- cross-posted to:
- history
- cross-posted to:
- history
"The Diggers were a group of Protestant radicals in England, sometimes seen as forerunners of modern anarchism,[1] and also associated with agrarian socialism[2][3] and Georgism. Gerrard Winstanley's followers were known as True Levellers in 1649 and later became known as Diggers, because of their attempts to farm on common land.
Their original name came from their belief in economic equality based upon a specific passage in the Acts of the Apostles.[4][5] The Diggers tried (by "levelling" land) to reform the existing social order with an agrarian lifestyle based on their ideas for the creation of small, egalitarian rural communities. They were one of a number of nonconformist dissenting groups that emerged around this time."
It really just was like that. Based comrades took land back for themselves, built a communist utopia. Cops were brought in and killed them all. I find the lyrics to The World Turned Upside Down to actually be a really great, approachable telling of the history:
In sixteen-fourty-nine, to St. George's hill A ragged band they call The Diggers Came to show the people's will They defied the landlords, they defied the laws They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs. “We come in peace,” they said, “to dig and sew!” We come to work the lands in common And to make the waste-grounds grow This Earth divided, we will make whole So it may be a common treasury for all. ROCK The sin of property, we do disdain No man has any right to buy or sell The Earth for private gain By theft and murder, they took the land Now everywhere the walls spring up at their command. They make the laws, that chain us well The clergy dazzle us with heaven Or they damn us into hell We will not worship, the god they serve A god of greed who feeds the rich while poor folk starve. We work and eat together, we need no swords We will not bow to masters Now pay rent to the lords Still we are free, though we are poor Ye diggers all stand up for glory, stand up now. SLOW From the men of property, the orders came They sent the hired men and troopers To wipe out the diggers' claim Tear down their cottages, destroy their corn They were dispersed now only the vision lingers on. Ye poor take courage, ye rich take care The Earth was made a common treasury For every one to share All things in common, all people one They came in peace, the orders came to cut them down.