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John Maclean: Hero of Red Clydeside
“I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.” —John Maclean, Speech from the Dock, 1918
Feared by the government, adored by workers, celebrated by Lenin and Trotsky. The head of British Military Intelligence called John Maclean (1879–1923) “the most dangerous man in Britain.”
This new biography explores the events that shaped the life of a momentous man—from the Great War and the Great Unrest to the Rent Strike and the Russian Revolution. It examines his work as an organizer and educator, his imprisonment and hunger strike, and his rise to the position of Britain’s most famous revolutionary. At a moment when radical politics is drawing renewed attention and support, Maclean’s example of activism and commitment is as timely as ever.
Feared by the government, adored by workers, celebrated by Lenin and Trotsky. The head of British Military Intelligence called John Maclean (1879–1923) “the most dangerous man in Britain.”
This new biography explores the events that shaped the life of a momentous man—from the Great War and the Great Unrest to the Rent Strike and the Russian Revolution. It examines his work as an organizer and educator, his imprisonment and hunger strike, and his rise to the position of Britain’s most famous revolutionary. At a moment when radical politics is drawing renewed attention and support, Maclean’s example of activism and commitment is as timely as ever.
176 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2018
6 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
Henry Bell
5 books3 followersHenry Bell is a writer and editor based in Glasgow, Scotland. His publications include collections of poetry and prose, a biography of John Maclean, and journalistc writings. He is also editor of Gutter, a Scottish magazine of new writing. In addition, he has organised music and performing arts festivals, written plays performed at Oran Mor and Summerhall, and worked with the Arab Arts Focus.
In 2019 Bell was an Artist in Residence for Glasgow City Council and received a New Writers Award for poetry from the Scottish Book Trust.
In 2019 Bell was an Artist in Residence for Glasgow City Council and received a New Writers Award for poetry from the Scottish Book Trust.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 23, 2018
A superbly written book detailing the story of an incredible man who through his tireless campaigning for improvements in all aspects of workers lives, made a huge progressive impact both here in Scotland and across the world.
Full marks to Henry Bell for composing such a personal and engaging account of one of Scotland’s most influential figures.
Full marks to Henry Bell for composing such a personal and engaging account of one of Scotland’s most influential figures.
November 14, 2018
John MacLean is one of the folk heroes of the West of Scotland, and he should be better known than he is, internationally. Henry Bell has tried to restore that balance by writing a short, accessible, well-researched and well-argued biography of the man.
So, who was he? That is not a question that has any easy answers. He came of Highland stock and it is likely that both his parents spoke the Gaelic, but he was brought up in Glasgow and he did not. His parents both came to Glasgow because their families had been expelled from their homes during the Highland Clearances of the mid-nineteenth century. His parents were both staunch, churchgoing Presbyterians and they brought their children up very firmly within the Christian ethic that you should “love your neighbour as yourself”. This was a message that was to stay with him all his life, and it can be argued that his politics were based on that ethic.
John MacLean was, to put it very simply, a political agitator, a revolutionary, a communist. His name is mentioned in the annals of the early twentieth century along with Lenin, Trotsky, James Connolly, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and a host of other revolutionaries who brought down the dynasties of the Romanovs, the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs. He very much wanted Glasgow to be a centre of revolution in the same way as Petrograd in 1917 and Kiel, Berlin and Vienna in 1918. He wanted this because he knew, from personal experience, the appalling conditions in which ordinary working people in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland lived at the time. On his 6-mile daily walk from his home on the south of the River Clyde to the Scottish Labour College in Woodlands Road he would have seen the slums in which ordinary people lived and the houses of the rich along the hillside of that road. This was what convinced him to learn about and then to teach Marxism. This was what convinced him to become a revolutionary.
What follows is an account of the events on “Red Clydeside” and the significant role that John MacLean played in them. John MacLean delivered an extraordinary speech from the dock, accusing capitalism of crimes. He was then sent to prison leaving a wife and two daughters to fend for themselves. This was repeated by Nelson Mandela when he delivered his speech from the dock, accusing apartheid of crimes, and was then sent to prison leaving a wife and two daughters to fend for themselves. In one of his speeches at the end of the war John Maclean predicted that British and German capital would find it necessary to go to war again. MacLean said in fifteen years. He had underestimated it by five years, but his analysis was correct.
