The international situation is still characterized by widening gaps between the "developed" countries and the "developing" ones, and with the continuing economic, political and military hegemony of the imperialist powers, headed by the United States.

The present process of globalization is characterized by the worldwide domination of an increasingly small number of multinationals, whose centers are located at the leading capitalist powers. Via various supra-national institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, those capitalist powers are dictating and imposing on the peoples of the world an economic policy which is increasingly in the interest of the powers and which is damaging more and more the rights and the standard of living of the workers and the employees in general, of the middle classes and even of the weaker sections of the local capital in many countries.

The aforementioned supra-national institutes are steadily eroding the independent decision-making power of sovereign states - not only of the smaller and weaker nations, but even of many developed countries in America and Europe.

The peoples of the Third World are faced with more and more dictates, making the gap between them and the developed countries deeper than it ever was. In the absence of the counterbalance, which was formerly constituted by the Soviet Union and the other Socialist countries in Europe, there is hardly a limit to imperialism's aggressions - economic, political and also military.

The recent war against Yugoslavia was a characteristic example. The murderous bombings which caused the death of many innocent civilians of different nationalities, including numerous women and children, demonstrated the unrestrained cruelty and barbarism of the leaders of "the free World"; they

would go to any lengths in order to punish those who refuse to dance to their tune and surrender unconditionally to their dictates. It should be noted that social-democratic governments govern most of the countries participating in the barbaric attack on Yugoslavia, and that the British Labor Party was conspicuous in its extremism.

We support defence of all minorities and of all members of all nationalities anywhere in the world, and in particular in all parts of Yugoslavia - while preserving the territorial integrity of the states. We condemn the criminal campaign of the Western powers, headed by the US and Germany, to break up and divide nations in order to further these powers' egoistic interests - as was done in Yugoslavia as well as in other countries. The interference of the big powers were the main cause of severe conflicts breaking out among members of different nationalities, who had lived together without conflict for many years - until recently.

We fully support the resolution on this issue adopted in the International Meeting of Communist Parties, which recently took place at Athens; we condemn the CPI leadership for its refusal to adhere to that resolution.

We note that events in East Timor, a very short time after the war in Yugoslavia, once more exposed the hypocritical double standard of the policies undertaken by the United States and its allies.

Yet despite these latest events, we should also note that at the same time enormous struggles are waged by the forces opposed to the present "New International Order" - both inside the states and on the international arena.

The US power-grabbing policies meet firm opposition in Eastern Asia, in Central Europe and elsewhere. Forces, which are left-wing - to one degree or another - have recently become stronger in a whole series of countries, while many European right-wing governments suffered electoral defeats.