Harry McShane (7 May 1891 – 12 April 1988) was a Scottish

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, and a close colleague of John Maclean.

Life and career

Born into a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

family, he became a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

. Involved in the

Clyde Workers Committee The Clyde Workers Committee was formed to campaign against the Munitions Act. It was originally called the ''Labour Withholding Committee''. The leader of the CWC was Willie Gallacher, who was jailed under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 to ...

and the anti-war movement during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, after the conflict ended he was part of the ''Tramp Trust Unlimited'', formed by Maclean to propagandise and campaign for a

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

and a

six-hour day The six-hour day is a schedule by which the employees or other members of an institution (which may also be, for example, a school) spend six hours contributing. This is in contrast to the widespread eight-hour day, or any other time arrangement. ...

, amongst other socialist policies. He was a member of the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...

, like Maclean, but chose to join the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

when it was formed in 1920 rather than follow Maclean into the

Scottish Workers Republican Party The Scottish Workers Republican Party (SWRP) was formed by the Scottish Marxist activist John Maclean (1879–1923) in 1923. It advocated the political doctrine of communism, whilst also supporting Scottish independence. This dual communist-natio ...

. McShane stated of the SRWP, that they ''"had some queer people that I didn’t like – they had never been to John’s economics classes, they knew nothing about socialism or revolutionary work. Even if I had not joined the Communist Party I could never have joined with that crowd"''. A firm supporter of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, McShane visited

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in 1932. He was shocked by some of the things he saw there, particularly the working conditions in a coal mine in the

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region, which he described as being like something from the previous century. He met a young

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journalist who had come to the USSR as a firm supporter, but had become disillusioned, as "people kept disappearing...and no-one asked any questions". McShane remembered later that his faith in the Soviet Union remained strong, but he had his first doubts after the trip. In the 1930s he became involved with the National Unemployed Workers' Movement and led a number of

hunger marches Hunger marches are a form of social protest that arose in the United Kingdom during the early 20th century. Often the marches involved groups of men and women walking from areas with high unemployment, to London where they would protest outside pa ...

to London. In 1933 McShane lead an NUWM march from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

which became known as the ''Scottish Hunger March''. The marchers camped out on the streets of Edinburgh for three days, and McShane chronicled this event in a pamphlet that was published and distributed entitled ''"Three Days that Shook Edinburgh"''. In the 1930s, he also fought to ensure that freedom of speech and assembly was allowed on Glasgow Green along with other socialist figures. McShane had a number of disagreements with the Communist Party, particularly over the policy document '' The British Road to Socialism'' which he regarded as "reformist"; ultimately he would leave the Communist Party, but remained a convinced socialist for the remainder of his life. In 1954 he combined with other socialist figures such as Eric Heffer to create a new organisation, the ''Federation of Marxist Groups''. In 1958, after reading ''Marxism and Freedom'' by Raya Dunayevskaya he embraced

Marxist Humanism Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...

. He was also involved in the

Amalgamated Engineering Union The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major United Kingdom, British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992. History ...

and was a Scottish correspondent for the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

''. While not involved as a full-time organiser, McShane worked as an engineer, and continued to do engineering work until he retired at 69. His biography, ''No Mean Fighter'' was published in 1978. The book is based on transcriptions of tape recordings made at the suggestion of Paul Foot. Richard Kuper and Pluto Press bought the tape recorder that Joan Smith used to make the recordings. She then worked alongside McShane until together they produced the final draft for publication. He died on 12 April 1988.

Awards

On 21 December 1984, he was awarded the freedom of the City of Glasgow for his services to the Labour and Trade Union movements.

References

External links

Texts by Harry McShane
at

marxists.org Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...

Additional texts by Harry McShane
at

Obituary of Harry McShane
by Paul Foot
Red Clydeside: a history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcshane, Harry 1891 births 1988 deaths Engineers from Glasgow Scottish autobiographers British Socialist Party members Communist Party of Great Britain members Scottish communists 20th-century Scottish engineers Scottish socialists British Marxists