Agorism

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Not to be confused with Agrarianism or Anarcho-Nihilism.

"[T]he consistent application of the theory of libertarianism to every action the individual libertarian takes creates the libertarian society."

Samuel Edward Konkin III

Agorism, shortened to A³ (Anarchy, Agora, Action), is an Anarchist, economically right-wing and anti-copyright ideology.

First proposed by Samuel Edward Konkin III, Agorism is generally more about the means than the ends. It, in short, states that the best way to achieve a free society is peaceful, through participation in all forms of trade (legal or illegal) which do not violate the Non-Aggression Principle.

To this end Agorism promotes Grey and Black markets, while advocating against Red markets. Grey markets are those which are legal but outside the framework of the state, Black markets are those which are illegal but not violent, and Red markets are those which are violent (ie those which violate the NAP). The focus of Agorism is on counter-economics, which are defined as the sum of all non-aggressive Human Action which is forbidden by the State.

Some people tend to say Agorism is a Left-Libertarian ideology or that it is a Left Market Anarchist ideology and that it is not related to right-wing market anarchism in any way, though others argue that this definition of leftism is inconsistent with that used by most leftists.

History

The history of the term comes from the word Agora, which comes from Ancient Greek as the word ἀγορά, referring to an open space in which a market takes place in a "polis" (πόλις) or city. About the ideology itself, according to Konkin, Agorism was a concept founded on a context of political alienation as it was the 60s and 70s. He credits mainly the Austrian School of economics and economists such as Ludwig von Mises as main inspirations for the economic beliefs and the creation of Agorism in general.

Konkin says that during the 70s, in said context of political alienation, Libertarianism gained force and divided in two wings, Rothbardianism, who chose to create alliances with matching movements (on some instances), such as the Paleoconservative movement and the New Left, to influence people into the Libertarian movement, which later resulted in blends such as the Paleolibertarians and the Left-Rohbardians; and Robert LeFevre and his West Coast followers, who advocated for a "non-participatory form of civil disobedience". Later, according to Konkin, this second wing lost power and faded away, and with the creation of the Libertarian Party the Libertarian discussion polarized between Partyarchism and Agorism as the proposed methods to achieve the Libertarian ideal society.

Beliefs and Foundations

Agorists believe that the state inherently creates violence while holding a monopoly on it. Because of this, Agorists hold the core belief that the best possible way to achieve a free society (a stateless society based around voluntary association and free markets) is through peaceful revolution via counter economics, as already defined, the enhancement of any non-violent act prohibited by the government such as black markets, drugs, or any kind of disobedience. This would, through profitable civil disobedience, eventually lead to "starving the state", transferring its current duties towards decentralized institutions provided by the market. In Konkin's words: "Rather 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 taxes and regulations, having lower costs and (potentially) greater efficiency than one's statist competitors – if any."

Opposition to political parties

Consequently, because of opposing democracy as a valid method for the achievement of a free society, he also opposes the method by which libertarians, through democracy, try to meet this end. Agorism doesn't support any party as a mean of transition towards free market anarchism. The methods of organizations such as the US Libertarian Party aren't compatible with Agorist philosophy or praxis at all. In regards to what he calls 'partyarchy', he says "Partyarchy, the anti-concept of pursuing libertarian ends through statist means."

Opinion on property

Having established that although sometimes being regarded as Left-Market Anarchists or Left-Libertarians Agorists are indeed Right-wing Libertarians (with regards to property), but a more indepth explanation on Agorism opinion on property and entrepreneurs, etc... is still useful.
Agorism divides owners of the means of production in three groups. Entrepreneurs, holders of capital, and state capitalists. Agorism's opinion on each are good, neutral and bad respectively.
Agorism believes that the first group is the strength of the free market, risk takers and producers; the second group are relatively drone-like non-innovators; and the third group is the main evil of society, the real and true biggest beneficiaries of government. This differenciation is different from that which anarcho-capitalists make, who conflate the first and second group, and contrary to marxists', who conflate all three. However, due to the left wing market anarchist strand being influenced by agorism, some agorists are mutualists on the left, some are anarcho-capitalists, opinions different between each agorists.

Variants

Cooperative Agorism

Cooperative agorism, is "a social strategy, that consists of influencing the political landscape by means of peacefully improving and strengthening civil society in critical ways." It aims to abolish both state coercion (taxation) and capitalist surplus (profit) by reconstructing economy and civil society from the ground upward, It integrates agorist counter‑economics, cooperative production, syndicalist transformation, venture communism, and decentralized governance into a coherent ideological praxis forming emergent dual‑power institutions.

