[matilda] Two new potential projects

[dougald hine]

The exhibition's a great idea. I was at a meeting last night with
Hilary Wainwright, the editor of Red Pepper. It had been organised by
a group called the Alliance for Green Socialism. Out of nearly twenty
people round the table, only two were under forty, and a number in
their seventies. Now, from my point of view, the last thing the world
needs is another leftie microparty. But between them those old men
(and they were mostly men) have centuries of experience of political
campaigning, and they are just a tiny sample from a city with a
history as a leftwing heartland.

I'm the last person to argue that we should turn the clock back, but I
don't believe in treating past generations of activists as if all
their work was a waste of time. I think it would be great if we could
invite people of that generation with their experience into Matilda to
contribute to this exhibition - and for them to learn about what we're
doing now.

It could also be a starting point for looking at how Sheffield's
political past created situations we have to deal with today as
activists in this city. Long before Blair, the history of the Labour
movement was a history of people being betrayed by their leaders. The
worst legacy of Sheffield's political past is a kind of local politics
in which supposedly leftwing council leaders treat the people of the
city like a load of naughty children who need to be told what's good
for them. (Anyone who came to the council meeting where Gillian's G8
motion was debated will have had a taste of that...)

In the London borough of Harrow, they've been doing a Porto
Alegre-style "participative budget", where ordinary people get a say
in how their money is spent. (http://harrowopenbudget.org/hob1.html)
What would it take to make that happen in our city?

When I dream about what Matilda could be, those dreams involve us
being a point of connection for so many of the things that already
happen in our city - where people involved in one local campaign would
start to discover the underlying issues that connect it to others.
Three examples:

1. Families in Shirecliffe who are sick of being poisoned and lied to
by the company that runs Parkwood landfill - and have started their
own community compost scheme to demonstrate that they have
alternatives as well as complaints.

2. Teachers and parents at Myrtle Springs and Waltheof who have been
told the only way they can get a new school is by letting a private
company or religious organisation have total control of it.

3. Local people in Bents Green who are fighting to stop their fire
station being closed because the government's cutting funding to the
fire service - not to mention the residents out in Mexborough who say
if their fire station's scrapped, they'll raise the money to buy a
community fire engine and learn to run it themselves!


There's so much amazing stuff already happened at Matilda. How could
we make it reach out to people who don't think of themselves as
political, but just know that the way the world's being run is wrong,
and are already starting to do something about it?

Apologies for the long email... Anyway, I invited everyone at that
meeting last night to come along to a Matilda social one Thursday, so
hopefully we'll see some of them again.

D

--
Dougald Hine
46 Alderson Road, Sheffield S2 4UD
(+44)(0)7810 650213

www.dougald.co.uk