What is Agorism?
Agorism is a branch of market anarchism. It was shaped in the 1970s by Samuel Edward Konkin III, a writer born in Canada who later lived in the United States. The name comes from agora, the Greek word for a public marketplace. Like anarcho-capitalists, agorists want a world with no state, where every exchange is voluntary. Their big difference is the method. They say elections and parties only feed the state. They want people to make a living through counter-economics: trade that ignores taxes, licences and rules. In their view each such deal weakens the state a little and builds the free society they want.
Core beliefs
- Taxation is theft, and the state has no rightful claim over what people earn.
- Peaceful trade between consenting adults should never need a licence or a permit.
- Voting and party politics give the state more legitimacy, so agorists stay out of them.
- Free people should move their work, money and savings into black and grey markets.
- Konkin divided society into productive people and a ruling class that lives off taxes and favours.
- The way you act should match the world you want, so change must be peaceful.
History
Konkin spoke at libertarian meetings in the 1970s, and the word agorism dates from the middle of that decade. He ran the Movement of the Libertarian Left and put out newsletters that spread the idea. The novelist J. Neil Schulman gave it a story in Alongside Night (1979), set during an economic collapse in which agorist traders thrive. Konkin set out his case in the New Libertarian Manifesto (1980). Murray Rothbard, the leading anarcho-capitalist, argued back that political action still mattered, and Konkin replied. Konkin died in 2004. Since then the idea has had a second life online, mostly among people who like cryptography and digital money.
Variants
Classical agorists stay close to Konkin's manifesto and his theory of classes. Left agorists, who stress his place on the libertarian left, link counter-economics with co-operatives, mutual aid and distrust of large firms. Crypto-agorists put the weight on encrypted tools and online markets, which they see as a way to trade where governments cannot easily look.
Criticisms
Rothbard doubted that counter-economics could ever beat a state, and thought agorism had no workable plan. Other critics say the plan suits freelancers and small traders far better than employees. Critics outside libertarian circles say that dodging tax and regulation pushes costs onto others, starves public services and can shelter fraud and unsafe goods. Some also note that many black markets run on threats and organised crime, which is not the peaceful trade agorists describe.
In practice
No country has been run on agorist lines. Followers point to informal markets, unlicensed small firms, tax resistance, local currencies and barter as everyday counter-economics. On the 12 axes the profile sits at the extreme end of Authority and Structure toward Democratic and Local, and at the free end of Markets. Interest grew when Bitcoin and darknet markets appeared, and some users cited Konkin to explain their actions. Agorism stays small, but it keeps a loyal following inside libertarian and anarchist circles.