Controversy over selling the SCUM Manifesto
1983
Belinda worked at the Peace Centre from 1981 until it closed in 1985.
“There was a
controversy over whether to sell copies of 'Coming to Power' by Samois,
published in 1983. It was produced by the Californian coalition of
sado-masochist lesbians. At the same time there was a controversy over
whether we were going to sell the book by Valerie Solanis, the woman
who shot Andy Warhol, the SCUM manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men)
(published in 1968). In the end, it was decided that we would sell the
SCUM Manifesto because it was specifically political, not to sell the
Samois book 'Coming to Power', because it could be misunderstood as
titillation and we could get men coming in there and buying it for all
the wrong reasons, but to keep it under the counter if people actually
wanted it which people did. I remember having a huge argument about
this and I accepted the compromise. We had another prominent Birmingham
lesbian working there as well and she came up with it. We also sold a
lot of obscure lesbian classics, (not the Well of Loneliness, which was
felt to be a bit self-oppressive!)”
Contributed by: Belinda, 60