You've seen the T-shirts, been to the parties, and voted for the political candidates. Now buy the book. That's the message from Work Less Party founder and Vancouver-based activist Conrad Schmidt.

And on May 30 at 8 p.m., Schmidt will unveil his new book, Workers of the World Relax, to the public at the Heritage Hall on Main Street. Schmidt told the Straight he has had a “painful”  year cramming his numerous ideas into written (143-page) form. But now it's done, he says, and, $3,000 and change later, the first 1,000 WLP-published copies are available to willing consumers at $15 each.

So how does an avowed anticonsumerist, one who eschews mindless buck-chasing, cough up the capital for such a venture?

“All you do is do it by credit card and hope the event pays,”  Schmidt said by phone during a May 9 move back to the Commercial Drive area. “That's what we've done with all the parties we've ever had and that's how we've paid the bands [that played at the parties]. So far it's always a break-even or small profit, which we then spend immediately on a media stunt...On the bright side, we want some donors to help us write the whole [book] thing off.” 

Despite Schmidt's humorous comments, his book is anything but light and is an eye-watering kick in the crotch for anyone who believes the world economic system””and its twins, capitalism and globalization””is sustainable now or into the near future.

As the title suggests, Schmidt says, it's time to slow down and stop working overtime to produce consumer goods “that mostly just wind up in landfills” .

“We are proudly breaking our backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet,”  states Schmidt in his introduction.