John Hurt ( 22/1/40 - 26/1/17 ) - Speaking out

 RIP to the brilliant, incomparable,Oscar nominated actor  and all round good geezer John Hurt whose career spanned six decades who has passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer aged 77. His vast resume  included works like The Elephant Man, and what is likely the most widely viewed adaptation of George Orwell’s  chilling warning 1984, Alien, The Naked Civil Servant,Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hellboy, Doctor Who, and V for Vendetta, to name just a few.
Here in an earlier clip his voice still resonates as he speaks his mind in support for Amnesty International. His message a simple one: "Stand up for humanity and human rights."
" Human rights are ours by birth. They cannot be given or taken away by any individual,organisation or court ." - John Hurt, man of principle, RIP

Anger over Trump's Muslim ban

Our unelected PM, Theresa May's eagerness to be the first foreign leader  to shake Donald Trump's hand was simply nauseating to look at. Afterwards she refused  to criticise him for his blanket Muslim ban and has invited him to visit the UK..
 "The moment we once again lost a little more moral authority. The hypocrisy of the debate on British values becomes more stark by the day." said Conservative peer Baroness Warsi
The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn added: "President Trump's executive order against refugees and Muslims should shock and appal us all", he went on to highlight the fact that Britain's greatest Olympian would also be banned from the country. He also called for Donald Trump to be banned from UK visit until Muslim ban is lifted.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/donald-trump-muslim-ban-jeremy-corbyn-uk-mp-immigration-policy-theresa-may-response-a7551636.html
Trump on Friday signed an executive order that will curb immigration and the entry of refugees from some Muslim-majority countries, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan and Syria. He separately said he wanted the US to give priority to Syrian Christians fleeing the civil war there. All Refugees are blocked for three months. Syrian refugees are banned permanently..It will also shut down the entire refugee program for 120 days.The administration’s assault on civil liberties explicitly targets the world’s most vulnerable populations — refugees and asylum seekers fleeing devastating wars.
A global backlash against U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration curbs has since gathered strength  as several countries including long-standing American allies criticised the measures as discriminatory and divisive.
The United Nations refugee agency and the International Organisation for Migration called on the Trump administration to continue offering asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, saying its resettlement programme was vital.
"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the two Geneva-based agencies said in a joint statement on Saturday.
The order which is nothing short of a Muslim ban by another name, is cruel and callous, and espouses positions contrary to the professed values of the United States, based on bigotry and will certainly produce more problems than it purports to solve. The ban is with immediate effect and has already caused widespread chaos, fear and disruption. Airport authorities in the US have already held passengers for interrogation. There have been reported instances of people boarding flights before the announcement was made being detained on arrival in the US.Deeply upsetting and troubling to all caught up in all of this.Among those also believed to have been affected is Olympic hero Mo Farah, who is a British passport holder but was born in Somalia – one of seven countries to which travel restrictions apply.
Theresa May's bowing and fawning and deferential manner to this xenophobic racist, known for his well documented misogyny and vulgarity and her initial refusal to condemn him for the Muslim ban is simply shameful and shocking. The Presidents actions have horrified the world and this was a moment when she should have showed us what side she's on. But rather than fighting to build a world that is open, tolerant and united,  May, Trump and their allies are simply dividing the world in a very dangerous way making it a  scary place to exist at the moment.Many have compared May's behaviour to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's during the run up to the Second World War. Anger was seen across social media, with the hashtag TheresaTheAppeaser  trending in the UK, as well as several related hashtags.
It emerged late on Saturday that the restrictions would also apply to people with dual citizenship – including Brits. and May after coming under fierce attack  has since been forced to make a hasty half -hearted U-turn over Trump's ban on refugees from Muslim majority countries, issuing a midnight statement saying she does not agree with the policy..
Emergency protests at major international US airports by anti-racist campaignerss to lift the ban are now in effect.Campaigners holding banners saying “Muslim lives matter” and “We are ALL immigrants” have filled the streets. Tomorrow, more protests are expected. An official petition to ban Trump from visiting the UK on a planned state visit later this year hit 120,000 and counting in just a few hours –  meaning it must be considered for debate by Parliament:-

.https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171928

 Protests targeting Trump will now be a big priority for the anti-war and anti-racist movements here in the UK too. An opportunity to oppose the threats to migrants and the anti-Muslim racism in this country, as well as showing solidarity with protests in the US.Anti-Fascist groups have organised several protests against Trump, with one due to be held outside Downing Street Monday evening.  Hopefully the people will not let this stand.

