Benjamin Mazen

Nov 8, 2004 4:24 PM

He hated supervisors with a serious passion. To him, all the raises in theworld wouldn't change the fact that teachers were forced to work in a systemhe called "a thinly veiled despotism." The whole "administrative-supervisoryhierarchy," he said, was nothing more than a "parasitic element." Had helived in an earlier time, Ben Mazen might have organized a peasants' revolt.But from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, he was a godsend to a teacherin trouble. A high school social studies teacher by day, Mazen was the legalmastermind behind the Guild's groundbreaking grievance committee. Whetherit was challenging an unfair "U" rating or shielding a teacher from a bullyingsupervisor, Mazen and his team of teacher volunteers held the system to accountat a time when there was no formal grievance procedure or contract. It wasMazen who set the system back on its heels by winning case after case involvingacademic freedom, the rights of substitutes, payment for military service,and pension rights. And it was he who authored "The Handbook of Teachers'Rights." When the Guild and later the UFT needed a lawyer, it was Mazen theleadership tapped to be their general counsel. "He was our lawyer," saidGeorge Altomare. "If you had a problem, he was the guy you went to."