His rage burns on: the battle to commemorate the great Red Clydesider

Next came the 1979 television mini-series, Holocaust, starring Meryl Streep: a graphic account of the Nazis’ attempt to wipe out the Jews at a time when its full horrors were beginning to fade in the collective memory. Then there was the class-driven Miners’ Strike in 1984-85, which showed that the British state will never hesitate to use all the means at its disposal to punish any signs of mass insubordination. They all formed the radical primer of my youth.

I should really have found room for John Maclean, the great Red Clydesider and radical philosopher. Maclean’s words and actions in the early 1920s captured the anger of working-class politics across Glasgow and made this city feared by the forces of imperial Britain who cracked down hard on popular demonstrations of protest and unrest.

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A century later, Maclean’s prophecies and beliefs have never seemed more relevant. The same families and communities that Maclean fought for remain on the margins of a society that tells them their lives have improved. Yet, it’s in these neighbourhoods that the scourges of drug and alcohol addiction; homelessness and health inequality continue to exact their grim tolls.

John Maclean is hardly mentioned when today’s nominally left-wing politicians look for old heroes to underpin their actions. It’s a curious oversight in a country which constantly seeks affirmation in the deeds of its old sons and daughters. Part of this may be due to Maclean’s avowed and unrepentant communism which scared the pillars of Scotland’s Labour establishment let alone Westminster’s barons and aristocrats.

Part of it can be found in the way that the Scottish and British left have succumbed to the fantasy notion that societal change can only happen with the connivance of corporate cartelism. And then having effectively conceded defeat to capital, they choose the unicorn and moonbeams caprice of identity politics and Climate Change as a path-of-least-resistance substitute for Maclean’s authentic Socialism.

It’s been 101 years since Maclean's death at the age of 44 in Glasgow on November 30, 1923 and he’ll be commemorated at 1.30pm today by the annual John Maclean rally taking place from his grave at Eastwood New cemetery to his memorial cairn in Shawlands. The second part of a crowdfunder will also be launched for a statue of Mclean to be erected in the centre of Glasgow, his home city. More than £14k of the £58k total cost of the statue has already been raised.

Neil Findlay, the former Labour MSP and pardon for the miners campaigner said:

“Scotland’s working class and socialist heritage is something that has to be fought for if we want to ensure it is retained. We saw that with the People’s Palace and the Edinburgh People’s story. The proposal for a tribute to John McLean is something I have supported politically and financially. I really hope the organisers are able to raise the money required.”

The STUC have also thrown their weight behind the campaign. Roz Foyer, chief executive, said: “John Maclean’s work and politics stand the test of time. His teachings – the very rage that drove him on 100 years ago – are applicable now more than ever.

“If we want to fight poverty and injustice then, simply put, it cannot be done without the wholesale change of our economic model. It should be an economy for the people, not the profiteers. It should be radical and bold – like John himself – with an unashamedly progressive stance that gives no quarter to those who seek to accumulate and retain wealth at the expense of the many.

“Whether it be on home rule for Scotland, internationalism and his explicit, resonating anti-war stance - a stance that ultimately cost him his liberty - or supporting workers in struggle, the STUC continue to organise and fight for working people with the same principles that embody Maclean. It’s fitting there is a permanent memorial to him, and I would encourage all, if able, to consider supporting the cause in tribute to a man who sought to support all others.”

(Image: NEWSQUEST MEDIA GROUP)

Maclean’s radical, working-class advocacy – he was a renowned speaker in all four home nation – had made powerful enemies amongst the political elites in Scotland and the UK. But it was when he spoke out against the First World War and organised Hands off India and Ireland campaigns that he became their No.1 public enemy.

Sir Basil Thompson, head of Security in Scotland, initiated a black ops mission against him, letting it be known that Maclean was “mad” and a threat to national security. The state reprisals saw him blacklisted in his teaching profession and frequent stretches in jail where he was subject to hard labour. It would eventually kill him. His official cause of death was pneumonia, caused by starvation and poverty. He once gave his only overcoat to a black comrade during one particularly cold Scottish winter. His Unionist foes described him as “a political deviant”.

Maclean was also committed to a Scottish Workers Republic long before the birth of the modern SNP. He inspired an entire generation of early SNP thinkers such as RB Cunninghame Graham, Dr John S Clarke as well as Hugh McDiarmid, Compton MacKenzie and Roland E Muirhead. Yet, the modern SNP have continued to ignore the campaign for a statue.

Neil Mackay (not the Herald columnist) is one of the campaign organisers, having stepped down from his role at All Under One Banner, the Scottish Independence movement. “Glasgow is littered with statues of our imperial masters including the street names and the statues in George Square which is basically a masonic temple. Such Scots as there are, like Walter Scott, was a darling of the British state.

“John Maclean was more heroic than all of them. He spoke out against the First World War, which was effectively a grand and murderous exercise in profiteering by the world’s richest powers involving the sacrifice of an entire generation of working class men on both sides.

“It’s disappointing that there’s not even been an ounce of support from the SNP, or from some of the parties which say they are specifically of the left, such as the Socialist Workers Party.”

Mr Mackay’s friend, Donald Anderson has been a devotee of John Maclean’s teachings for more than 70 years and has long campaigned for a statue in his memory in the city of his birth.

“I learned about John Maclean from SNP members and joined the John MacLean Society. His Daughter, Nan Milton, and Harry McShane were great friends of mine and we were frequent visitors to each other’s houses. I left school at 15 and learned so much from Palestine refugees during my National Service camp in Aqaba on the Israel and Egyptian Border.

“The Arabs actually taught me more about Scottish and British history than I learned later as a mature student at Strathclyde University. I also learned from older factory mates about Maclean, Socialism, the 1820 Rising; the Lowland and Highland Clearances and the United Scotsmen Rebellion of 1797.”

In his speech from the dock in 1918 before another jail term, John Maclean said: “I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.” His words will be remembered in Glasgow tomorrow just weeks after Storm Shadow missiles, from the UK and its arms manufacturers (each costing almost £800k) were fired into Russia.

Details of the John Maclean statue crowdfunder are here:

https://crowdfunder.co.uk/p/campaign-for-a-statue-of-john-maclean