 1941 Dr. Seuss cartoon criticising America's stance on refusing safe haven for Jews. Recognise the t-shirt slogan?

To be hopeful in bad times - Howard Zinn (24/8/1922 - 27/1/ 2010).

Howard Zinn  was a truly remarkable libertarian socialist historian, and passionate activist. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on the 24th of August, 1922 into a Jewish immigrant family he began his working life as a shipfitter. A strong opponent of fascism  Zinn joined the United Air Force in 1943, and during  the Second World War flew missions throughout Europe. In April 1945 he was involved in the bombing pf German soldiers in Royan, France where napalm was used, the experience of which taught him to hate war itself. When he returned home he put his medals in an envelope and sealed it with the words “never again.”

After his military service he went to college under the GI bill, earning a doctorate in history at Columbia University.  He went on to teaching at Spelman College in Georgia where he was active in the Civil Rights movement. In 1963 he moved to Boston University and became a prominent, outspoken critic of the Vietnam War
He wrote more than twenty books, including his best-selling and influential A People’s History of the United States. a history of America through the perspective of those outside of the political and economic establishment. He was the first historian to write about American history from a perspective of indigenous people, from a perspective of the working class, people who worked in the steel mills, people who worked in the mines, people who worked on the railroads. He told the stories of immigrants, and presented all the rough hands and tortured faces that built the country we know as America. Ordinary people who joined popular struggles for a better society.
In his 2002 autobiography You can't be neutral on a moving Train he wrote the following, reminding me to remain hopeful/ after all hope gets us through the good days and especially the bad ones.Many of us sit in wait of something miraculous  to take place and get so very discouraged when all that keeps flowing are disappointments. At the end of the day it is we who are the avenues of change in our own lives :

" There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment we will continue to see. We forget how often in this century we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."— Howard Zinn

There was nothing naive or sentimental about Zinn’s positions. He had seen first hand the worst that humanity was capable of, and simply chose to confront it as a challenge rather than accept it as our final destiny. On 27 January 2010, Howard Zinn,  died of a heart attack aged 87 after swimming. A great loss to many, he remains a huge inspiration to me. 
In this excerpt from the 2004 documentary  called Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Zinn describes his experiences as an Air Force bombadier in World War II, which helped inspire his life’s work. The “great question of our time,” he later wrote, is “how to achieve justice with struggle, but without war.”

You can read Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States online. You can also visit the website dedicated to Zinn’s work, offering a great archive of his articles and interviews, bibliography and video and audio material.
As the legendary activist and author discussed in one of his final interviews, he wanted to be remembered for “introducing a different way of thinking about the world,” and as “somebody who gave people a feeling of hope and power that they didn’t have before.” We need this now more than ever  we can't afford to be "neutral on a moving train."

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Together, we will remember the victims of the Holocaust and genocide.- a time for us all to reflect on the Nazis attempt to wipe out Jews, Gypsies and other  minority groups, Trade Unionists, Communists,  homosexuals, people with mental and physical difficulties, Jehovah Witnesses, anarchists, Poles and other slavic peoples, all targeted for destruction and decimation  for racial, ethnic reasons, based on the fascists twisted 'Aryan' concept of a master race.
From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used  persecution, propoganda, and legislation to deny human rights to so many. Using hate as their foundation, setting out to systematically destroy all opposition.
By the end of the Holocaust historians estimate the total number of deaths to be 11 million, and the Nazis succeeded on an industrial scale in murdering two thirds of European Jews. Men, women, children who had perished in ghettoes and mass shootings, slaughtered in concentration camps and extermination camps on such a horrific scale.
Holocaust Memorial day is now  held today because it marks the liberation of Aushwitz-Birkenau , the largest of the Nazi Concentration Camps. The United Nations declared it a day for observance in 2005.But it is also used today to mark and remember all subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia  and Darfur etc etc.
Human beings are capable of doing such wicked things, so that is why we should continue to confront the dangers of intolerance, hate, racism and fascism, and defeat the ideas that continue to create so much pain. We must never forget the journeys of all persecuted. support those that face hostility today, and when we say never again, we must mean never again.

Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps, despite his ardent nationalism. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the following   quotation:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
 
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
 
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
 
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

So continue to remember, defend, and speak out if you can. 

