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Economic secession is a term that John T. Kennedy introduced to refer to a libertarian/anarchist activist technique. Kennedy and others suggest that people who oppose the state abstain as much as they are able from the state’s economic system – for instance by replacing the use of government money with barter or commodity money (such as gold), providing goods and services without submitting to government regulations and licensing, avoiding taxation by keeping assets out of traceable accounts, etc.^[1]

Samuel Edward Konkin III used the term “counter-economics” to cover much the same thing. (“The Counter-Economy is the sum of all human action that is forbidden by the State, in whole or part.”^[2])

Wendell Berry also promoted something he called “economic secession” in his 1991 essay Conservation and Local Economy:

If we are serious about reducing government and the burdens of government, then we need to do so by returning economic self-determination to the people… we must do it by fostering economic democracy. For example, as much as possible of the food that is consumed locally ought to be locally produced on small farms, and then processed in small, non-polluting plants that are locally owned. We must do everything possible to provide to ordinary citizens the opportunity to own a small, usable share of the country.…

I acknowledge that to advocate such reforms is to advocate a kind of secession - not a secession of armed violence but a quiet secession by which people find the practical means and the strength of spirit to remove themselves from an economy that is exploiting them and destroying their homeland.^[3]

1. ^ Kennedy, John T. “Economic Secession” anti-state.com 18 March 2003
2. ^ The Agorist Institute Report to Supporters, Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 1996
3. ^ Berry, Wendell “Conservation and local economy” (1993) in Berry, Wendell Sex, economy, freedom, and community Pantheon Books, New York, pp. 3-18

• agorism
• anarcho-capitalism
• boycott
• gulching
• khadi
• non-violent resistance
• Salt Satyagraha
• secession
• tax resistance
• underground economy
• voluntaryism

• Economic Secession by John T. Kennedy
• Economic Secession Won’t Succeed by Gene Calahan
• Economic Secession: a rebuttal by Claire Wolfe
• Counter-Economics: Our Means by Samuel Edward Konkin III, chapter three of New Libertarian Manifesto
• Abstract: Wendell Berry's "Conservation and Local Economy"