rmartin1520 's review for:

The Iron Heel by Jack London
5.0

Great book, and although this was written over a hundred years ago, Jack London did a great job at making some accurate predictions and his insight into corporate greed, and its power is very accurate.

Political thoughts:

1) I love the Bishop in this book. He goes to prove a point that the Church should advocate more for those in poverty and he's deemed crazy and cast out. There are some parallels to this in modern society. I think of a Christian minister who said that yes, Black Lives do Matter and his congregation turned on him. Or those ministers who are ousted for saying that the LGBTQ community should have equal rights. Those who have money and are funding the church, can often have a large say in the direction it goes

2) Very smart about the trusts. The less businesses there are in an industry, the easier it is for them to get away with price fixing (we are literally seeing this now after Biden took office and we see it with Big Pharma).

3) I found it interesting that the Oligarchy divided the unions by granting some industries more money/less hours and screwing over others. I should note that this was before the joining of the AFL-CIO. In my experience the only unions that do not have the back of other unions are the police and sometimes the fire (think of the latest legislation that the Republicans did in Florida when they gave carveouts to the police/fire unions from losing their union). I believe this is much less likely to occur. Also, the media is much more far reaching to control a message immediately, even before facts are gathered.

4) Parts of this reminded me of the Red Scare/McCarthyism.

5) Anyone who considers themselves a leftist or an activist would enjoy this book.