In death, General Baker Jr. has been called one of the most influential and
important revolutionary of the 21st century. The passing of great people become
the focus for a summation of their lives. Individuals become “great” because
their life express the character and salient features of a block of history.
The “greatness” of an individual is expressed in their impact on events and in
the imagery and emotions evoked with the mention of their name. How their
individuality intertwined into the circumstances of thousands, if not millions
of people, reveal to us something about society, ourselves and our moment of
history. Like a popular song that establishes a bookmark in one’s life, great
individuals establishes bookmarks in time.
General Baker Jr. was such a person.
Isolating the personality of General Baker Jr. in order to measure and
understand an era does not minimize the achievements and impact of other
important revolutionaries who have in turn returned to the ancestors. Baker
possessed a unique set of credentials and circumstances that allows his
life-force and flesh to define the last half century through the life he lived.
It seems to me that General Baker Jr. was the most influential and significant
American revolutionary during the past 46 years or since May 1968, because of
his actions. Baker’s actions from decade to decade manifested his transition
from student activists, to radical black militant, to working class industrial
warrior to professional revolutionary. As a man of action, General Gordon Baker
Jr. was also a first rate intellectual and revolutionary theorist.
Baker is credited with being the first individual to publicly oppose the
Vietnam War in 1965 by refusing to be inducted (drafted) into the army forces
of America. His letter to the draft board is a historical document bookmarking
an important juncture in world history. Two years later the “greatest” –
Muhammad Ali – would refused to be drafted into the United States armed forces.
Both men are great in their respective fields of endeavor, with Muhammad Ali
being the most recognized figure in the history of sports. Both men opposed an
unjust and immoral war.
General Baker Jr. opposed wars of plunder by an imperialism devouring nations,
small countries, women and children. The idea of American imperialism trampling
upon the humble and noble people of Vietnam drove Baker to oppose state
violence and terror by organizing resistance and protest against imperial
murder. Baker morally and politically supported the fighting troop of the
Vietnamese Workers party and considered himself blood kin to Uncle Ho - Hồ Chí
Minh, the key figure in founding the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
http://www.speakersforanewamerica.com/gendraft.html
Between 1963 and 1968, Baker entered world history as a class-self-conscious
individual, with a growing awareness of the society we life in and its dynamics
of development and evolution. A major juncture in Baker’s life was his 1964
visit to Cuba along with Charles Simmons, Luke Tripp and Charles Johnson. Baker
played basketball with Fidel and Che.
During this period Robert Williams was in exile in Cuba and young
revolutionaries in America felt it necessary to visit Cuba – in defiance of
American government policy – to see “Brother Rob.” Robert Williams had fled
America and was author of the pamphlet “Negroes with guns.” As a solider
returning from war brother Rob could not accept and did not accept the second
class citizenship status of the blacks.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/negroeswithguns/
“Williams' book Negroes with Guns (1962) details his experience with violent
racism and his disagreement with the pacifist wing of the Civil Rights
Movement. The text was widely influential; Black Panther Party founder Huey
Newton cited it as a major inspiration. Rosa Parks gave the eulogy at Williams’
funeral in 1996, praising him for “his courage and for his commitment to
freedom,” and concluding that “The sacrifices he made, and what he did, should
go down in history and never be forgotten.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Williams
Where others rightfully praised Brother Rob, General went to see him in his
Cuban exile. Cuba was the mecca for American revolutionaries seeking to see the
new face of revolutionary socialism and militant opposition to American
imperialism. General went to Mecca. He saw Brother Rob and they formed a
lifetime comradeship. Brother Rob would later become the oppressed people’s
ambassador to the People Republic of China and was granted the ear of Chairman
Mao Zedong.
General Baker Jr. inaugurated the last great industrial strike wave in American
history
More later.
Waistline
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