Ray Frankel - a Tough UFT Original - Hear Her Oral History

Ray Frankel:  Albert Shanker too comes out of the socialist movement and worked for the election of Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas in 1948... Oral History at NYU Tamamint Labor Library

[Ray] Frankel, who was the longtime chair of the UFT election committee [since the very first UFT election in 1962], has her place not only in UFT history as a founding member but in New York City labor history. She is the daughter of lifelong activists in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, a background that prepared her well for taking the fight for justice into the public schools. She was one of only five from PS 165 in Manhattan to participate in the pivotal 1960 teachers’ strike.
Frankel brought her dedication and commitment with her when she began teaching at the HS of Art and Design in Manhattan. A tenacious recruiter, she helped the union grow. As Frankel put it, “In my milieu you were either planning a strike, on strike or reminiscing about one.”...... http://www.uft.org/news-stories/3-giants-leave-exec-board

Mike Schirtzer called me tonight and let me know that Ray Frankel passed. (I never made it to the UFT Ex Bd meeting because a tree fell on the train tracks.) I'm sorry I wasn't there to honor Ray, a long-time sparring mate - back to the 70s. We always found Ray tough as nails, a hard-core Unity Caucus acolyte who seemingly had disdain for the opposition. In her later years she seemed to lighten up and I always received a nice greeting from her. 

Ray ran the UFT elections since its inception in 1962 - and was head of the election committee until she passed the torch to Amy Arundell in 2013. But she still played a role, even in the 2016 election. When we ran we were always afraid Ray would knock us off the ballot if we were one signature short. We butted heads with her over election rules for decades.

UPDATE on FB From

Ira Goldfine I still remember Ray's face the first time all the groups ran together in the late 70's [I think this was 1981] as New Action Coalition(NAC) (New for New Directions, Action for Teachers Action Caucus and Coalition for the Coalition of NYC School Workers). As we unloaded carton after carton of election petitions she realized that we were running a full slate of 700+ people for the first and I think only time the opposition did it. I think she was in awe but couldn't say it but they had an inkling because that was the year we surprised them and a bunch of us took off a day to bombard almost every single school in the city with election literature.

We found it funny in 2016 that when Solidarity was short candidates to reach the 40 minimum, Ray seemed willing to let it pass -- a sign she was softening -- or playing union politics by dividing the opposition -- but the election committee ruled that a rule is a rule. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt.

Every time I saw Ray she would shake her head and smile -- like how could I still be opposing the policies of the union leadership? I think she believed I was nuts - and she was probably right. 

Priceless audios of Ray Frankel from mid-80s: Socialists organized the UFT and she was a lifelong member of the socialist party.

Ray comes from the Social Democrats USA wing of socialism - as Shanker did - she says she joined the socialist party in the 30s and says she remained a member. They considered themselves socialists but were also very anti-Communist.

For those of you who put down socialists, Ray talks about how the union was organized by socialists. Most teachers did not go out on the first strike -- it was the most conscious - the socialists/activists - who led the strike and the formation of the UFT.

She was more active in the socialist movement than in the union - she joined the Teachers Gild - not the more communist oriented Teacher Union (TU) -- in the 50s. And she talks about democratic centralism without naming it as such. Great stuff if you want an idea of how the UFT and Unity Caucus operates. Her dad was a presser in the ILGWU like my dad - my mom was an operator on the sewing machines.

She talks about how her principal tried to help her organize the teachers in her school -- he was a firm believer in unions. When they struck, her principal, Eddie Gotlieb, refused to turn in their names. Only 5 walked on that first strike - a lesson for today's so-called militants in the UFT, many of whom hide behind anonymity - and also the caucuses who talk strike -- would any of them walk with only 5 teachers in their school?

Ray talks about the founding of the union, UFT elections and UFT caucuses. She describes the very first contentious UFT election between Charlie Cogan and Roger Parente -- see Roger Parente, a UFT founder, dies at 86 -

She talks about losing dues checkoff years after the '75 strike and also the recent mid-80s UFT elections where the opposition (3 caucuses uniting for elections) were beginning to make some headway. She actually talks about those UFT elections with some analysis and about the high school election - I assume that was the election where Mike Shulman was elected to the Adcom in 1985. She talks about the high schools as being a special problem for the union. Nothing's changed. Really illuminating stuff. She also talks about the beginning of caucuses - in 1962 when they organized Unity Caucus to stop Parente who ran against Charlie Cogan -- the Spur Caucus. She discusses the old Teachers Union and how it morphed into a caucus - Teachers Action Caucus - which eventually merged with New Directions - she talks about Anne Filardo, Dave Weiner, Paul Becker. She talks about the other caucus - New Directions - no ideology. And points out how they are ideologically opposite - [they merged into New Action in 1995 but there are still ideological differences]. Ray claims that the fact that Unity had at that point held power for 25 years doesn't mean they lack democracy. She even talks about the union's "no position" on the Vietnam War - it was too divisive -- we've heard that before. But when it came to Solidarity in Poland - a very important issue to them - and they opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia - but not the invasion of Vietnam -- so many goodies for junkies like me.

