A Marxist IQ for African-American History Month by Norman Markowitz

by: Sunday 10 February 2013

 

1. The 1831 slave rebellion which both stimulated massive repression and helped to inspire the abolitionist movement was led by

   a.John Brown

   b. Nat Turner

  c. William Lloyd Garrison

   d. Frederick Douglass

 

2. Historians today estimate that free Blacks and escaped slaves accounted for what percentage of the organized abolitionist movement?

   a. 10%

   b.20%

  c . 30%

   d. 50%

3. Marxists have long seen the "Civil War" as

   a. The War Between the States

   b. A revolutionary war in which Northern based industrial capitalists defeated Southern based slaveholders and thus gained control of the economy, state structure, and future of the U.S.

 c. A  war to free the slaves

d. The war of Northern Aggression Against Southern  States Rights

 

3. W.E. B. Dubois, the most important African-American scholar and thinker of the 2oth century, in his clasic work, Black Reconstruction, argued that

a. a united front between former slaves and poor whites was in the process of development

b. the KKK and similar groups were in essence a Confederate" counter-revolution" against these developments

c. The failure to break up the great plantations and redistribute the land to the former slaves, advocated by Thad Stevens and other radical Republicans, was the most important cause of the   defeat   of reconstruction as a revolutionary democratic process

d. all of the above

4. From its formation  in the early 1920s to today, the Communist Party USA as made anti-racism and what was initially called "Negro Liberation"  a central priority because

   a. it hoped to mobilize African-Americans into armed groups to overthrow the government

   b. it wanted to recruit African-Americans in high positions for Soviet espionage

  c. It believed that the U.S. working class could never develop both the unity and class consciousness    necessary for its advance unless racism was eliminated ideologically and institutionally

  d. all of the above

5. Although "mainstream" aka capitalist media has sought to omit this, Martin Luther King's doctrine of "positive peace" is increasingly seen by serious students as

    a. a concept of peace based on economic and social justice influenced by the world socialist movement

   b. an example that J. Edgar Hoover was correct when he had King labelled a Communist

   c. a  traditional pacifist philosophy

   d. an empty political phrase, like "free world," or "Reagan revolution."

Answers to Last Week's IQ

1.c

2.a

3 c

4.a

5.b

 

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  • The second "on" in the first sentence of the comment should be "of" and not "on".
    Thanks

    Posted by E.E.W. Clay, 02/12/2013 10:01am (12 years ago)

  • Thanks to PA, Norman Markowitz, and Sean Mulligan
    for this crucial feedback on the condition on the whole proletariat, in whatever skin, wherever, on our planet.
    However, there are errors which should be corrected herein.
    In numeration, there is a repetition of question 3.
    Therefore there are really 6 and not 5 questions in our Marxist I Q for African-American History(which is fine, since we need more material in this oft neglected area(smile)).
    Question 4(appearing as a second 3)seems a bit interesting, partially since brothers Markowitz and Mulligan may have different answers. Brother Markowitz setting out d.,(but this is not certain because of the numeration problem) and brother Mulligan choosing c.
    If so, we have to concur with brother Markowitz's d., since research would support that the most important African-American scholar of the past century, (the present writer would not use qualifier African-American, but simply designate Du Bois as the most important scholar), because W. E. B. Du Bois's, work, and his opus magnus, Black Reconstruction, mirrored his Marxism(as he could not have done in his also seminal Suppression of the African Slave Trade, not knowledgeable of Marx's Capital, which Du Bois himself attests to).
    An example of this copious research material is in Ferrucci Gambino's W. E. B. Du Bois and the Proletariat in Black Reconstruction. In this, Gambino shows how Du Bois, in Black Reconstruction, echoed Marx's classic statement on labor in Black and white skin:"He[the Negro] is beginning to say to these workingmen that, so long as black laborers are slaves, white laborers cannot be free."
    Suppression of the Slave Trade, Black Reconstruction,
    The New Deal and Civil Rights eras, all, supply us with valuable information and experience in charting our human liberation today, with worldwide OCCUPY, combating imperialism, racism, war, anti-communism, along with unifying against the birthers, obstructionists and deniers-"Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast"(to borrow from our immortal Johnson brothers)-toward unity, peace, progress-and socialism.

    1.b
    2.d
    3.b
    4.d
    5.c
    6.a

    Posted by E.E.W. Clay, 02/11/2013 3:24pm (12 years ago)

  • 1. b

    2. d

    3. b

    4. c

    5. a

    Posted by Sean Mulligan, 02/10/2013 10:22pm (12 years ago)

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