On 17th November the University of Glasgow will mark the centenary of the passing of one of its most influential graduates, the socialist revolutionary activist, John Maclean (MA, 1904).
Maclean was an educator, as a schoolteacher in Glasgow, and, more famously, as an adult tutor. His education classes on Marx’s capital and historical materialism arguably influenced a whole generation of trade unionists who led the organised working class in Scotland from the 1910s to the 1940s, particularly those who enrolled at the Scottish Labour College, which Maclean co-founded in Glasgow in 1916.
Maclean’s national and international profile was established when he was persecuted and serially imprisoned for his opposition to the First World War. In 1915 he worked with feminist and socialist activists in the great Glasgow rent strike. Maclean’s activism among industrial workers further brought him to the attention of Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Russian revolution, who appointed him as Soviet Consul to Scotland.
Maclean died in November 1923, aged just forty-four, having dedicated his life to the struggle for socialism. Revered in song and poetry, he has become a persisting symbol of Scottish radicalism.
The event at the University Glasgow will examine Maclean’s unusual legacy, exploring his complex role in the social movements of Red Clydeside.
The event will be hosted by Professor Jim Phillips, a historian of labour, work and trade unionism in twentieth century Scotland at the University’s School of Social and Political Sciences (SPS). Dr Ewan Gibbs, also of the School of SPS, has published research on how the historical memory of Maclean and the Red Clydeside era influenced later episodes of social protest in Glasgow. He will introduce three other speakers from the University, each addressing Maclean from a different disciplinary field:
- Professor Maud Bracke, historian of European Communism, discussing international opposition to the War and the revolutions which ended it.
- Dr Charlie Peevers, legal scholar of peace activism, discussing the legacy of women’s activism in the rent strikes and the anti-war movement.
- Jonas Thoreson, PhD candidate in English Literature, discussing radical publishing in Glasgow during the early twentieth century.
Registration is free but spaces are limited.
