Practical Revolution Conference - an anarchist response

WORKSHOPS:

"Activism as a hobby"
Some folks like model airplanes, others enjoy bowling. Come learn how to become an activist through purchasing buttons and stickers online to represent any physical action you've considered taking.

"Conscious non-consumption"
It's true, we all have basic needs that require consumption - food, clothing, toilet paper, etc. But what happens if our physical needs can only be acquired through working for wages in order to purchase mass produced products? What if the laborers who produce these products are paid "livable wages" but remain dependent on the capitalist wage system and not in control of the means of production? How many pairs of (insert disposable item here) do we need to be happy anyways? We'll try to address these difficult questions by dropping acid and diving into dumpsters in order to create our own items, strictly for use value. Fuck recycled big gulp holders.

"Breaking the Abstraction of Westernized Education"
Rather than sit in a classroom under artificial light connected to the power grid, listening to domesticated humans with many college degrees and tons of debt, talk about compartmentalized issues, we'll take off our shoes and walk amongst the trees and grasslands, and try to experience directly the divinity of living wild and free. Leave/destroy your ipods/ringtones, we'll make up our own songs, and sing them as one, loudly, and without fear. Guest speaker, some girl dressed as a bear with fairy wings.

"Television culture, Corporate power, the 2 ruling parties, and the Facade of American Democracy"
Coke or Pepsi? Democrat or Republican? Who's got a prettier face? From keeping out 3rd party candidates from the debates, to polling candidates on their "electibility" (as opposed to ideas), if there's one thing the 2 ruling parties and the 4th estate can agree on it's that they have no intention of sharing power w/ any other entities and will destroy any attempts to reform our deeply flawed system. Come learn about how all governments exist to facilitate and regulate the flow of commerce through the monopolization of violence and concentration of power into the hands of the few. Guest speaker - Ralph Nader mannequin.

"Recognizing the Sacred"
There are 4 elements that all living beings need in order to exist - water, air, earth, and fire. These things are sacred. To commodify, process, or deny anyone these things is to deny the birthright of all living creatures. We'll discuss how Western civilization is fundamentally against these principles due to its belief in private property, and how we can decolonize our minds from it. Guest element - the San Lorenzo River.

"Practical activism for the practically minded...what we really need are revolutionaries"
Liberation cannot be taught in a classroom, it is something that can only be understood through direct experience. Institutionalized forms of resistance can only scratch the surface, but more likely, only pave the way for future generations of technocrats and check book activists. It is the difference between watching a documentary on Oaxaca versus organizing a non-hierarchical revolution here at home. Single issue campaigns are important, but in the long run, creating a culture less dependent on authority, profit, and technology are the only ways we will free ourselves.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER (via telepathic channeling): Assata Shakur.