There are 3 segments, each about 45-50 minutes. Priceless UFT history from a certain point of view.
http://digitaltamiment.hosting.nyu.edu/s/united-federation-of-teachers-oral-history-collection-oh-009/item/6579

Here are Arthur's notes from tonight's Ex Bd meeting in relation to Ray Frankel.

Resolution honoring UFT founder Ray Frankel—

George Altomari—There are a lot of things you see in people. Some people do that and more. You hardly even see them. But Ray Frankel was a person who did as much as anyone in the union. When you devote a lifetime to a cause, you have something special. Lots of people saw her in different roles. Ran elections for years. Without her work, you wonder where we would be. She was meticulous about her work. Everyone believed in her honesty. She was there at the very beginning. She always gave more than she received. You could always rely on her. Represented the best of us.

Schoor—She was CL of Art and Design. My mom was secretary. Always asked after her. Always concerned about people after they left, every union member.

LeRoy Barr—I had opportunity to work with her closely. One of first on our wall downstairs. Was always there behind scenes making sure things were running. Dedicated her entire life. Working up until last 2 or three months. Was voice that said you can’t do it this way, you have to do it that way. She added to me, making sure we didn’t just get it done, but got it done right. We are the beneficiaries of her life. Bur for her, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here today.

Approved unanimously.

Given her views on strikes - she was part of the first UFT strikes -- I am reminded of one incident with Ray around 2000-01. This was pre-Bloomberg when Giuliani was our big enemy with lots of anti-union rhetoric - our last contract was the double zero "raises" of 1995.

Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) held a rally in front of the old UFT HQ at 260 Park Ave South calling for the same kind of action the same people who are now in MORE are calling for in the current UFT election -- asking -- begging - the UFT leadership to prepare the membership for a strike. I joined them for a while in the picket, which took place around 4 PM. I guess there were about 30 people. But I felt uncomfortable with that line of thinking because they seemed to be asking the UFT leadership to do something - a leadership that was a proven commodity -- I even argued with them that if there ever was a strike this leadership was not capable of leading an effective strike because they didn't believe in it. (It led to some ruffled feathers with TJCers). At that time TJC had not yet become an electoral caucus and barely had a presence at the UFT DA.

Anyway, I walked off the picket line and into the UFT lobby -- and there was Ray Frankel, looking out at them and shaking her head, seemingly glad that I had walked off the line. Ray, as an original UFTer, certainly knew about strikes. We might not even have a union if not for people like Ray. "They're talking about a strike? Meshuganas", she said.

But there is irony here in that not long afterwards Randi actually did start whispering the S word and we actually took a strike authorization vote, which was a clear publicity stunt. Given the current situation, I do believe every union needs to have a strike threat.

Whither/Wither The Opposition -- Past, Present and Future Tense - Part 1

Whither: to what place or state. --- old Eng.
Wither: become dry and shriveled.

What will be the state of the opposition in the UFT at the end of this election cycle in April? One of my multiple New Years resolutions is to tell the story of the on-going history of the opposition inside the UFT over the 5 decades of my own involvement. Given I am sitting out the UFT elections, I have plenty of time on my hands. The problem is, where to start?

We are a few days away from the official opening of another UFT election period and all three caucuses running on their own against Unity have been issuing calls for people to run with them and to get ready for the petition campaign which begins at the Jan. 16 Delegate Assembly. In normal times, I would be spending all my time getting ready for a 5 week long petition campaign.


For me, what a relief to be an observer and reporter in the upcoming UFT elections after having been intensely involved in five elections since the 2004 campaign.

But these are not normal times. I saw Ellen Fox the other day at the UFT Ex Bd meeting and she said for her this was the first time in 40 years she will not be involved in an election.
 
Are there so many fractures, will there be no hope for the future growth of the opposition to become an effective force to counter the 60 year old Unity Caucus machine?

It's very disappointing so see what has happened over the past 5 years after the promise of MORE when it began in 2011-12 with the support of almost all the leading voices in the opposition to Unity over the years. New Action was still aligned with Unity but over time I expected that that aging caucus would eventually join with MORE in coalition (it did in 2016) and hopefully merge. A disappointment was the defection of Portelos in 2014 when he formed his own caucus -- there were reasons he will argue. I would argue if he has remained in MORE and brought his supporters in, it would have strengthened the hands of the faction in MORE that was eventually pushed out -- the ICEUFT people. We would have had a stronger opposition to push back against the faction that gained total control of MORE with an boutique agenda aimed at a small segment of the UFT rather than the broader rank and file. That's boiling down the essential disagreements that took place in MORE over the years.


