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Detroit lost revolutionary, community stalwart, scholar, and historian, General Baker on May 18, 2014 to heart failure. We were fortunate enough to have General Baker and Jerry Herron of the DIA speak together about the Diego Rivera Detroit Industry murals for our past fall exhibition, The Past is Present, in this video. Both were a pleasure to work with and offered immense insight to the art, Detroit, and the murals. Thank you both and rest in peace General Baker.
General Baker, 1941-2014
By Abayomi Azikiwe
A standing-room-only audience at the United Auto Workers Local 600 hall on Detroit’s border in Dearborn, Mich., attended a memorial May 24 in honor of the life and contributions of General Gordon Baker Jr., a co-founder of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers during the late 1960s. Baker died May 18 in Detroit.
We are saddened by the news that General Baker, labor activist, historian, educator and all-around Revolutionary of Detroit, has passed away. He leaves a great legacy to continue this path for social and economic justice. Here we share the interview from 2010 that we did for Rerooting the Motor City. REST IN POWER GENERAL BAKER!
Life celebration of #GeneralBaker Videos at http://bambuser.com/tag/GeneralBaker
General Gordon Baker Jr., a longtime labor activist in the Detroit area, walked so many picket lines, his family can’t keep track.
“He’s been protesting since the ’60s ... not only fair housing, but he’s been in the union protesting. He’s been out here protesting against injustice,” his wife, Marian Kramer-Baker, said Wednesday. “My family knew how much he loved us. But we knew how much he loved the workers of the world.”
Mr. Baker, 72, of Highland Park, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
As a young autoworker at Dodge Main in the 1960s, Mr. Baker perceived a racial imbalance in the United Auto Workers union. Black faces were missing from leadership, and black issues were missing from the priority list. Mr. Baker formed the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement to challenge for change. DRUM, as it was called, didn’t last long, but some of the things it sought have come about since then.
General Baker discusses the history of union organizing in Detroit and the connection between the UMWA and the UAW. RIP.
p.s. -- You have lit the unquenchable spark.
General Baker, leader of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, in a letter to Chrysler after the company fired him in the wake of a wildcat strike. General Baker died this weekend.
Rest in Power.
Even though you have falsely placed the banner of leadership of a wildcat strike on my shoulders, I shall wear it proudly. For what nobler banner could a Black working man bear? In this day and age, under the brutal oppression reaped from the backs of Black workers, the leadership of a wildcat strike is a badge of courage and honor.
- General Baker, Leader of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, in a letter the corporation that fired him.
General Baker died this weekend following a life of revolutionary courage and bravery. He was also one of the first open resistors to the Vietnam War.
Rest in Power.