Here's what the orange arsehole has done so far:

 

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.
* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.
* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.
* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.
* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.
* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”
* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.
* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.
* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.
* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.
* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.
* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.
* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.
* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.
* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.
* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”
* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.
* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.
And yesterday: the wall and a ban on Muslims entering from a large number of countries and the end to accepting Syrian refugees.
Cheers Linda.
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Paul Robeson ( 9/4/1898 - 23/1/1976) - A hero excluded

A lot of sad distressing news at the moment, here and elsewhere, so I return to a subject I have written about previously, Paul Robeson, https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/paul-robeson-941898-23176-and-people-of.html the great singer and actor who was also an anti fascist and tireless campaigner for justice. He was shot at by the KKK, blacklisted after World War II and had his passport revoked but refused to be made silent and remains to me a continuing source of inspiration and strength. 
Robeson was born  in Princeton, New Jersey, on the 9th of April 1898. His father started life as a plantation slave in North Carolina, but escaped in 1860 and eventually become a pastor. Robeson recalls, in his book Here I Stand (1958), his father’s determination and loyalty to his convictions: “From my youngest days I was imbued with that concept,” he writes. His family’s longer history of activism is noteworthy, too; his maternal great-great-grandfather, Cyrus Bustill, became in 1787 a founder of the Free African Society, the first mutual aid organisation of African Americans.
Robeson was only the third black student to be accepted by Rutgers College, winning a scholarship in 1915. He was a fine athlete and joined the football team; but on Saturday the 14th  of  October 1916 he was excluded from the Rutgers football team. He was one of their best players but Washington and Lee University refused to play against a black player. Preceding this event at his first football training , he was savagely attacked by his own team mates unwilling to accept a Black man in their midst. Leaving him with cuts and bruises, a broken nose, a sprained shoulder and a damaged hand.Did this deter him, hell no, his coach  named Sandford refused to comply when the demands were made again and  Robeson went on to  to be named a football all American twice.
He would also become the class valedictoriam, a lawyer, and one of the best 20th Century , actors, singers and advocate for justice the world has ever known.He opularized Black spirituals, and became a golcal hero when he learned over twenty languges to sing internationaal folk songs in their original tonque. At the height of his fame when he was likely the most famous African-American in the world he made the bold decision too become a political artist, getting involved in trying to stop the threat of fascism in the Spanish Civil War, as well as fighting other social injustices, Robeson , was outspoken in the Black freedom movement, the labour movement in support of the Soviet Union and the socialist countries and anti-colonial movements around the world, and other progressive political movements, using his great voice to spread his message of equality peace and freedom. On his firt visit to the Soviet Union, he said, "Here, I am not a Nero but a human being for the first time in my life I walk in full human dignity", Because of his political views he was blacklisted during McCarthyism and the American government tried to hide and suppress his voice from history.They took away his passport in 1950, banned him from international  platforms and audiences, and restricted  him from TV appearances at home. He had done nothing illegal; he was never arrested, or put on trial; yet the powers that be were determined to destroy him nonetheless for his political beliefs. He was to be harassed by zealots of the House of Un-American Activities, to whom he gave no quarter.

 “I care nothing – less than nothing – about what the lords of the land, the Big White Folks, think of me and my ideas,” Robeson later wrote, in Here I Stand. “For more than 10 years they have persecuted me in every way they could – by slander and mob violence, by denying me the right to practice my profession as an artist, by withholding my right to travel abroad. To these, the real Un-Americans, I merely say: ‘All right – I don’t like you either!’”
On  Saturday 5 October 1957, Paul Robeson sang to Wales for the first time since  1949, to 5000 people crammed into the Porthcawl Pavillion for the  Tenth Annual Miners Eisteddfod,  due to the new technology of a trans-Atlantic telephone which triumphed over the passport ban and their families. They had not forgotten his sympathy for the plight of the miners who he had lived among in the 1930's. In 1938  he had also paid a visit to Mountain Ash  for a ceremony attend by 7,000 people  to commemorate 33 Welshmen who had died  fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
But even the great Robeson was not strong enough to withstand the psychological effects of blacklisting and the persecution he had endured over the years. After his passport was restored in 1958, he attempted comeback tours, but severe depressions gripped him; in 1961, he tried to take his own life after a party and was subsequently treated with ECT in London. Much later, his son considered whether the “attempted suicide” might perhaps have been a drug-induced incident in which the CIA could be implicated.
Unable to attend Carnegie Hall’s tribute concert on his 75th birthday, he sent a recorded message, declaring: “I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace and brotherhood.”.
To the end he remained unapologetic for the political stances that he took, He lived the final years of his life in seclusion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died there yesterday on January 23rd, 1976. He is fondly remembered because he not only stood up for the injustices that African-Americans faced, but also was able to empathize and connect with other people’s struggles,a man who knew the meaning and  power of working class solidarity, he funded Jews escaping Nazi Germany, spoke out against the fascists in Spanish Civil War, campaigned against colonialism in African countries and stood with laborers in the United States and proudly with the people of Wales, an internationalist who identified with the most important issues of freedom and social justice of his time, and practiced what he preached. His courageous proud message lives on, and he remains forever immortal in my heart.Rest in power.