Simultaneously, cooperative agorism insists that political or electoral change is insufficient; instead, power must be built through non‑state economic structures designed from first principles.

This praxis involves worker cooperatives, organized under the seven core cooperative principles (voluntary membership, democratic control, equitable surplus distribution, autonomy, education, mutual cooperation, and community concern). These enterprises replace wage labor and capitalist profit through democratic governance and fair distribution of labor’s fruits.

Since agorism alone often addresses small-scale self-employment, cooperative agorism endorses an agorist‑syndicalist alliance: using labor union organization or direct action to transform formal white‑market enterprises into counter‑economic, worker‑run cooperatives. Such transformation creates pathways for full‑time wage workers to participate in agorist economy and aligns with the dual‑power strategy of building new institutions within and beyond capitalist structures.

Cooperative agorism believes that it can considered as a form of venture communism in which capital goods and infrastructure are held in common by a democratically governed venture commune, which leases them to co‑ops, funds new ventures non‑extractively, and seeks to outcompete venture capital in provisioning capital in order to socialize progress which can theoretically lead to communism.

Cooperative agorism also considers decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and open-source, peer‑to‑peer platforms supply digital infrastructure for transparent, horizontal coordination across cooperatives, communes, and informal networks. These tools support mutual credit, governance, and resistance to state surveillance, enabling cooperative networks to scale.

Agora-Syndicalism

Agora-syndicalism is a left-libertarian theory that supports an alliance between agorists and syndicalists to completely defeat the white market and guarantee a more fair and equal market. Agora-syndicalists hold that their support of syndicalism (actually not unlike the right-wing of anarcho-capitalism) is influenced by the Left-Rothbardian homesteading principle, which states that legitimate property ownership can only be derived from the personal application of labor or direct trade from the person who last owned it, which naturally extends to all property that belongs to the state. Thus Rothbard used it to justify Yugoslavia's market socialism, since he believed that the market reforms followed the Confiscation principle, which states that all property who do not fall under the homesteading principle should be transferred to those who are legitimately using the property, which pretty much translates in real life to selective syndicalism since the people who are actively applying labor to produce this property are the workers themselves. Agora-Syndicalism adopts this theory and expands it to all of the white market since it believes all of the big bourgeoisie are in natural alliance with the state's interests, collectivizing the confiscation principle and creating a natural alliance of the black market agora and syndicalists. It believes in a fusion of both vertical (buying goods from farmers markets and community farms, rooftop gardening, personal and community use of solar power and aquaponic systems, community toolshares and skillshares, homesteading, urban farming, community protection networks, and free schools) and horizontal (unlicensed businesses, tax evasion, smuggling, drug dealing, harboring undocumented immigrants, gun running, squatting, and alternative currencies) agorism as the starting basis of their praxis, but furthermore it believes that an alliance with syndicalists can lead to collectivization of the white market bourgeois property, aiming to subsume it into black/grey market activity through syndicalism, thus expanding the ordinary agorist praxis but also guaranteeing a new results of agorism which will accommodate workers and the lower economic classes who are dispossessed from ordinary capitalism, and actively producing a radically competitive non-state economy through the combined efforts of syndicalists and agorists to create a horizontal market economy outside of the hands of the state.

Personality and Behaviour

He is a staunch black market vendor and acts like the stereotypical black market seller from pop culture. and always tries to sell his goods to another Balls in the comics, and he also hates being caught by the police.

How to Draw

Flag of Agorism

Emblem of Agorism

1. Draw a ball,
2. Fill it with grey,
3. Draw a diagonal line and fill the bottom part with black,
4. (Optional) Draw a white circle in the center and write A³ in it.
5. Draw eyes and you are done!

