THE PAST AND THE FUTURE OF THE SOCIALIST PROJECT 17 as far as the third world is concerned they act with some degree of common purpose. Secondly, the domestic bourgeoisie in the third world is far more willing than before to make common cause with imperialism. This is partly because domestic financial interests get sucked into the vortex of international finance, partly because the bourgeoisie cuts its losses since the emasculation of the state under pressure from international finance capital makes state capitalism-sustained development untenable from its point of view, and partly because it cannot cope with pressures from below and needs external support for the sustenance of its governance. While the second point mentioned above creates the possibility of the working class taking the lead in the anti-imperialist struggle, the first point makes the struggle a difficult one. Inter-imperialist rivalry provides space for an anti-imperialist struggle, while a relatively united imperialism, and especially one enjoying in large measure the support of the domestic bourgeoisie, denies that space. Precisely because of the difficulty of the task however the struggle has to be as broad-based as possible. This requires eschewing sectarian tendencies, striving for a national agenda which draws in the widest possible number of people, who are thereby mobilised to thwart the imperialist agenda. This also requires giving the struggle a democratic character. The implementation of the neo-liberal economic programme has the effect of sharpening regional, ethnic, religious and other such divisive movements. There are at least three important ways in which this happens. First, since the formation of the national consciousness was a result of the anti-imperialist struggle, compromises with imperialism and a reimposition of the imperialist agenda has the effect of fracturing the national consciousness; secondly, the unemployment generated under the neo-liberal programme provides a fertile soil for fascistic, semi-fascistic, chauvinistic, and other such tendencies to flourish; and thirdly, the feudal and semi-feudal foundations upon which capitalism, is sought to be built, with which it is enmeshed, and which constitute a major hurdle to democratic advance, get strengthened by these divisive tendencies. The fight against these divisive tendencies, and against the underlying feudal and semi-feudal institutions on which capitalism is superimposed and which the imperialist agenda, far from undermining, actually nurtures, is a crucial component of the socialist project. The advance of the socialist forces has been particularly rapid in our country in periods of democratic struggle. Even today the socialist forces can advance only by setting before themselves the interlinked objectives of the promotion of a national anti-imperialist agenda and the promotion of the struggle for democracy. True, the phenomenon of international finance capital makes the national agenda appear an anachronism, but while globalised finance