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John Maclean (24th August 1879 – 28th January 1925) was a Scottish schoolteacher, Marxist educator of the Red Clydeside era and notable revolutionary of the British Civil War.
A notable opponent to the Great War, his consciousness objection under DORA led to arrest and loss of his teaching post, after which he became a full-time Marxist lecturer and organiser. In April 1918 he was arrested for sedition, and his 75-minute speech from the dock became a celebrated text for the Scottish left. He was sentenced to five years' penal servitude, but was released after the Peace with Honor.
Maclean believed that Scottish workers were especially fitted to lead the revolution, and talked of "Celtic syndicalism", inspired by clan spirit. Yet his launch of the Scottish Syndicalist Party and Scottish Workers Republican Party were largely unsuccessful, the latter only gaining prominence after his death. Although he received funding from the Commune of France for syndicalist activities in Scotland, he was not in harmony with the Syndicalist Party of Great Britain, even though it had absorbed the British Socialist Party, to which he had belonged. In captivity, Maclean had been on hunger strike, and prolonged force-feeding had permanently affected his health. Maclean officially died of pneumonia in 1925 though the circumstances regarding his death, the absence of any coroner reports and his hasty burial in an unmarked mass grave have led to speculation he was murdered.
Biography[]
Early Life and Political Development[]
Maclean was born in Pollokshaws, on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. His father Daniel was a potter with both his parents speaking Scottish Gaelic. Raised in a Calvinist household, Maclean trained as a schoolteacher under the auspices of the Free Church and then attended part-time classes at the University of Glasgow, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1904.
Maclean first came to politics through the Pollokshaws Progressive Union and reading the works of Robert Blatchford. Now convinced that the living standards of the working-classes could only be improved by social revolution he became a committed Marxist and joined the Social Democratic Federation and its successor the British Socialist Party. Unlike party founder H.M. Hyndman, Maclean opposed the Great War, and was arrested for this in October 1915 but released a year later. Losing his job at a primary school, Maclean became a full-time Marxist educator for other Glaswegians. Maclean was arrested again for sedition in 1918 and again released the next year following the Peace with Honour.
During the Russian Revolution, Maclean chaired the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets and was appointed Bolshevik Consul in Scotland though the British government did recognise his activities. Initially an opponent of Irish Independence, Maclean later came to champion the Irish cause and become a firm ally of Jim Larkin while distancing himself from the Easter Rising on account of his pacifist principles and his belief it was a bourgeois-democratic revolution. By 1919 he visited Dublin and was in full support of the Irish cause, condoning its use of physical force and and declaring that it would aid the Boslehvik revolution in Russia even if Sinn Féin was bourgeois in nature. Following the collapse of Bolshevism in Russia and rise of syndicalism in France, Maclean like many of his socialist colleagues shifted to supporting the latter model, arguing that syndicalism was necessary for an industrialised country such as Britain and finding no contradiction with his prior Orthodox Marxist beliefs.
Maclean and the Rise of Syndicalism[]
As the BSP was the main constituent organisation which merged into the newly formed Syndicalist Party of Great Britain, Maclean was alienated from the new party despite his newfound support for syndicalism. He developed a belief that workers in Scotland could develop in a revolutionary direction more swiftly than their comrades in England and Wales, and in 1920 he founded the rival Scottish Syndicalist Party. This group renamed itself the Syndicalist Labour Party and petitioned for inclusion into the SPGB, after Maclean had not appeared at its inaugural meeting. Disgusted, he left the party and attempted to found a new Scottish Syndicalist Party, without success and promptly joined the tiny and dissident leadership of the Socialist Labour Party that had refused to align with the SPGB and continued to survive.
The SLP was moribund and lived in the shadow of the SPGB, and by 1922 was unable to count more than 100 members. The party was largely wound up though a rump faction reorganised itself and continued to exist in the South-west of England well in the 1930s. Maclean was now left politically homeless, particularly on account of his staunch refusal to join the SPGB or its affiliates. However, in 1923 he founded his second political party, the Scottish Workers Republican Party to little fanfare. The SWRP would likewise receive little traction initially but slowly grow as radicalised workers and veterans of the Weltkrieg would become interested in his socialist and nationalist politics. Further support from the Commune of France allowed the party to keep its head above water though Maclean's relationship with his Communard handlings was often strained owing to his refusal to work with English and Welsh comrades.
