2 – Enumeration of the five criteria of imperialism put forward by comrade Lenin in his book "Imperialism, highest stage of capitalism"
In his outstanding book "Imperialism, highest stage of capitalism", comrade Lenin provides a valuable definition of imperialism which includes its 5 major general characteristics:
"(...) without forgetting the conditional and relative value of all definitions in general, which can never embrace all the concatenations of a phenomenon in its full development, we must give a definition of imperialism that will include the following five of its basic features:
(1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;
(2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this "finance capital", of a financial oligarchy;
(3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance;
(4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and
(5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed.
Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed." (Lenin, Imperialism, highest stage of capitalism, Selected Works, Volume I, pages 667-766, January-June of 1916, edition in English)
This definition from comrade Lenin is an essential part of the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Hoxhaist doctrine about imperialism and, consequently, it will serve as a guideline throughout this article. In fact, the answer to the question "Why is Brazil an imperialist country?" will be mostly based on the manner in which the present Brazilian socio-economic development fulfills those five criteria indicated by comrade Lenin.
2.1 – the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life
Starting with the first condition of imperialism underlined by Lenin, we recall comrade Enver's words:
"Analyzing the forms of international monopolies, in his time Lenin spoke of the cartels and syndicates. In today's conditions, when the concentration of production and capital has reached very large proportions, the monopoly bourgeoisie has also found other forms for the exploitation of working people. These are the multinational companies. (...) in regard to their capital and control, the multinational companies belong mainly to one country, although they carry out their activities in many countries. They are expanding more and more through the absorption of local companies and firms, big and small, which cannot cope with the savage competition. The multinational companies open up subsidiaries and extend their enterprises to those countries where the prospects for maximum profits most secure (...). Between the multinational companies and the bourgeois state there are close links and reciprocal dependence, which are based on their exploiting class character. The capitalist state is used as a tool in their service for their aims of domination and expansion on both the national and the international plane.
In regard to their major economic role, the great weight they carry in the whole life of the country, some multinational companies, individually, constitute a mighty economic force which, in many instances, is equal to, or even exceeds, the budgets or production of several developed capitalist countries taken together. (...) They intervene to secure special favors and privileges for themselves in the countries in which they operate. (...)
