Henry Foner

Background

Henry Foner was born on March 23, 1919, and raised in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. His father Abraham Foner delivered seltzer; his mother was Mary Smith. He and his three brothers all became active in leftist politics. Two brothers (Philip and Jack) were professional historians. The other two brothers (Moe and Henry) were union activists.

He was (allegedly) a member of the Young Communist League as a youth and later wrote a song called “Love in the YCL."

He attended Eastern District High School and earned a degree in business administration from the City College of New York in 1939.

Career

Foner began his career by organizing an anti-WWII puppet show and then, like his older brothers, began teaching at the Samuel J. Tilden High School. (Unlike the other three, who were university professors, he remained a teacher in high school.) Colleagues there included future comedian Sam Levenson.

From 1942 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Army in Italy and Austria. He was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Italian Military Valor Cross.

He resumed teaching as a substitute in stenography and typewriting at Prospect Heights High School from 1946 to 1948. After passing his teaching exam, in 1948 he was blocked by the Rapp-Coudert Committee from formal appointment due to involvement in the American Student Union and Young Communist League. "Both Philip and Jack were fired from teaching posts in the City University of New York in 1941 during a purge by the New York State Legislature’s Rapp-Coudert Committee, which also cost Moe his administrative post at City College and Henry his job as a substitute teacher in New York high schools."

With all four brothers banned from teaching, they formed a jazz band and played in the Catskills: Henry played saxophone and composed songs (see "Songs" below).

Unions

Foner was labor union leader and social activist (and, according to at least one historian, a "lifelong fellow traveler").

From 1940 to 1948, he was a member of the Teachers Union.

In 1948, denied a career in education, he became director for welfare and education at what was then the Joint Board Fur Dressers' and Dryers' Union, later known as the Joint Board, Fur, Leather and Machine Workers Union ("FLM"). In 1961, he became FLM president and served until 1988. The union represented members in the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Over the years, he worked on issues from promoting civil rights to protesting the Vietnam War. He served as vice-chairman of the Liberal Party of New York. In 1973, he went to Spain to observe a Carabanchel Ten trial.

Foner has stated that, during his decades in the FLM, he worked to keep the union free of corruption, and to insulate the union from criticism that it was Communist-led. For the latter goal, Foner helped to arrange a merger of the FLM with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters union in the late 1950s.

He also "helped to organize union representation at the Labor Assembly for Peace in Chicago."

He also was a "leader of the Liberal Party" (of New York), founded in 1944 by George Counts as alternative to the American Labor Party and its perceived influence from communists. (Co-founders included: David Dubinsky of the ILGWU, Alex Rose of the Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and teacher-turned-politician Ben Davidson.)

Retirement

In 1988, Foner retired from the union.

For many years, he taught labor history and wrote a column for the journal Jewish Currents magazine, on whose editorial board he served.

He served as president of the Paul Robeson Foundation. He also served as editor of Work History News (newsletter of the New York Labor History Association.

In 2000, he co-founded Labor Arts.

Foner was also a songwriter. He co-wrote (with Norman Franklin) the musical, "Thursdays 'Til Nine" presented in 1947 by the Department Store Employees Union. He performed for the Catskills Institute on many occasions, with recordings of several performances from 1997 to 2004 available. He was a long-time friend of Pete Seeger, whom he knew for more than 60 years. Seegar played for numerous rallies and marches for his union. "Seeger was a member of the New York Labor History Association. In 2009, he played his five-string banjo and other instruments at the 90th birthday celebration of his friend and comrade, Henry Foner."

In 2009, he gave an interview about his life experience:

Foner discusses his background as a political activist, musician, and teacher. At the time of his entrance into the fur and leather workers' union, Sam Burt was head of the Joint Board, and Ben Gold international president of furriers' union. He describes the leadership style and significant activities of Gold. In the late 50s, Foner was partially responsible for arranging a merger with the meat cutters' union, a move which helped to insulate the formerly Communist-led furriers from further political attacks. He discusses the political liabilities of the Communist presence in union leadership, and steps which Gold took to diffuse or preempt criticism. He describes the corruption in the labor movement in the 50s and 60s as well as the furriers' avoidance of corruption under its leftist leadership. He discusses Mayor Lindsay's campaign and administration, and the change in the Liberal Party stance on the Vietnam War, as well as the Party's decision-making dynamics and relationship with the ILGWU. He helped to organize union representation at the Labor Assembly for Peace in Chicago. He explains his own reasons for his engagement with the Liberal Party, and describes relations with politicians and labor leaders such as Lindsay, Ed Koch, David Dubinsky, Al Shanker, Victor Gotbaum, and Jack Sheinkman. Also discussed is the union's position on imports and animal rights. He compares and contrasts the policies and histories of the Amalgamated, ILGWU, and his own union. Mentioned are the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis and teachers' strike of 1968. The interview concludes with a discussion of the way in which the furriers' union dealt with ethnic and racial diversity in contrast to that of the ILGWU, and the unions' position on immigration, as well as Foner's own.

Personal and death

Foner was one of four prominent, New York-based brothers:

In 1948, he married Lorraine Lieberman (March 2, 1923 – April 22, 2002).

HIs niece is Nancy Foner, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Hunter College.

Foner died on January 11, 2017 at the age of 97 from cardiovascular disease.

Awards

For service during WWII, Fonder was awarded both the Legion of Merit and the Italian Military Valor Cross.

In 2015, the Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative inducted Foner as a "labor activist" among a dozen people – "some of the borough’s most accomplished sons and daughters" – as the first class of the "Brooklyn Jewish Hall of Fame."

Activism

In his obituary for the New York Times, Sam Roberts summed up his life as follows:

Henry J. Foner [was] the last of four brothers from New York City who were denied academic jobs in the 1940s for Communist ties and later were champions of organized labor, higher education and progressive political causes.

Nephew Eric Foner of Columbia University recalled:

Along with his brother Moe, Henry was among a group of labor leaders who survived McCarthyism to bring a New Deal kind of left-labor activism to New York City, which survives to this day... They also challenged the AFL-CIO to mobilize against the Vietnam War.

Humor

Foner was known for his humor. It is evident in several of the songs he composed (see "Songs" below). His obituary relates the following anecdote:

In 2008, the morning after he underwent hip replacement surgery, Mr. Foner was visited in his hospital room by his surgeon.
"I expected the routine inquiry about my condition," Mr. Foner recalled, "and almost fell out of my bed when he asked me, as though he were talking to my body, 'Which side are you on?'"
The question was not only surprising — coming from the surgeon who had only recently operated on him — but it also happened to be the title of an anthem of the labor movement.
Naturally, Mr. Foner pointed to his left side.

Works

Songs:

Foner composed many songs, including those collected (and some with publicly available audio recordings) courtesy of Labor Arts. These include a collection of songs for "Thursday Till 9."

Poems:

Books:

Books edited:

Articles:

Plays: