Final Schedule for the Seventh Annual BASTARD Conference

Join the Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research & Development for their seventh annual conference on Anarchist Theory on March 18th from 10 am - 6 pm at Dwinelle Hall in Berkeley CA.

http://sfbay-anarchists.org/conference for late breaking details
http://sfbay-anarchists.org/forum for questions and discussion
http://8daysofanarchy.org This is day 6 of 8 days of anarchy

Here is our final schedule

Revolution as a Jam Session of Outlaws: All That is Guerrilla Melts into Air
Ashanti Alston
One of the fundamental characteristics of jazz is improvisation. Thinking of Black revolution as a jam session keeps the focus on flexibility, individuality, and spontaneity. Postmodernism has some ideas that are helpful in this--
rejection of the meta narrative
emphasis on intersections (race, class etc)
multiple lenses
examples of revolutionary struggles, nationalist based, yet non-statist
challenges to concepts of solidarity
Fighting the system is a cat and mouse game. Tactics and strategies have to be creative and flexible to stay unco-opted. Our answers have to be temporary and we must fight on various levels, lawful, underground, as well as on multiple fronts.

Q&A on the Spanish Revolution
Lawrence Jarach
The Spanish Revolution was both a tremendous success for anarchist ideas and practice, and the most definitive tragedy of that success and a stinging defeat for a particular form of anarchist organization. Rather than simply blaming the Stalinists or the Republicans
for that defeat, I would like to look at the various shortcomings of the CNT-FAI themselves, placing them in the context of the basic tension among anarchists: the organizational question. Come with any and all questions you have about Spain.

Going Beyond Post-Anarchism
Alan Antliff
Recently, Todd May and others have claimed there is a need for anarchists to 'go beyond' anarchism by adopting post-structuralist models of power. I will interrogate this claim, drawing on the writings of Kropotkin and others. Then I will faciliate a discussion.

Anarchists Rethinking Self-Defense
Leona and Ariel
What do the Green Scare, intimate violence, advertising, and gentrification have in common? They are ways that we are threatened as individuals and as group members. What does it mean to be under attack? How does this perspective help us to determine the best course(s) of action for ourselves and the groups that we're in? Community is a big word these days, posited as the solution to an overwhelmingly alienated and alienating world. What are the ramifications of taking community seriously, of treating it as something worthy of defense? We will be looking at self defense using an inclusive definition of self and from a variety of perspectives -- philosophical, physical and social -- for the individual, the social scene, and the small group. This will be a highly interactive workshop.

Distillation of Volatile Spirits
Dan Todd
A discussion of how a martial stance can intensify class conflict, noting types of warfare and their application to the struggel, with attention to the process by which complex reality can be rendered cartoonish to further discontent.

The Horizontalist Movement
Cindy Milstein
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaled many literal and figurative openings. Such openings afforded space for the emergence of all sorts of new concerns, from the growing global reach of capital to the consolidation of U.S. geopolitical power to the rise of religious fundamentalisms. And yet, the cold war’s end marked a bright new beginning too. With Marxist-Leninist, social democratic, and liberal politics all discredited, many communities and social movements turned toward directly democratic models of politics. They began to experiment on the grassroots level, borrowing from the past and yet creating something fresh. They began to talk to each other, respectfully, forming horizontal networks of global solidarity and mutual aid. And now, despite all the repression and setbacks, these movements represent the most vibrant and humane alternative to a deadening and inhumane social order. This talk will explore the rise and innovative practices of these anti-authoritarian movements, focusing on their (and our) potentiality to forge a powerful challenge to the status quo, as well as some of the ways they fall short. Specifically, we’ll look at the horizontal moment through contemporary examples such as the anti-capitalist portion of the global justice movement, the self-managed enterprises of Argentina, the autonomous communities and popular assemblies of Mexico from Chiapas to Oaxaca, and the Kurdish Workers Party’s recent shift to a program advocating democratic confederalism.

Boundaries and Borders: Anarchist Critiques of Identity
Shon Meckfessel
Nations, peoples, cultures, scenes, and selves are all defined/define themselves through processes of inclusion, exclusion, enforced commonality and homogeneity. Manipulation of these methods has been synonymous with the formation of the modern State, and consequently a central cause for human suffering. And yet, a simple reversal of these methods through the abolition of boundary proves problematic: Colonizer colonizes colonized, empire replaces nation-states, pop co-opts rebellion, neurosis gives way to psychosis. What is the relation of boundaries to the kind of space they surround? What reasons are invoked by those in power for the borders they build, and how do we uproot these claims? What boundaries do we seek to establish, and how do they differ? And not incidentally, can anarchism affect a synthesis of its universalist past with the particularity of liberation struggles today?

