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PIA Presentation

Write the Revolution: Ditch Corporate Software, Own Your Tools & Fight Techbro-Fascism

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those who still define the master’s house as their only source of support.” -Audre Lord

Corporate Tech is Funding Fascism

Big Tech’s surveillance capitalism, Software-as-a-subscription (SaaS), and AI monopolies are suffocating local democratic movements and extracting the most valuable resource know to us from our communities; knowledge. Hosting our own propaganda, managing campaigns, building our own systems, and outsmarting algorithms without relying on Silicon Valley’s surveillance tools is critical for the long term development of the leftist movement.

Join Reed Larsen (artist, propagandist, developer) in this 75-minute workshop to on how to (and why it is revolutionary to) deploy alternative systems to publish anything. You’ll:

  • Get access up and write to a Changemaker server (open source and free website, newsletter, CRM + propaganda tools)
  • Crash-course FOSS, agentic systems, and guerrilla digital organizing
  • Pit Leo (DIY activist) vs. Gemini (corporate-dependent pawn) in a story of revolutionary vs. status-quo tactics

Leave this session with practical, hands on knowledge on how to run a build, maintain, and grow a digital presence for a political movement without reliance on the masters tools. Keep the theoretical wisdom and help us build a alternative digital future.

Plus DOOR PRIZES for some lucky participants.

"The medium is the message" -Marshall McLuhan

What You Need

This session is a theoretical session with a passive practical interactive element. You can attend and listen or you can attend and participate. If you choose to participate, you will need a personal computing device (smartphone will do). You will not be asked to download or install anything, just participate in a open note taking session.

What You’ll Do:

🔥 Act 1: Open the Portal (00:00–15:00)

  • Get Logged In: Meet your presenter and get logged in (if yeah wanna)
  • Meet Leo & Gemini: Two paths for activists—self-reliance vs. corporate capture.
  • Software Definitions: Set some common knowledge and definitions for the room so we can build systems together.

🤖 Act 2: Weaponize FOSS & AI (15:00–40:00)

  • Crash-course: FOSS vs. SaaS, techbro-fascism, and why your corporate software is leaking.
  • Talk Like Mushrooms/Why We Need To Talk About Ostriches: Understand some of the core concepts behind decentralized communications and why need need to empower people to talk about the ostriches
  • Follow Their Career: Keep up with Leo & Gemini in their organizing and now much more diverging paths.

⚡ Act 3: Rewire the Future (40:00–55:00)

  • Socialism vs. Techbro-fascism: How open-source tech can end labor exploitation and redistribute power and why this is imperative in both the short and long strategy.
  • End-State Negotiation: Who represents the people best? Leo vs. Gemini on the main stage!

🎯 Finale: Take the Power (55:00–1:15)

  • Share the Knowledge: Learn how to quickly share digital content in-real-life (IRL) and how to build followings while keeping yourself safe.
  • Open Discussion: Have a open discussion about communication technologies future and how we might best build it.

Who Is Reed?

You can read more about Reed here: thatreallyblondehuman.com

You can check out a demonstration site here: freealberta.org

In this context Reed is:

  • Political Hack: Elected UofA Students’ Union President & Former Lobbyist | Janzoganda Lead for Councillor Michael Janz
  • Corporate Defector: Ex-SaaS sales, smart home enthusiast, home builder, drone startup founder, and retired gutter cleaner 🪜.
  • Artist: Art in everything, everything in art. We imagine a future and get their through the magic of storytelling.

Why Attend?

  • FREE FOR LIFE: Leave with the fundamental language needed to escape corporate subscriptions and up your own web-server for life
  • No More Secrets: Learn why your org’s corporate software is a liability and how to encrypt, self-host, and organize under the radar.
  • Fight Smarter: Turn computing from a surveillance tool into a revolutionary ally.

Techbro-fascism wins when we depend on its tools. Lets build our power, not rent it from Google. Knowledge is key to breaking free.