Neil Maclean

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Neil Maclean (1875 - September 12, 1953) was a Scottish socialist and a Member of Parliament.

Maclean was the first Secretary of the Socialist Labour Party, but was expelled in 1908 for supporting what the party considered a reformist measure, the advocacy of the right to work, even under a capitalist system.[1]

A member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), Maclean worked closely with other socialists in the Glasgow area and as such he is viewed as being part of the Red Clydeside period. He was greatly influential to Manny Shinwell in persuading him of the virtues of socialism.

An organiser for the Scottish Wholesale Co-operative Society, in the 1918 General Election Maclean was elected to the House of Commons to represent the Govan seat in Glasgow. When many of his fellow ILP Clydesiders left the Labour Party, Maclean remained a Labour MP. He retired from Parliament in 1950 when he could not secure his renomination.

His nephew is the American raconteur Kenneth Keith Kallenbach.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tony Cliff, Lenin
Political offices
Preceded by
New position
Secretary of the Socialist Labour Party
1903–1908
Succeeded by
?
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Daniel Turner Holmes
MP for Glasgow Govan
1918–1950
Succeeded by
John Rankin