Brave John MacLean has come hame tae the Clyde!

Ten days ago I was privileged to be invited to the Christmas party for people who've contributed to the work of the Working Class Movement Library in Salford. The afternoon included a range of fascinating readings and songs from some of Greater Manchester's left-wing greats, including the mighty Ewan MacColl, and songs performed by Aidan Jolly (who did a great rendition of a part of Leon Rosselson's very funny Ballad of Spycatcher), Bernie Murphy and a fantastic pair whose names I caught only as Ben(?) and Emily.
One of the songs covered by the latter was the haunting, deeply moving John MacLean March, a song to the Clydeside trade unionist who was the origin of the phrase 'a bayonet is a weapon with a working man at boths ends.' The song itself, written by Alistair Hulett, relates to his imprisonment for three years for sedition in urging the working men of Glasgow to see that fighting in the First World War was not in their interests as a class and that the empty nationalism of the war was a matter for the ruling classes and not those who would simply become their cannon fodder. The song, performed by Dick Gaughan, is here: