Quiz: The Communist Manifesto

14 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. What “epidemic” breaks out in commercial crises, one that would have seemed absurd in all earlier epochs? Famine Over-production Inflation Plague and cholera
2. What does the worker become under machinery and the division of labour? A small proprietor A skilled master craftsman with his own tools A free contractor An appendage of the machine
3. What does the Manifesto say is the real fruit of the workers’ battles? Seats in parliament The destruction of machinery The ever-expanding union of the workers Higher wages and shorter hours
4. In Poland, which party do the Communists support? The party allied with the Russian Tsar No party, since Poland has no proletariat The party that makes agrarian revolution the prime condition for national emancipation The party of the Polish nobility seeking to restore the old kingdom with its 1772 borders
5. What lesson of the Paris Commune does the 1872 preface (quoted in 1888) single out? Workers should never again take up arms, but should win power gradually through the ballot box alone A revolution can hold out in a single city if the workers there are well enough armed The peasantry, not the industrial proletariat, is the main force of any future revolution The working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery for its own purposes
6. What role does the Manifesto say the bourgeoisie has played historically? A parasitic part with no historical effect A part chiefly in religion A most revolutionary part A purely conservative part
7. How does the Manifesto expect the “dangerous class”, the social scum, to behave? As loyal allies of the peasantry against the landed aristocracy As the vanguard of the revolution, since it has nothing at all to lose by it As a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue As neutral bystanders, indifferent to both bourgeoisie and proletariat
8. Which “single, unconscionable freedom” has the bourgeoisie set up in place of the old chartered freedoms? Universal suffrage Freedom of the press Free Trade Freedom of religion
9. Complete: “In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; in Communist society, …” the present dominates the past neither dominates the future dominates the present the past and present are equal
10. Complete the first sentence of Section I: “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of …” the human spirit great men technological progress class struggles
11. What does the bourgeoisie leave as the only bond between people, in place of feudal ties? Religious duty and the bonds of a common faith Naked self-interest, “cash payment” Loyalty to the nation and to its common laws Family obligation and the duties of kinship
12. How does Section II describe the Communists’ relation to other working-class parties? They refuse all contact with other parties They are the only legitimate workers’ party, all others being sects They form no separate party opposed to other working-class parties They are a secret society working within the trade unions and clubs
13. What does the Manifesto say capital is? A natural property of tools and machines Not a personal, but a social power A purely personal possession of the capitalist The reward of abstinence
14. How does the Manifesto sum up the theory of the Communists “in the single sentence”? Equality before the law The right to work Abolition of private property Workers’ control of the factories

0 of 14 answered