The Last, Whole Introduction to Agorism

by Samuel Edward Konkin III (SEK3

!a"ers o# the Libertarian Le#t, $%

Papers of the Libertarian Left (PALL)is a series of writings by members of the Alliance (ALL). The Alliance of the Libertarian Left is a multi-tendency coalition of mutualists, agorists, voluntaryists, geolibertarians, left- othbardians, green libertarians, dialectical anarchists, radical minarchists, and others on the libertarian left, united by an opposition to statism and militarism, to cultural intolerance (including se!ism, racism, and homophobia), and to the prevailing corporatist capitalism falsely called a free mar"et# as well as by an emphasis on education, direct action, and building alternative institutions, rather than on electoral politics, as our chief strategy for achieving liberation. $ore information is available at http%&&www.all-left.net.

The Last, Whole Introduction to Agorism

by Samuel Edward Konkin III (SEK3 Originally published in The Agorist Quarterly, Fall 1995, Volume One, Number One. Reprinted in ALLiance a journal of theory and strategy, Samhain/Yule !!", #eta $ssue. Agorism, unfortunately, needs an introduction. 'ounter-economics and agorism were originally fighting concepts, forged in what seemed to be the ever-cresting revolution of ()*+-*,, and which proved to be the last wave instead. evolutionary rhetoric or not, agorism arose in a time and a conte!t where slogans re-uired e!tensive published analysis and ongoing dialectic criticism with highly committed competing factions. Thus, when the crucible of .The /i!ities0( had cooled, amongst all the garish Party pennants, Trashing rubbish, and e!ploded-1deology ashes lay a hard, bright and accurate theory and methodology. Probably the first economically-sound basis for a revolutionary platform, agorism2s mar"et melted away before it could even get on the display rac". &rigins o# Agorism' (ackground The collapse of the 3erlin 4all was prefigured twenty years earlier by the collapse of statist economics, particularly the 5rthodo! $ar!ism and liberal 6eynesianism. 4ith our release from those reigning dead economists, alternatives flourished from heretical .anarcho0-capitalism to deviationist $ar!ism 7 the more heretical and deviationist, the better. Than"s to the tireless efforts of $urray othbard, paleoconservative (5ld ight) class theory and isolationism was grafted onto (or synthesi8ed with) a free-mar"et economics that was so pure it generated the same systemic shoc" as, say, modern 'hristianity discovering original, primitive 'hristianity. Austrian /chool economics, particularly Ludwig von $ises2 uncompromising pra!eology+, was, most appealingly, un%ompromising. 9urthermore, it re-uired no patch-up or cover-up failures# in fact, in ()*,-*:, it successfully predicted the gold boom and the subse-uent stagflation which so confounded the 5fficial 'ourt ;conomists. $ises died at his moment of triumph% $oses, 'hrist and $ar! to the libertarian movement rising out of the ashes of the <ew Left and its dialectic opponent, the student ight. $urray othbard was the =abriel, /t. Paul and Lenin. ather than watering down pra!eology to gain establishment acceptance and <obel Pri8es (as did 4ilhelm >p"e and 9riedrich ?aye", to name two), othbard insisted on radicali8ing Austrianism still further.,
( ...by which $ mean <ovember ()@, to August ()*:. + /ee, especially, &uman '%tion in any of its numerous editions. , (o)er and *ar+et, his .completion0 of *an, ,%onomy and State had Aust come out.

