JOHN MACLEAN may have died 95 years ago. But for Living Rent, Scotland’s insurgent tenants’ union, the Red Clydeside hero is very much a figure of the present.

An event to celebrate 100 years since his triumphant post-imprisonment return to Glasgow, which I previewed in last week’s column, saw music, poetry and history in Glasgow’s Stereo bar.

And Living Rent organiser Joey Simons told the crowd: “Maclean didn’t have a focus on the industrial working class, the engineers — he understood the working class in its totality.”

As for housing, Simons argued that “the situation today... some of it is even worse than in the times of Maclean.”

But Living Rent is “starting to transform the situation not just for individual tenants but for the city as a whole.”

Glasgow was not the only city celebrating. Maclean, after all, was imprisoned in Peterhead prison near Aberdeen — where the trades council commemorated the anniversary of his freedom in style.

Gathering at Aberdeen railway station, trade unionists declaimed his speeches and performed the Ballad of John Maclean while red flags were waved.

A new pamphlet of Maclean’s Speech from the Dock is edited and introduced by Rory Scothorne and Ewan Gibbs. Send a cheque for £5 plus £1.50 p&p (payable to Scottish Labour History Society) to the Scottish Labour History Society, 0/1 64 Terregles Avenue Glasgow G42 4LX.