Quiz: Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League (March 1850)

All 32 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What must be the workers’ battle-cry, according to the closing sentence?

   Liberty, Equality, Fraternity Bread and peace The Revolution in Permanence Workers of the world, unite
2. 2. What does the Address expect to hasten the coming German revolution?

   The direct victory of the workers in France An English blockade of the Baltic ports A new Prussian constitution imposed by decree A war between Austria and Prussia
3. 3. Whom does the petty-bourgeois democratic party have in its train, besides the town burghers and master craftsmen?

   The army officers and the bureaucracy The clergy and the village schoolmasters The big industrialists The peasants and rural proletariat
4. 4. What should happen to confiscated feudal land, according to the Address?

   It should be divided among the peasants as their free private property It should be sold to the highest bidder It should be returned to its former lords, with compensation for losses It should remain state property and be used for workers’ colonies
5. 5. Which example shows how little the democrats want an equal alliance with the workers?

   The Paris socialists refusing German workers as members of their clubs The Cologne trial of the communists and the democrats’ silence over it The Breslau democrats attacking workers in the Neue Oder-Zeitung The Frankfurt Assembly banning workers’ clubs
6. 6. What happened to Joseph Moll?

   He emigrated to America after the defeat and never returned to the League He was arrested in Cologne and sentenced to prison for his part in the rising He joined the democratic party and broke with the Central Committee in London He joined the Baden-Palatinate army and fell in the engagement on the Murg
7. 7. What happened to the League’s organisation during the revolution?

   It was broken up by the police, who seized the Central Committee’s papers and lists It was loosened, as members thought secret societies were no longer needed It merged with the democratic party, as members thought separate groups were divisive It grew into a mass party, open to all workers who accepted the Communist Manifesto
8. 8. What is the relation of the revolutionary workers’ party to the petty-bourgeois democracy?

   It marches with it against the common enemy but opposes its entrenchment It refuses all cooperation, since the democrats are as dangerous as the feudal party It merges with it into one great opposition party until the revolution is complete It supports it unconditionally, since a democratic republic is the workers’ final aim
9. 9. What did the German liberal bourgeoisie do after the March movement of 1848, according to the Address?

   Withdrew from politics and left the field to the petty-bourgeois democrats Took state power and turned it against the workers, its allies Abolished the monarchy and proclaimed a federal republic of the German states Handed state power to the workers, who had borne the brunt of the fighting
10. 10. What does the Address tell workers to do about so-called excesses of popular revenge after victory?

    Report them to the new government and leave it to punish the guilty Suppress them firmly, so as not to alarm the middle classes Leave the towns until the popular anger has spent itself Tolerate them, and take over their direction
11. 11. How do the democrats hope to deal with the workers, according to the Address?

    Win them over with promises of land, so that they return to the countryside Send the unemployed to colonies abroad, to relieve the pressure on wages at home Bribe them with disguised alms, so that they remain wage-workers Give them the vote and leave their wages to be settled by free competition
12. 12. After their defeat, what do all the democratic factions call themselves?

    Conservatives Liberals Communists Republicans or Reds
13. 13. The Address considers the proletariat’s position towards the democrats in how many situations?

    Three: now, in the next struggle, and after it One: only the moment when the democrats seize power Two: before the revolution and after its victory Four: one for each of the four larger German states
14. 14. Where did the members of the Central Committee come together again after the defeats of June 1849?

    Paris Brussels Zurich London
15. 15. Which of these is a demand the Address attributes to the democratic petty bourgeois?

    Public credit banks and laws against usury A dictatorship of the proletariat Abolition of wage labour and private capital Common ownership of all land
16. 16. What should the workers set up alongside the new official governments?

    Workers’ savings banks and friendly societies, to secure their funds A national guard under the command of the new government Their own revolutionary governments: municipal councils, clubs or committees Nothing; they should support the official governments until the next election
17. 17. What should workers do in elections even where their candidates have no chance?

