John S Clarke

Gordon Munro

Living a life which would make George Galloway look shy and retiring John S. (as he was affectionately known) was one of those colourful characters who make our movement. He was at different points in his life Britain's youngest lion tamer at age 17 and oldest at age 67. He was a gunrunner who became a Glasgow City councillor (unconnected of course); he cured Lenin's dog of an ailment, was an adventurer and a poet, and also represented Maryhill in Parliament from 1929 to 1931. Clearly John S. was not your run of the mill political hack. Born in 1885 he was the thirteenth of fourteen children whose gypsy family had living and historical connections with the circus. His family still lived an itinerant life despite his father working outwith the circus. Frequently basing themselves near gypsy encampments meant that relatives taught John S. the tricks of the trade so that amongst other things he could ride a horse bareback by the age of 10. He entered the ring as a lion tamer at 17 due to the drunkenness of the billed tamer. He received the first of many injuries a few days later when a hurt lion attacked him when he entered the cage to help it. The skills learnt as a lion tamer stood him in good stead later as a popular street orator for the socialist cause.

It is not known when he became interested in socialist politics but it was probably around 1900 with the ferment of activity leading to the formation of the Labour Representation Committee. Initially favouring the scientific socialism of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) he became active with the splinter group, the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) becoming a regular contributor to its journal `the Socialist' and elected as its editor by annual conference three times. His internationalism and sense of adventure led him to undertake the clerical and pragmatic work involved in organising gun running to the Russian revolutionaries in 1906. This was a covert activity involving several Scottish & northeast ports and continued until discovery of a cache at Blyth in Northumberland. Those caught used the defence that they had acted as `avowed socialists' and were fined £6.Ê A lenient attitude unlikely to be replicated today. Moving to Edinburgh in 1910 he worked for a while as the editor of "The Reform Journal" for the Ethical Guild then as a private secretary for the feminist author Jane Clapperton. His marriage in 1912 meant that he finally put down roots in Edinburgh.

The outbreak of war in 1914 saw Clarke work collectively with Tom Bell, Arthur McManus and John Paul making clear the anti-imperialist war position of `The Socialist' taking its pre war circulation of 3,000 to 20,000 by the end of the war. When the leading shop stewards of the Clyde Workers Committee were dragged from their beds and deported from Glasgow to Edinburgh it was John S. who put them up till they could find other accommodation. John S. cured Lenin's dog of an ailment at the Communist International of 1920, which he and Willie Gallacher attended as delegates from the Clyde Workers Committee. Lenin gave him a signed photograph as a token of appreciation for this act. His experience in Russia led him to argue against the slavish adherence to the Russian direction of the policy of the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He also objected to its selection of the British Socialist Party as the main revolutionary organisation around which other parties/organisations should coalesce. The disputes around this formation and its acceptance of Russian direction of its policy saw John S. and major figures like John Maclean and Sylvia Pankhurst fail to join the fledgling CPGB.

It was Clarke's writings for `Forward' that drew him into the ILP. He renewed his friendship with Maxton whom he had met and supported during his sentence in Calton Prison, Edinburgh. Adopted as the ILP candidate for Maryhill in the 1929 election he did not take to the stuffy atmosphere of Westminster. He did his best by producing epitaphs for members and dropping one of the two live snakes he kept in his desk at the Commons into unsuspecting members pockets. He did not return to the Commons after Labour's rout in 1931 following Ramsay MacDonald's betrayal of the Labour Party. Instead John S. returned to journalism to earn his living. In 1936 his book `An Encyclopaedia of Glasgow ` was published. This contained items on the streets, buildings and historical places of the city which he served as a councillor for 15 years and in which he remained for the rest of his life.

A second edition of his earlier book `Marxism and History ` was to be published by the National Council of Labour Colleges but his refusal to excise Trotsky & Bukharin from his original bibliography as demanded by CPGB hacks - a fight which lasted from 1938 to 1947 - meant that this set text of the college was never republished. Appropriately he wrote his own epitaph before he passed away on 30th January 1959. Although not a major figure in Scottish Socialist history John S was clearly an unusual one who reminds today of the importance of the need know your roots.