Matilda vision

This is a vision of MATILDA that Helen sent to the list, see also the PGA hallmarks, Benjamin's Matilda introduction and the early texts.

MATILDA Vision Statement

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.