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"

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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:

    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Always. Now I have 60 tracks to manually tune in melodyne. At a certain point I was just like “I’m just gonna have to fix this in post” lmao

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

        Not really related but this reminds me of when Bruno Mars refered to the production of 24K magic as just "sprinkling a little magic on top" in studio, and the audio engineer in the background looked like he wanted to kill someone lol. You people are vastly underappreciated by most musicians

        • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Lmfao I hadn’t seen that. Yeah they’re only in there for like 10% of the work and then they get to fuck off. At most they come around and say some arcane shit about like “yeah make that wider!” Ans then you gotta figure out wtf they mean bc it’s never what we would say.

          One client used to say brighter when he meant louder. Like ... 90% of my job is trying to understand wtf artists are talking about

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

            Enjoy, or not, lol

            https://youtu.be/ncEgxQqB1FA

            Yeah artists almost never make sense on stuff like that. Wider, brighter, range, all those buzzwords etc. The only thing I don't understand is the whole loudness war stuff continuing. Spotify, apple music, etc equalise volume between all tracks. Is radio play still that popular that it's needed? Maybe I'm just out of touch

            • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              Loudness wars has actually tapered off a pretty good bit since the early 2010s thankfully. Tho normalizing won’t fix that Bc the extreme limiting can lead to a perceptually louder mix even if it is decibel for decibel the same technical volume as something less crush.

              EDM is the only genre where I routinely see a bunch of extreme limiting. Or like... some heavy scream trap shit like scarlxrd

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

                A lot of mainstream rock music is still on the loudness war and brickwalling/limiting train lol. Like songs on the latest royal blood album had audible clipping on any headphones I had, from by IEMs to the cheapo Bluetooth headphones, and had a DR of 2 or 3 according to software like the foobar DR info. Obviously software numbers mean nothing compared to how it sounds, but the clipping is just so bad. Sucks because the music and production otherwise sounds good to my untrained ears.

                Ironically Ariana Grande is one of the big artists that doesn't do the loudness war stuff anymore

                • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  I guess pop and hip hop and the indie shit I listened to has mostly moved away from it. Tbh I don’t listen to too much rock except the nu punk stuff I have to reference for one of my artists.

                  100% of the time that shit is Bc of the label. No one in studios or artists are a fan of that shit lol

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

                    I guess pop and hip hop and the indie shit I listened to has mostly moved away from it.

                    That's true, even for mainstream pop.

                    100% of the time that shit is Bc of the label. No one in studios or artists are a fan of that shit lol

                    Yeah pobably some boomers at the label causing it. Mainstream rock has a big problem with boomers (especially Gen X boomer mindset people, look at green day's advertising for their lastest album pre covid lol).

                    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      1000% and most of them are entitled ass old money boomers to. The guy at our label is like that. He made us put a bridge in a song marketed to zoomers. Like .... nobody under the age of 25 is trying to hear a 4 minutes song with 3 hooks and shit except for a few people

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

                        Like … nobody under the age of 25 is trying to hear a 4 minutes song with 3 hooks and shit except for a few people

                        unless you're a King Grizzard and the lizard wizard fan lol. But otherwise yeah I agree. KGATLW is niche

                        But if you want to hear some s extreme limiting in modern rock music, check this out. No idea if for artistic effect or not

                        https://youtu.be/FoDNFsQGDjE

                        • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
                          ·
                          3 years ago

                          i'm pretty sure that one is for stylistic effect. it is pumping for sure lol. ive heard other bands go for this kind of very dry and squashed sound before. My partner used to fuckin love this style of rock when we first started dating

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

                            I love the artistic effect too, I just find the clipping when you're wearing headphones so annoying, especially on the vocals. I like the style of music a ton, that's why I listen to it and said it sounded good in another comment. But I know nothing about music lol

                            • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
                              ·
                              3 years ago

                              I can see that. When somethings clipped you’re basically getting a wall of sound waves so the speaker is vibrating crazy hard right against your ear haha. I bet some of xxxtentacions older stuff where they did intentional clipping is hard to listen to like that as wel

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

                                Yeah you've nailed the explanation I think shit you really know a ton about this stuff. Keep up the good work I guess.

                                But yeah the vocals with any clipping like that are the worst to me. But if it's good I still love the music. On vinyl rips the clipping is much reduced, but then you have to deal with the vinyl noise and stuff and hope that the press was good and the person doing a digital rip of the vinyl actually knows what they're doing.

                          • notaleph [she/her]
                            ·
                            3 years ago

                            Not being a sound engineer, I call that dry/squashed/clipping "crunch" factor. I like crunchy music

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

            Man, when my band made our ep last month, i spent so much time with our engineer talkin shop. Slept on the couch in the studio over night so i could get some extra work done in the morning when he got back. I think i'm a bit overenthusiatic.

          • Grownbravy [they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            i am so glad i never made requests on mixing when i recorded last year, cause i dont know how the fuck to ask "make this sound better"

            • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Lol references are usually best bc unless you’re really plugged into our side of the industry and reading like tape op most ways of conveying info are off from what we would say. And even in the industry there’s a wide spectrum of stuff like are emphasis tracks called stacks, highlights, plug-ins. Or we call preamp volume gain and they call it trim in the Uk. It’s a mess haha

              • Grownbravy [they/them]
                ·
                3 years ago

                gonna hand you a 90s hardcore album with bass that sounds like flubby mush and ask you to make us sound like that.

                • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  Lmao at least we’d be on the same page. Honestly that’s valid tho, when I was in school I remember I reallllly wanted to learn to mix commercial level and I had this punk band I mixed like a pop record.

                  My teacher was like “ok so your mix is technically,,, good but it doesn’t fit the style.” And then he kind grunged it up and it did sound 1000x better

                  • Grownbravy [they/them]
                    ·
                    3 years ago

                    my band mate made fun of his last band because they put their mix through like 4 different tape machines to get it the right kind of shitty.

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

                Would hand a vinyl rip of a Rise Against album and say pls clone this.

                Thank fuck I'm not a musician or audio producer/engineer lol