John MacLean campaigned against bad landlords and evictions in Glasgow just as the “Living Rents” campaign is doing now. John MacLean campaigned for the 40-hour working week, which is currently being undermined by people working long hours, and the government’s austerity programme. He wanted to see people properly fed and hated the “charity” of soup kitchens, which we now call food banks. If we compare his campaigns with what is happening now, things have not changed a great deal. That is why this book is important.
If I go into John MacLean’s career in any more detail, I may spoil the book for those of you who know nothing about him. There is one thing however that does have to be mentioned: did he have a nervous breakdown in Peterhead Prison, where he was incarcerated for several years. He certainly accused the prison authorities of poisoning his food, which could be proof of paranoia. It is certainly possible that his food was laced with bromide to reduce his sexual urges, as this seems to have been a common practice at the time, especially within the armed services. What we know is that some of his comrades said that he suffered a nervous breakdown and that he was not the same man when he came out of prison. They only did this after he had a political fallout with them, so their motives can be called into question. The British Secret Service also spread this story, and there can be no doubt that their motive was to undermine MacLean. The problem is, whatever the motives of those who said it were, it does not mean that it is untrue. What we know is that the prison doctors refused to certify him as insane. This was, possibly, because that would have meant that their treatment of him, especially force-feeding, may have be brought under scrutiny. What we do know is that MacLean had respiratory problems all his life, that his health was seriously undermined in prison and that this was probably a cause of his early death.
John MacLean is remembered on the left in Scotland as a man who was committed to the liberation of the working class, as a man who would not compromise his principles, as a man who fought the good fight with all his might. It is fitting to end with a quote from one of the songs about him – “The Freedom Come All Ye” by Hamish Henderson:-
“When MacLean’s wi’ his frends in Springburn
A’ the roses and geans shall turn tae bloom”.
And we still live for that day when the roses and cherry blossom bloom, and the working class shall be treated with respect.
So, who was he? That is not a question that has any easy answers. He came of Highland stock and it is likely that both his parents spoke the Gaelic, but he was brought up in Glasgow and he did not. His parents both came to Glasgow because their families had been expelled from their homes during the Highland Clearances of the mid-nineteenth century. His parents were both staunch, churchgoing Presbyterians and they brought their children up very firmly within the Christian ethic that you should “love your neighbour as yourself”. This was a message that was to stay with him all his life, and it can be argued that his politics were based on that ethic.
John MacLean was, to put it very simply, a political agitator, a revolutionary, a communist. His name is mentioned in the annals of the early twentieth century along with Lenin, Trotsky, James Connolly, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and a host of other revolutionaries who brought down the dynasties of the Romanovs, the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs. He very much wanted Glasgow to be a centre of revolution in the same way as Petrograd in 1917 and Kiel, Berlin and Vienna in 1918. He wanted this because he knew, from personal experience, the appalling conditions in which ordinary working people in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland lived at the time. On his 6-mile daily walk from his home on the south of the River Clyde to the Scottish Labour College in Woodlands Road he would have seen the slums in which ordinary people lived and the houses of the rich along the hillside of that road. This was what convinced him to learn about and then to teach Marxism. This was what convinced him to become a revolutionary.
What follows is an account of the events on “Red Clydeside” and the significant role that John MacLean played in them. John MacLean delivered an extraordinary speech from the dock, accusing capitalism of crimes. He was then sent to prison leaving a wife and two daughters to fend for themselves. This was repeated by Nelson Mandela when he delivered his speech from the dock, accusing apartheid of crimes, and was then sent to prison leaving a wife and two daughters to fend for themselves. In one of his speeches at the end of the war John Maclean predicted that British and German capital would find it necessary to go to war again. MacLean said in fifteen years. He had underestimated it by five years, but his analysis was correct.
John MacLean campaigned against bad landlords and evictions in Glasgow just as the “Living Rents” campaign is doing now. John MacLean campaigned for the 40-hour working week, which is currently being undermined by people working long hours, and the government’s austerity programme. He wanted to see people properly fed and hated the “charity” of soup kitchens, which we now call food banks. If we compare his campaigns with what is happening now, things have not changed a great deal. That is why this book is important.
