The Diggers

The Diggers

            17th century England, a civil war was raging. Gerrard Winstanley, in his paper The New Laws of Righteousness, came to the conclusion that ownership was incompatible with liberty. His ideas began to spread and he soon had a group of people dedicated to the idea of a better community; The Diggers. The Diggers marched up St. George’s Hill and set up shop. They planted food, built dwellings and based a community off the idea of no ownership and the ideal that God is reason and thus no rulers or laws were unnecessary. After one year the town and crown around St. George’s Hill march up as well and destroyed The Digger’s work.  Being that Winstanley and The Diggers were dissenting Christians they believed and acted in accordance to pacifism and their community ended.[1]

            Beyond the fact that The Diggers were the first anarchist community on the historical timeline that I was exposed to, The Diggers offer an inspirational story.  The song is based around one aspect of The Diggers that I truly admire and that is courage. I see in their story a group of people who were able to accomplish what they did because they did not act on their fear, but rather their hope. It is an aspect that I have found present in all the anarchist thinkers I have study thus far; a fearless approach to life. Thus it would appear that fearlessness is somewhat required to examine and make known a critique and solution to a social problem.

            “They wanted to believe” and “they wanted to be free” are reoccurring lines in the song.  While “belief” and “freedom” are fairly general it is these ideas that I attribute to The Diggers.  Their belief in God and their desire to be free from a ridged social system propelled them to do what they did.

The Diggers

They wanted to believe

So they looked up at the sunrise

But then they wanted to be free

Unruled by any other’s eyes

They walked up St. George’s Hill

The land they began to till

It was 1649

When The Diggers made that great climb

They wanted to believe

That we could live without the idea of owning property

That man was run by nature and for laws there would be no need

That’s what they wanted to believe

So they started planting food

They need no kings

And they needed no rules

But the town around St. George’s Hill

Came up on The Diggers like the bottom of the swill

They stomped out all their crops and broke all their tools

A pitch was made that day

A sound through time that is quite clear

The Diggers organized without a State because they had no fear

They wanted to be free

           

---

[1] Marshall, Peter, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. (Oakland, California: PM Press, 1992, 2010), 96-99.