Alf Salisbury

Alf Salisbury (1909 – 5 November 2000) was a British communist, Jewish activist, trade union leader, and anti-fascist. During the 1930s he smuggled monetary support from British communists to German communists to help resist the Nazis. Salisbury was present at many key events in the history of anti-fascism, including the Battle of Cable Street, and was also a member of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). His family were Latvian Jewish refugees from Riga, who had fled to Britain to escape Czarist pogroms.

At the age of 14, Alf Salisbury left school and soon afterwards joined the National Union of Seamen, After joining the CPGB he would remain within the British communist movement until his death. One of the women at the picket died of a heart attack, which was a major source of guilt for Salisbury as he had been the picket captain at the time. During the 1950s Alf Salisbury reinvented himself as a railway worker, first being employed at South Tottenham station and then King's Cross stations. In 1962 he left rail work and began working in a furniture factory, and then a chemical factory, becoming a shop steward in both. During the mid-1960s he began working for the London Co-op, and became well known at meetings of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) where he would sell the Morning Star. Alf Salisbury further branched out into other organisations, becoming an active member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the Greater London Pensioners & Trade Union Action Group, and became a delegate to the Cities of London and Westminster Trades Councils.

Later life Alf Salisbury lived in the same constituency as MP Norman Tebbit, and the two often attacked each other in newspapers and at meetings.

It is unknown how many times Alf Salisbury had been arrested during his life, but his biographer Liane Groves believes that Salisbury was arrested over 30 times.

At some moment during the 1980s, Alf Salisbury was expelled from the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), an organisation he had been a member and supporter of since 1929. He and many other of the expelled members created the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), which is today the continuation of the original CPGB after the latter's dissolvement in 1991.

Activism for people with Down's Syndrome Nearing the final years of his life, Alf Salisbury began picketing the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and the Independent Television News (ITN), arguing that their use of the term "Mongols" to describe people with Down's syndrome was racist. For almost an entire year, Salisbury picketed the offices of both the BBC every morning, and ITN every evening. His homemade signs and his practice of stopping people on the streets to talk about the issue, gained the attention of the BBC and ITN who then reviewed the use of the term in the context of children with Down's syndrome. Salisbury also lobbied the Press Council, which found in his favour. His campaign was successful and both the BBC and ITN dropped the term "Mongols" when referring to people with Down's syndrome. Despite this success, Salisbury did not stop his campaign and began to hold similar pickets of the offices of major British newspapers including the Daily Mail, until they also dropped the use of the term.

Alf Salisbury's successful campaign was noticed by the staff of the embassy of Mongolia, who rewarded Salisbury with special commendations by a Mongolian ambassador, and awarded Salisbury with a stay at a health spa in Mongolia as a sign of respect and gratitude.

Death Alf Salisbury died on the 5th November 2000, at the age of 91. His funeral was held in November 2000.