Diggers
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The Diggers were a group begun by Gerrard Winstanley in 1649 during Oliver Cromwell's England which called for a total destruction of the existing social order and replacement with a communistic and agrarian lifestyle based around the precepts of Christian Nationalism, wishing to rid England of what they called the Norman Yoke. They called themselves the True Levellers to distinguish themselves from The Levellers. Opponents insultingly called them the Diggers because they advocated an agrarian return to the land.
- For other meanings see Diggers (disambiguation) and Levellers (disambiguation)
The Council of State received a letter in April 1649 reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables in common land on St. George's Hill near Cobham in Surrey, at a time when food prices reached an all-time high. Sanders reported they had invited "all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes." Their intentions were to pull down all enclosures and cause the local populace to come and work with them. They claimed that their number would be several thousand within ten days. "It is feared they have some design in hand."
Baron Fairfax duly arrived with his troops, and interviewed Winstanley and another prominent member of the True Levellers, William Everard.
Everard was astute enough to see which way the wind was blowing and soon left the group. Winstanley, however, true to his convictions remained and complained about the treatment which they received. The harassment from Fairfax's troops was both deliberate and systematic, including numerous beatings and an arsonous attack on one of the communal houses. The might of the Puritan state was effectively turned against them. They were prosecuted as Ranters, who were sexual revolutionaries.
The numbers of the Diggers more than doubled during 1649. Early in 1650, however, hemmed in by harassment and trouble on all fronts, the movement collapsed and St George's Hill was vacated, much to the relief of the local freeholders.
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[edit] Subsequent revival of the term
The name 'Diggers' was revived in San Francisco for a radical guerilla theater group, offering street theater, information and free food during the hippie movement associated with the Haight-Ashbury, 1965–68. During the mid and late 1960s the San Francisco Diggers opened stores which simply gave away their stock; provided free food, medical care, transport and temporary housing; they also organized free music concerts and works of political art. Some of their happenings included the Death of Money Parade, Intersection Game, Invisible Circus, and Death of Hippie/Birth of Free.
The group was founded by Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote, Peter Berg, and other members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe including Billy Murcott, La Mortadella, and Butcher Brooks.
[edit] Activities
The Diggers provided a free food service in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park in Haight-Ashbury every day at 4.00 p.m. generally feeding over 200 people who had no other source of food. They served a stew made from donated and stolen meat and vegetables behind a giant yellow picture frame, called the Free Frame of Reference. On one occasion, at a free concert in the park people who came for the food were given a two-inch-by-two-inch frame to hang about their neck, called the portable Free Frame of Reference. The Diggers also popularized whole-wheat bread with their Digger Bread, baked in coffee cans at the Free Bakery.
They opened numerous Free Stores in Haight-Ashbury, in which all items were free for the taking or giving. The stores were funded by money from local merchants afraid of, or supporting the Diggers, who paid a one percent tithe to the Free City Bank. The stores offered items that had been discarded, but were still in usable condition. Though these were used mainly as a front for the distribution, for free, of stolen goods. The first free store was called Trip Without a Ticket and was later superseded by the Free Frame of Reference on Frederick Street. They also opened a Free Medical Clinic.
They threw free parties with music provided by the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and other bands, sometimes with such sights as trucks of naked belly dancers driving through the neighborhood in the afternoon with black conga players, wine, and marijuana. Their publications, notably the Digger Papers, are the origin of such phrases as "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day of the rest of your life". The Diggers fostered and inspired later groups like the Yippies.
The Diggers fell apart for a variety of reasons, including allegations of heavy drug use, with at least one member of the troupe known to have been a heroin addict at that time. Grogan, who was often named as the leader of the Diggers by those outside of it, had also previously dealt with a heroin addiction. Perhaps more significant in the disintegration of the diggers was the breaking down of the 'peace and love' scene in San Francisco, an increase in police and media interest in the diggers, conflicting egos among its members and a desire to be involved in more high profile guerilla theatre work rather than the practical day to day hard work involved in feeding the poor of San Francisco.
[edit] External links
English Diggers
- English Diggers
- Archived copy of Diggers Trail site: http://web.archive.org/web/20040221093916/http://diggerstrail.co.uk/index.html
[edit] Futher Reading
American Diggers
- Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle by Peter Coyote 1998 ISBN 1-58243-011-X
- Ringolevio by Emmett Grogan 1972
- Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps by Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote (Illustrator) 1990
- "The Theater is in the Street" by Bradford D. Martin 2004 ISBN 1-55849-458-8
- "Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age 1945-2000" by Martin Torgoff 2004 ISBN 0-7432-3010-8
