{{other uses}} {{Infobox person | name = General Gordon Baker Jr.<!-- include middle initial, if not specified in birth_name --> | image = <!-- just the filename, without the File: or Image: prefix or enclosing [[brackets]] --> | alt = | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{birth date|1941|9|6}}<!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Birth-date and age|birth date†}} --> | birth_place = [[Detroit]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2014|5|18|1941|9|6}}<!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Death-date and age|death date†|birth date†}} --> | death_place = [[Detroit]] | other_names = | occupation = [[Automotive industry|Autoworker]] | known_for = Revolutionary Union Movement | spouse = [[Marian Kramer]] }}

'''General Gordon Baker Jr.''' (September 6, 1941<ref name=jacobinmag>{{cite web|last1=Goldberg|first1=David|title=Detroit's Radical|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/05/detroit-s-radical-general-baker/|website=Jacobin|accessdate=7 July 2014}}</ref> &ndash; May 18, 2014<ref name=pambazuka>{{cite web|last1=Azikiwe|first1=Abayomi|title=General Gordon Baker, Jr.: Pioneer in African American working class resistance|url=http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/obituary/92173|website=Pambazuka News|accessdate=7 July 2014}}</ref>) was an [[Americans|American]] labor organizer and activist.

==Biography== General Baker was born in [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]], where his parents had relocated from [[Georgia (US state)|Georgia]] so that his father could find work in the automotive industry. Baker graduated from [[Southwestern High School (Michigan)|Southwestern High School]] in 1958.<ref name=daahp>{{cite web|title=General Baker Biography|url=http://www.daahp.wayne.edu/biographiesDisplay.php?id=78.Operation|website=Detroit African-American History Project|accessdate=July 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234309/http://www.daahp.wayne.edu/biographiesDisplay.php?id=78.Operation|archive-date=March 3, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As a student at [[Wayne State University]], Baker studied the work of [[Karl Marx]] and became involved in [[socialism]] and [[Black nationalism]].<ref name=daahp /> In 1963 he co-founded UHURU (Swahili for "freedom"), an African-American student organization at Wayne.<ref name=pambazuka />

Baker visited [[Cuba]] in 1964 to study the [[Fidel Castro|Castro]] government. After returning to Detroit, he found work at the Dodge Main plant in [[Hamtramck, Michigan]].<ref name=daahp />

In 1965, Baker wrote an open letter to the [[draft board]], refusing its request that he appear for an examination to determine his fitness to serve in the [[Vietnam War]], a landmark in American draft resistance during that era.<ref name=pambazuka /><ref name=gendraft>{{cite web|last1=Baker|first1=General|title=Letter to the Draft Board|url=http://speakersforanewamerica.com/gendraft.html|website=Speakers for a New America|accessdate=7 July 2014}}</ref><ref name=sfana>{{cite web|title=General Gordon Baker|url=http://speakersforanewamerica.com/generalbakerstatement.php|website=Speakers for a New America|accessdate=July 7, 2014}}</ref>

In the late 1960s, Baker was a co-founder of the [[Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement]] (DRUM) and the [[League of Revolutionary Black Workers]] (LRBW).<ref name=pambazuka /> He was fired from his job after participating in a series of [[wildcat strike action|wildcat strikes]], and was subsequently unable to find work in the industry until he applied under a false name at the [[Ford Rouge Plant]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan]].<ref name=detroitnews>{{cite web|last1=Donnelly |first1=Francis X. |title=Advocate for auto workers never backed away from fight for rights |url=http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140523/OBITUARIES/305230128 |website=The Detroit News |accessdate=July 7, 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714182307/http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140523/OBITUARIES/305230128 |archivedate=July 14, 2014 |df= }}</ref>

Baker twice ran for public office, as a candidate for the [[Michigan House of Representatives]] in the late 1970s.<ref name=freep>{{cite web|last1=Schaefer|first1=Jim|title=General Baker Jr.: Activist, union leader 'loved the workers of the world'|url=http://www.freep.com/article/20140522/NEWS08/305220253/General-Gordon-Baker-obituary|website=Detroit Free Press|accessdate=July 7, 2014}}</ref>

A leading member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA) for two decades beginning in the 1990s, Baker was chair of its steering committee.<ref name=pambazuka /><ref name=sfana />

Baker died in Detroit of [[congestive heart failure]], aged 72.<ref name=freep />

==See also== {{Portal|Organized labour}} <blockquote>“General Baker was the organizer of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit, the black auto workers movement. His father’s name was ‘General’and he was named after him. General Baker was the smartest guy in the Sixties. He understood everything, he had an analysis of capital and race way beyond everything from the point of view of black workers in mass production industries.... I still go back to try to think about things through him.” (Dale W. Tomich, 2024)<ref>https://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/jwsr/article/view/1359/1692</ref></blockquote>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * Dr. Louis Jones, [https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/12263 "General Gordon Baker, Jr.: A Detroit Revolutionary to the Core"] * Todd Wolfson, [http://www.mediamobilizing.org/updates/remembering-general-baker "Remembering General Baker"] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20150101213903/http://www.mediamobilizing.org/updates/remembering-general-baker Archive link]), Media Mobilizing Project, December 18, 2014. {{wikiquote}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, General}} [[Category:1941 births]] [[Category:2014 deaths]] [[Category:Activists from Detroit]] [[Category:African-American trade unionists]] [[Category:Members of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers]] [[Category:Trade unionists from Michigan]]

{{worker-activist-stub}}