John MacLean is a figure of immense importance to the left in Scotland. That is especially true of Republican Socialists who regard him as the founding figure of the Scottish Republican Socialist tradition.
It was MacLean, aided by people such as long-term friend and comrade James D. MacDougall, influenced by the Bolshevik Revolution and the Republican Socialism of Edinburgh born James Connolly, to apply these tactics to Scottish conditions at the end of the First World War. They came out fighting for a Scottish Workers Republic as part of a Socialist International.
The victory of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 had radicalised workers across Europe and given a huge boost to the anti-war forces exemplified by those such as MacLean, James Connolly, Karl Liebknicht and Rosa Luxembourg who had fought against the war from its start.
These genuine internationalists took their stance and were honoured by the Bolsheviks but all of them were dead by 1923 - such was the fear they inspired in the ruling classes across Europe.
MacLean dedicated his life to the cause of the working class. He toured all over Scotland, and beyond, lecturing workers in the realities of Capitalism. For years he taught workers Marxist economics in evening classes around central Scotland, until in 1916 he realised his dream of founding the Scottish Labour College, to undertake this work on a full-time basis, and lay down the basis for a generation of revolutionary trade unionists.
He was imprisoned three times during the War (and twice afterwards) and at it's end the Government was forced to release him to prevent further social unrest. But it didn't scare MacLean. Instead it gave impetus to his mission and after he lost his job as a teacher, he immersed himself totally in the workers struggle. Influenced by the events of Easter Week, Dublin, 1916 and by the Bolshevik's support of 'the rights of nations to self-determination', MacLean came to see that the workers cause was best fought by attacking British Imperialism and Capitalism at home, through Scottish Republican Socialism.
His work in building the Scottish Workers Republican Party, was hampered by further imprisonment and persecution by the State. But it didn't deter him and he kept fighting until the end. Unfortunately the end was not to be far away and in November 1923 whilst giving an election speech he had to be lifted from his open-air platform, mortally ill with double pneumonia, and was carried home to die. At the age of only 44 the workers of Scotland had lost their 'bonny fechter'. But his spirit lives on and the struggle stays the same.
