Iron Heel

Iron Heel is one of my favorite historical fiction books. Honestly, I learnt more about socialism in this book than I learnt in the communist manifesto. With all due respect, I believe Marx was a great writer and philosopher, however, it may be because of the charismatic and eloquent explanation of socialism from the author, or my own lack of understanding, I believe Iron heel is a great book to learn about the basic principles of Marxism and communism. Not only does it explain theory, but it also explains the condition of the proletariat and how the ruling and owning class may react to revolution. This book teaches us critical thinking and ethics. I definitely believe this book is underrated, because when I read about this book in Wikipedia, I learnt that I did not earn much praise from ‘contemporary’ critics. According to the outlook the book was a “work of fiction it has little to commend it, and as a socialist tract it is distinctly unconvincing” which is unfair and biased just as colonel van gilbert criticized Ernest in chapter 5 with no basis. This book, I believe has much to commend.

This book is written in the perspective of Avis Everhard and was incomplete and breaks abruptly as she might have been escaping the soldiers of the Iron Heel. The book is recovered and footnoted by scholar Anthony Meredith in 2600 AD or 419 B.O.M. The book begins as she first sees Ernest Everhard in a gathering set up by her father to learn about sociology. He debates with a philosopher known as dr Hammerfield, showing his eloquent and charismatic manner of speech. He shows that the upper class knew nothing about the proletariat and how science and socialism are much better than metaphysics. Later he attends a meeting of the philomaths in which he pointed out, how terrible the current system of capitalism was, resulting in making his opponents run out of decent points ending the conversation with one member saying that the revolution and proletariat will be crushed, and Ernest replies that it is inevitable under the evolution of society that the proletariat take power form the bourgeoise. The book also shows that a bishop who had attended the gathering decided that the church must help the proletariat, and later he sold all his wealth and fed and housed workers without the knowledge of the oligarchy. After that Avis’s father is shown to host a dinner for small middle-class businessmen, there Ernest fully explains socialism, how it will also benefit the middle class and how socialism can actually work. Then the book shows Ernest running for congress in the socialist ticket and winning. The oligarchy is shown to want to wage war against Germany, however a general strike by the socialists prevents it. Then the oligarchy is shown to be more suppressive and arrests, kills and tortures socialist congressmen and revolutionaries. Finally, the story ends with the first revolt in Chicago, failing.

This book has very deeply discussed revolution and reform and the ethics of it. Iron heel shows its readers the age-old question of whether capitalism can be transformed through elections or reform alone. The answer according to Marxist theory is it depends. In the book, Principles of Communism, Fredrick Engels points out that communists would be the last ones to oppose if there was a way to abolish private property peacefully. Even if a communist government entered the legislative assembly like in Kerala, the least it would be able to do is social democracy and basic reforms. The constitution and other governmental and non-governmental reasons can contribute to namesake socialism or the collapse of the government. If not, foreign imperialist powers, whose wealth or power is being threatened because of the socialist government would not simply stand by and watch, a good example would be what happened in Venezuela to Nicolas Maduro. In the book, many socialist elected states and congressmen are being suppressed by the oligarchy, by arresting, exiling, torturing and executions. The main reason is that in bourgeoise democracy, though the government is officially ruled by the people, it is actually ruled by the oligarchy. The rich own news companies and the majority of the press, and rich politicians alone have the money needed to campaign, they can use their money and influence to corrupt the ruling class to favor themselves and therefore they alone directly or/and indirectly rule the government. Therefore, in many circumstances winning through elections and depending on reform, puts communists on the mercy of their opponents. Therefore, true democracy is not only the political freedom to vote, but the economic and social equality. However, revolution is criticized because of the violence that it causes directly by revolutionaries against ruling class or indirectly by ruling class to the revolution. This was also criticized by Albert Camus because he thought revolution causes a vicious cycle of hatred and violence as when the revolution takes places their mistakes cause a counter revolution reverting to the old system and repeating. However, this system of thought is wrong because when socialist revolution takes place social and economic inequalities reduce and therefore corruption and disagreement and conflict between classes fade and the need or more importantly want for counter revolution fades away. Therefore, in my thought, violence should be avoided as much as possible and reeducation and suppression by less violent manners should be used.

Finally, we must discuss about the relation between individual and the revolution. This is shown in many places in the book, directly or indirectly. This book has shown that one’s ethics, personal principles, philosophy and more importantly conscience should always be given more importance than his or her work or what class they belong to like how a son of an oligarch joins the socialists. This has most importantly showed us about the sacrifice of one’s safety and happiness for a greater cause like how Ernest said he did not want children because of his profession. Of course, that should be a personal choice, according to me, however someone should clean up the mess those in power have created. We, who have to live in the mess should take responsibility by rooting out the filth of ignorance and corruption and make sure the world remains clean after we have rooted out the problems of the people for those who created it do not take responsibility for what they have done. Someone must take the initiative to sacrifice themselves for those of the future shouldn’t, and for a brighter tomorrow, even though, they don’t have to. If such noble people didn’t exist, there would be no good in this world. If you don’t see such good people, be one yourself. That I believe, is the moral of this story.