If I go into John MacLean’s career in any more detail, I may spoil the book for those of you who know nothing about him. There is one thing however that does have to be mentioned: did he have a nervous breakdown in Peterhead Prison, where he was incarcerated for several years. He certainly accused the prison authorities of poisoning his food, which could be proof of paranoia. It is certainly possible that his food was laced with bromide to reduce his sexual urges, as this seems to have been a common practice at the time, especially within the armed services. What we know is that some of his comrades said that he suffered a nervous breakdown and that he was not the same man when he came out of prison. They only did this after he had a political fallout with them, so their motives can be called into question. The British Secret Service also spread this story, and there can be no doubt that their motive was to undermine MacLean. The problem is, whatever the motives of those who said it were, it does not mean that it is untrue. What we know is that the prison doctors refused to certify him as insane. This was, possibly, because that would have meant that their treatment of him, especially force-feeding, may have be brought under scrutiny. What we do know is that MacLean had respiratory problems all his life, that his health was seriously undermined in prison and that this was probably a cause of his early death.
John MacLean is remembered on the left in Scotland as a man who was committed to the liberation of the working class, as a man who would not compromise his principles, as a man who fought the good fight with all his might. It is fitting to end with a quote from one of the songs about him – “The Freedom Come All Ye” by Hamish Henderson:-
“When MacLean’s wi’ his frends in Springburn
A’ the roses and geans shall turn tae bloom”.
And we still live for that day when the roses and cherry blossom bloom, and the working class shall be treated with respect.
April 16, 2019
3.5 Stars!
Apparently there was a time when Glasgow was the fourth largest city in Europe (behind London, Paris and Berlin). It was one of the world’s great industrial centres. It was the third city in the world to have its own mass transit underground system (opening in 1896). It was once the second city of the British Empire, some grew rich through industry, colonialism and slavery, but for the rest of Glaswegians, they were consigned to a life of grinding poverty, trapped between slum landlords and slave wages. In 1904 a paper presented to the University of Glasgow, showed that “the untreated rags that made up the bedding of working class Glaswegians harboured more bacteria than raw sewage.” By 1911 half of Scots lived in one or two room flats. In England it was only 7%.
These grim statistics show us why the city of Glasgow was so ripe for Marxism and paving the way for a man once regarded as the most dangerous man in Britain, John MacLean. MacLean was born in 1879 in Pollokshaws, on Glasgow’s southside. In many ways he is a man who has largely been forgotten about or even unheard of by many in his native Scotland. Along with the likes of Willie Gallacher and Mary Barbour, he was an integral part of the Red Clydeside movement.
Many of his European contemporaries have long since established themselves in the annals of history, the likes of Lenin and Trotsky in Russia, Gramsci in Italy and Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Germany. To give some idea of how significant he was at the time, Lenin, Trotsky and the Russians held him in very high esteem and believed that Glasgow could be the first city to turn communist.
He was an incredibly sagacious man, warning the public about the fundamental flaws in the capitalist system and how WWI would not be the last global war and how much misery capitalism created throughout the world. His predictions and insights are as eloquent and accurate as any I have read about the Great War or capitalism. He was a huge fan of education and bettering one’s self, he taught many hundreds about Marxism and showed how there was another way of building a society.
MacLean regularly spoke out in public against conscription and of WWI and paid the price for doing so, In 1916 he was sent to prison for three years, including a month of solitary confinement, for daring to tell the truth in a so called democracy. In Peterhead prison he was kept in a cell 4ft wide, 8ft long and 7ft high and forced to work in a quarry. In the end he served around 14 months. But of course he was back in jail by 1918, this time he would go on hunger strike, and was force fed. He got out again only finding himself back in prison yet again for his beliefs.
“Between 1914 and 1918 the cost of living would double, the hardship was felt particularly sharply in Glasgow where the massive influx of labour for the Clyde’s shipyards and factories was putting pressure on housing and rapidly driving up rents.” In 1915 around 40’000 households participated in the Glasgow rent strikes. As Bell explains, it was largely thanks to the actions of MacLean that the Westminster government was forced to implement the Rent Restrictions Act which would benefit not just the people of Scotland, but those throughout England, Wales and Ireland too.
“In 1915 Maclean also publicly criticised the curriculum, in which children were taught ‘thou shalt not kill’ but also celebrated British military victories, and in which they heard ‘thou shalt not steal’, before learning about British rule in India and Canada.” He believed that primary education was being used to ‘mask the reality of things’.
To this day the funeral of John Maclean in 1923 remains the largest ever to have taken place in the city of Glasgow, as thousands turned out and marched towards his funeral in the city’s southside. In 1979 he was commemorated in Russia on a stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. A street was also named after him in the city of St Petersburg. In his native Scotland there has been a part renaissance as a new generation become aware of the man’s contribution to education, politics and learn how he consistently stood up for the poor and poorly paid against the rich and powerful.
