11th annual Anarchist Theory Conference

Join us for the eleventh annual Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research & Development anarchist theory conference. The Workshops for BASTARD 2010

If you have shopped till you drop and would like to know what else anarchism has to offer please join us at the 2010 BASTARD conference. This year we have an exciting theme planned that is highly speculative and orginal. We look forward to your participation! Where: UC Berkeley, Dwinelle Hall
When: Sunday March 14th from 10 am - 6 pm (remember daylight savings time!!!)

In alphabetical order:

Comedy!

Anarchist funnies by a panel of folks from a wide range of histories and perspectives. Come laugh, chuckle, titter, or sit back and look smug (depending on your hipness quotient).

presenters: Jason Mcquinn, Apio, Audrey Goodfriend, Doug the MAC

Contemporary Anarchist Studies: from Activism to the Academy

This workshop will explore the implications for nonviolent change presented in the recent volume of collected essays, Contemporary Anarchist Studies. This interactive session will discuss the process, substance, and utility of the book–the first academic anthology of anarchism meant for a wide readership to be released in decades–and will apply shared understandings of anarchism to current issues ranging from homelessness and climate change to globalization and social movements.

presenter: Randall Amster

Creating a New Anarchist Synthesis: the anarchist critiques of capitalism, state and identity

What is the next evolution of anarchist practical theory and theory-informed-practice? Why not a new synthesis starting from the absolute refusal of self-alienation, ideology and enslavement in any form?

Explore what this means for uniquely anarchist critiques of capitalism, state and identity that go well beyond merely Marxist-derived critiques of capital, left-anarchist critiques of the state and all the debilitating forms of identity politics.

presenter: Jason McQuinn

Greeks!

Published authors from the VOID Network from Athens, Greece will join a US anarchist to discuss the world-famous riots that shook Greece in December 2008 (which were a response to the police killing of a teenager in the “ungovernable” district of Exarchia). This is a rare opportunity to hear about a major historical event directly from the participants!

The speakers will also delve into the broader context of popular revolt and state counterinsurgency in Greece, Catalunya (Spain), and the UK, exploring how social contexts that support or discourage revolt are created in a contest between the state and grassroots social struggles.

Habituation & The Plasticity of Our Psychogeographical Landscapes

An Insurrectionary Analysis of the Theory of Habit, and the Implementation of its Reconstruction

This presentation will draw upon the works of William James, Marx, Debord, Bonanno, as well as various anarchist authors in an attempt to explore the intersections, and possibilities, of an Anarchist understanding of Psychological Theory. The workshop will begin as a presentation on an Insurrectionary analysis of the theory of Habit, and the implementation of its reconstruction, and will then be followed by a discussion of other psychological theories that may expand the limits of anarchist theory such as, Socio-cultural theory, and Neuroscience.

presenter: Derek

Liberating the Imagination

There is a problem that could be called global, but that concerns me more because it pervades anarchist circles these days: a poverty of practical imagination. Practical imagination describes the capacity to see and grasp varieties of possibilities that may spring from the actualities around us. It has also been describes as "creative pre-commitment". This lack is evident both in terms of longer term visions and in terms of immediate possibilities. Its symptoms include a need for models and a tendency to entrench positions which tend to undermine theoretico-practical activity in favor of ideology and ritualized activism. This will be a workshop of exercises intended to stimulate imagination. It's playtime.

presenter: Apio Ludd

Murdering the Dead:

Capitalism's Singularity Versus the Human Community

An exploration of the disastrous progress of the dominant social system and it's war with the human community. I will use the writings of Amadeo Bordiga, Guy Debord and Ray Kurzweil to trace the paradoxical development of the US "biomedical health care complex". I hope to cast light on Capitalism's relationship to living existence.

presenter: Red Hughes

Occupation, Indigeneity & Defense

Three theoretical currents will be the shape of radical foment in our life times— Occupation: the act of seizing that which defines you; as a student, a worker, or the displaced Indigeneity: the connection between people and land, established over time and in relationship Defense: fighting where you stand. The question for the occupation movement (especially the “occupy everything” wing) is how, or whether it can work with indigenous currents. The question for both is whether a defensive posture will be enough to stand the flood that results from the end of neo-liberalism.

presenter: Aragorn!

Open Space Thread: Capitalism

Our lives are dominated by exchange relationships and when we finally wake up and attempt to understand this phenomena the only tools that are available are from Marxists. For many, this is enough. For us, it is not. We hope to explore this and perhaps begin to talk about where an anarchist theory of capitalism would begin.

Open Space Thread: Identity

Threaded through any work we do are questions about who we are. It is easy to succumb to the groups that claim either that identity is essential or that it’s irrelevant. Neither of these simplistic perspectives actually reflect our experiences. We can find a better way to talk about this, we can figure out how who we are is both fluid and meaningful, static and contextual.

Open Space Thread: Space

If radicals in the twentieth century were captivated by the strategy of organizing in the workplace it isn’t outrageous to believe the 21st century will be equally focused on location. We will fight where we stand and there is a lot to develop if we are going to do it right.

Philosophical, Metaphysical, Theological, Sick & Twisted Explorations of Identity

This presentation is inspired by two books of Pierre Klossowski. First his 1966 novel le baphomet about the knights templar, and dedicated to Michel Foucault, then Nietszche and the Vicious circle, first published in 1969. Oh, and the poetry of William Blake. This lecture will entertain, both seriously and whimsically, two propositions:

1. like it or not, we always already have an eternal identity
2. identity and community are the same, though known differently according to the expansion or contraction of our senses.
These propositions may or may not be mutually exclusive...
presenter: Lew

Technology & Anarchism

Discussion Group

From the Luddite movements of the 18th century to current trends in anarcho-primitivism, resistance and technology have not been friends. Yet in the face of new challenges in social interaction and the growth of technology in everyday life, is there a place for technology in the anarchist movement? Should the anarchist movement embrace technology to seek a cyberpunk future? Or should it treat technology as just another arm of oppression?

The discussion seeks to hash out these arguments and find out how the anarchism can survive in a technolust mindfuck.
presenter: Hackbloc.org Collective