    Vote for the liberals, as the strongest opponents of the feudal party Run their own candidates to stay independent and count forces Boycott the elections altogether, since parliaments are bourgeois institutions Vote for the democrats, so as not to split the vote and let reaction win
18. 18. Which emissary did the Central Committee send to Germany in the winter of 1848–49?

    Wilhelm Weitling Joseph Moll Ferdinand Lassalle Karl Schapper
19. 19. Which party does the Address say will play the treacherous role of the liberals in the coming revolution?

    The feudal aristocracy and the Junkers The Catholic party in the Rhineland The officer corps of the Prussian army The democratic petty bourgeoisie
20. 20. What form of state should the workers strive for, against the democrats’ federal plans?

    A constitutional monarchy, with a single parliament for all of Germany A loose confederation of free towns, each governing its own local affairs A federal republic on the Swiss model, with wide powers for the cantons One indivisible German republic, with decisive centralisation of power
21. 21. After the overthrow of the existing governments, what will the Central Committee do?

    Remain in London and direct the German workers from abroad by letter Move to Germany and convene a congress to centralise the workers’ clubs Join the new government and take charge of a ministry of labour Dissolve itself, since the workers will then be free to organise openly
22. 22. Why does the Central Committee want its emissary to leave at once?

    A new revolution is near, and the workers’ party must be organised and independent A congress of all German democrats has been called, and the League must send its delegates The emissary is wanted by the police in London and must leave England before he is arrested The League is about to be dissolved, and its members must be told before the police learn of it
23. 23. As a result of that loosening, under whose leadership did the workers fall?

    The French socialists of Louis Blanc The Catholic Church and its clergy The petty-bourgeois democrats The Prussian monarchy and its officials
24. 24. In which two ways does the Address say the League proved itself in 1848–49?

    It won elections and passed laws Its members fought in the front ranks, and its view of the movement proved right It raised large funds abroad and founded workers’ newspapers in every German state It avoided all fighting and kept its members safe
25. 25. Why does the Address reject a single great opposition party uniting workers and democrats?

    The democrats would refuse to admit workers and would expel any who joined them Such a party would be banned by the governments and its members imprisoned The workers are still too few in Germany to carry any weight within such a party It would cloak democrats’ interests in general phrases and mute the workers
26. 26. What does the Address say is the interest and task of the proletariat, as against the democrats?

    To return to secret conspiracy only To make the revolution permanent To wait for the next economic crisis To end the revolution as quickly as possible
27. 27. From the first moment of victory, against whom must the workers’ mistrust be directed?

    The defeated reactionary party, which will try at once to regain its lost power Their previous allies, the party that would exploit the victory for itself Their own leaders, who may be tempted to make peace with the new government Foreign governments, which will intervene to restore the old princes to power
28. 28. Which of these is not one of the three elements the Address finds in the democratic party?

    The most advanced sections of the big bourgeoisie The industrial working class The republican petty bourgeois The democratic-constitutional petty bourgeois
29. 29. What does the Address demand about arms?

    That the workers give up their weapons once victory is won, as a pledge of good faith Arming of the whole proletariat at once, and no revival of the citizens’ militia That the citizens’ militia be revived and the workers enrolled in its ranks That arms be held only by the regular army, under the control of a new parliament
30. 30. Who issued the Address, and to whom?

    The Central Committee, to the Communist League The General Council, to the International Marx, to the Prussian government The Frankfurt Assembly, to the whole German people
31. 31. What is the ideal of the republican petty bourgeois?

    A German federal republic on the Swiss model A constitutional monarchy like England’s A centralised republic on the French model A restored Holy Roman Empire
32. 32. If the democrats propose to buy up the railways and factories, what should the workers demand?

    That they stay in private hands but come under strict state regulation Purchase at a fair market price, paid in state bonds over many years Confiscation without compensation, as the property of reactionaries That they be handed over to the peasants and small masters of each district