October 24, 2023
Henry Bell vividly brings to life a time in which change actually seemed possible in this country as well as the man at the centre of it with plenty of personal testimony and helpful contextualisation. A bittersweet time capsule that, with the internecine struggles within the BSP and the early CPGB, shows that perhaps the Left is perpetually doomed to one of three pathways: 1) self-destruction out of the inability to compromise, 2) big tent centrism as a soulless but successful compromise (New Labour and Starmer's New New Labour), 3) dictatorship of radicalism.
April 7, 2019
This is a well-structured and well-written biography of Scottish socialist and ‘friend of the downtrodden’ (194), John MacLean. Through accessible language, Henry Bell traces the rise and fall of MacLean’s political career: his joining the Social Democratic Federation (later the British Socialist Party), his numerous imprisonments for sedition, as well as one for which he was found to be a conscientious objector (MacLean was fiercely anti-War, believing that conscription was ‘unnecessary’ and that after the war [World War One] ‘conscription would be used to secure cheap labour’ (69)), his links with Russia and Ireland, the failure of his marriage, and ultimately his political defeats, his disassociation with the BSP, and his attempts to regain a teaching career whilst maintaining a political presence through the ‘Tramp Trust’.
Although I normally have no interest in reading about the history of Scottish politics, I found this book relatively engaging, and finished it having learned a good deal about a man of whom I knew nothing before. It captures a snapshot of revolutionary Glasgow in the early twentieth century, a city which saw violent strikes as workers campaigned for a 40-hour working week. The narrative includes a few sparse photographs of John MacLean as a teacher, a father and husband, a prisoner, a politician, as well as a scene from his funeral. As Bell notes in closing, this is not only a biography of a tragic hero, it is also ‘a tragic warning of the damage that single-minded devotion to a cause can do, and for the need for loved ones, rest and self-care’ (201).
Although I normally have no interest in reading about the history of Scottish politics, I found this book relatively engaging, and finished it having learned a good deal about a man of whom I knew nothing before. It captures a snapshot of revolutionary Glasgow in the early twentieth century, a city which saw violent strikes as workers campaigned for a 40-hour working week. The narrative includes a few sparse photographs of John MacLean as a teacher, a father and husband, a prisoner, a politician, as well as a scene from his funeral. As Bell notes in closing, this is not only a biography of a tragic hero, it is also ‘a tragic warning of the damage that single-minded devotion to a cause can do, and for the need for loved ones, rest and self-care’ (201).
December 21, 2018
Henry Bell's new biography of John MacLean is a fascinating and moving account of one of the most important figures in Scottish socialist history. In Bell's hands, MacLean's short life becomes a series of examples to us all - how to be empathetic and compassionate, how to help those around us from their misfortunes, how to take on the inequities and brutalities of life, how to fight for a better world. That his commitment to his principles and his need to help others, often at the expense of his own health and happiness, led to such a tragic third act and early death is even more reason to mourn and celebrate the life and legacy of John MacLean. Bell is an excellent biographer with an eye for the telling detail and an easy prose style that brings MacLean and his world to technicolour life on the page. A must-read for anyone with an interest in Scottish history or politics, or who loves a life lived with purpose and passion
March 21, 2019
I've read several biographies of Maclean, extensively studied his writing, met his daughter and a co-worker. I have grounds, then, for declaring my great satisfaction with this well-written, comprehensive, nuanced, and timely biography.
Who was Maclean? Quite literally, a child of the Highland Clearances; a product of Presbyterian Scotland's exultation of learning; a fierce opponent of the obscenity that was World War I; an uncompromising foe of capitalism, that inherently cruel system that proposes permanent inequality; and a warm advocate of revolutionary socialism. Among the very few socialists in Britain who understood James Connolly's leadership in Ireland's 1916 uprising, Maclean sought an independent socialist Scotland. His stance led to his being frozen out of the nascent British communist movement. State persecution--including repeated imprisonment--and a life of penury--broke his body. He died in 1923, aged only 44.
Who was Maclean? Quite literally, a child of the Highland Clearances; a product of Presbyterian Scotland's exultation of learning; a fierce opponent of the obscenity that was World War I; an uncompromising foe of capitalism, that inherently cruel system that proposes permanent inequality; and a warm advocate of revolutionary socialism. Among the very few socialists in Britain who understood James Connolly's leadership in Ireland's 1916 uprising, Maclean sought an independent socialist Scotland. His stance led to his being frozen out of the nascent British communist movement. State persecution--including repeated imprisonment--and a life of penury--broke his body. He died in 1923, aged only 44.
