Red Clydeside: A history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932

Events

The Death of John MacLean 1923

Inspired by the events of October 1917 and determined to play an active role in the global battle against imperialism and capitalism, a host of British Marxists, socialists and trade unionists came together at the Communist Unity Convention in London on 31 July and 1 August 1920 to establish the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). In attendance were delegates from the British Socialist Party (BSP), the Communist Unity Group of the Socialist Labour Party, the South Wales Socialist Society and a host of delegates from small Marxist propaganda groups. Surprisingly, Britain's foremost revolutionary Marxist John Maclean was not in attendance.

Lenin had previously decreed that only a unitary British communist party should be formed, and advised strongly against the formation of separate communist parties in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales. John Maclean was vehemently opposed to Lenin's dictate and argued that Lenin did not have a proper grasp of events on the ground in Britain and should refrain from advising other countries on how to organise communist political opposition.

This caused a great schism between John Maclean and other Marxists on Clydeside, with people like Gallacher, McManus and Bell supporting Lenin's notion of an British Communist Party in opposition to Maclean. Following a series of open-air meetings at which Maclean was unable to get the support of fellow Scottish Marxists for a Scottish communist party, he left the BSP to campaign for the formation of a distinctive Scottish Marxist party.

Following the decision of the newly formed CPGB to participate in parliamentary elections and to affiliate to the Labour Party, Maclean became increasingly convinced of the need for an autonomous Scottish communist party. Influenced by the success of Sinn Fein in setting up an Irish parliament in defiance of the British government, John Maclean formed the Scottish Workers' Republican Party in 1923.

Maclean's call for a Communist Republic of Scotland was based on the belief that traditional Scottish society was structured along the lines of "Celtic communism". He argued that "the communism of the clans must be re-established on a modern basis" and raised the slogan: "back to communism and forward to communism". Although standing in several Glasgow municipal by-elections in 1923, the party was weak in Glasgow and effectively non-existent outside the city. Maclean's advocacy of an independent Scotland in the form of a communist republic found little support amongst the working classes in Glasgow.

John Maclean died on 30 November 1923 at his home in Pollokshaws, aged 44. His health had been ruined by his constant political activity, his five terms of imprisonment, his period on hunger strike and subsequent force feeding by prison authorities. John Maclean's funeral march, led by the Clyde Workers' Band, was followed by upwards of 20,000 people on its way through the south side of Glasgow to Maclean's final resting place in Eastwood cemetery.