Norman Markowitz

Norman Markowitz

Norman Markowitz is a Communist Party USA member. He joined the party circa 1978.

He is a history professor at Rutgers University New Jersey, where he has worked since 1971.

My work is in twentieth century U.S. political history. I write and teach from a Marxist perspective, and I have written in recent years many articles for the History News Service, the History News Network, the journal Political Affairs and various Encyclopedias, including the Encyclopedia of American National Biography, and the Encyclopedia of Social Movements on a variety of topics, including biographical entries on Jimmy Hoffa, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Civil Rights movement, 1930-1953, and Poor Peoples Movements in American History.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1970
• M.A., University of Michigan, 1967

Rutgers University

• B.A., CCNY, 1966

History Department

Norman Markowitz is photographed with the following History professors.,

Front row: (L-R) Nancy Sinkoff, Paul Hanebrink, James Delbourgo, Rudy Bell, Paul Israel, Paul G. E. Clemens 2nd: Judith Surkis, Matt Matsuda, Carolyn Brown, Johanna Schoen, Walter Rucker, Marisa Fuentes, Bayo Holsey, Samantha Kelly, Toby C. Jones 3rd: Jackson Lears, Seth Koven, Gail Triner, Ann Fabian, Barbara M. Cooper, Temma Kaplan, Melissa Feinberg Last: Louis Masur, Jamie Pietruska, Mark Wasserman, David Greenberg, Alastair Bellany, Steven Reinert, Deborah Gray White, Norman Markowitz, John W. Chambers, Virginia Yans, Leah DeVun, Camilla Townsend, Sarolta Takacs, Don Roden

China webinar

In 2021 China announced the elimination of extreme poverty, a historic accomplishment of socialism. Speakers from China and the USA will discuss the conditions of old China before the victory of the revolution in 1949: destitution, illiteracy and violence, as well as imperialist invasion and occupation. This will be followed by a discussion of today's successful poverty alleviation program and the role of the Chinese Communist Party. The class will end with Q&A and discussion.

Speakers will include: Shen Ning, North American Bureau of CPC International Department; Norman Markowitz, Rutgers University; and Luo Xiaoping, a sociologist from North China Electrical Power University.

Coachella DSA connection

In April 2021 Coachella Valley for Democratic Socialism public FB page members included Norman Markowitz.

Communist Party's May Day Salute

In 1995 the Communist Party USA newspaper People's Weekly World, published a "May Day salute" to the "heroes in the class war zone". More than 100 unionists/activists endorsed the call, mostly known affiliates, or members of the Communist Party USA.

Norman Markowitz, AAUP New Jersy, was one of those listed.

In 2009 Norman Markowitz was a contributing editor and a member of the of the Editorial Collective of Political Affairs, theoretical journal of the Communist Party USA.

Supporting Obama

Like most Communist Party USA members in 2008, Norman Markowitz was very supportive of Barack Obama.

On January 30 2008 Markowitz wrote on the PA Editors Blog;

Progressives seeking to build a national majority coalition that would both end and dismantle nearly thirty years of right-wing political power in the United States suffered a setback (that is all, I think, it can be called) with the apparent announcement that John Edwards is withdrawing his candidacy.

Some, myself included, had hoped that Edwards would stay in, continue to win delegates, and form a coalition with Senator Obama's delegates at the convention to develop both a program and a presidential slate that would decisively defeat the right-wing Republicans and begin to enact in the 21st century programs like national public health care, substantial increases in minimum wages and other labor and social programs, funded through progressive taxation...

Markowitz believes that Obama will repeat the 1930's. At that time the Communist Party USA flooded into Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" and pushed the USA far to the left.

Senator Obama has attracted people of progressive views, many of whom have been alienated from politics or are having their first experience with political activities, in a way that few candidates have for a very long time...

He is far less of a known commodity, far more likely to bring into government independents and progressives from the mass organizations and the communities along with the traditional Democratic organization politicians, as Franklin Roosevelt did during the depression...