July 24, 2022
On one hand, it's up to date research which follows academic conventions. Yet its incomplete. It doesn't sufficiently analyse Maclean's changing opinions towards the end of his life. Which is a sorry omission. Opinions not just on independence/union, but on liberty/authority, anarchy/dictatorship. I think Gerard Cairns's books cover all of this much better, even if less conventional and more work is still required in general.
As Maclean said, "we are out for life, and ALL that it can give us". Not just economic determinist dogma centred on the works of Lenin and early Marx, but free thinking responses from indigenous unprestigious cultures. Bell got the first part spot on, but i think he should ultimately update his book to better treat what he rushed.
As Maclean said, "we are out for life, and ALL that it can give us". Not just economic determinist dogma centred on the works of Lenin and early Marx, but free thinking responses from indigenous unprestigious cultures. Bell got the first part spot on, but i think he should ultimately update his book to better treat what he rushed.
December 5, 2018
An excellent history of the development of Scottish Marxism through the lens of John Maclean's life.
The book conveys Maclean's focus on education and his conviction that socialism was the only way to avoid a repeat of the first world war with forceful clarity, and in weighing up the various claims made about Maclean's post-prison health Bell makes the costs of Maclean's convictions vivid without giving credence to every spurned comrade along the way.
Essential reading for anyone with an interest in the past and future of left wing, internationalist politics.
The book conveys Maclean's focus on education and his conviction that socialism was the only way to avoid a repeat of the first world war with forceful clarity, and in weighing up the various claims made about Maclean's post-prison health Bell makes the costs of Maclean's convictions vivid without giving credence to every spurned comrade along the way.
Essential reading for anyone with an interest in the past and future of left wing, internationalist politics.
May 17, 2019
A considered, measured and incredibly well researched biography which covers not only the personal and professional history of one of the UKs most significant socialists but also acts as a biography of a societal moment when revolution and emancipation seemed genuinely possible, even likely. This book manages to be both historically rigorous, never shying away from the inherent problems of idolisation, and simultaneously idealistic and optimistic. The reader is left with a sense that the future that MacLean and his comrades fought for might, just, still be achievable today.
December 21, 2019
Very good, well written and absorbing. It has a good balance between looking at Maclean's personal experiences and the wider political and social struggles of which he was part (although at times I would have liked more consideration of his motivations). Written from a very pro-Maclean perspective, which I wasn't always entirely persuaded by, but the writer's certainly willing to consider some of the arguments against his own perspective. An engaging read.
July 21, 2022
One of the great fighters for social equality.
A man who stood by his principles and was willing to go to prison, in there for his beliefs, nothing criminal. We could do with John McLean today.
A man who stood by his principles and was willing to go to prison, in there for his beliefs, nothing criminal. We could do with John McLean today.
March 11, 2024
A great history of a man deeply tied to Glasgow’s revolutionary history in the early 20th century. His influence on revolutionary politics through his labour classes and speeches in Glasgow are not to be overlooked.
June 5, 2019
If you're at all interested Scottish socialism and it's history ye need to give this a read. A great book about a great man.
August 3, 2023
Great read for anyone looking to learn more on the history of John Maclean & the Clyde
September 23, 2020
John Maclean
Fantastic albeit rather short account, of the great John Maclean. Would highly recommend this book particularly if you've read about James Connolly or are interested in the red Clydeside era
Fantastic albeit rather short account, of the great John Maclean. Would highly recommend this book particularly if you've read about James Connolly or are interested in the red Clydeside era
January 28, 2025
Crying at the Neil Johnson bit Jesus, 5/5
September 16, 2019
A concise and readable account of Red Clydeside's John Maclean. I had a pretty good idea of the life of John Maclean, and have previously read Nan Milton's biography. This book used that as a source but had a lot of new information that I hadn't heard before, particularly interesting on his time and health problems in prison, the way he was viewed from Soviet Russia, his views on nationalism as an avowed internationalist, and the splits and divisions on the left in the 1920s and 30s that led to Maclean being marginalised. His important work as an educator is highlighted, that sparked the socialist minds of the next generation. The tragic arc of his life, a man who inspired many, yet died so young from his years of ill treatment at the hands of the state, means that it is ultimately a downbeat story, but this book is important in helping keep his memory alive.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews