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View Full Version : A Marxist IQ on Elections and Revolutionary Struggle by Norman Markowitz



Political Affairs
11-15-2015, 01:16 AM
U.S. elections traditionally take place in the first week of November. For that reason, I have dedicated this post election Marxist IQ to the question of elections and how it fits into Marxist thought as it has evolved .



1. The struggle for universal suffrage, the right to vote, was led throughout Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by


Political parties which called themselves liberal

Anarchist organizations

Marxist Socialist parties which called themselves Social Democratic or Labor

Political parties which called themselves conservative



2. From the Communist Manifesto to the present, Marxist movements and parties have defined the struggle for “democracy” as


The struggle for taxation with representation

The struggle for political rights that would enable the working class to obtain economic and social rights

The struggle to create “free market economies”

The struggle to abolish government



3.As workers began to achieve the right to vote in elections in many European countries Karl Marx warned that


Workers must support the existing parties in order to protect themselves

Workers should not participate in the existing political system because they will be coopted

Workers must make sure that they register and vote

Workers must establish labor based socialist parties so as not to have to choose every few years what party of the ruling capitalist class would govern them for the next few years.



4.Presidential Elections in U.S. history have played a role in accelerating far reaching changes, some of a revolutionary nature. Which of the following elections did not usher in major changes in U.S. politics and society in the interests of labor and the people


The election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932

The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860

The election of Bill Clinton in 1992

The election of Lyndon Johnson in 1964



5 Even by modern capitalist definitions of democracy, which concern free and fair elections, the U.S. ranks low among major industrialized countries because


There is no check on the use of money by individuals and parties in elections

The turnout among eligible voters for a variety of reasons is the lowest in the developed world, in non-presidential elections usually below 50%

Campaigns are usually waged for many months on the basis of “negative advertising” principles, personal attacks, appeals to traditional ethnic and gender biases, exaggerated and/or invented domestic and international scandals and crises

All of the above



Answers to Last month’s Marxist IQ

1.c

2.b

3.d

4.d

5.c



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