But he can, I think, turn his status as an African American, a member of the minority group most stigmatized in U.S. history, into a very positive force, becoming in effect a real unifying leader for working class and progressive people of all colors, ethnicities and sexual orientations...

All of these conjectures may be meaningless if Clinton wins a large victory in next week's "Super Tuesday," which is a good reason for progressives to both vote for and get out the vote for Obama...

In February 2008 Markowitz wrote in the Political Affairs blog.

Senator Obama Continues to Mobilize People for Progressive Change

Elections are, among other things exercises in mobilizing masses of people to advance politically, not only electing individuals and parties to ostensibly represent the people. Barack Obama is campaigning for substantive progressive change and he is making change, confounding mass media week to week...

Obama's speech in the aftermath of the primary was a continuation of his clear, focused and eloquent call for unity and active commitment to a progressive program. The people were listening if the media wasn't...

I wrote an article very recently on Obama's background and policies... let me say that I was surprised, in doing research for it, on how really progressive a candidate Obama is, and how the media and especially sections of the left have refused to take him seriously, preferring instead to play out their fixed ideas as the political landscape changes before them.

I was surprised because I had listened to the endless comments about his vagueness, the rich and powerful among his supporters...

But, like Robert Wagner who came out of New York's Tammany Hall and was the major sponsor of the National Labor Relations Act (still the most significant piece of pro labor legislation in U.S. history)...

"Obama is convincing more and more people that he can answer Lenin's question, What is to be Done? with the answer that Franklin Roosevelt gave when he rallied American workers to win the battle of production during World War II, "It Can be Done because It Must be Done."

Left Forum 2012

China’s Peaceful Rising in Interesting Times

The question of China will be introduced by examining China’s revolution in the 20th Century, and its place and behavior in international and global policies today. Such a presentation is supplemented by presenting several criteria that establish China’s socialist credentials, in whole or in part. Finally there is the place of Marxism in ascertaining China’s interaction with the global economy in the context of the general crisis of capitalism.

Chair: Gary Hicks, Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library

Speakers: Norman Markowitz, Rutgers University, Wadih Halabi, Economics Commission, Communist Party USA, Wei Xiaoping, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing

Communist Party speaker

Speak Progress is the speakers bureau of the Communist Party USA. Listed speakers, as of October 2014, included Norman Markowitz

Norman Markowitz is a U.S. political history professor at Rutgers University. He has served as vice president of the New Brunswick chapter of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers. He is also on the editorial board of Political Affairs magazine.

His articles have appeared in the History News Service, the History News Network, Political Affairs, the Encyclopedia of American National Biography, and the Encyclopedia of Social Movements on a variety of topics, including biographical entries on Jimmy Hoffa, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Civil Rights movement, 1930-1953, and Poor Peoples Movements in American History.

Political Affairs

In 2015 Norman Markowitz served on the editorial board of the Communist Party USA's Political Affairs.

New member phone bank

New member phone bank Public · Hosted by Communist Party USA.

Saturday, April 15, 2017 at 11 AM - 4 PM EDT

Your living room

We're organizing a phonebank to our new members on Saturday and we need your help. The callfire service allow you to make the calls from home, using your smartphone, laptop or deskstop. You'll get a real charge from talking to them! Aint' nuthin like it!! Please click "going" if you can make calls! Thanks!

Those invited to participate on on Facebook included Norman Markowitz.

National Party Building Conference

National Party Building Conference Hosted by Communist Party USA and People's World.

Saturday, November 11, 2017 at 12 PM – 6 PM EST

Join Communist Party activists and members in a national conference. You can register here https://tinyurl.com/ycdouk3y

The conference will take place November 11th to 12th to plan our work in the fight against the Trump Administration and its white supremacist ruling class backers. Find information here about how to participate. http://www.cpusa.org/2017-national-party-building-conference-resist-organize-vote-grow/

The conference will be streamed from Chicago to regional meetings in New Haven, Los Angeles, and Orlando. Whether you’re on the East Coast, West Coast, in the MIdwest or the South, you’ll be able to participate.

Those invited on Facebook included Norman Markowitz.