James Dunlop MacDougall

James Dunlop MacDougall (15 January 1891 – 25 December 1963), also known as James McDougall, was a Scottish political activist, best known as John Maclean's leading supporter.

MacDougall was born in Pollokshaws and was educated at Shawlands Academy. His father, a tailor also named James, served as the provost of Pollokshaws from 1905 until 1911, and held unionist views. However MacDougall was increasingly influenced by his two uncles who lived nearby: John and Daniel, a disabled cobbler, who were active in the Progressive Union, an anarchist group in which John Maclean was involved.

McDougall left school at an early age and found work as a clerk at the Clydesdale Bank.

In 1906, John Maclean, already a well-known socialist, gave a series of speeches in Pollokshaws, his home town. The speeches inspired the formation of a local branch of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), and MacDougall became its first secretary, aged only sixteen.

MacDougall soon became a leading supporter of Maclean, working with him in the co-operative movement, in particular campaigning for it to organise classes to teach Marxist economics. He personally taught well-attended classes in locations including Paisley and Lanarkshire.

MacDougall lost his job when a local landlord wrote to the Clydesdale, threatening to withdraw his money unless MacDougall was sacked. MacDougall and Maclean responded by launching a campaign for trade unions to withdraw their money from the bank. The Falkirk branch of the Associated Ironmoulders of Scotland did so, and MacDougall later repaid this by working unpaid for the ironmoulders while they were on strike in 1912.

The SDF became the British Socialist Party in 1911, and MacDougall attended its first conference, the following year, at which he was appointed to a committee to investigate grievances in the Aberdeen branch. Around this time, he became interested in syndicalism, a position which Maclean did not share, but this did not produce a lasting rift, and MacDougall was soon back to acting as Maclean's chief supporter.

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