STATEMENT FOR THE MARS PROJECT.
VECTRON MARS PROJECT. A STATEMENT OF CONTEMPT?
The recent publication from The Guerilla Press, entitled 'V.M.P.: a Statement ov Intent', seems to have caused much controversy, not only amongst the authorities who would, obviously, be in favor of censoring such material in the first place, but also amongst those who we thought we would have some support from. Although the reaction was very mixed, the response from the publication of this pamphlet seems to have been strongly against the "Anarchistic and Pornographic" nature of its contents, and not that the humour may haveurned in the manner of my pamphlet, then this is something in someway uncool or not hip or not totally sound. Gets me it does.
In the ending of this statement concerning my pamphlet, I would like to say that all criticism is listened to and answered, but the psycho exploration of my own sexual preferences, is not something to be so easily criticised by those who appear to be stuck in a straightjacket of their own making. Anarchism has become stagnant, and has proved itself not to be revolutionary.
VECTRON MARS PROJECT. A STATEMENT OF CONTEMPT?
The recent publication from The Guerilla Press, entitled 'V.M.P.: a Statement ov Intent', seems to have caused much controversy, not only amongst the authorities who would, obviously, be in favor of censoring such material in the first place, but also amongst those who we thought we would have some support from. Although the reaction was very mixed, the response from the publication of this pamphlet seems to have been strongly against the "Anarchistic and Pornographic" nature of its contents, and not that the humour may have been misplaced. The enclosed photocopy demonstrates this and, in the name of free speech, and the issue itself being discussed openly, this photocopy is intended to inspire further discussion into the motives behind this pamphlet, but more so, the issue of the Vectron Mars Project as a greater thing.
THE ACTIONS OF THE MADHOUSE. As the result of printing the Statement ov Intent, the owner of the local bookshop agreed to take 30 copies of the pamphlet to sell on a sale or return basis. This I considered to be a good deal, so, after the pamphlet had come back from the printers, I personally took the said copies of the pamphlet to the bookshop, to be displayed next to a poster that I had printed, advertising the spectacle of the 'Heterosexual Orgy', that I was organising, with Psychgeographers, at Royston Cave.
This plan went well for the first few days, over the period of the weekend in fact. It was only on Monday morning, that I was approached by the staff, angrily demanding that I went into the local town, escorted by staff, and forced to remove all copies of the above mentioned poster, from all places where I had asked for it to be displayed. This was only the stationers and the local library, but even so, this in itself was an infringement upon my human rights as a hospital patient, because, to the best of my knowledge, what I had done was not against the law.
Further than that, ten minutes after returning from the local town, reporting that no copies of the poster had actually been displayed, the staff asked for permission to, actually go to the above mentioned bookshop itself, and remove all thirty copies of the pamphlet that was being sold for me. In the event of my permission to do this having not been granted, the thirty pamphlets were returned into my own possession, thus making this action by the hospital, something that was not a matter of theft. My pass into the community was stopped temporarily, and I was told specifically that I was, "Not Allowed" to sell any of my work to any bookshop from then on; something that I have disputed and since retaliated against.
THE LEGAL DEFENCE.As the situation went, it was thought by my solicitor that, because I had not given permission for the pamphlets to be taken from the bookshop, then the hospital were not within their legal rights to do this. It was supposed that it was only the authority of the police, under court order, that could enable the pamphlets to be taken out of the shop, and that the hospital were in violation of human rights. The situation with the sale of books from psychiatric hospital stands that, in the first instance, a doctor has the right to stop a patient from writing if it is seen as being a symptom of illness that they are writing (and I suppose they would have taken paintbrushes away from Van Gogh). The next rule is that, doctors are entitled to stop a patient from printing their work at the discretion of his or her own judgement (but in this case I cleared the pamphlet with my nurse, and had been given permission to print). If these actions have been allowed to take place, which by rights they should be, no matter how 'ill' a patient may be and despite what they may have done, then the draconian regime has no legal right to confiscate printing from any shop. Only the police have a right to do this, and it must be under the orders of a court.
For these reasons, I put my solicitor in touch with the hospital, asking her to question to what exactly had the hospital seen fit to confiscate the pamphlet in the first place? Over three months later I received a reply from my solicitor, enclosing a photocopied letter from the hospital complaints department, stating that the pamphlet had been confiscated entirely on the grounds that it was being advertised with a poster advertising a 'heterosexual orgy', and it was this that was seen to be unlawful. For this reason I took it to the hospital Advocacy service, who advised me to go into the said bookshop, and take an account from the owner in writing (the letter photocopied here).
THE OUTCOME.So, under my pass status (the rules allowing patients to go out), I approached the bookshop owner, asking him for the situation from his point of view to be put into writing. The shop owner agreed, stating that he'd have the written report in a couple of days time. With this news I went back to Advocacy, and plotted my next move.
The reply from the bookshop owner is attached. Basically, it transpires that it was him in the first place who had grassed me up, and then been deceitful about having done so, in order to be able to sell me more books. This destroyed any sense of confidence that I still may have had, and wrecked my legal case. My solicitor said that she couldn't take the hospital to court.
