A Plea for a Labour College for Scotland by John Maclean (John MacLean Society, 1/6)
At first glance this little pamphlet might appear to have a rather limited interest. John MacLean is little known outside Scotland, and his address to a long-forgotten conference, which founded [illegible] college, might not seem to be of [illegible].
But even from the point of view of learning about MacLean, the pamphlet is valuable. He was, after all, the most important figure in the mass workers' struggles on Clydeside, during and after the First World War; the most extreme revolutionary situation Britain has known. The relevance of this address to those struggles is underlined by the fact that MacLean was prevented from giving it in person. On Sunday 6th February 1916, six days before he was due to deliver it, he was arrested and incarcerated in Edinburgh Castle, charged with subversive activities (i.e. telling the workers the truth about the war).
That fact that, on Clydeside in particular, the repression directed against the workers during World War I should lead to revolutionary ferment is no accident. The long patient work done by MacLean and others like him in educating workers about the nature of capitalism meant that thousands of them were able to see the connection between their economic problems, the speed-up in the factories, repressive legislation, and the imperialist war which was slaughtering workers on the battlefields of Europe. They transcended the narrow trade union consciousness of the rest of the British working class, and saw the solution to their problems in terms of revolutionary struggle. The fact that they did not have the leadership capable of formulating a strategy to direct and guide that militancy does not alter the importance of what was achieved.