Marxist IQ: For a revolutionary July

 
BY:Norman Markowitz| June 30, 2026
Marxist IQ: For a revolutionary July

 

1. July 4 celebrates the Declaration of Independence in the United States. For Marxists and Communists, the Declaration was

a. a fake written by a slaveholder
b. a moment in history declaring and advancing a bourgeois (capitalist) democratic and anti-colonial revolution
c. a call to abolish the monarchy and establish a socialist government
d. an attempt to work within the British empire

2. July 14 celebrates the fall of the Bastille in France. For Marxists and Communists this represents

a. the celebration of the philosophy of Voltaire
b. the beginning of the socialist 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. agents plotting revolution in France

3. July 26 is celebrated in Cuba as the anniversary of

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 1917 revolutionary Russia of the first Bolshevik-led uprising against the provisional government
b. Donald Trump’s launching Trump the Video Game
c. George W. Bush stealing the 2000 presidential election
d. the Roman Empire destroying Carthage

5. Tom Paine’s writings were an influential force in both the American and French revolutions. In these writings, Paine

a. challenged the religious and secular rationales for monarchy and aristocracy
b. defined as universal rights what ruling classes 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: here

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

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