06.12.2001
John Maclean and left nationalism
The debate on 'John Maclean and the CPGB' brought out the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement in the guise of the John Maclean Society. Their platform speaker was Gerry Cairns.
He and the ultra-nationalists claimed that Maclean was right to abandon the CPGB at birth. The 'reasons': Gallagher, Malone and Rothstein were state agents, who were in receipt of "Moscow gold"; the name (Great Britain) had imperialist connotations! The CPGB would have "held Maclean back", as it could not deliver what he wanted for Scotland and the world.
Thankfully not all present thought Maclean was correct in his decision not to join the CPGB when he had the opportunity. He had earned great respect and admiration amongst many sections of the working class movement as a Marxist educator and class leader. Certainly his failure to grasp the importance of the vanguard party and refusal to work with those who he thought were "collaborators" led to self-imposed isolation and the ebbing away of his base of mass support.
Maclean devoted most of his adult life to the anti-capitalist cause. This is the Maclean we remember and would celebrate. He was a member of the Social Democratic Federation and its successor the British Socialist Party till 1920, the year in which the BSP provided the basis for the launch of the CPGB. Unlike Henry Hyndman he was part of the BSP's internationalist wing which bitterly opposed World War I. Maclean was a fervent supporter of the Bolshevik revolution and as a matter of principle always fought nationalism of every kind - jingoism and petty Scottish nationalism.
As a result of his tireless anti-war activities and speeches he suffered three terms of imprisonment. Lenin and the Bolsheviks hailed him as a hero. In 1918 they appointed him Russian consul in Glasgow. But cruel prison treatment was soon to have an awful effect on Maclean's mental state. Maclean was sentenced to two more terms of imprisonment in 1921 and not freed till 1922. He believed the prison food was drugged and on release saw spies everywhere - his wife, close friends and former comrades in the BSP.
It was in this state that after refusing to join the CPGB Maclean eventually turned to left nationalism. He formed the tiny Scottish Workers Republican Party, mostly consisting of raving sectarians. Standing for parliament, Maclean pledged not to take his seat. In justification for this leftist anti-parliamentarianism and his adopted left nationalism a completely false parallel was drawn between an oppressed Ireland and Scotland.
But the situations were entirely different, of course. In Ireland it was principled to demand separation from Britain. There existed an historically established national movement which in the form of Sinn Fein won 73 seat in the 1918 general election. In Scotland working class areas were dominated by the politics of the British labour movement - Labour Party and CPGB. To demand separation under such circumstances was to leave principle behind and to indulge in pure fantasy. He died a premature death in 1923 - an isolated figure, marginalised even in Glasgow.
None of this should detract from Maclean's heroic status as a class fighter. But we celebrate the 1918 internationalist John Maclean who bravely denounced war and imperialism from the dock. This - our - Maclean would have rejected with contempt all and every national socialism.
Ronnie Mejka