In the name of Luther Blissettt "I" announce the foundation of the SHITS (Skin
Heads as Independent Travellers in Space).
Proletarians have never benefitted by any space exploration program launched
by the great Powers.
NASA in particular, that gigantic parasite, dissipated billions of dollars in
order to take workers away from their everyday exploitation, inducing them to
passively gaze at the deeds of yankee imperialism and the conquest of the "last
frontier".
NASA introduced the average
chauvinist redneck male as the cultural and aesthetical representative of the
whole human species (in the American TV series Northern Exposure. a character
named "Maurice Minnefield" effectively parodies pathetic flag-waving ex-astronauts).
NASA has always attempted to militarize and commodify the outer space (remember
the infamous Ronald Reagan's SDI plan).
The Associations of Autonomous Astronauts fight the present-day state, military
and corporate monopoly of space travel, and exhort the oppressed of this world
to build their own spaceships and get together into free communities of cosmonauts.
The revolutionary proletariat has the power to expose the deceptions of the
space travel establishment.
But I think that the AAA project must keep its distance from Hippie/New Age
bullshit - we're talking about class war - class war - neither some kind of
utopian-escapist plan (e.g. The Jefferson Starship Blows Against The Empire)
nor some Star Trek Kennedyan dream - we're talking about Jello
Biafra's rant Why I'm Glad That The Shuttle Blew Up.
The subcultural cross-fertilisation which originated the Skinhead stylereached
its peak in 1969, i.e. while NASA was organizing and staging the first moon
landing hoax. The creative clash between West-Indian music (Ska, Rocksteady
and early reggae) and the Hard Mod look defines the so-called "spirit of '69".
We've got to hang on to this spirit of '69, and oppose it to the other, symbolized
by the star spangled banner on a TV studio moon ground.
Original skinheads, suedeheads and later street punk skinheads COULDN'T GIVE
A TOSS about such nerveless middle-class counterculture a la Jefferson Starship.
Skinhead subculture can provide autonomous astronauts with a style and a sartorial
rethoric which break both with liberalism and hippy shit. Moreover, both the
Suedehead evolution and the modernist heritage can work as stylistic North Stars
and orient our efforts to an essential "proletarian elegance". It's a matter
of self-respect: we can't figure what clothes the inhabitants of other planets
have on, but certainly we won't go to the rendez-vous dressed like shaggy buffoons!
Skinhead Moonstomp is the title of a classic Ska anthem. That's how we're
gonna deal with zero gravity: skipping about on a steady upbeat rythm.
Long live SHITS! Death to
NASA!
Fabrizio P. Belletati, July 17, 1997