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Brief Introduction - who were the Diggers?
In 1649, at the close of the English Civil War, The Diggers declared the earth
"a common treasury for all". With the trial and execution of King Charles II they
considered the land liberated from feudal control.
Through peaceful direct action, and pamphlets printed on liberated printing
presses, The Diggers encouraged everyone, especially the poor, to colonise and
cultivate the commons and the wasteland.
Digger activist and pamphleteer, Gerrard Winstanley, identified enclosure
(or privatisation) of land as the root of a fundamentally unjust class system:
"so for any to enclose them from its kind, to his own exclusive use, is tantamount
to the impoverishment and enslavement of his fellow men"
Max Beer in his 'History of British Socialism' applauds the Diggers: "It was
as if all the Peasant Wars of the past had suddenly become articulate"
With landlessness, homelessness and poverty rife at the end of the millennium
Winstanley's message is just as exciting and relevant today.
"You poor take courage. You rich take care. This earth was made a common
treasury, for everyone to share." singer/songwriter Leon Rosselson
(who attended the meeting on 1st April 1999).
The choice between collective ownership and private ownership of land is between
equity and greed. The landless majority are forced into a cash-based world of
institutionalised bribery.
Winstanley saw it all in 1649 and he foresaw the implications for today.
Back then it was land and the landlords. The landlords are still tightening
their grip and we now face a new threat: genetic engineering and the lifelords.
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