Paul Robeson - Old Man River

Paul Robeson  Sings to Scottish Miners (1949) 

Paul Robeson - Here I stand documentary

 

Is it OK to punch Nazis?

“Only one thing could have stopped us – if our adversaries had understood its principle and from the first day smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement.” – Adolf Hitler

"Punching Nazi's" has been trending across social media, here's a little disclaimer from me, it really is a tried and tested method, a simple act of resistance that has been proven to work  let's continue it until a whole generation has learnt it's the thing to do. Punch Nazi's and organise!
There should be no tolerance for intolerance. Those who preach racial hatred and instigate racism, from Hitler, Mussolini  to white nationalist Richard Spenser above ( who is well known for his promotion of white supremacist views, at the time of the incident in video, Mr. Spencer was explaining the meaning of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon figure adopted as a mascot by the alt-right, a racist, far-right fringe movement that is anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and anti-feminist. ) deserve all that's coming to them.
Remember there is nothing civil about fascists in the first place.We must be ready to meet their intimidation with greater intimidation.Mr. Spencer said he was worried about being attacked again.“I don’t think I could go out to an inauguration event without bodyguards or a protest or a conference,” he said. “I am more worried about going out to dinner on an average Tuesday because these kind of people are roaming around.”On Periscope, Mr. Spencer also expressed concern about the spread of the footage of the attack online.“I’m afraid this is going to become the meme to end all memes,” he said. “That I’m going to hate watching this.” So from the horses mouth, punching a nazi works. And if you fail to get your message across you need to punch harder.

Donald Trump: the world is watching

Currently in light of the Trump presidency, and  following yesterdays post am feeling quite numb. But I also  realise that we are all now living in  days of anxiety, fear and confusion and a period of deep transition. We must continue to bear witness and try to keep hope alive, let love triumph not the forces of racism and hate, standing  up against the forces of the far right and the politics of hate by continuing to build Bridges Not Walls, refusing to accept a world where bigotry and extreme right wing views and language are accepted.
Donald Trump now the leader of the most powerful countries in the world for at least four years wants you to give up and let him shape the world in his backward vision.For anyone concerned  about human rights, the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, be under no illusion, poses an acute threat to the global human rights movement. He’s threatened our planet and he’s threatened Muslims, women and countless others with his hate filled rhetoric with echos of the 1930's ,and it should be noted that currently the White House has removed its climate change web page, and the healthcare, civil rights and LGBT sections. The election of Donald Trump makes our world an incredibly dangerous place. If you believe another world is possible,now is not the time to simply sit back  and watch the Donald Trump show from the sidelines, we must continue to resist Trumpism,  and combat the conditions that allowed its emergence.
As Donald J. Trump starts his term as 45th President of the United States, tell him to abandon the hateful rhetoric and promise to stand up for human rights for everyone in America and around the world.

Take action :

 Will you stand up for human rights , President Trump?
 
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/will-you-stand-human-rights-president-trump?utm_source=Paid+Facebook&utm_medium=Targeted&utm_campaign=Human+Rights&utm_content=TRUMPINAUG_KW1

Another world is possible.
 

an earlier poem:-
 https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/intolerantina-poem-for-donald-trump.html

Apologies some Sally Oldfield , for the mighty furbster Jane Elizabeth Husband ( (9/5/60 - 8/1/17) cheers - Love is everywhere

as fires flicker

and tears are shed

in numbness

my own eyes dripping wet

charged now

with  everlasting love

gliding and glittering

in a thousand different ways

trusting and always knowing

when dreams overflow

love is everywhere.

