John Maclean, Clydeside revolutionary socialist, republican , educator and trade unionist was born in Pollokshaws, Glasgow, 24 August 1879 the sixth of seven children (three died in infancy) of Daniel and
Anne Maclean. Daniel was originally from the Isle of Mull and his future wife Anne MacPhee
from the highland village of Corpach on Loch Linnie. Both Daniel and
Anne (and Maclean’s grandparents) Gaelic speaking had been evicted from their highland
homes as a direct result of the brutal landlordism which decided that
sheep and deer were more financially rewarding tenants than human
beings. The process of industrialisation forced Maclean’s parents and
thousands of others south into the rapidly expanding slums and tenements
of the central belt. By the time Maclean was 10 years old his father
was dead from an industrial related illness.
Stories and personal experiences of the Highland Clearances were
frequent topics of conversation in the Maclean home. They were also
graphically outlined by Karl Marx in Capital, Volume One. Despite
wretched poverty and family loss Maclean’s mother was determined he
should get an education. It is likely these two factors: a loving and
determined mother and an encounter with Marx led Maclean to view the
world and his future through the prism of Marxism. Certainly by the end
of the decade Maclean was a teacher studying for his MA and had rejected
the religion of his childhood for the embrace of Marxian economics. Of
this period he would write “It was the knowledge of the sacrifices made
and self-denial endured by my mother and sisters to enable me to be
educated, that made me resolve to use my education in the service of the
workers.”
John Maclean's political career began when he joined the Pollokshaws
branch of the Progressive Union, a body which discussed
philosophy, science, literature and politics.While teaching for the Govan School Board,in 1903 Maclean
joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), the first Marxist
organisation in Britain, where he quickly made a name for
himself as a talented orator and political agitator.
During the
summer holidays, when Maclean was free from his duties as a
schoolteacher, he toured the industrial centres of Scotland,
spreading the word of Marxism and class politcs. He did this on street corners, outside factory gates, and in parks, he spoke to miners, shipyard workers, engineers, women weavers, anyone whose struggle he considered part of his own. He encouraged membership of trade unions, wherever he lectured, and acquired a reputation as a staunch and committed socialist. During this period he also found time to marry his wife Agnes, who bore him two daughters, Jean and Nan,
In 1908 Maclean began teaching classes in Marxist economics and
industrial history. These classes, held in Glasgow, were open to
trade unionists, political activists and the general public
alike, and proved a great success. Held weekly they at times gathered together hundreds of workers keen to soak up revolutionary theory.
Unlike other doctrinaire socialists of the day, Maclean threw himself into working class struggles as they emerged. He was a plain-talking, no-nonsense agitator. What he lacked in
poetics, he made up for in forcefulness. He epitomised the "Red Clydeside" that emerged
after me First World War, and gave a concrete expression to the mass
movement of that time.
During the years immediately prior to the first world war, Maclean
became increasingly opposed to the pro-war stance and policies
of the SDF and its leadership.In 1911 Maclean joined
the newly formed British Socialist Party (BSP) and became a
vigorous anti-war and anti-conscription campaigner. He wrote an article in Justice where he argued:
" It is our business as
Socialists to develop a “class patriotism,” refusing to murder one
another for a sordid world capitalism. The absurdity of the present
situation is surely apparent when we see British Socialists going out to
murder German Socialists with the object of crushing Kaiserism and
Prussian militarism. The only real enemy to Kaiserism and Prussian
militarism, I assert against the world, was and is German
Social-Democracy. Let the propertied class go out, old and young alike,
and defend their blessed property. When they have been disposed of, we
of the working class will have something to defend, and we shall do it."
He was credited with telling workers at his rallies that if they
wanted to fight a Hun, to go and fight the English king. Comments were
also made to Ulster Unionists that England was defending Catholic
Belgium against Protestant Germany, and using them as cannon fodder. He
had a well-developed sense of irony! His denunciations of the war cost
him his job, but he continued to campaign against the murder of German
and British workers alike. He pointed out the war-mongering and
profiteering of the munitions factory owners, and the private landlords
who seized the opportunity (whilst their men were at war) to increase
the rents in Glasgow. They were decisively beaten by the Rent Strikes
of 1915, which led to the Rent Restriction Act of 1916.