$ises, though adored by radical rightists from Ayn and to obert 4elch, died calling himself a Liberal, though a ()th century ?apsburg Austrian Liberal, to be sure. othbard, with his academic historian allies Leonard Liggio and Boseph Peden, insisted that Austrianism went beyond the tepid classical liberalism being revived by the $ilton 9riedmans# it demanded not merely limited, constitutional, republican government 7 it re-uired none at all.: ?ow could >p"e counsel 'hristian Cemocrat -an.ler 6onrad Adenauer and 3irchers love $ises when othbard preached outright anarchyD The answer lay in pra!eology2s crucial concept of wertfrei 7 value free. As many critics later pointed out 7 even friendly, libertarian ones 7 economics assumed some values at various levels, such as to ta"e the most blatant e!ample, economic study itself. <evertheless, suppressing conscious valuation allowed $ises to ma"e a far more penetrating analysis devastating to all political illusionists of his time 7 but also allowed his theory to be sold in amputated parcels by selective opportunists and bought by well-meaning but narrow-focused activists. The true meaning of $isesian .Austrian ;conomics0 continues to be hotly debated in the Bournal of Austrian ;conomics, 'ritical eview, and libertarian movement Aournals, but what concerns us here is what it was perceived as being at the founding of 'ounter-;conomics. &rigins o# Agorism' )ounter*Economics Austrian economics answered -uestions. +' 4hy do we value and howD A' 1t is inherent in everyone and it is subAective. +' 4hy do we give up anything at all everD A' 3ecause we subAectively value A more than 3 while some 5ther values 3 more than A. 4e do not relin-uish# we ac-uire a greater value. +' 3ut why would anyone give up something that is universally (or as close as possible) subAectively valued for something of less valueD A' 3ecause that one-thousandth unit of the seemingly more valuable is less subAectively valuable than the first unit of the seemingly lesser. 4ho would consider it folly to trade one2s hundredth loaf of bread for a first diamondD Etility is marginal. +' 4hy do we have moneyD A' 9acilitate trade, "eep -uantitative accounts, ma"e change and store value. +' 9rom where does money comeD : Thus, as 1 reflected bac" to $urray around ()*(, .Fou mean, we2re not classical Liberals, we2re classical adicalsG0

A' 1t arises from commodities e!changed more and more as a middle or medium of e!change. +' 'an government improve on moneyD A' <o, it is strictly a mar"et function. +' 4hat is the result of government intervention anywhere in the mar"etD A' =overnment is force, however legitimi8ed and accepted# all force prevents subAective value satisfaction, that is, whatever human actors voluntarily give up and accept is, by their personal subAective (and un"nowable to others) understanding, the best informed Hsuspe%t -on+in possibly meant to )rite /possible0 rather than /in1ormed0 22 ed.I outcome to them. Any violence that deters their e!change is counter-productive to all the e!changes and to those whose e!changes depend on theirs 7 that is, violent intervention is a uni3ersal disutility in the mar"et. $ises thus concludes that all coercion 7 and that includes government action 7 is not Aust anti-mar"et but inhumane. <ot bad for value free assumptionsG >p"e (author of &umane ,%onomy), ?aye", and even $ises felt that once private force or that of another state entered the mar"etplace, government counter-force was Austified for rectification. 9urthermore, none could conceive of any other way to deal with humane protection. ;nter $urray othbard... and obert Le9evre. &rigins o# Agorism' Anti*!olitics 3etween ()@: and ()*:, the entire political spectrum save for a sliver of .liberal0 machines in the Cemocratic and epublican parties were intensely alienated from politics. The moderate Left had their hopes dashed by 6ennedy2s assassination and loo"ed further Left# the moderate ight pinned their hopes on =oldwater and were driven out of politics by the establishment-medium distortions of his 7 their 7 positions. /ome turned on, tuned in, and dropped out. The rest of us pursued what ;uropeans call so diplomatically e4tra2parliamentary politi%s. othbard and his .;ast 'oast0 libertarians pursued an alliance of alienated .5ld ight0 and .<ew Left0 for a classical revolution. obert Le9evre and his .4est 'oast0 libertarians pursued a civil-disobedience stance% non-participation in state-sanctioned politics, particularly elections and office-holding, coupled with education and activism to e!pand refusal until the /tate could no longer function. 3y ()@), the 4eatherman tactic of e!acerbating /tate violence with its own to accelerate revolution drove othbard to give up his Eltra Left- ight coalition dream, and support peace candidates. Le9evre remained anticollaborationist until his death in ()J@, but civil disobedience and pacifism went out of fashion in the mid-()*Ks. &rigins o# Agorism' )ounter*Economics Thus, when agorism appeared, there were several -uestions to be dealt with beyond the answers of then-current Austrian ;conomics and libertarian politics%

