Bell Henry - John Maclean: hero of Red Clydeside

John Maclean

Revolutionary Lives

Series Editors: Sarah Irving, University of Edinburgh;

Professor Paul Le Blanc, La Roche College, Pittsburgh

Revolutionary Lives is a series of short, critical biographies of radical figures from throughout history. The books are sympathetic but not sycophantic, and the intention is to present a balanced and, where necessary, critical evaluation of the individuals place in their political field, putting their actions and achievements in context and exploring issues raised by their lives, such as the use or rejection of violence, nationalism, or gender in political activism. While individuals are the subject of the books, their personal lives are dealt with lightly except insofar as they mesh with political concerns. The focus is on the contribution these revolutionaries made to history, an examination of how far they achieved their aims in improving the lives of the oppressed and exploited, and how they can continue to be an inspiration for many today.

Also available:

Salvador Allende:

Revolutionary Democrat

Victor Figueroa Clark

Hugo Chvez:

Socialist for the Twenty-first Century

Mike Gonzalez

W.E.B. Du Bois:

Revolutionary Across the Color Line

Bill V. Mullen

Frantz Fanon

Philosopher of the Barricades

Peter Hudis

Leila Khaled:

Icon of Palestinian Liberation

Sarah Irving

Jean Paul Marat:

Tribune of the French Revolution

Clifford D. Conner

Sylvia Pankhurst:

Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire

Katherine Connelly

Paul Robeson:

A Revolutionary Life

Gerald Horne

Percy Bysshe Shelley:

Poet and Revolutionary

Jacqueline Mulhallen

Toussaint Louverture:

A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions

Charles Forsdick and

Christian Hgsbjerg

Ellen Wilkinson:

From Red Suffragist to Government

Minister

Paula Bartley

Gerrard Winstanley:

The Diggers Life and Legacy

John Gurney

Hero of Red Clydeside

Henry Bell

First published 2018 by Pluto Press

345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright Henry Bell 2018

Images courtesy of National Records of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, Glasgow Caledonian University Archive Centre, Glasgow Museums, Ellice Milton and Frances Wilson. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material in this book.

The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions in this respect and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions.

The right of Henry Bell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7453 3839 2 Hardback

ISBN 978 0 7453 3838 5 Paperback

ISBN 978 1 7868 0354 2 PDF eBook

ISBN 978 1 7868 0356 6 Kindle eBook

ISBN 978 1 7868 0355 9 EPUB eBook

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Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America

For Livi, my favourite socialist schoolteacher

I am extremely grateful to Katie Reid at Glasgow Womens Library, Barbara Neilson at the Mitchell Library, Carole McCallum at Glasgow Caledonian University Library, Thijs van Leeuwen at the International Institute of Social History, Fiona Hayes at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, Audrey Canning at the Willie Gallacher Memorial Library, and a great many people at the Scottish National Library, The National Archives, The National Records of Scotland, the Irish Military Archives, the Russian Embassy, Glasgow University Library, Stirling University Library, Strathclyde University Library, University of Warwick Archive, The Peoples Palace, The Marx Memorial Library, The Working Class Movement Library, and the Marxist Internet Archive, as well as for notes and support from Ewan Gibbs, Christopher Silver, Nick Bell, Fiona Brook, Robbie Guillory, Livi Crook, Jonathon Shafi, Tessa Cook, Kate Tough, Joey Simon, Dominic OHara, Harry Josephine Giles, Julia Taudevin, Rory Scothorne, Katy Hastie, Willy Maley, Sarah Irving, David Castle, Sara Shaarawi, Heather Mclean, Tom Coles, Jim Monaghan, John Foster, Alec Finlay, Dot Reid, John Couzin, Liz Lochhead, Hassan Abdulrazzak, Kevin Morgan, Scott Reeves, Donald Anderson, Gerry Cairns, Poppy Kohner, Fiona Jack, Rebecca Dewald, Svenja Meyerricks, Eddi Reader, Stephen Coyle, Josie Long, Christian Hogsbjerg, Kate Macleary, Sean Anderson, Craig Smillie, James Crisp, Mark Hesling, and John Macleans grandchildren; Ellice Milton, Denis Maclean Wilson and Frances Maclean Wilson.

An excerpt from Freedom Come All Ye by Hamish Henderson appears courtesy of the Henderson family, excerpts from Dont Sign Up for War and Mrs Barbours Army by Alistair Hulett appear courtesy of the Alistair Hulett Memorial Trust, excerpts of poems by Sorley Maclean, Edwin Morgan and Hugh MacDiarmid appear courtesy of Carcanet Press.

BSP British Socialist Party

CLP Communist Labour Party

Comintern The Third Communist International, founded by Lenin in 1919

CP (BSTI) Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)

CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain

CWC Clyde Workers Committee

EIS Educational Institute of Scotland

ILP Independent Labour Party

IWW Industrial Workers of the World

SDF Social Democratic Federation

SLP Socialist Labour Party

SNP Scottish National Party

STUC Scottish Trade Union Congress

SWRP Scotish Workers Republican Party

John Maclean died on St Andrews Day, 30 November 1923, at the age of just 44. Three days later, below the sandstone tenements of Eglington Toll on the Southside of Glasgow, more than 5,000 people gathered to begin the three-mile march to Eastwood Cemetery where he would be laid to rest. The Clyde Workers Band marched in front, playing socialist anthems, and Handels March of Saul. Only the sound of their feet striking cobbles and tram tracks, and the strains of the band, rang out across the city.

As they passed through the streets of Govanhill, Pollokshields and Pollokshaws, black and red flags flapped from tenement windows and the pavements heaved with Glaswegians paying their respects. By the time the procession reached Macleans home in Auldhouse Road, some estimates put the crowd at 20,000.

Despite the collective camaraderie of the marching men and women that day, divisions over Macleans life were already long established. For the two years prior to his death, Maclean was disregarded by many as a political outsider; rejected by large parts of the Communist movement, estranged from his wife and family, and reported to be insane by both the secret police and those members of the left that rejected his increasingly Republican and Celtic Communist views. Over the coming century, Maclean would be alternately claimed and slandered by communists, liberals and nationalists and charges of madness and foolish nationalism would come to stand alongside a mythology of John Maclean as a lost Scottish Lenin.