A-Infos (en) US, Berkeley, 2010, The 11th Annual BASTARD conference - Update

ntroduction ---- Announcing the 11th Annual Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And 
Research & Development (BASTARD) conference. The conference will happen Sunday March 14th 
10 am - 6 pm at UC Berkeley. ---- 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
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