Harlan Baker is the Vice President of Local # 4593 American Federation of Teachers, which represents the part time faculty in the University of Maine System.
He joined the Young Peoples Socialist League in 1971 and later helped found the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and served on its national board. The DSOC was chaired by author and social activist Michael Harrington until his death in 1989.
Baker served in the Maine legislature from 1979 to 1988 representing part of the city of Portland. He spent four years as a member of the joint standing committee on labor.
Among some of the legislation he proposed which became law were collective bargaining rights for county employees and a bill to divest state pension monies from firms doing business in South Africa when it was under apartheid.
He has taught speech and theater for the past twenty years at the University of Southern Maine. He taught speech and theater at the University of New England from 1987 to 2004 concurrently with his work at USM.
Baker is currently on the board of directors for Acorn Productions and was board president of the Oak Street Theater in Portland until it closed in 2000.
He is a member of the Actor's Equity Association and has appeared with several regional theaters including the Portland Stage Company, Theater at Monmouth, Mt.Holyoke Summer Theater, New Century Theater and The Stage at Spring Point.
He is a member of "The Naked Shakespeare Ensemble" where he has appeared as Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" and The Duke of York in "Richard II". Last semester he directed a potted version of "The Tempest"at the University of Southern Maine .