Color Name		HEX	RGB
	Grey	#7F7F7F	rgb(127, 127, 127)
	Black	#202020	rgb(32, 32, 32)
	White	#FFFFFF	rgb(255, 255, 255)

Relationships

Friends

• Anarcho-Capitalism - Based!
• Illegalism - My #1 customer. Though I'm scared he might rob me.
• Mutualism - He's free market and he doesn't like the state. We disagree on property rights, but he's still cool in my book.
• Left-Rothbardianism - A fellow believer in right wing economics for left wing endgoals.
• Austrian School - The only good school of economics.
• Anarcho-Pacifism - Based and understands that the government's destruction doesn't need to come from violence. Just appreciate the value of counter-economics more! Also please ignore Schulman supporting the war on terror, he changed his mind on that after seeing the results!
• Anarcho-Frontierism - Our economic ideas are similar, specially regarding markets, and his method of creating anarchism "within" the frontier provides an interesting alternative to my methods - wanna read Heinlein together one of these days?
• Distributist-Libertarianism - Different means but similar goals.
• Anarcho-Nihilism - Our flags are very similar! But it doesn't make sense, does it?
  • It doesn't make sense like anything in this world. Just sell me my f*cking gun and weed.

• Left-Wing Market Anarchism - He gets it!
• Soulism - You wanna buy some death sticks?
• Techno-Anarchism - My younger cousin, we sell stuff on the darknet together.

Frenemies

• Piratism - Also doesn't like copyright, but why the electoralism?
• Insurrectionary Anarchism - Wanting to end the state is based, but my method is better. At least he buys my weapons.
• Avaritionism - I'm not usually the type to tell others what they can and can't buy, but perhaps we shouldn't be hiring hitmen.
• Jihadism - Hey at least I have lots of money from you guys… right?
• Neo-Libertarianism - Most anarchists would want nothing to do with a imperialistic, tax-paying excuse for a "libertarian" like you, but Neil Schulman supported the War on Terror for pragmatic reasons, so I'll tolerate you for now.
• Anarcho-Communism - We both want to end the state, but we really don't get along regarding property rights. At least he's a loyal costumer when it comes to selling him weaponry.
• Apoliticism - You are fed up with voting and political parties, but you don't want to really do anything about them?
• Propertarianism - THIS IS MY OWN PRIVATE DOMICILE AND I WILL NOT BE HARASSED, B****! What do you mean I can't just sell off your barely used 3rd summer house right now? At least you don't like the state.
• Hoppeanism - Good friend, but your seperatism is pretty meh.
• Ingsoc - Your whole economy works on my principles...
• Juche - Your totalitarianism and socialism are highly cringe, but thank you for letting me set up black markets in your country!

Enemies

• Corporatocracy - Black market go whoosh!
• Minarchism - Damn Nozick and his Nozis...
• Democracy - Voting is violence!
• Capitalism - I like markets and I like trade, but quite frankly you're a tool of statist oppression and anti-Anarchist, so I have no intention of keeping you around if we ever end up abolishing the state.
• State Capitalism - See what I mean?
• Regulationism - Your rules mean nothing to me down here.
• Police Statism - Pigs keep trying to shut my shit down.
• Marxism-Leninism - I made a lot of money smuggling goods into your societies. Your grandson is kinda cool, though.
• White Nationalism - Just because I supported your right to free speech doesn't mean I actually support your stupid violent and oppressive cause, you damn literal Nozi!
• Duterteism - Why do you want to kill my 3 million customers?
• Authoritarian Conservatism - I enjoy smuggling porn and drugs into your countries.
• State Liberalism and State Atheism - I enjoy smuggling meat and bibles into your countries.
• Hoxhaism - Isolating yourself from the rest of the world does not stop me from smuggling western goods into Albania.
• Isolationism - Nothing stops me from smuggling ice cream to Turkmenistan!
• Protectionism - Your border does not stop me from smuggling goods.
• Timocracy - Why yes I sold your 3rd unused house without permission. Problem?
• Neo-Enlightenment - Nozi, Corporate, Democratic...

Further Information

For overlapping political theory see:

Left-Wing Market Anarchism, Anarcho-Individualism, Anarcho-Capitalism, Left-Rothbardianism, Mutualism, Austrian School, Techno-Anarchism, Anarcho-Pacifism

Literature

• An Agorist Primer by Samuel Edward Konkin III
• New Libertarian Manifesto by Samuel Edward Konkin III
• Last Whole Introduction to Agorism by Samuel Edward Konkin III
• Alongside Night by J. Neil Schulman

Wikipedia

• Agorism
• Counter-economics
• Samuel Edward Konkin III (SEK3)
• Agora
• Silk Road
• J.Neil Schulman

TV Tropes

• Black Market
• Friend in the Black Market
• Venturous Smuggler

YouTube

Videos

• Alongside Night - The Full Movie

Gallery

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  u/droctagonapus Source
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