Mailtda's non-commercial use clause, was: Re: [matilda] crisisof consensus

[Mr Jase Malgod]

dougald hine writes:
> If, by being anti-capitalist, we mean that we oppose the exploitation
> inherent in capitalism, then it is a bit odd to argue that, rather
> than working for less than the full value of their labour, people
> should be forced to work for nothing at all!

But surely the point of Matilda is that it is a voluntary space, no-one is 
being forced to do anything. If people want to earn money then do it outside 
of Matilda. If an artist wants to be repaid for materials then sure, but the 
labour in Matilda is for Matilda (or another cause). 

The problem here is having a level playing field. If a collective put on a 
night and decorate the basement with beautiful things, the profits from the 
night will go towards charity or Matilda. Their art is not paid for. 

But if one of the team takes a decoration upstairs, they can sell it and 
keep some of the money for themselves. They have profited from their labour 
where others have not. 

So I think Joe has a really good point, it is at the heart of what Matilda 
is about. Matilda could be some kind of Sheffield artists market, albeit 
with high overheads, or Matilda could draw the line and say that if you do 
something in Matilda then all the money from any transaction is just there 
for materials, charity or Matilda. In Matilda your labour is free. 

Of course that does not stop people advertising stuff or saying "hey I do 
this for free but if you pay me I could do one ten times bigger in pink" or 
"if you want the original then get in touch" and so on, but it puts a real 
limit on what actually goes on in the space. 

I think it still offers an opportunity for artists to contribute by saying 
"I want to sell my stuff but everything goes to this charity" and so on. I 
realise this is maybe not inclusive of those scraping a living but I do not 
think Matilda is there for that purpose. The space should be for sharing 
labour apart from the world which values it. 

Jason