cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3735934

John MacLean (1879 - 1923)

Sun Aug 24, 1879

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Image: John Maclean in December of 1918 upon his release from prison [Wikipedia]

John Maclean, born on this day in 1879, was a revolutionary Scottish socialist and schoolteacher, sometimes called “Scotland’s Lenin”.

Maclean’s revolutionary politics were well-known, and in 1915, he was arrested under the Defence of the Realm Act and fired from his job as a primary school teacher. As a consequence, he became a full-time Marxist lecturer and organizer, educating other Glaswegian workers in Marxist theory.

Maclean was also noted for his outspoken opposition to World War I, and, in 1918, he was arrested for sedition. During the trial, Maclean gave the now legendary “speech from the dock”, expounding on his position. He was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude, but was released after the November armistice.

Maclean supported Irish independence on an anti-imperialist basis, describing the Irish War of Independence as “The Irish fight for freedom” and even condoning the assassination of a magistrate, Alan Bell.

Maclean saw the war in Ireland as strengthening the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, arguing that “Irish Sinn Féiners, who make no profession of socialism or communism…are doing more to help Russia and the revolution than all we professed Marxian Bolsheviks in Britain”.

In captivity, Maclean had been on hunger strike, and prolonged force-feeding permanently affected his health. In 1923, he collapsed during a speech and died of pneumonia, aged forty-four.

"I have taken up unconstitutional action at this time because of the abnormal circumstances and because precedent has been given by the British government. I am a socialist, and have been fighting and will fight for an absolute reconstruction of society for the benefit of all. I am proud of my conduct. I have squared my conduct with my intellect, and if everyone had done so this war would not have taken place…

…I appeal exclusively to [the working class] because they and they only can bring about the time when the whole world will be in one brotherhood, on a sound economic foundation. That, and that alone, can be the means of bringing about a re-organisation of society. That can only be obtained when the people of the world get the world, and retain the world."

  • John MacLean, from the “Dock Speech”