John Maclean, born on this day in 1879, was a Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary Marxist, sometimes referred to as "Scotland's Lenin". His Marxist evening-classes produced many of the activists who became instrumental in the Clyde revolts during and after WWI. MacLean was appointed both an Honorary President of the first Congress of Soviets and Soviet Consul to Scotland in recognition of his consistent socialist position on the imperialist war and his tireless work in support of the Bolshevik revolution.

Maclean's revolutionary politics were well-known, and in 1915, he was arrested under the Defence of the Realm Act and fired from his job as a primary school teacher. As a consequence, he became a full-time Marxist lecturer and organizer, educating other Glaswegian workers in Marxist theory.

Maclean supported Irish independence on an anti-imperialist basis, describing the Irish War of Independence as "The Irish fight for freedom" and even condoning the assassination of a magistrate, Alan Bell. He saw the war in Ireland as strengthening the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, arguing that "Irish Sinn Féiners, who make no profession of socialism or communism...are doing more to help Russia and the revolution than all we professed Marxian Bolsheviks in Britain".

MacLean was at odds with much of the British left and dismissive of the newly-formed Communist Party of Great Britain. He had already turned his back on economism and the syndicalism favoured by the Clyde Workers’ Committee, had recognised the nature of British imperialism and come to the conclusion that revolution could only come about through the destruction of the British Empire.

Maclean was also noted for his outspoken opposition to World War I, and, in 1918, he was arrested for sedition. During the trial, Maclean gave the now legendary "speech from the dock", expounding on his position. He was sentenced to five years' penal servitude, but was released after the November armistice.

In captivity, Maclean had been on hunger strike, and prolonged force-feeding had permanently affected his health. He collapsed during a speech and died of pneumonia, aged forty-four.

"I have taken up unconstitutional action at this time because of the abnormal circumstances and because precedent has been given by the British government. I am a socialist, and have been fighting and will fight for an absolute reconstruction of society for the benefit of all. I am proud of my conduct. I have squared my conduct with my intellect, and if everyone had done so this war would not have taken place...

...I appeal exclusively to [the working class] because they and they only can bring about the time when the whole world will be in one brotherhood, on a sound economic foundation. That, and that alone, can be the means of bringing about a re-organisation of society. That can only be obtained when the people of the world get the world, and retain the world." -

--John MacLean, from the "Dock Speech"

Resources for Palestine :palestine-heart:

Here are some resourses on Prison Abolition :brick-police:

Foundations of Leninism :USSR:

:lenin-shining: :unity: :kropotkin-shining:

Anarchism and Other Essays :ancom:

Remember, sort by new you :LIB:

Follow the Hexbear twitter account :comrade-birdie:

THEORY; it’s good for what ails you (all kinds of tendencies inside!) :RIchard-D-Wolff:

COMMUNITY CALENDAR - AN EXPERIMENT IN PROMOTING USER ORGANIZING EFFORTS :af:

Come listen to music with your fellow Hexbears in Cy.tube :og-hex-bear:

Queer stuff? Come talk in the Queer version of the megathread ! :sicko-queer:

Monthly Neurodiverse Megathread and Monthly ND Venting Thread :Care-Comrade:

Join the fresh and beautiful batch of new comms:

!labour@hexbear.net :iww:

!emoji@hexbear.net :meow-anarchist: :meow-tankie:

!libre@hexbear.net :libretion:

This Friday we are gonna Watch Shrek :shrek: a movie about an ogre and Tank girl (1995) :tank: about an antihero and her fight against an evil mega-corp in post-apocalyptic australia :aus-delenda-est:

So two winners @half_giraffe and @comi I :rat-salute: you both.

Previous answer

50123

19742

49876

11111

74293

The last cross number puzzle

last one I swear

Across

  1. Square of a prime number

  2. Half the highest common factor of 10 Down and 11 Down

  3. Cube of a square

  4. Square root of 1 Across

  5. A symmetrical square (same left to right as right to left)

  6. Larger by 1 than 9 Down

  7. Five times as large as 8 Across

  8. Square of a number larger by 1 than 13 Across

Down

  1. Smaller by 8 than the smallest integer which, when divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 has remainders 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

  2. Number whose digit sum is 29

  3. Prime nmber

4 Prime factor of 11 Down

  1. Quadrupled product of one-tenth 15 Across and 13 Across

  2. Twice 4 Down

  3. 11 Down reversed

  4. Square root of 10 Across

  5. Multiple of the highest prime factor of 13 Across

So last number cross puzzle so have fun :soviet-heart: and dm @Wmill dm the answer.

-- Poundbury is a lifeless hellhole, and further proof that monarchy is bad by @Eco

lets all pray for a balkanized UK :inshallah-script:

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I know it's a shit tier comment, but Covid sucks. It's bad folks. Do your best to avoid it. The fever waves are pretty shit. So is being unable to breathe properly. Don't be like me and try to stretch out a mask with a broken nose clip. It's not worth it

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        You probably had the UK alpha Variant. I probably either have the South African beta variant or Delta variant, which originated in India I think.

          • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            The alpha variant originated in September 2020 in the UK, and became dominant by mid December there, so theres no chance then. A true OG Covid warrior

            • DeathToBritain [she/her, they/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              yeah it fucking sucked lmao. at least now it's like there are masks and vaccines and shit. back when I got it it was like 'just don't go outside 4head'

              • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                I started wearing masks by the end of February 2020 because I was a weirdo that spent a lot of time on obscure internet forums and saw it coming after the initial growth of the virus in Italy 2020. That graph was vertical. People have me weird stares and looks for wearing a mask back then. Sucks that my doomerism turned out to be correct.

                Also I got Covid just after the vaccine was approved for my age group in my country. Bitter, bitter irony

                • DeathToBritain [she/her, they/them]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  I gotta admit, I though it was a whole bullshit "le China bad" red scare sinophobia OP, which early covid absolutely was. and so I didn't take it seriously until it hit big in Italy, but by then it was too late

                  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    3 years ago

                    Remember when bojo said that millions of Chinese people actually died of Covid, and their numbers were inaccurate by 50x, based off MI6 Intel, that turned out to be cell service subscriptions that were cancelled due to lockdown? Lmaooo

                    China building a hospital in a week and the initial Italy numbers convinced me that Covid was going worldwide pandemic

                    • DeathToBritain [she/her, they/them]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      they're still saying that shit now. any time I talk about how effective central government and 'authoritarianism' factually gets the fucking goods and runs an effective society, they just say how China is hiding all the bodies and it was/is super bad there

                      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
                        ·
                        3 years ago

                        The thing is even if the ghouls are correct (they're not) and China is lying about the numbers by x100, western nation's still have worse death numbers overall. And that's not even going per capita.

      • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        I can barely smell anything. Shoved my nose down the neck of the bottle of vanilla essence/extract, could barely smell it. Also just starting to get "Covid toes". Just wonderful