L% 'an the /tate be pra!eologically dispensed withD A% Answering that affirmatively, as both othbard and Le9evre and several others did... L% ?owD ichard and ;rnestine Per"insM, $orris and Linda Tannehill@, and Cavid 9riedman* and the many contributors to 5he 6ibertarian 7onne%tion" gave early answers as to how the mar"et could provide protection agencies which would be competitive 7 eliminating the problem of the inherent coercion of the /tate. Enable to regulate or ta!, able to act only when paid for and as"ed to protect or reclaim property, the agency solved the problem of intervention against subAective-valuing human actors. Arbitration would replace magistration for Austice 7 or at least settling rival claims. 3ut none of them describe the path of getting from here (statism) to there (stateless mar"etplace or agora). Assuming mar"et entrepreneurs would find a way, the strategy for achieving liberty was left as an e!ercise for the readers. 1n the same ()*+ E./. Presidential election where the power elite did to =eorge $c=overn and the non-revolutionary anti-war left what they had done to 3arry =oldwater, a new party emerged. Although the Libertarian Party received a miniscule percentage of the vote and was ignored by everyone from othbard to Le9evre, a rebel elector in Nirginia bolted <i!on2s overwhelming maAority to put Bohn ?ospers and the LP on the political map. 1t turned out to be the high point of the LP2s success, but with the 9ran Foungstein for $ayor 'ampaign in ()*,, conservative and radical libertarians mingled and then repolari8ed. The crucial debate of ()*: was no longer anarchy vs. minarchy, but partyarchy vs. agorism.) The anti-party maAority argued that wor"ing within the political system had failed for two centuries. The new .party anarchists0 or partyar%hs argued that nothing else had wor"ed (everything else, presumably, had been tried in the /i!ties)). At least they had a strategy. 9urthermore, it could be perceived to wor" in stages and even increments as a law was repealed here or a ta! there. 5f course, in the twenty years of the LP2s e!istence, no .retreat of statism0 has been noticeable. The anti-party libertarians were forced to choose between yet another paradigm shift to respond (remember, most had been radicali8ed from conservatism to near 4eathermen) or give up. Those who remained in the fight with their new analysis and corresponding strategy too" the name of the mar"et to oppose themselves to political parties and statism 7 agora. The new paradigm of the agorist was called M Their wor" is long out of print.
@ 5he *ar+et 1or 6iberty (()*K) was reprinted by 9o! O 4il"es (of 'enter for 1ndependent Thought which runs Laisse8 9aire 3oo"s) in ()),. 1t is now available as an audioboo" and pdf. * 5he *a%hinery o1 Freedom has been both reprinted and revised. <aturally, it is the least hard-core of the three. J An .APA0 or amateur press association based on the science-fiction fan8ine concept collating several contributors publications without editing, it has survived since ()*K with one of the original overall .editors0 still active in it, ;rwin .9ilthy Pierre0 /trauss. ) The <ovember ()*+ issue of Ne) 6ibertarian Notes cover story was a debate between LP 9ounder Cavid <olan and antiparty .radical caucus0 Halways lower casedI founder /amuel ;dward 6on"in 111. 3y ()*:, several /tate party newsletters contained debate and discussion on the party2s consistency with principle. Those editors who did not defect to the <ew Libertarian Alliance were purged.

(in tribute to the then-fading 'ounter-'ulture) 'ounter-;conomics. 'ounter-;conomics is the study and practice of the human action in the 'ounter-;conomy. The 'ounter-;conomy is all human action not sanctioned by the /tate. Bust as Luantum $echanics arose by theoretical chemists and physicists refusing to ignore the paradigm-brea"ing e!periments, and elativity arose from ;instein2s acceptance of the $ichelson$orley results, 'ounter-;conomics arose as a theory by ta"ing into account what all standard economics either ignored or downplayed. Bust as light tunneled out of ?aw"ing2s blac" holes, human action tunneled under the control of the state. And this underground economy, blac" mar"et, nale3o ussia turned out to be far, far to vast to ignore as a minor correction. 1n the earliest agorist-influenced science-fiction in ()*M, the story(K predicted the E// would fall to counter-economic forces by ())K and soon thereafter turn into such a free-mar"et paradise that it would be invaded statist world lead by the imperialist E./. (as this article is being written, the last of that prophecy would come to pass). The 'ounter-;conomic alternative gave the agorists a devastating weapon. ather than slowly amass votes until some critical mass would allow state retreat (if the new statists did not change sides to protect their new vested interests), one could commit civil disobedience profitably, dodging ta!es and regulations, having lower costs and (potentially) greater efficiency than one2s statist competitors 7 if any. 9or many goods and services could only arise or be provided counter-economically. 1n ()*M, the <ew Libertarian Alliance left their campuses and aboveground .white mar"et0 Aobs and went full-time counter-economic for a decade to prove the strategy2s viability. 1n ()JK, the longdelayed <ew Libertarian $anifesto was issued to those into party politics or other forms of hopelessness. Agorism Today /urprisingly little systematic research has been done in counter-economics since the agorist discovery a decade after the immersion of the agorist cadre. They surfaced to find a changed political landscape. 1t had been e!pected that their more-timid allies would stay aboveground to conduct officially-sanctioned research, but that failed to happen for now obvious institutional reasons. ?ence, determined to report their findings, ta"e advantage of freedom of the press and academic freedom to do so, and, incidentally, raise families, the publishing cadre formed the Agorist 1nstitute in the libertarian-rich American /outhwest at the end (symbolically) of ()J:. The rest of the history of agorism is the history of The Agorist 1nstitute2s trials and tribulations (which will presumably be published someday). A1 flourished at the end of the ()JK2s, hitting its nadir as counter-economics 7 if not full agorism 7 swept the globe and tossed socialism into the dustbin of history.