Involvement in the Revolution and Death[]
The SWRP grew slowly but surely into 1924, as political tensions in Britain were reaching a boiling point. While Maclean often found his esoteric claims of Scottish clans being a form of proto-syndicalism lampooned, his nationalist alternative to the mainstream socialist groups found influence in the nationalist Glasgow. Openly rallying against the Empire, he criticised it for dragging innocent Scottish men to die in the Great War and called for its total dismantlement. When the Plymouth riots made the news, like many in the SWRP, Maclean supported the strikers though he maintained that "had this been in Scotland it would have become a full blown uprising."
When the Massacre at Port Talbot rocked the nation, Maclean was likewise quick to take to the streets and call for Scottish workers to rise up, helping transform the growing anger into full-scale violence. With the ILP banned, Maclean's friend and ally James Maxton officially defected to the SWRP (which had managed to not be banned due its small presence) along with a small cohort of other increasingly nationalist figures. With news of the Cardiff Commune reaching Glasgow, the mood became ecstatic. Maclean wrote to Premier Davies, imploring him to use the Commune as the springboard for an independent Wales, though Davies never responded. As Glasgow slipped from the grip of the British Empire, Maclean and the SWRP organised Cardiff-style worker militias and set up an impromptu plebiscite on the future of Scotland in the Union. Maclean campaigned for the Nationalist side and declared Glasgow an a 'Free Commune' upon a modest victory for the Nationalists though he would not partake any further and promptly leave for Edinburgh to discuss the future of Scotland with the Commune being dissolved weeks later.
In Edinburgh Maclean continued to be a thorn in the socialist movement, rallying the Scottish nationalists to the belief that only an independent Scotland could create a truly socialist nation. Ultimately these debates led nowhere and Maclean caused further trouble in the next round of debates regarding military policy. While the Unionist faction argued for the fledgling militias to pursue and attack the retreating Royal Army, Maclean vetoed this on the grounds that the Scottish militias should secure Scotland proper; rooting out the remaining guerrillas in the North and securing the border. Maclean would garner immense criticism for calling on nationalist-aligned militias to march no further than the Anglo-Scottish border unless to occupy towns such as Berwick-upon-Tweed that might be able to be annexed into Scotland.
Shortly after these debates Maclean died from an alleged case of pneumonia in his quarters the North British Station Hotel. His body was quickly examined and disposed of an in unmarked mass grave on the outskirts of the city with Nationalist supporters and his SWRP colleagues alleging Maclean had been poisoned. Willie Gallacher disagreed, instead arguing that Maclean's death had been mishandled due to the ongoing conflict. Despite no official funeral, 1,000 people appeared in the city of Glasgow to instead hold their own commemoration and establish a memorial garden for him. Of note in Maclean's quarters at the time of his death was a drafted letter to the British Provisional Government declaring that Scotland wished to be regarded as an independent, further fuelling speculation of politically-motivated foul play.
Legacy[]
Maclean leaves behind a troubled and often controversial legacy. Shortly after the civil war, many academics took a negative view of Maclean and his involvement in the Scottish Provisional Republic, criticising his stubborn opposition to participating in the wider civil war and refusal to send militias past the Anglo-Scottish border. The most negative of integration, published by Willie Gallacher in his personal account of the civil war, argues that Maclean "could well have compromised the whole bloody revolution had he gotten his way." Unionist scholars often compare his attitudes to his successor Cunninghame Graham who opted to take a more pragmatic approach to nationalist affairs.
However, in recent years more positive attitudes have been taken to Maclean, often traced to the more nationalist friendly leadership of Maclean ally, Harry McShane, who published his own more 'redeeming' account of events, arguing that Maclean's proposal to wipe out forces in the Highlands and secure Scottish independence would not have failed, citing the continued presence of Royalist paramilitaries in the country until 1928. The 'John Maclean' airship, a project championed by McShane is set to be launched in the winter of 1936 and is purported to be the largest airship in the world.
Maclean's mysterious death in 1925 has caused an abundance of conspiracy theories. While his stint in prison and hunger strikes had permanently damaged his health, Maclean's sudden death of pneumonia at such a crucial time and the swift disposal of his body with all coroner reports missing or destroyed has caused much speculation into the possibility of foul play at the hands of either Royalist of Unionist forces. While all investigations since have yielded no results many nationalists allege he was murdered and so hold him as a martyr. While a small grave is maintained in Glasgow, Maclean's body has never been recovered.