Books and Writings

For more than fifty years, working people in the United States have seen their wages stagnate, their jobs disappear, and their political influence collapse—while billionaires consolidate unprecedented wealth and power. Today, millions of voters feel politically homeless, alienated from both major parties and skeptical that either one is capable of delivering real change.

In The Billionaires Have Two Parties, We Need a Party of Our Own, labor educator and political strategist Les Leopold argues that this crisis is not a failure of working people—but a failure of the political system itself.

Clear-eyed but hopeful, rigorous but accessible, this book speaks directly to union members, community leaders, faith organizers, and anyone who believes American democracy cannot survive without economic justice. The billionaires already have two parties. The rest of us deserve one of our own.

Layoffs upend people’s lives, cause enormous stress, and lead to debilitating personal debt. The societal harm caused by mass layoffs has been known for decades. Yet, we do little to stop them. Why? Why do we allow whole communities to be destroyed by corporate decision-makers? Why do we consider mass layoffs a natural, baked-in feature of modern financialized capitalism? And what are our elected officials going to do about it?

The labor–climate movement in the U.S. laid the groundwork for the Green New Deal by building a base within labor for supporting climate protection as a vehicle for good jobs. But as we confront the climate crisis and seek environmental justice, a “jobs vs. environment” discourse often pits workers against climate activists. How can we make a “just transition” moving away from fossil fuels, while also compensating for the human cost when jobs are lost or displaced?

In 1970, the ratio of pay between the top 100 CEOs and the average worker in their companies was 45 to 1. Today it is a shocking 829 to 1!

During that time we’ve seen cuts in taxes, deregulated financial regulations, and trimmed social spending set in motion a process that has rewarded the wealthy while wages for workers have stagnated. How exactly did that happen?

How could the best and brightest (and most highly paid) in finance crash the global economy and then get us to bail them out as well? In The Looting of America, Leopold debunks the prevailing media myths that blame low-income home buyers who got in over their heads, people who ran up too much credit-card debt, and government interference with free markets. Instead, readers will discover how Wall Street undermined itself and the rest of the economy by playing and losing at a highly lucrative and dangerous game of fantasy finance.

A CIA-connected labor union, an assassination attempt, a mysterious car crash, listening devices, and stolen documents–everything you’d expect from the latest thriller. Yet, this was the reality of Tony Mazzocchi, the Rachel Carson of the U.S. workplace; a dynamic labor leader whose legacy lives on in today’s workplaces and ongoing alliances between labor activists and environmentalists, and those who believe in the promise of America.