Who was John Maclean?
"I stand in the Gorbals and before the world as a Bolshevik, alias a Communist, alias a revolutionary, alias a Marxist. My symbol is the red flag, and I shall always keep it flying high."
John Maclean's Election Address, 1922
John Maclean was a Glasgow schoolteacher who became one of the finest socialist leaders the British working class has so far produced.
He was a fierce opponent of British imperialism and the leading figure in the opposition to the First World War. Maclean was a key figure on "Red Clydeside," and was involved with the Clyde Workers' Committee, which spearheaded a rank and file revolt against the dismantling of trade union defences during wartime.