a struggle against its dominating power, reasoning that it will help resolve the national question and thus promote class struggle. Origins of the term The concept of a semi-colony originated in the earlier years of the Communist International, which initially classified the countries of the world as being either imperialist countries, semi-colonies, and colonies. From that definition followed a political strategy for the labour movement in each type of country (for example as regards nationalisation of industry, workers' rights, democratisation, the ownership of land). The general perspective of the Communist International was that it was impossible for semi-colonial countries to achieve substantive industrialisation and transform property relations without a socialist and democratic revolution. In other words, the power of semi-colonial elite had to be overthrown by the workers and peasants, to liberate the country from its client-relationship with foreign powers, and make comprehensive local economic development possible. The category of "intermediate countries" was introduced in the later 1920s. Thus, for example, at the 15th Congress of the CPSU in 1927, Stalin stated: “Judge for yourselves. Of the 1,905 million inhabitants of the entire globe, 1,134 million live in the colonies and dependent countries, 143,000,000 live in the U.S.S.R., 264,000,000 live in the intermediate countries, and only 363,000,000 live in the big imperialist countries, which oppress the colonies and dependent countries.” The term "semi-colony" has continued to be used particularly in the Maoist movement, for instance, all three of the Shining Path, Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Communist Party of the Philippines characterize their respective countries as "semi-colonies". Controversy However, with the expansion of the world market and globalisation especially from the 1970s onwards, the "semi-colonial" status of particular countries became more ambiguous because a number of them were able to industrialise to a significant extent so that they became at least "semi-industrialised" countries. They gained somewhat more financial, political and cultural autonomy, and in some cases, the local elite became a major foreign investor in its own right. On the other side, it was no longer very clear that they were under the control of another foreign country, rather than being dominated by a bloc of several wealthier countries, or by international financial institutions. This raised the question of whether the concept of a "semi-colony" is still relevant. Whatever the case, the definition of a country as a semi-colony as such refers to specific analysis of its place