Linton Kwesi Johnson - New Crass Massahkah

On 18 January 1981, a fire at a house party in New Cross, South-East London, led to the deaths of 13 young Black people including Yvonne Ruddock, who was celebrating her 16th birthday. One of the survivors later took their own life.

Police declared the fire to be an accident, but to this day many suspect it was a racist arson attack. The authorities failed to seriously investigate these claims, despite the fact that racially abusive letters had been sent to the homeowner, and an incendiary device found outside the house. The police treated the families of the dead like suspects, rather than victims, and the Daily Mail falsely suggested several Black people had been arrested in connection with the fire. 

In the days that followed there was little coverage of the terrible loss of young life in the newspapers.,The cold silence of the white establishment conveyed a brutally simple message that the loss of young black lives was simply unimportant. As Johnny Osbourne sang pointedly ’13 Dead (and Nothing Said)’. 

In the aftermath, the community felt a devastating sense of loss. Sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, friends, classmates – all taken away long before their time. 

But what compounded the pain was the sense that the community had and was continuing to be ignored. It is customary for Prime Ministers and the Crown to acknowledge a mass loss of life by the way of sending a message of condolence. Yet Margaret Thatcher, after nearly two years in office at that time, failed to reach out to the community. 

Thatcher fostered a hostile environment for the black and minority ethnic community, and was widely considered to be courting supporters of the far-right National Front group through the use of anti-immigrant rhetoric. This was taken further by her minister Jill Knight, who appeared to condone direct action against parties with sound systems, a staple of the Black British culture at the time. 

The suspicions of foul play were well founded – New Cross was known to many as the race hate capital of Britain.Many other Black  homes in the area had been attacked by supporters of the fascist National Front, and a Black community centre was burnt down. Almost exactly a decade earlier, white racists had petrol bombed a Black people’s party in Lewisham, injuring 22 people.

Ever since the ‘Windrush generation’ had been brought to the country to help rebuild Britain’s post-war economy, they were met with hostility and violence. The police regularly raided Black meeting places such as the Mangrove Restauarant, as well as the annual Notting Hill Carnival. The same year as the New Cross fire also saw the passing of the British Nationality Act, the last of a series of immigration laws explicitly targeting people of colour; tearing apart countless families in the process. 

The Prime Minister’s silence propelled the wave of black activism that had  been sparked by the fire, as protestors rallied to the words 'thirteen dead and nothing said' and ‘Here to Stay, Here to Fight’.

The New Cross community demanded answers and, in light of perceived inaction by the police, hundreds attended a meeting a week after the fire. There was a strong feeling that the fire had been an attack, started by a petrol bomb.

Out of the ashes of this terrible tragedy came an unprecedented political mobilisation led by the families, the New Cross Massacre Action Committee and the wider black community.  

It resulted in the historic ‘Black People’s Day of Action’ on Monday 2 March, 1981, where 15,000 people from all over the country filed by 439 New Cross Road bound for the Houses of Parliament and Fleet Street in peaceful protest, but their march was disrupted by harsh police tactics and faced relentless attacks from the right-wing media.

Tension between the community and the police remained high, particularly amongst young people who felt they were being unfairly targeted by the police.In April that year, an incident involving a stabbed youth sparked a riot in Brixton that lasted a weekend and brought the issue of race relations to the top of the agenda.

To date, no-one has ever been charged with starting the New Cross fire. The police bungled the investigation  and no one was arrested or prosecuted  which summed up the racist indifference of the state to black communities  and sickeningly  racist  abuse was sent to victims families. The racism behind the tragedy politicised a generation, and continues to shape modern Britain.

 Thinking back now perhaps the most appropriate way to remember those lives cut short so cruelly is to renew a commitment and vigilance to challenging contemporary racism in all its forms. 

 Linton Kwesi Johnson’s ‘New Crass Massahkah ’ conveyed in dub poetry perhaps the most enduring and powerful form of historical witness. 

New Crass Massahkah -   by Linton Kwesi Johnson

first di comin
an di goin
in an out af di pawty

di dubbin
an di rubbin
and di rackin to di riddim

di dancin
and di scankin
an di pawty really swingin

den di crash
an di bang
an di flames staat fit rang

di heat
an di smoke
an di people staat fi choke

di screamin
and di cryin
and di diein in di fyah.