May Day! May Day! It’s International Workers’ Day 2020, and to add to the Mayhem, here’s a new video, filmed in lockdown. The song is called, Maclean Be Known Again, and about Scotland’s, if not the UK’s most famous revolutionary, John Maclean. First and foremost though, he was an educator, going from primary school teaching, to inspiring night classes full of shipwrights, steel workers and miners, with his Marxist doctrine. Feared by the government of the time, adored by workers, celebrated by Lenin and Trotsky, while the head of British Military Intelligence branded him, ‘the most dangerous man in Britain’. He taught at my primary school, Polmadie, and attended the same secondary, Queens Park, and his name was never mentioned. Thanks to Henry Bell and his book, John Maclean (Hero Of Red Clydeside) for some of above, but please also check out, John Maclean by Nan Milton (his daughter), The Red And The Green (a portrait of John Maclean) by Gerard Cairns, and In The Rapids of Revolution (a collection of essays, articles and letters by John Maclean). Other Maclean songs that you might want to listen to are, The Ballad of John Maclean (Matt McGinn), The John Maclean March (Hamish Henderson), John Maclean (The Man In Peterhead) a poem by John S Clarke and sung by Alistair McDonald, and The Freedom Come-All-Ye (Dick Gaughan). You’ll find YouTubes of most of these songs, often covered by Gavin Paterson of Celtic Music Radio.
Please visit:( johnmaclean100.scot) and join us for Maclean-related events. Up The Workers!
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