(K .Agent for Anarchy0 (()*() the first ann =old story, preceded agorism but the se-uels, .The /tatesman0 (()*,) and .Cragon2s 3ane0 (()*M), were progressively more influenced by it, and the bac"ground history was not set until the third. All were published in <ew Libertarian <otes and its successor, <ew Libertarian 4ee"ly. /ince those early attempts to fill the demand for hard-core libertarian science-fiction, the $ar"et too" an invisible hand, and <eil /chulman, Nictor 6oman, L. <eil /mith, 3rad Linaweaver and many others actually found aboveground publishers to pay them for the stuff.

The ,uture o# Agorism Enli"e in the 'ounter-;conomy itself, agorists had a problem with mar"et feedbac" operating aboveground, especially in the almost-mar"et-devoid realm of ta!-deductible, educational foundations 7 a fund devouring unreality forbidding enough to consume a fat chun" of the 6och family fortune and spit out 'harles and Cavid. Although receiving some financial support from mid-range successful entrepreneurs, A1 attempted to do it all% research support, classes, seminars, academic conferences and publication of Aournals and newsletters (internal and e!ternal). (All the staff had additional Aobs or businesses to support themselves.) ?ence, the ())M revival also mar"s the A12/ tenth anniversary and the long-awaited and delayed publication of this -uarterly. 5nce again, we embar" on studying the vast iceberg below the tip 7 the 'ounter-;conomy 7 and report our findings. To avoid our previous pitfalls, A1 is focusing on three selfsupporting (in short order) publications% '8, the already-appearing but infre-uent Ne) $solationist, and new moment-by-moment newsletter of the primary concern, 7ounter2,%onomi%s. The test or preview issue, PK, follows this Aournal. The world has changed in a second decade 7 but, strangely enough, the ussian nale3o mar"et is still there to study after the /econd evolution 7 only this time, we will not be able to rely on '1Asponsored published accounts.(( ?ow will the ;uropean 'ounter-;conomy, particularly the 3lac" Labor mar"et, fare with the dropping of bordersD 4hat about 'anada2s and $e!ico2s .informal0 economies with the passage of <A9TAD 1s ?ernando de /oto2s ;l 5tro /endero going to win over Abimael =u8man2s /endero Luminoso, especially after betrayal by de /oto2s alleged political (partyarch) disciples, $ario Nargas Llosa and then Alberto 9uAimoriD ecently, the former 'omandate 'ero of the Tercerista (uncompromising) faction of the /andanistas, ;den Pastora, chose the agorist 6arl ?ess 'lub to announce his candidacy for President of <icaragua. And what about the Enited /tatesD ?ow does all of the above affect America2s counter-economic foreign interface Hacademic for .the smuggling industry0ID 4hat effect will 'linton2s /tate medicine do to the health-providing serviceD 4ill all medical treatment end up li"e ()MK2s abortion, and will people grab free needles at the A1C/-prevention center to give to their blac" doctors for unauthori8ed immuni8ation of their children who cannot wait their .turn0 (due after their scheduled death, as in 'anada and ;ngland)D ;very issue in today2s press from 3osnia to 5"lahoma 'ity has an overloo"ed 'ounter-;conomic component that A1 can e!plore, compile and publish. 5ther areas can be e!cavated from the underground that will be%ome issues once e!posed and e!plained, and then there is the new battleground for agorists and statists% cyberspace, where cypherpun" agorist road warriors have an early lead over the =ore statist superhighwaymen. 3ut, finally and overall, the issue needing the most attention is that of agorism itself. To the e!tent that it is .agorology0 and not Aust ideology, what is and should be its methodologyD 4e most urgently invite our newly awa"ened and empowered students of agorism and multi-disciplinarians of countereconomics to contribute their first 7 and second 7 thoughts on the subAect. Are some methods out of bounds in agorism that are academically acceptable, for e!ampleD 5r are some methods acceptable in
((/ome e!cellent studies were done by Cmitri /imes and his son.

