John Maclean (1879-1923) was one of the greatest Communist working class leaders in Britain. An implacable enemy of British imperialism he believed that:
‘Since the British Empire is the greatest obstacle to Communism it is the business of every Communist to break it up at the earliest moment.’
As a Communist he was a resolute supporter of the Irish national liberation movement. In 1916 he was one of the very few working class leaders who supported the Easter Rising, in the Anglo-Irish war of 1919 he supported the Irish and subsequently opposed the British partition of Ireland.
As is always the case for such fighters, he was labelled a criminal and served many prison sentences. His revolutionary spirit and determination could not however be broken. The imperialists and their agents turned to slander and abuse to discredit him – they circulated the scurrilous and vicious lie that he was insane. This ‘insanity’ slander is still circulated today. We print the letter below from the John Maclean Society refuting this dirty lie. It only goes to show that imperialism fears even dead revolutionaries.
I am writing on behalf of the John Maclean Society, with the support of Glasgow District Trades Council, in connection with the documentary programme ‘The Revolutionaries’ produced by BBC TV Scotland. It was transmitted on the network on 16th July last year to mark the birth centenary of John Maclean (one year late). During the course of the programme Lord Shinwell stated that John Maclean ‘had been for some time in an institution because his mind was disturbed’. These are his exact words. This is quite untrue, and can be proved to be untrue. His family, hurt and bewildered, maintain categorically that it is a falsehood, and nobody else has ever suggested such a thing. I myself, as John Maclean’s biographer, am aware of all his activities week by week right up to the end of his life on 30th November 1923, and can state quite definitely that he was never even in an ordinary hospital, let alone a mental one.
I was instructed to inform the BBC about the error, and ask to have something done about correcting it. I wrote to the producer of the programme, and received no reply. I then wrote to the Head of Scottish Television and to the Controller of BBC Scotland. Both replied that they could do nothing about Lord Shinwell’s ‘view of events’. I replied pointing out that it was not a ‘view of events’ but an unqualified statement purporting to be a fact, and was accepted as such by the viewers. On receiving more or less the same replies as previously I wrote to George Howard in London, BBC Chairman, and received the same kind of reply.
The members of both the John Maclean Society and Glasgow District Trades Council are deeply troubled by the BBC’s apparent lack of integrity and are horrified that in a so-called democracy a dead man can be slandered with impunity.
Yours Faithfully,
Nan Milton,
Secretary, John Maclean Society
FRFI 10 May/June 1981
