Tony Gilbert (activist)

[1] In the early 1930s, the diminutive Gilbert was the victim of antisemitic violence when he was attacked on the streets by members of the British Union of Fascists.

[1] Gilbert apparently avoided being shot shortly after being captured, when a car full of American journalists arrived at the scene.

[1] At the start of the Second World War, Gilbert worked in Yorkshire as a coal miner before returning to London and joining the army.

[1] During the war he had been awakened to the interrelated problems of racism and colonialism and he became politically active in East London as a public speaker on these matters.

In 1954 the Movement for Colonial Freedom (MCF) was established, an anti-colonial political group which held consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council,[2] with Gilbert involved as an active member of the leadership of this organisation from its inception.