– Franz Oppenheimer, The State, 1908 (emphasis mine)

“The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner. On the negative side, it has been proved beyond peradventure that no primitive State could possibly have had any other origins. Moreover, the sole invariable characteristic of the State is the economic exploitation of one class by another. In this sense, every State known to history is a class State.”

– Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State, 1935 (emphasis mine)

“In Western Europe, as in many other civilizations, the typical model of the origin of the State was not via a voluntary “social contract” but by the conquest of one tribe by another. The original liberty of the tribe or the peasantry thus falls victim to the conquerors. At first, the conquering tribe killed and looted the victims and rode on. But at some time the conquerors decided that it would be more profitable to settle down among the conquered peasantry and rule and loot them on a permanent and systematic basis. The periodic tribute exacted from the conquered subjects eventually came to be called “taxation.”"

– Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, 1973

If we accept the thesis that the states arise and have arisen, not through the hocus-pocus of “social” “contracts”, but through conquest, and are perpetuated as systems of exploitation — especially, to use Nock’s terminology, “of one class by another” — does it not follow that we are at war?

Does it not follow that all people living under state domination and exploitation ought to rebel, right now?

Does it not follow that all of the state’s edicts, decrees, laws, proclamations and regulations which affront the sensibility of the individual, the tribe, the family, the neighborhood, ought rightly be ignored, denounced, ridiculed and overthrown?

Does it not follow that state agents are the enemy and deserving, perhaps qualifiedly in some cases, of the same response given to those who violate a peaceful person, a peaceful tribe, a peaceful family, a peaceful neighborhood?

And yet this does not happen. It does not happen despite the noble efforts of generations of philosophers, revolutionaries, scholars, activists and teachers.

The whole planet has been conquered. The whole planet has been being conquered, and held under conquest and exploitation for the benefit of the smallest, most despicable number, for a great many centuries.

They live. We sleep. And it is we who live the nightmares.

As one big file (MP3, 46m51s, 43MB):

• Direct download from nostate.com: Agorist_Class_Theory.mp3
• .torrent file at nostate.com
• .torrent file at mininova

Click to buy the book!

Broken into chapters:

• .torrent file at mininova
• .torrent file at nostate.com
• Direct downloads from nostate.com:
• 1-Audiobook Introduction by Mike Gogulski.mp3 (2m39s, 2.5MB)
• 2-Foreword by Brad Spangler.mp3 (4m21s, 4MB)
• 3-Introduction by Wally Conger.mp3 (4m10s, 3.8MB)
• 4-Ch1-The Failure of Marxism.mp3 (1m49s, 1.7MB)
• 5-Ch2-The Marxist Appeal.mp3 (3m55s, 3.6MB)
• 6-Ch3-Precursors to Marxist Class Theory.mp3 (1m39s, 1.5MB)
• 7-Ch4-Marxist Classes.mp3 (3m23s, 3.1MB)
• 8-Ch5-The Agorist Critique of Marxist Class Theory.mp3 (4m12s, 3.8MB)
• 9-Ch6-Libertarian Class Analysis.mp3 (2m27s, 2.3MB)
• 10-Ch7-Radical Libertarian Class Analysis.mp3 (5m20s, 4.9MB)
• 11-Ch8-Agorist Class Theory.mp3 (10m27s, 9.6MB)
• 12-Ch9-Agorist Solutions For Marxist Problems.mp3 (2m26s, 2.2MB)
• .m3u playlist (note: for local use, not for playing off the net!)

Someone use these to make a YouTube series and playlist!

If you are able, please download the files via BitTorrent, and re-seed them to infinity.

Text of my introduction to the recording:

Good morning, New Libertarian. Good morning, agorist.

The voice you will hear for the next 47 minutes or so belongs to me, Mike Gogulski.

I am a stateless ex-American. I renounced my American citizenship in 2008 and I have been a voluntary exile since 2004, presently living in Bratislava, Slovakia. As of this recording in May 2009, I maintain a website at www.nostate.com, which you are invited to visit.

The words you will hear belong to all of humanity, but they were written by Wally Conger, drawing on the unfinished work of Samuel Edward Konkin III, arguably the initiator of the agorist theory. The book, Agorist Class Theory: A Left-Libertarian Approach to Class Conflict Analysis, was published in 2006, both as a free online PDF and in print combination with Konkin’s seminal New Libertarian Manifesto.

After a foreword by veteran analyst and agitator Brad Spangler and an introduction by Wally Conger, the book consists of nine brief chapters:

• The Failure of Marxism
• The Marxist Appeal
• Precursors to Marxist Class Theory
• Marxist Classes
• The Agorist Critique of Marxist Class Theory
• Libertarian Class Analysis
• Radical Libertarian Class Analysis
• Agorist Class Theory (and finally)
• Agorist Solutions for Marxist Problems

I have attempted to read the text of Agorist Class Theory as I have it in hand. Any deviations from the written text – which you can find online at the website agorism.info – are my own. In the interest of brevity and due to its referential density, the Appendix – entitled, “Cui Bono? Introduction to Libertarian Class Theory”, written by Konkin in 1973 – has been omitted from this recording. The Appendix is available in the PDF and print versions of the book, and is well worth reading.

It is my hope that listening to Agorist Class Theory serves to raise your class consciousness, and that you not only adopt the class theory in looking at the world around you, but apply it to yourself as well.

After listening, take action.

Agora! Anarchy! Action!