Les Leopold uses Bruce Springsteen’s working-class politics to make a larger point: no celebrity can substitute for organized power.
In “The Boss and Me,” Leopold tells the story of asking Bruce Springsteen to write a preface or endorsement for his book, The Billionaires Have Two Parties — We Need a Party of Our Own. The request grew out of Springsteen’s public statement that America needs an effective alternative party or a Democratic Party leader who can speak to the majority. Leopold connects that comment to decades of shared working-class struggle, especially the 1985 fight by 3M workers in Freehold, New Jersey, Springsteen’s hometown, against a plant shutdown.
Leopold saw Springsteen’s call for an alternative party as confirmation of his own argument that working people need independent political power outside the billionaire-dominated two-party system.
The article recalls the 1985 3M shutdown campaign, where union leader Stanley Fischer sought Springsteen’s support and helped turn a local plant closing into a national and international labor story.
Springsteen’s involvement gave the 3M workers a powerful cultural amplifier, including a New York Times ad and a benefit concert that drew broader attention to corporate abandonment.
Leopold highlights the remarkable solidarity between mostly white New Jersey workers and Black South African 3M workers under apartheid, showing that class struggle can cross borders when workers recognize a shared enemy.
The article ends with a sober but important lesson: even a Springsteen preface would help, but there is no shortcut to building a durable working-class political movement.
The progressive conclusion is clear: celebrity support can amplify a cause, but working people cannot wait for famous rescuers. Real change requires organizing, solidarity, independent political infrastructure, and a workers’ movement bold enough to challenge both corporate parties. Springsteen may lend his voice, but the people must build the power