With the Los Angeles teachers in the UTLA about to strike Monday (changed from today - an unfortunate snafu due to a UTLA miscalculation) under the leadership of a progressive, left-leaning social justice caucus and with Chicago TU in the hands of a similar caucus - two of the three largest cities --- proof that such social justice like groups can succeed in winning and maintaining power -- here in NYC we find ourselves in possibly the worst situation we have faced since the New Action defection to Unity in 2003.

There is no clearer difference in the opposition in the 3 cities than to look at union elections. The NYC version of the progressive caucus - MORE - doesn't want to win anything in the election while citing the work of the groups running LA and Chi -- but never seeming to realize that those groups actually did run to win - and they did win. Which is why they can talk about striking.

If MORE had real power school level power through influence in many schools so as to raise its issues with a broad rank and file then a discussion of strike feasibility can be opened. For MORE, which weakened itself to a point where it has less influence than it has had in 5 years, to talk about strikes here in NYC, is sort of ludicrous. Instead the MORE campaigns to get the union leadership it so vilifies to do take up the MORE campaign. In Chicago and LA the caucuses themselves had enough widespread support as to take on bigger issues without relying on the union leadership. Here MORE tries to be a lobby caucus.

A fractured opposition

Now we know we can't win the whole ball of wax here but we could chip away at Unity power in the schools which is where the battle will take place. An election campaign could help build power through gathering of votes. The ballot box does count. MORE/NA getting almost 11,000 votes last time was the largest total in a long time and an opportunity. An opportunity lost.

There are consequences for this gap between the 3 big cities. Chicago and LA, have pushed back against the ed deform movement, while here in NYC we have seen the UFT be complicit with so much of ed deform, from testing to charters to teachers being held accountable based on test scores. And of course the willingness to stand by as abusive principals chop up our members. Our own union has partnered with the ed deformers all along the way. And as far as I am concerned, MORE itself has dropped the ball in many areas of push back against deformers. That there is no caucus strong enough to become a bulwark leaves us in a precarious position.

It is a sad situation where each of the three caucuses will be running their own independent campaigns with the clear outcome that none of them can win anything on their own.

In what place or state will we find the caucuses post election? Whither or just plain withered?

I see little point in running in an election where the 3 groups end up competing as much as with each other than Unity for votes and candidates and support. There is a lot of blame to go around but let's not get into those weeds at this time.

What a waste of time and energy. I urged MORE to either unite with everyone or don't run and use the opportunity to engage in their campaign outside the election process.

The leadership of MORE, which includes a bunch of people who used to run Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC), a caucus that had shrunk significantly and merged into MORE, opposed me. They argued we would miss a chance to get 2 pages in the NY Teacher - which I had pointed out are barely read by anyone. And they also said they would gain access to all the schools by running -- I pointed out they could gain access to all the schools, even by not running.

When the vote was taken, we could see a lot of doubt about running coming from the newer, younger and untenured people in MORE, which seemed to surprise the old TJC crowd. So they scaled back -- you don't have to run around the city putting stuff in the mail boxes - the very opposite of the argument they used against my position for not running.

Then came the news that even 2 people can get pages in the NY Teacher if they run -- countering their other argument for running a slate.

The only way forward post-election is some kind of united front - a big tent opposition, even if the purists have to retreat somewhat. The Unity machine is the problem and why NYC is different from Chicago and LA. I looked back to the past.

The United Front of the 80s and 90s
In recent posts I've been exploring the historical record as recorded by me over the past 22 years in Ed Notes, but especially the early hard copy publications from 1997-2005. I am reminding myself of all the issues we faced back then, with a lot to echo today's issues.
These had wider distribution I believe than the Ed Notes blog -- the Del Ass and into the schools directly in the latter years of 2002-5 after I retired.

After the 2001 election, which despite New Action winning the high school seats, showed them declining, I tried to play the role of peacemaker between all the groups (NAC, PAC, TJC) and independents by calling for meetings to form a coalition for the next election in 2004. That effort fell apart very quickly and I saw first hand the level of hostility and infighting that existed - to the extent that I, for the first time began to think that a new caucus was necessary to take on issues being ignored and thus was born ICE a few years later. The 2004 election had 3 opposition groups running, the only time other than the present.

I was reminded of the impact the mass campaigns against Unity by all elements of the opposition had in the 80s and 90s when a coalition of groups and individuals under the New Action Coalition (NAC) began to come together in the late 70-early 80s and found a united front was able to recruit a full slate of 800 people to run. And they began to chip a way at Unity power for the first time.

Now we are back to the beginning where we stood in the mid-70s.  The only way forward is for people to get some sense after the election and sit down and find a way to move toward a united front.

I made a chart with the historical links between caucuses over the decades. One day I would like to see them all culminate into one box.




Here are links to recent Ed Notes posts on this topic:

• UFT Caucus Roundup: Rallies Galore - Ed Notes, Dec...
• Breaking UFT Election News: A Gaggle of Caucuses ...
• UFT ELECTIONS ARE COMING! - 2001 edition --- If an... 
• UFT Elections: The Caucus of Goldstein and Schirtz...