STATEMENT Ov INTENT.The 'Statement ov Intent', is still for sale. It costs £40 for fifty copies, and 60p per copy above that, with fifty being the minimum amount I will sell. We need to sell as many as we can in order to make the situation of this sort of abuse being conducted against psychiatric patients known by all who are concerned, to make this a political issue, and to raise funds to further the cause. It is possible that it is available to download from the Internet already, but we still need people to upload our Website, the disk available from this address, and we will pay for any uploading charges. In the meantime, the Guerilla Press continue to print; a surreal cartoon of horror planned for Christmas Eve. In the name of direct action for the freedom of speech, we need as much support for what we are doing from hospital as we can get. We have, in short, set up under unanimous guerilla cease-fire, to prove that the pen is mightier than the sword, the bullet or the bomb.
CRITIQUE.There has been a minimal amount of support for the 'Statement ov Intent', and the general response from differing factions of the A.A.A., has been very different. However, I would like to address the critique of this work, before continuing the Guerilla Press, as we value all criticism, and would like to set up as a popular front for the revolution. The first critique was from Parasol A.A.A., who said that they "Hoped that Chapter Four wasn't homophobic", the next criticism being from Raido A.A.A., which I think needs to be discussed in more detail.
In the first instance, I should tackle the important issue of homophobia in my work. Although my work is usually meant entirely in jest, or with severity but sarcastic overtones, in every instance exept for the Communiqué of Aksmos # 1, which I was commissioned to print, the issue of homophobia is, I admit, very real. The reason for this is that I am a bastard, and I offer no apologies for what I have written, exept to say that I understand the issues here, and that a good part of the left will be against my work because of this. However, I think I understand the issues involved and, if the Gay Rights movement hadn't stirred as much shit against the movement of S/M Pride, that I was involved with, then there wouldn't have been so much shit to stir. It will sound like I am making excuses, but this situation actually got very serious, with the power of Black Magick going Satan down into the past of my disturbed childhood, resulting in my eventual hospitalisation with a psychotic illness. Not funny, I'm sure you'll agree.
Even so, I have got that I'm not the one to go around sounding off about homosexuality, and I renounce any right wing implications in anything I have written, to whatever minority that may be. Sorry. Raido A.A.A. also had some other criticisms', which I would like to address aswell. The first was that of my own 'sexual preferences', the second being the issue of hierarchy in the V.M.P. The first issue I would like to address, is the latter.
The 'Statement ov Intent', was written from the perspective of my own organisation, at that time being an organisation that had grown from the splinters of the Cestre Cantre Advocation, an organisation founded by myself, that were in the game of advocating arson left right and centre. I would like to point out that arson is now properly renounced by ourselves; being a tool for the extreme right wing, and not a strategy that has been commonly taken up for the solidarity of the people. It is not my intention to here renounce every aspect of the controversy over my political past, but to make certain points clear.
HIERARCHY.On the issue of hierarchy, it is to be remembered that, the V.M.P. were established well before we found out about the Association of Autonomous Astronauts, and that the V.M.P. were established with the specific purpose of putting a probe into the heavens, to launch to the planet Mars, to search for Psilocybin. The mission was, at that stage, not about community based space projects, or about anarchism. It is for these reasons why we took a stance against homosexuality; hoping to become accessible to the prostitutes as a new political diresque, putting the political stance of previous political campaigning for the revolutionary emancipation of the prostitutes as a revolutionary issue. Although it may be argued that in this we were hypocritical, this was the intention, and I would now like to take this platform to completely step down on all issues of the militant prostitutes liberation campaign, in the belief that I have now done enough for the cause, and in the acknowledgement that I am not the right person for the job. For those who are interested, past documents are available from this address for a donation, and we still want to distribute our demands list.
But on to the actual issue of hierarchy. The issue in context was, that in the name of the invocation of the astral forces required to launch an ametuer mission to Mars, then there should be someone in charge in the sense of the V.M.P. being a supernatural temple. This issue we also step down on, if this is an issue that has been intergalactically decided by the Astronauts. However, I should point out that the references to myself as 'MASTER', were in jest only, and were in the context of this being only a term in metaphorical use, 'all being equal' being its necessary next statement. As we still intend all to be equal, and for a rocket project to Mars, we ask all to write to the above address with their own opinions of the situation and what is meant by the terms 'MASTER' and 'High Priestess'. If anyone else has any ideas on how I can get out of this one and once more become popular amongst revolutionaries, then that would be appreciated. Thanx.
THE PERSONAL SEXUAL PREFERENCES OF VECTRON I.The last, and I feel most personal of the critisism voiced by Raido A.A.A., was that there seems to be a personal bias in my work, towards my own 'sexual preferences'. At this time the author of the letter quotes a perfectly reasonable view that art students should be integral in the founding of a youth culture of heterosexual prostitute women, after the abolition of the welfare state. Whilst criticising the apparent bias against homosexuality in my work, Raido A.A.A. seem to think that the perpetuation of the propaganda of homosexuals is quite acceptable but, when the tables are tt having been an anarchist myself for the fifteen years previous to founding my own organisation, I feel that anarchism is something that needs to be discussed and developed if to be revolutionary. As said before, the Guerilla Press will never surrender. More information on publications is available from the above address.