Accuser of Capitalism: John Maclean’s Speech From the Dock

On 9 May 1918, John Maclean, former schoolteacher, and, since the previous January, consul at Glasgow to the revolutionary socialist regime in Russia, was brought to trial at the High Court of Judiciary in Edinburgh. He was charged with addressing audiences of workers in terms likely to prejudice recruitment to His Majesty’s armed forces and to cause mutiny, sedition and disaffection among the civilian population, thereby impeding the production, transport and repair of materials necessary for the prosecution of the war. Maclean chose to conduct his own case. Here we present his speech from the dock.