Capitalism as Mind/Body Relationship
Red Hughs
How does the tension in our bodies reflect the ways we accept work, advertising, television and the whole of this civilization as well as the ways we resist this? Drawing on the Situationist International, Wilhelm Reich, Neurolinguistic Programming, Soma, Qigong, Taoism, and other disciplines, I wish to draw a picture of the mind-body relationships generated by today's capitalist world and by its negation. We may do some concrete mind-body awareness explorations, depending on time.

William Blake
Lou
An exploation of the thought of William Blake through what he is explicitly AGAINST. This includes: Empire, The Industrial Revolution, God, Religion, The State, Patriarchy, Capitalist Globalization, and Education
I will introduce each of these topics and then read short selections of Blake's poetry, hopefully accompanied by cello or violin.

Fighting Anarchists
Jeff Monson & Mike E
Jeff Monson (professional MMA fighter) and Mike E (Suigetsukan Dojo) talk about anarchy and martial arts.

The Really Really Free Market Movement
Kirsten Brydum
The Really Really Free Market is a concept and eclectic event (monthly in San Francisco) where participants bring objects, skills, performances, services or anything else with the intention of giving for the sake of giving. It is a practice in community solidarity building, mutual aid, recycling, sharing resources, and caring for one another. It is a demonstration of a fruitful alternative to the capitalist system of buying, selling, commodification, waste, exploitation and alienation. A helpful metaphor is a giant potluck, made up of ideas, food, music, books, skills, games and many other resources that we as a community can come together and share. It is a chance to live outside of the constraints of a money-mediated reality, and experience the alternative. Everything is free. yes, really really free. no money, no bartering, no advertising, just free. The workshop will include a description of the current movement in San Francisco, the enormous potential and implications for creating a more just, sacred and sustainable world, the principles of anarchy in action, and will provide resources for individuals and groups to create RRFMs in their own communities.

How to Have your Cake and Eat It Too: How I Deserted the Military
Ben Ross
I was in the Navy for a year and some change, and in April of 2006 I deserted and spent 6 months as a fugitive. I turned myself in and after two months and two days was released on 12/27 with an other than honorable discharge. I would like to talk about my experiences, things that happened throughout my time in the military, on the run, in confinement, anti-war, things like that, and how I became radicalized and when and why I turned to anarchism and how the military and the police, etc. are not insurmountable obstacles. I want to tell as many people as i can about my experience now, while it's fresh, and not let it go to waste.

Contemporary Anti-Capitalist Struggles: The 2005 San Francisco Transit Fare Strike
Dave Carr and friends
First-hand accounts of the 2005 Fare Strike from various anti-capitalist perspectives (i.e. class struggle anarchist and anti-state communist) with explanation of the historical background to the event. Our accounts will detail our class struggle approach and how this affected our interactions with drivers, as well as working class participants who were radicalized in the process of fare striking. It will also include a critical analysis of the theoretical underpinnings, comparing them with a dynamic praxis reflecting changing reality on the ground as the event unfolded. Questions and answers will deal with all aspects of the Strike, including controversial myths and distortions that have been disseminated through mass media and on the internet.

Bare-fisted Atheism: Sade, Stirner and Nietzsche
Wolfi Landstreicher
Sade, Stirner and Nietzsche expressed a fiercely bare-fisted atheism with no attempt to salvage any idea of a universal moral order or a general “greater good”. I find this fierce, bare-fisted atheism to be a far stronger weapon against religion than the calm reason and self-justification of velvet-gloved moral atheists, and so want to present, compare and contrast the ideas of these three thinkers in order to draw tools that anarchists can use in their fight against religious absurdity, a battle of some importance in our times of repressive, bellicose faith.

The AJODA Workshop
AJODA members
Come and talk to us about your take on Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. Let us know what you'd like to see more of, what you can't stand and how you think the transition to the Bay Area has gone. Hear about why we have made some of the decisions we've made.

First Annual Paul Avrich Memorial Anarchist History Anti-Trivia Tournament
Amaze yourself and your friends with your vast anarchist knowledge.

Individuals or affinity groups may participate. Affinity groups can have up to four members. Choosing a team name is highly encouraged.
Teams answer questions based on a random method of determining who goes first; the next team will then be asked based on seating order.
Questions will be by category (see below) and scored for level of difficulty (10, 15, and 25 points). Team chooses category and level.
Each question will have four possible answers, but only one correct answer.
Team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.