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PORTSIDE CULTURE

WALL STREET’S WAR ON WORKERS: HOW MASS LAYOFFS AND GREED ARE
DESTROYING THE WORKING CLASS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT  
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Steve Lawton
March 20, 2024
Portside
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_ Leopold’s new book offers a closer and more detailed look at how
wealth extraction occurs, how workers bear the brunt of it, and how
this dynamic challenges our political organizing efforts by labor
unions and other progressive change organizations. _

A protester in a yellow vest holds a sign reading "WHERE IS THE
ACCOUNTABILITY" during an outdoor protest at England's Google
headquarters in London, England, on April 4, 2023., (Photo credit: Vuk
Valcic / Sopa Images / Lightrocket // Truthout)

 

I've been deeply involved in the labor movement for over twenty-five
years as an organizer, union leader, and instructor. One principle
I've grasped is that education is crucial in mobilizing working
people. It's more than just organizational skills; it's about helping
workers grasp the economic and political forces shaping their lives.
That's exactly what economist and author Les Leopold has dedicated his
career to—providing labor organizers and union leaders with the
educational foundation for campaigns for economic justice.

In his 2015 book, _Runaway Inequality: An Activists Guide To Economic
Justice_, Leopold exposed the systemic ways vast wealth disparities,
political inequities, and skewed government policies were engineered
to separate wealth from working people. That didn't just happen.
Extractive processes, like stock buybacks and leverage buyouts, which
enrich corporate executives and stockholders at the expense of
workers, are described in detail and names are named. Leopold's goal
is to show that wealth and income inequality isn't just a glitch, but
rather the result of choices made to benefit Wall Street and big
business, to make them wealthier no matter who else paid the bill.

Wall Street's War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are
Destroying the Working Class and What to Do about It
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By Les Leopold
Chelsea Green Publishing Company; 240 pages
February 22, 2024
Hardcover:  $28.00; E-book:  $28.00
ISBN: 9781645022336
ISBN-10: 1645022331

 
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Leopold's new book, "_Wall Street's War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs
and Greed Are Destroying the Working Class And What to Do About It_,"
offers a closer and more detailed look at how wealth extraction
occurs, how workers bear the brunt of it, and how this dynamic
challenges our political organizing efforts by labor unions and other
progressive change organizations.

Leopold uses government data (Census and BLS, mostly) to show how mass
layoffs, as they have become more commonplace since the 1980s, have
increased income and wealth inequality and undermined working-class
solidarity. He argues that in historically strong Democratic
working-class manufacturing communities, mass layoffs coincide with
the expansion of stock buybacks, financial deregulation, and
deindustrialization. This, coupled with the defection of formerly
proud-to-be-union working-class workers, reshaped the political
landscape.

The aftermath of mass layoffs is personally devastating, causing
familial and community stress, which leads to social conditions
conducive to the decline of small-town America. Places that have been
devastated by issues like the opioid epidemic, deaths of despair, and
increased support for nationalist authoritarianism. The commonly held
trope is that the working class is hanging on to its guns and
religion, in Barack Obama's infamous phrase, because of their
resistance to change. However, Leopold's study of voter attitudes in
Blue Wall states challenges the prevailing assumption that white
working-class support for right-wing candidates stems from racial
anxiety. The public opinion surveys he cites demonstrate that the
white working class has, in fact, trended more liberal in the last 20
years on issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation, while
simultaneously abandoning the Democratic Party.

The white working class's departure from the Democratic Party, Leopold
shows, often reflects frustration with economic insecurity, stagnant
wages, and a sense of abandonment by those who once claimed to
represent their interests. He argues that the increasingly liberal
leanings of many white working-class voters mean that the economic
fight against mass layoffs is fertile ground for a robust, inclusive
labor movement that fights against economic inequality and
authoritarianism.

Leopold's work is indispensable for labor organizing because of his
ability to communicate complex ideas in plain language. His
narratives, like the plight of coal workers in Mingo, West Virginia,
affected by stock buybacks, are direct and clear, yet resonate with a
colorful flair that underscores the gravity of his findings. Workers
will find it relatable and helpful as they map a strategy to make
political change in their communities.

Les Leopold's 'Reversing Runaway Inequality
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cornerstone for my personal organizing experience, including the
Verizon strike in New York City and my union's support for Bernie
Sanders in 2016. However, "Wall Street's War on Workers" presents
different stakes. Inequality was a problem that we thought would be
fixed by building political coalitions across silos, but Leopold's new
book shows that inequality is the symptom. The disease is a political
system that incentivizes financialization, best demonstrated by a
culture of ongoing and repeating mass layoffs. When workers are used
without consideration, the system breaks down, and they look for any
port in a storm that promises stability. The battle, it turns out, for
the labor movement is greater than economic justice; it is the fight
for democracy itself. As Leopold notes, you can't fight back against
authoritarianism without fighting against mass layoffs!

_[STEVE LAWTON has over 25 years of experience as a rank and file
labor organizer and union leader, notably serving as President of CWA
Local 1102 for 11 years. Currently, he focuses on labor education and
curriculum development for CWA District 1's political program,
alongside his role as an Adjunct Instructor at the Harry Van Arsdale
JR School of Labor Studies.]_

* wealth
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* wealth inequality
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* Wall Street
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* Income Inequality
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* Working Class
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* Labor
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* workers
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* Economic Policy
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* government policy
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* economics
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* extractive processeses
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* Stock buybacks
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* leverage buyouts
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* corporate elite
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* Layoffs
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