Henry Foner is a social activist and former president of the Joint Board of Fur, Leather and Machine Workers Union. A native of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as labor union leader and social activist, 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 worked to keep the union free of corruption, and to insulate the union from criticism that it was Communist-led. For many years, he taught labor history and wrote a column for the journal Jewish Currents magazine. He served as president of the Paul Robeson Foundation, on the editorial board of Jewish Currents magazine, and editor of Work History News (newsletter of the New York Labor History Association.