Samuel Edward Konkin III

Samuel Edward Konkin III (aka SEK3) (July 8, 1947 - February 23, 2004) was the author of "The New Libertarian Manifesto" and a proponent of the political philosophy which he called agorism. Agorism is a leftward evolution of anarcho-capitalism, and subset of market anarchism.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he had an apartment in a building on 7th Street in Long Beach, California, as did several libertarian science fiction fans including J. Neil Schulman, Victor Koman, and others; because of this the small complex became nick-named the Anarcho-Village (a similar building in which Konkin had lived in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood had been known as the Anarchoslum). During this time he was also close friends with Dana Rohrabacher, who later became a U. S. Congressman.

Konkin argued against voting, and specifically opposed involvement in the Libertarian Party, which he regarded as a statist co-option of libertarianism. In " [http://www.blackcrayon.com/library/mll/nlm/ The New Libertarian Manifesto] " he explained how he believed a libertarian society could come about. This would theoretically be through a process of people withdrawing their consent to be governed by the state, and moving their economic activities into the black market and grey market where they would be untaxed and unregulated. Konkin used the term counter-economics to describe this approach. In the introduction to "The New Libertarian Manifesto" he credited Murray Rothbard, Robert LeFevre, and Ludwig von Mises as influences.

Unlike many libertarians, Konkin saw libertarianism as a movement of the left. He was a founder of the Agorist Institute and the Movement of the Libertarian Left. The novel "Alongside Night" by J. Neil Schulman is based on Konkin's political ideas as are the science fiction novels of Victor Koman. Konkin was a proponent of historical revisionism, and while not known to advocate Holocaust denial himself, became active in support of the Institute for Historical Review on the grounds that their freedom of speech was under attack. Konkin is criticized in the book "Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green" by Ulrike Heider for this stance. [cite book |last=Heider |first=Ulrike |title=Anarchism |publisher=City Lights Books |location=San Francisco |year=1994 |isbn=9780872862890 ]

Konkin was editor and publisher of the irregularly produced "New Libertarian Notes" (1971-1975), the "New Libertarian Weekly" (1975-1978), and finally "New Libertarian" magazine (1978-1990), the last issue of which was a special science fiction tribute featuring a Robert A. Heinlein cover (issue 187, 1990).

ee also

* economic secession

References

External links

* [http://www.agorism.info/ Agorism.info] has archived Konkin writings and pamphlets in PDF format
* [http://www.spaz.org/~dan/individualist-anarchist/software/konkin-interview.html Interview with Konkin]
* [http://www.blackcrayon.com/library/mll/nlm/ The New Libertarian Manifesto]
* [http://www.bradspangler.com/blog/archives/288 SEK3's history of the libertarian movement]
* [http://www.pulpless.com/sek3/ J. Neil Schulman's tribute to SEK3]
* [http://www.kopubco.com/nl.html KoPubCo] back issues of "New Libertarian"
* [http://www.geocities.com/mllweb/ Movement of the Libertarian Left homepage] on Geocities, no longer maintained
* [http://www.anthonyflood.com/rothbardkonkin.htm Murray Rothbard, "Konkin on Libertarian Strategy" followed by Samuel E. Konkin, "Reply to Rothbard"] at AnthonyFlood.com
* [http://www.isil.org/resources/fnn/2004spring/sek-iii-riggenbach.html Obituary for SEK3] by Jeff Riggenbach
* [http://www.philosborn.joeuser.com/index.asp?c=1&AID=8979 Obituary for Sam Konkin] by Phil Osborn