ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that imperialism, in its essence, must be looked at in a conjunctural manner. Theories of imperialism ranging from Rosa Luxemburg to V. I. Lenin have emphasised imperialism as being a structure whereby the advanced capitalist countries oppress the poorer third world countries. There has been a set of arguments in various strands of Marxist thought which talked about imperialism retarding the development of capitalism in developing countries. The character of the finance capital is different from that of Lenin's conception in several fundamental ways. Lenin's theory of imperialism explained remarkably well the First and Second World Wars, resulting from what he called 'intra-imperialist rivalry'. The bourgeoisie of the newly independent countries tried to pursue a developmental path autonomous to imperialism by following a planning process in the domestic economy. The contradiction between Brazil, Russia, India and China and United States-led advanced capitalist countries are coming to the fore.