counter-economic study that are unacceptable to academic researchersD 'an we )ert1rei when we are obviously attracted to the 3lac" as Cepartments of $ar!ist /tudies are to the edD /hould there be %ompeting methodologiesD (1n case there was the least doubt, A1 encourages one, two, many agorist foundations.) And what about that new Power $ac e-uipment to hoo" up to the Nideo ToasterD 1s traditional publishing enough or should it be supplemented 7 or supplanted 7 by full-scale video production passed along by videotape 7 or hurtled through the 1nternet li"e .3rea"er, brea"er0 truc"s on the information superhighwayD /hould AL continue to appear on paper, or in .PC9 on-line files as -ew Libertarian maga8ine is now doingD <ow it is the . ightist0 $ilitia instead of <ew Left cadre blowing up federal buildings and protesting massacres of peaceful women and children, but fighting for freedom against the American ;mpire is turning serious again. 1n an important way, our <ineties are li"e the /i!ties% we don2t "now where we2re going to end up, but we "now we2re on our way. 5r, in )K2s parlance, as our children2s spo"esperson would say, when as"ed about .the future,0 agorists answer, .The 9utureD 4e2re there.0

Samuel Edward Konkin III (aka SEK3 was the author of the <ew Libertarian $anifesto and a proponent of the political philosophy which he called agorism. Agorism is a leftward evolution of anarcho-capitalism, and subset of mar"et anarchism. 1n the introduction to <ew Libertarian $anifesto he credited $urray othbard, obert Le9evre, and Ludwig von $ises as influences. Li"e othbard, 6on"in saw libertarianism as a movement of the radical left. ?e was a founder of the Agorist 1nstitute and the $ovement of the Libertarian Left. 6on"in reAected voting, believing it to be inconsistent with libertarian ethics. ?e li"ewise opposed involvement in the Libertarian Party, which he regarded as a statist co-option of libertarianism. 6on"in presents his strategy for achieving a libertarian society in his aforementioned manifesto. /ince he reAected voting and other means by which people typically aim to change, reform, or Qfight the system from the inside,Q his approach necessarily aimed at fighting Qthe systemQ from without. /pecifically, he encouraged people to withdraw their consent from the state by moving their economic activities into the blac" mar"et and grey mar"et where they would be unta!ed and unregulated. 6on"in was a proponent of historical revisionism, and while he personally reAected ?olocaust denial, became active in support of the 1nstitute for ?istorical eview on the grounds that their freedom of speech was under attac". 6on"in is critici8ed in the boo" Anarchism% Left, ight, and =reen by Elri"e ?eider for this stance. 6on"in was interested in T/ 2s role-playing game Cungeons O Cragons, and contributed a newsletter to the role-playing fan8ine 2Alarums and ;!cursions2 for many years, starting in the late ()*K2s. ?e described the ongoing adventures of his group of characters in a COC universe. 5ne copy of the newsletter2s cover featured them hanging COC co-author and president of T/ =ary =yga! from a tree limb over a rule dispute. 6on"in was editor and publisher of the irregularly produced <ew Libertarian <otes (()*(-()*M), the <ew Libertarian 4ee"ly (()*M-()*J), and finally <ew Libertarian maga8ine (()*J-())K), the last issue of which was a special science fiction tribute featuring a obert A. ?einlein cover (issue (J*, ())K). (lease 3isit ))).agorism.in1o 1or more in1ormation on the )or+ o1 S,-9. Agora. . Anarchy. . .Action/

co"y and distribute