"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."
also from wikipedia:
On 1 April 1649, Winstanley and his followers took over vacant or common lands on St George’s Hill in Surrey. Other Digger colonies followed in Buckinghamshire, Kent, and Northamptonshire. Their action was to cultivate the land and distribute food without charge to any who would join them in the work. Local landowners took fright from the Diggers’ activities and in 1650 sent hired armed men to beat the Diggers and destroy their colony. Winstanley protested to the government, but to no avail, and eventually the colony was abandoned.
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.