He had launched a newspaper, the 'Vanguard', in 1915 but only 5
issues were released before he was arrested and imprisoned for sedition
under the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). In February 1916 he was
arrested for a second time, and on April the 11th was sentenced to three
years' penal servitude. He was released 15 months later due to
pressure from prominent socialists and mass demonstrations. He
supported his friend, Edinburgh born James Connolly, in his struggle for
an Irish Workers Republic. Connolly, in the very last issue of "The
Workers' Republic," also demanded MacLean's release. A fellow Scot
also had a far-reaching effect on MacLean's political thinking. This was
Ruaraidh Erskine of Marr, a prominent leader of the Gaelic language
revival in Scotland, who for years had advocated a Scottish Socialist
Republic. Erskine had hailed both the Easter Rising and the Russian
Revolution, and had taken an anti-war stance. When the Easter Rising
took place in Dublin, MacLean was still in jail. Connolly was
judicially murdered on the orders of the British State - shot whilst
tied to a chair, as he could not stand due to his wounds.
Following the October Revolution Maclean, dubbed ‘The Scottish Lenin’,
was appointed the first Bolshevik Consul in Scotland and an Honorary
President of the Soviet Republic, in recognition of his
revolutionary agitation and his tireless work in support of the
Bolshevik revolution. Maclean opened an office for the Consulate
at 12 Portland Street, Glasgow, but the Consulate was not
recognised by the British authorities, and Maclean and his staff
suffered constant intimidation. Despite harassment by the Special Branch, MacLean did much work
to aid
Russian political refugees. But the English Government had, at this
time, militarily intervened to smash the young Russian Republic. Maclean was arrested and faced charges of sedition following his vocal public opposition to the First World War and attempt to organise a workers; mutiny against it.
"I wish no harm to any human being said Maclean, "but I, as one man, am going to exercise my freedom of speech. Np human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to protest against wrong,my right 5o do everything that is for the benefit of mankindl I am not here, then, as the accused, but the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot."
he declared in his famous ‘speech
from the dock' in the Edinburgh High Court. This was a tremendous
condemnation of both capitalism and war and was made in the most
intimidating of surroundings and circumstances, standing before the very
core of the ruling class bedecked in their wigs and stockings, and with
the power over MacLean's very life at their disposal. He proceeded to condemn the carnage and horror of war and said,
"on that
and on other grounds, I consider capitalism the most infamous, bloody
and evil system that mankind has ever witnessed. My language is regarded
as extravagant language, but the events of the past four years have
proved my contention".
On May the 9th 1918, MacLean received a sentence of five years' penal servitude for sedition. The end of the war saw him released early from his five year sentence
but not before he had endured months of force feeding after embarking on
a hunger strike. His wife, Agnes, described his treatment as ‘slow
murder’ by the state. While many others were imprisoned for anti-war
activity during this period the treatment of Maclean stands out as
particularly vindictive.
Upon his release he was out in
time to contest the Gorbals seat as the official Socialist
candidate at the General election and received 7,436 votes against 14,247 votes of George
Barnes, the sitting member. Despite this, MacLean remained optimistic
that a revolutionary situation could be generated in Britain.
In 1920 he broke with the British Socialist Party, but did not join the
new British Communist Party. He
took up the emerging nationalist movement believing in the idea of a
Socialist Republic and a distinctive Scottish Workers' Republican Party.
Throughout the years leading to the foundation of the Communist
Party of Britain in 1921, many heated arguments ensued over the nature
and character of the new revolutionary party. MacLean was by now
convinced that the best way to assist the world's first worker's
government was not merely to assemble communist parties of the same
mould and shape, but to confront the need for socialism in every other
country of the world head on. In other words, MacLean remained true to
his international socialism, but saw that the best way to assist world
revolution was through the revolutionary break-up of the British state
and the establishment of a Scottish Worker's Republic. National
Independence formed a prelude to social independence, and the two were
basic halves of a democratic ideal. In August 1920, whilst the world was still experiencing the by now ebbing tides of the great international revolutionary wave of 1916-21. Maclean issues his famous call-"All Hail, the Scottish Workers' Republic!"
In 1920 MacLean relaunched "Vanguard." and began to write
numerous articles supporting the Irish struggle and urging Scotsmen, as
fellow Gaels, not to be used as tools for murdering their brother Gaels
in Ireland. During this time he published a pamphlet 'The Irish Tragedy -
Scotland' s Disgrace', which sold 200,000 copies. In this he called for
a General Strike and for the withdrawal of English troops in Ireland.
MacLean addressed meetings on the Irish question in Ireland, Scotland,
and England, and continually urged working class support for the Irish
struggle. Orange mobs broke up one meeting in Motherwell.
In May 1921 he was again arrested and imprisoned for sedition,
serving three months. In September 1921 came yet another arrest, and a
sentence of one year. During this time he forced the prison authorities
to concede him the status of a political prisoner, something never
accorded by England, which refuses political status to obviously
political prisoners. He continued to write various pamphlets, such as
his famous "Open Letter to Lenin", which attacked his so-called
socialist detractors.
