The meaning

Early texts by MATILDA's founders... Drafts and Communiqués

We are playing around the original words making up this acronym: Massive Alternative Terrain for Insurrection, Love and Direct Action...

"It allies itself with the dispossessed, with those resisting oppression, not with the forces of control. It must be useful to those who may not have formal education, or state-issued licenses. Therefore it must be understandable. It is not anti-intellectual, but it realises that intellect divorced from feeling is a itself a part of our pain. Its insights are conveyed in a language that is concrete, a language of poetry, not jargon; it is a vocabulary not of the elite but of the common, and its concepts can thus be tested by experience." {Starhawk}

M.A.T.I.L.D.A, a noborders autonomous zone

A new social centre is currently emerging in Sheffield, for YOU to use! This social centre, named M.A.T.I.L.D.A (or Massive Alternative Terrain for Insurrection, Love and Direct Action) is now open for meetings, forums, film showings, parties etc… The space will also host a regular café social, will house artists studios, and contains it’s very own hacklab. It is a political space for use by community groups and activists who are unable to afford the high rent charged by commercial venues.

All around us public space is disappearing. Instead we are forced into the corporate ‘space,’ if you could call it such, where the only options are working or shopping and our entertainment comes only in packaged, branded, inherently unsocial bars and multiplexes. But we are fighting back. All around the world social centres are created so that activists and community groups can have space to organise events in a democratic way.

Now there is a social centre in Sheffield, in a building that lay largely abandoned for years. We aim to make this space a working alternative to the everyday system of violence, war, fear, capitalism. It will be a community centre that is autonomous from state control and challenges the system of property relations which keeps us broke and enslaved to unscrupulous landlords…

Our social centre makes use of self-managed space through autonomous, consensus based decision making. The sorts of activities we envisage using the social centre for are information sharing, free / cheap cultural space, libraries, multimedia resources, meetings / forums, and the occasional party! Providing not-for-profit services such as food (by donation), internet resources, and a friendly, caring environment to people increasingly disenfranchised by the stripping of the welfare state is prioritised.

Another aim of a social centre is to create a space that is free of racism, sexism and homophobia and any other prejudice. In order to do this it is important that the space is free of state control, and that we organise in a way which respects autonomous movements, multiplicity of means towards a common end, and also establishes real links with communities. We live in a precarious time where fear of our own neighbours is spread throughout our communities by the stranglehold the government, corporations and the mainstream media have on our consciousness. We exist as a space where this fear is dissipated and instead our differences are turned into possibilities, and everyone who wishes to participate and engage with our space, providing they observe our ground rules (see below) can do so without the fear of harassment.

In all, we exist to demonstrate the capacity of people to organise themselves outside of the systems of state and market which increasingly control our lives. By providing our own social and political spaces we are empowered to express our marginalised views, develop civic courage, and take democratic control of our own communities.

Drop round to check out the hacklab, enjoy one of our regular café and social nights, or just to have a chat and a sit down.

(...)

Contributed by Ben

TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONES

Temporary Autonomous Zones was a moment where people could come together out of the world of capitalism it's self-imposed rules and morality. Where people could be just themselves come to understand in a safe space why people do act as she had done towards himself and the way he had reacted back towards her. Here we could start to understand each other gain inner wisdom respect and love for each other."

Is what I wrote in the short story Communiqué Temporary Autonomous Zones so while I agree we need to work out what our guidelines are. We need to also understand that politics is not just about meetings. Selling papers to each other. Politics should be about healing giving the space-time love and trust for people to heal and come together.

Here we have that very real opportunity to do just that 48 rooms where some of dreams can come true where this giant of a political movement that once was the republic of south Yorkshire can awaken itself. (...)

Again I repeat politics should be more than politics it should be about healing love understanding and coming together for me love is far more an insurrection than insurrection itself. Especially in these times.

(...)

We have a very chance of getting this space long term and to do this however hard it might be for some we have to play the game of capitalism. Idd call this subverting capitalism. Take a look here http://lowtech.org and how have they become a charity? Long hard slog and work it gets us from here to there. This not a compromise but a use of a space that could face demolition / refurbishment into work spaces at rents artist such as oneself can not pay. (will not)

MATILDA was the home of Yorkshire Art Space now moved into persistence works and here the rents are far to high. There are artists across Sheffield who faces this problem. We are told our contributions are a part of the regeneration of Sheffield. Only to find we can not practice our art because we can not afford the high rents being asked. Notice the contradiction? Of there speak.

This should not come into play at MATLIDA as we have the very opportunity to provide and give space for the healing of the meny broken people here in Sheffield. Please take time consideration to read Communiqué Temporary Autonomous Zones.

Contributed by 0724

(...)

But the revolution is thoroughgoing. It is still traveling through purgatory. It does its work methodically...And when it has accomplished this... Europe will leap from its seat and exult: Well burrowed, old mole!

- Karl Marx, Eighteenth Brumiare

Marx tried to understand the cycle of working class struggles that were emerging in nineteenth century Europe in terms of a mole and its subterranean tunnels. The mole would surface from below in joyous revolutionary moments which developed from the ground up (1830, 1848...). Between these joyous moments, the mole moves underground, not to hide passively, but to dig out new paths, finding new possibilities for subversion.

We can try and understand the new global cycle of struggles against twentieth century capitalism in terms of a 'tribe of moles.' The moles burrow out a series of North West passages to a multiplicity of new worlds and new ways of living - from Argentinian factory occupations to the Indymedia network, to Reclaim the Streets, to social centres like this one around the globe. Alternatives built from the ground up by ordinairy people, digging out a space for themselves to live despite the pressures of work and money.

Contributed by Gavin

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EDIT AND CHANGE THIS, IT MUST BE A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT!