A Marxist IQ for a Revolutionary July by Norman Markowitz

by: Sunday 7 July 2013

 

 

 

Today I begin to revive the Marxist IQ on a monthly basis. 

1.       July 4th celebrates the Declaration of Independence  in the United States

For those Marxists who follow the tradition of the CPUSA, the declaration was

a.       a fake document written by a slaveholder

b.      a decisive moment in history declaring and advancing a bourgeois(capitalist) democratic and anti-colonial revolution

c.       a call to abolish the monarchy and establish a peoples government

d.      an attempt to compromise with the British empire

 

2.       July 14 celebrates the fall of the Bastille and the beginnings of the French Revolution in France.  For those Marxists who follow the tradition of the CPUSA, July 14 was

a.       the beginning of the French New Wave

b.      the beginning of  the anarchist movement

c.       the beginning of a bourgeois(capitalist) political revolution against an absolutist monarchy and a feudal aristocratic landlord class

d.      the result of U.S. spies plotting revolution in France

 

3.        July 26th  celebrates in Cuba

a.       the opening of  the Havana Hilton

b.      the Cuban government’s signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA)

c.       the removal of U.S. Marines from Cuba

d.      The failed  1953 uprising against the Batista dictatorship which was a harbinger of the  later successful Cuban  revolution

4.        Those who see  revolutions in terms of straight line victories should remember the month of July also saw

a.        the defeat in revolutionary Russia(1917) of the Bolshevik led rising against the provisional government

b.      the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s socialist government in Chile in 1973

c.       the overthrow of Mohammed Najibullah's Communist led government of Afghanistan in 1992

d.      the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship after the Reichstag fire in 1933

 

5.        Tom Paine’s writings were an influential force in both the American and French revolutions, serving to mobilize masses to support the former and to defend the latter from its international enemies.  In these writings Paine

a.       challenged the religious and secular rationales for monarchy and aristocracy

b.      defined as universal rights what rulers then called privileges and today  call “entitlements.”

c.       defended the revolutions from external and internal enemies while opposing slavery in the U.S., the terror in France, and other destructive institutions and practices of revolutionary states and societies.

d.      all of the above

 

Answers to last(June 23rd) Marxist IQ 

1.b

2.c

3.d

4.d

5.a

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  • Thank you. I stand corrected by both brothers Markowitz and Mulligan-I was not aware of the July setback-to mind, I only recalled the 1905 "Dress Rehearsal"(Lenin's name)and the victorious, obvious, October '17 revolution-my bad, thanks again.
    EEWC

    Posted by E.E.W. Clay, 07/15/2013 1:49pm (11 years ago)

  • let me praise e.e. clay who whose comments on my and other PA writers writings are always outstanding. It was sort of a trick question and a bit confusing. In July, the Bolsheviks did support an uprising which was suppressed, leading to massive repression by the provisional government, Lenin's going into hiding to keep from being captured and killed. But the revolutionary process continued, the provisional government turned to a reactionary general, Kornilov, whom the workers and peasants defeated as he marched on Petrograd, the influence of the Bolsheviks grew rapidly, leading to the November revolution, October on the old Russian calendar. Even the Bolsheviks, leading the masses in the first great socialist revolution in history, did not have a straight line victory
    Norman Markowitz

    Posted by norman markowitz, 07/14/2013 11:37am (11 years ago)

  • The Bolsheviks launched an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the provisional government in July 1917. They suffered a large setback but recovered to succeed with the famous October revolution.

    Posted by Sean Mulligan, 07/13/2013 12:40am (11 years ago)

  • 1,b
    2.c
    3.d
    4.d
    5.d

    Glacing at brother Mulligan's response to no. 4, maybe the question was misunderstood-the Bolsheviks(making one of the straightest "line victories" in the history of the world) were successful there, and this did not happen in July.
    Moreover, brother Markowitz's I. Q. exercise is excellent, pointing up that each previous stage of development of productive forces(which lead to a different, advanced stage of productive relations) has the "kernel" of the successive stage-what is the brilliant
    discovery of Karl Marx-the "line of victory" in human history. The signal point is, of course with brother Marx is that history moves more in two, three, and perhaps four dimensions, in more of a helical way, with real form of beautiful humans with economy and mathematics, in all manner of color, light, smell and sound. If we are not armed with the knowledge of the danger that we may well go backwards before going foward again, we are that much more at peril of this obstacle to advance.
    Brother Marx, descending from a long, long "line" Jewish rabbis, (the geneology of King David)on both the maternal and paternal side, naturally knew and was blessed with awareness of "the way"of the Judeo-Christian tradition-CHRIST- as his studies focused on both philosophy and religion.
    Perhaps this is why the brilliant Marx's Capital starts with the parody on the Book of Genesis and the Genesis of Capital, focusing on Origin Sin-serious stuff, to be sure-what a "line of victory"-THE CHRIST-how the revolutionary Marx was like Him. What a teacher.
    hic Rhodus, hic salta

    Posted by E.E.W. Clay, 07/10/2013 10:41am (11 years ago)

  • 1. b

    2. c

    3. d

    4. a

    5. d

    Posted by Sean Mulligan, 07/09/2013 5:04pm (11 years ago)

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