HUNDREDS of people gathered in Pollokshaws, Glasgow, in late 1973 to remember the great Red Clydeside figure, John Maclean, on the 50th anniversary of his death.
A cairn of Scottish granite, 6ft high, and inscribed to his memory, was unveiled by his daughters, Mrs Jean Wilson and Mrs Nan Maclean Milton, and William Gray, Lord Provost of Glasgow.
The inscription read: “In memory of John Maclean, born in Pollokshaws on 24th August, 1879, died 30th November, 1923. Famous pioneer of working-class education. He forged the Scottish link in the golden chai of world socialism”.
In its report of the unveiling, the Glasgow Herald noted that Maclean was, in the 1920s, a major architect of the Red Clyde tradition and was regarded by Lenin as Britain’s greatest revolutionary leader.
Glasgow Corporation had made available a site for the cairn at Pollokshaws shopping centre, not far from Maclean’s birthplace. He was just 44 when he died.
At the ceremony, the poet Hugh MacDiarmid described Maclean as “Next to Burns, the greatest-ever Scot”.
As it happened, the anniversary of Maclean’s passing was marked by several books including John Maclean by Nan Milton, and John Maclean by John Broom.
Reviewing them, the Glasgow Herald said that Maclean had not been forgotten, but as other leaders of the far Left had gained general fame and even acceptance by those who had once reviled them, he had been remembered by comparatively few – “a group, however, which has treasured his name and memory with extraordinary intensity.
“He remains a symbol of something in society surprising and still barely understood, so that many have been honestly puzzled by the current commemoration of his death”.
Maclean’s work of Marxist proselytisation in Scotland made a “truly astonishing story of determination, courage, and single-mindedness in the service of a cause”, the review added.
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