Mao Tsetung put forward the theory of three worlds. He said, “In my view, the United States and the Soviet Union form the first world. Japan, Europe and Canada, the middle section, belong to the second world.” “The third world has a huge population. With the exception of Japan, Asia belongs to the third world. The whole of Africa be-, longs to the third world, and Latin America, too.” (Chairman Mao’s talk with a third world leader, February 1974)
The first world, the two superpowers, are the biggest imperialists in the world today. Their economic strength far outweighs the other, capitalist countries; together they account for 40% of the world’s gross national product total. The contradiction between the two superpowers is sharpening to the point of another world war. The United States has the biggest empire, but the Soviet Union (a monopoly capitalist country that has betrayed the October Revolution) is driven to re-divide empires forcibly in proportion to its own immense weight among capitalist countries.
The third world makes up the vast majority of the world’s population, and its political awakening has made it a powerful force behind national liberation wars, economic struggles against the multinational corporations and political exposure of the two superpowers’ crimes against peace and humanity.
