[matilda] Re: Defining Matilda

[R&A]

Political discussions... well why not, and political enlightenment, 
Harvard school of Economics and so on, well why not, quite a masculine 
approach to matilda, but on your list of references you forget the more 
dreamy part, (also on the wiki), and without dreams and utopias there 
would be no matilda:
without someone who dared walk away from trodden paths and who was later 
banned (in a friendly way but banned anyway) there would be no matilda 
(at least for me and art kollective in general)...


don't forget this:

http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/The_meaning

and this

http://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/Quotations

(not easy to forget because these pages have attracted large numbers of 
visitors...)






Chris wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I think Helens text is great :-)
> 
> I have reproduced it below in a format that will work
> better on the list archives (no need to scroll
> left-to-right to read it...), also some thoughts of mine
> follow...
> 
> On Tue 20-Sep-2005 at 11:43:24AM +0100, Helen and Nick
> wrote:
> 
>>"Matilda is a much needed free space where activists,
>>artists and muscians can get together to enable culture
>>to flourish that is counter to mainstream. Rather than
>>be passive consumers of a culture that puts profit and
>>products before people and their freedom, Matilda is a
>>space where we can 'Do it Ourselves' and create genuine
>>expressions of what it means to be us and the kind of
>>world we want to live in. Rather than sitting back and
>>hope that some one else will change our lives, our city
>>and our environment for the better and create culture
>>that is meaningful to us, this social centre is about
>>taking collective action to make positive, exciting and
>>creative, alternatives happen.
>>
>>We have chosen to work together under the Peoples'
>>Global Action Hallmarks, which is a broad framework that
>>provides a set of principles under which social
>>movements around the world work together. It enables us
>>not only to visualise the alternatives we seek to
>>establish within our own city, but within the wider
>>global grassroots movement for positive social change.
>>The PGA Hallmarks can be broadly summarised in the
>>following way:
>>
>>* Rejection of all repressive social and economic
>>structures that exploit and dehumanise us;
>>
>>* Sharing out power amongst everyone so that we all have
>>the ability to play a part in creating the lives we want
>>to live;
>>
>>* Taking action to make alternatives happen rather than
>>meekly asking those with power to change our lives for
>>the better.
>>
>>As things stand in this city, without access to money or
>>property you can not have a creative and challenging
>>input to the development of this city. There are so many
>>people that have positive things to offer the people of
>>this city from which social and economic benefits can
>>flow. Without space these ideas are still born. Matilda
>>is our opportunity to bring about a new type of
>>regeneration that is both physical and emotional, one
>>that is exciting and vibrant, and most of all one that
>>reflects who we are and what we want to be."
> 
> 
> I can't make the meeting on Wednesday to discuss this so
> I'm just going to say what I think here, though I would
> have liked the oppertunity to actually discuss face to
> face with peole why I think the PGA hallmarks make sense
> for the collective...
> 
> First off, to address some concerns people have raised:
> 
> 1. No time to discuss this [1].
> 
>    Ever since the idea of adopting the PGA hallmarks was
>    raised we have never actually discussed them, we have
>    only discussed discussing them, this goes back to July
>    -- now over 3 months ago...
> 
>    I hope there is time on Wednesday to actually discuss
>    them -- and to discuss the issues people have with
>    them...
> 
>    Perhaps there will also be time for people to point out
>    the positive spin offs there would be of adopting them
>    -- we would be joining a global movement of resistance,
>    activists from around the world would know how to
>    relate to Matilda... 
> 
> 2. Opposition to capitalism [2].
> 
>    OK, so some people involved with Matilda are not really
>    convinced that capitalism is the problem...
> 
>    Where to start... I'm not going to address this in this
>    email, it would take an essay...
> 
>    I think that this indicates that we could really do
>    with having more political discussions, I'd be happy to
>    get stuck into this -- I'm fairly confident that those
>    of us who do think that capitalism is the problem
>    probably can convince those who don't... given time...
> 
>    But, in the meantime, would the supporters of
>    capitalism block the collective agreeing a
>    anti-capitalist position? I hope not... 
> 
> 3. The use of the term confrontation [2].   
> 
>    Matilda was initially set up as a convergence centre
>    for those opposing the G8 in Sheffield -- do people
>    really think that we would have had more impact if we
>    had sent them letters compared with defying the bans
>    and protesting on the streets? 
> 
>    Many of the events hosted at Matilda have been
>    organised by groups that also have a confrontational
>    attitude, Dissent, Indymedia, No Borders etc...
> 
> 4. Calling for direct action [2].
> 
>    What about what we agreed that M.A.T.I.L.D.A. stands
>    for? "Massive Alternative Terrain of Insurrection, Love
>    and Direct Action" -- do those who oppose direct action
>    want the name changing also?
> 
>    People are aware of the history of direct action aren't
>    they, from Gandi to King etc...? I really don't
>    understand why there is a problem with this...
> 
> 5. What do terms like "capitalism, imperialism, feudalism
>    and [destructive] globalisation" mean [3].
> 
>    Well we could have a long discussion about the meaning
>    of just about any word... Sure these words mean
>    slightly different things to different people, so do
>    many words...
> 
>    I think it would be good to have a discussion about
>    this but I don't see that not every agreeing 100% on
>    what these words mean should be a reason to not adopt
>    any political principals...
> 
>    Perhaps any discussion we have about this could be
>    started with the Wikipedia pages on these things...
> 
>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism
>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalisation
>     
>    These at least provide some background reading material
>    on the terms...  
> 
> 6. What is the point of having any kind of statment?
> 
>    This was raised in two ways at the meeting last night,
>    one person said that the World Bank has the
>    catchphrase "Working for a World Free of Poverty" so
>    what meaning does it have if we have any principals?
> 
>    Well, just because they are lying hypocrits I don't see
>    why we should be...
> 
>    The other way this was raised was to say that the
>    principals of Matilda should be the sum of the
>    decisions so far, well, as someone else said, it would
>    be interesting to see this written up, you could start
>    with the notes of the meetings [4] and then take the
>    list archives [5]... I look forwards to seeing the
>    result of this.. 
> 
> Personally I think that we should agree Benjamin's
> Matilda introduction:
> 
>   https://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/Matilda_introduction
> 
> Helens Matilda vision:
> 
>   https://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/Matilda_vision
> 
> The PGA Hallmarks (as a kind of appendix to Helens text):
> 
>   https://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/PGA_hallmarks
> 
> And of course the Matilda rules that have been built up:
> 
>   https://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/Matilda_rules
> 
> Finally, what if we don't adopt the PGA hallmarks --
> people have said that they are concerned that they will
> put people off.... well not adopting them will also put
> people off -- I'm personally not so interested in putting
> time and energy into a project that isn't clear about it's
> rejection of capitalism and the creation of
> alternatives...
> 
> The PGA page on the Wikipedia is a short summury of what
> the PGA is:
> 
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Global_Action
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> [1] http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/matilda/2005-July/000075.html
> 
> [2] http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/matilda/2005-July/000072.html
> 
> [3] http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/matilda/2005-July/000080.html
> 
> [4] https://wiki.sheffieldsocialforum.org.uk/Meetings_Archive
> 
> [5] http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/matilda/
>