Turning to industrial labor, Copeland was a welder, grievance officer, and editor of his unions' newspaper at the Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, New York.
A year later, Copeland became a founding member of Workers World Party (WWP).
He was the founding editor of the party's newspaper, the eponymously named Workers World.
[1] During the 1960s, he was a board member of National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, a major coordinating organization for mass protests against United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
He had two step-children, one of whom, Deirdre Griswold, was Workers World's nominee for president in 1980.