About

Catalyst Social Centre is a radical community space located in Coburg, on unceded Wurundjeri Country. The centre offers free meeting/event spaces for individuals and collectives engaged in radical leftist organising and solidarity work.

Many different collectives and individuals meet at Catalyst every single day! There is no sole group, collective or individual that owns Catalyst, it is the culmination of all the collectives and community members who utilise the space.

Catalyst remains operational through financial contributions from the community, and with support and direction from its 'Federation'. The Federation has a horizontal organising structure, made up of 13 collectives, which assist with the ongoing financial and practical efforts in keeping Catalyst running. The Federation has a shared understanding of its values, rooted in anti-capitalist, decolonial and liberatory struggles. 

Catalyst has a new home!
Learn more about our new space.

About The Federation
Catalyst's Values

The Federation

In early August 2022, a Federation of collectives was formed as the governance structure for the space. Prior to this, a series of public meetings occurred throughout May, June and July 2022 in which the Federation's structure grew from. The Federation has a specific responsibilities at Catalyst, including site maintenance, financial security and developing Catalyst's values.

Decision making within the Federation takes place at meetings that occur every 4 to 6 weeks. A member collective will organise the agenda which is made up of proposals from Federation collectives and individuals. Proposals are then discussed at the meeting, and are adopted if there is no dissent from member collectives (there may be/ often are amendments made to the proposals). If there is dissent to a proposal, it doesn’t pass, and it is up to the interested/invested collectives to find some resolution, and bring it back to The Federation. This means that it can sometimes take time to make decisions. However, where appropriate, decisions are to be made on the smallest scale possible and by those who are impacted, e.g collectives make decisions about their space, projects, conflicts etc, independently of Fed meetings.

Catalyst's Federation is open to new collectives, that share Catalyst's values, actively organise in the space, participate in Federation decision-making and assist with responsibilities of keeping Catalyst functioning. For more info, get in touch with the bookings crew bookings@catalystcentre.net.

 

The Federation's Values

Abolition, Accessibility, Accountability, Active power sharing, Anti-capitalism, Autonomy, Care & respect for the space, Challenging dominator culture, Challenging culture of exploitation, Collective care, Collective liberation, Committed to responding to harm, Community building, Conflict resolution, Decolonisation, Decommodification, Direct action, Empathy & respect, Environmental solidarity & stewardship, Horizontal structuring, Intention, Joy & connection, Knowledge sharing (collective learning), Mutual aid, Reciprocity, Praxis, Privacy & security culture, Self-determination, Solidarity & Transformative justice.

These 30 values were adopted by Catalyst's Federation of collectives on 27 November 2022 by consensus. Shared values are aspirational intentions, providing guidance in how we perceive, think, act and relate to each other and the living planet. We hold them in balance when considering responses to the unique richness of experience and complexities of circumstance. They are a collective statement of where we stand, what we defend and the direction we take, i.e. how we frame the world, decisions we make. They guide our intentions and motivations to bring understanding and change into the world, and are best oriented towards action. They illuminate our relationship with our inner and outer world; between each other, with other beings including non-human animals, and all interwoven life.

^ Above image: Depiction of the Federation's values.