Maclean was released in October 1922.In November 1922, MacLean reissued his call for "A Scottish Workers' Republic", alongside his address for the general election. This address began "I stand before the world as a Bolshevik, alias a Communist, alias a Revolutionist, alias a Marxian. My symbol is the Red Flag and it shall keep on floating high."
Revealing himself not to be a Scottish nationalist but a Scottish Internationalist, who saw the setting up of a Scottish Workers' Republic as a link in a chain which began with the British state and ended when " all the independent workers' republics will come together into one great League of Parliament of Communist Peoples, as a stage in the future when inter-marriage will wipe out all national differences and the world will become one"
Maclean and a few faithful comrades formed the Scottish Workers'
Republican Party early in 1923, which promoted both communism and
Scottish independence with the key aim of establishing a Communist Republic of
Scotland. They began to prepare for an election
pending on December the 30th 1923. He was standing as a candidate for his
Scottish Workers' Republican Party, again in Gorbal's , which was slowly building its
strength; but his own strength was, sadly, failing.
On St Andrew's Day November 30th, 1923 he died aged only 44, at his home in
Pollokshaws, of pneumenia, his health ruined by constant political struggle, five terms of imprisonment, the period of hunger strike and the
subsequent force feeding by prison authorities.
Maclean's
funeral march, led by the Clyde Workers' Band, was followed by
between 10000 and 20000 people through the south side of Glasgow
to his final resting place in Eastwood cemetery.
The Trade union and labour movement established a memorial fund that provided for John MacLean;s wife snd family for decades after his death.The Cairn built in 1973 in Pollokshaws to commemorate John Maclean carries the inscription, "He forged the Scottish link to the golden chain of world socialism.".
After a long period of neglect, British labour
history now affords John Maclean his rightful place as a leading
revolutionary of the 1910-1922 period. The workers of Glasgow conferred on
Maclean the title of champion of the labouring classes, and with the formation of a John Maclean Society which led to the development of an annual graveside commemoration, which endures today. Maclean remains a dominant figure in the popular account of Red Clydeside and a key source of inspiration. A Clydeside man of principle, a man who was anti-racist and anti-imperialist.
In Maclean, socialists, republicans, nationalists, and communists found a figurehead who is both Scottish and international; an anti-war martyr, uncorrupted by the totalitarianism of the 1930s and 1940s, and full of
the hope and passion of the first communist heroes, like Rosa Luxemburg,
Karl Liebknecht, and Lenin.
In this sense, for the Scottish left, Maclean stands as a kind of
missing link between international communism and Scottish nationalism. His legacy strong, who offered people a radical vision of the better world to be won, a vision of authentic socialism from the bottom up.
Maclean was
later the subject of a poem written by Hugh MacDiarmid, and has also featured in a number of songs. During the Soviet
era a street, Maklin Prospekt, in Leningrad was named after Maclean. The USSR
also published a postage stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth in
1979.
We can draw continuing inspiration from these famous rallying cries from
Maclean: “we are out for life, and all that life can give us!”
"No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind"
John Maclean (!879 - 19230 - Hugh MacDiarmid
| All the buildings in Glasgow are grey With cruelty and meanness of spirit, But once in a while one greyer than the rest A song shall merit Since a miracle of true courage is seen For a moment its walls between. Look at it, you fools, with unseeing eyes And deny it with lying lips! But your craven bowels well know what it is And hasten to eclipse In a cell, as black as the shut boards of the Book You lie by, the light no coward can brook. It is not just the blue of heaven that colours The blue jowls of your thugs of police, And 'justice' may well do its filthy work Behind walls as filthy as these And congratulate itself blindly and never know The prisoner takes the light with him as he goes below. Stand close, stand close, and block out the light As long as you can, you ministers and lawyers, Hulking brutes of police, fat bourgeois, Sleek derma for congested guts - its fires Will leap through yet; already it is clear Of all MacLean's foes not one was his peer. As Pilate and the Roman soldiers to Christ Were Law and Order to the finest Scot of his day, One of the few true men in our sordid breed, A flash of sun in a country all prison-grey. Speak to others of Christian charity; I cry again For vengence on the murderers of John MacLean. Let the light of truth in on the base pretence Of justice that sentenced him behind these grey walls. All law is the contemptible fraud he declared it. Like a lightning-bolt at last the workers' wrath falls On all such castles of cowards whether they be Uniformed in ermine, or blue, or khaki. Royal honours for murderers and fools! The 'fount of honour' Is poisoned and spreads its corruption all through, But Scotland will think yet of the broken body And unbreakable spirit, MacLean, of you, And know you were indeed the true tower of its strength, As your prison of its foul stupidity, at length. Dick Gaughan - John Maclean March |
