New Cross Fire - The Aftermath

The Aftermath

On the Sunday after the fire (25 January), a mass meeting was held at the Moonshot Club in New Cross, attended by over a thousand people. The meeting concluded with a march to the scene of the fire and a demonstration there, which blocked New Cross Road for several hours. The New Cross Massacre Action Committee was set up and organised weekly mass meetings in New Cross, which saw increasing participation as the police investigation announced that there was no evidence of arson and that the fire was believed to be accidental.

On Monday, 2 March, the Action Committee organised the "Black People's Day of Action", when 20,000 people marched over a period of eight hours from Fordham Park to Hyde Park with slogans including "Thirteen Dead and Nothing Said", "No Police Cover-Up" and "Blood Ah Go Run If Justice No Come". A telling slogan was "Dame Jill Knight Set The Fire Alight!" A reference to a controversial speech by Dame Jill Knight, a right-wing member of the ruling Conservative party, which was widely interpreted as condoning or even encouraging "direct action" against noisy parties.

The march was overwhelmingly peaceful but The Sun newspaper reported it with the headline "Day the Blacks Ran Riot in London". References in other newspapers were typically cursory mentions. None mentioned the fact that the march was cut in two at Blackfriars Bridge by the police. This unexplained action created delay, confusion and frustration, and was seen as a blatant attempt to stop the march. It also isolated the stewards and march leaders from the general public who had joined at the rear. The press indifference or hostility led to increasing division between some elements of the black and white communities.

Another party attendee, Anthony Berbeck died later, after falling from the balcony of a block of council flats in South London on 9 July 1983. He was at the party and became mentally disturbed following the death of his best friends.