe, including military ones, since the European Union has decided to create a military force of 60 thousand soldiers by 2003. The creation of the "Asian economic zone" and the offensive taken by the USA to create FTAA and exert more influence on the Latin-American economies must be observed as results