In 1649…
An extract from Power Play: The Future of Food
Colin Todhunter
In the annals of agrarian history, one particular movement has left a profound impact on the collective imagination of food sovereignty advocates. The Diggers in 17th century England were led by the visionary Gerrard Winstanley. This radical group emerged during a period of intense social and political upheaval, offering a revolutionary perspective on land ownership and food production that continues to resonate with modern struggles for (food) justice.
The Diggers, also known as the True Levellers, arose in 1649, a time when England was reeling from the aftermath of civil war. Winstanley and his followers dared to imagine a different world. The group challenged the very foundations of the emerging capitalist system and the enclosure movement that was rapidly privatising previously common lands. But Winstanley’s vision was not merely theoretical.
On 1 April 1649, the Diggers began their most famous action, occupying St. George’s Hill in Surrey, where they established a commune, cultivating the land collectively and distributing food freely to all who needed it. This act of direct action was a powerful demonstration of their philosophy in practice.
As Winstanley declared:
The earth was made to be a common treasury for all, not a private treasury for some.”
The Diggers, true to their name, began their movement by literally digging up unused common lands and planting crops. According to Professor Justin Champion, they planted “peas and carrots and pulses” and let their cows graze on the fields.
While the Diggers saw their actions as relatively harmless (Champion compares it to having an allotment), local property owners viewed it as a serious threat, likening it to “village terrorism”, according to Champion.
The local landowners called in troops to suppress these actions. Despite their relatively small numbers and short-lived experiments, which spread across parts of England, Champion suggests that the Diggers posed a significant ideological threat to the existing social order, challenging notions of private property and social hierarchy.
Winstanley declared:
“Those that Buy and Sell Land, and are landlords, have got it either by Oppression, or Murther[sic], or Theft”.
He added:
The Work we are going about is this, To dig up Georges-Hill and the waste Ground thereabouts, and to Sow Corn, and to eat our bread together by the sweat of our brows. And the First Reason is this, That we may work in righteousness, and lay the Foundation of making the Earth a Common Treasury for All, both Rich and Poor, That every one that is born in the land, may be fed by the Earth his Mother that brought him forth, according to the Reason that rules in the Creation.”
The backlash from local landlords was systematic. The Diggers faced beatings and arson, forcing them to move from St George’s Hill to a second site in Cobham, until they were finally driven off the land entirely.
Writing in 1972 in his book The World Turned Upside Down, Christopher Hill, a prominent historian of the English Civil War period, suggested that the Diggers’ influence was more widespread than just their most famous colony at St. George’s Hill. He argued that from Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire to Gloucestershire and Kent, Digger influence spread all over southern and central England.
While the actual number of people involved in Digger experiments was relatively small (estimated at 100-200 people across England) and ended in 1651, their ideas spread more widely through pamphlets and word of mouth.
This widespread influence, as described by Hill, suggests that the Diggers’ ideas resonated with people across a significant portion of England, even if actual Digger colonies were few in number.
The Diggers were a radical, biblically inspired movement that practically implemented their beliefs about common ownership of land, provoking strong opposition from the established landowners despite their generally peaceful methods.
The St. George’s Hill experiment represented a radical alternative to the prevailing economic and social order. It was an early example of what we might today call a food sovereignty project, emphasising local control over food production and distribution.
In today’s era of industrial agriculture and corporate food systems, the Diggers’ ideas remain highly significant. Their resistance to the enclosure of common lands in the 17th century mirrors today’s struggles against corporate land grabs — and the colonising actions that underpin the likes of Bayer’s corporate jargon about the unlocking of ‘business growth’, ‘driving change management’, ‘driving market share’ and ‘creating business value’ — as well as the privatisation of seeds and genetic resources.
The consolidation of the global agri-food chain in the hands of a few powerful corporations represents a modern form of enclosure, concentrating control over food production and distribution in ways that would have been all too familiar to Winstanley and his followers.
The Diggers’ emphasis on local, community-controlled food production offers a stark alternative to the industrial agriculture model promoted by agribusiness giants and their allies in institutions like the World Bank and the WTO. Where the dominant paradigm prioritises large-scale monocultures, global supply chains and market-driven food security, the Diggers’ vision aligns more closely with concepts of food sovereignty and agroecology.
Food sovereignty, a concept developed by the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, shares much with the Diggers’ philosophy. Both emphasise the right of communities to define their own food and agriculture systems.
The Diggers’ legacy can be seen in various contemporary movements challenging the corporate food regime. From La Via Campesina’s global struggle for peasant rights to local community garden initiatives and the work of the Agrarian Trust in the US (which provides good insight into the Diggers and their continued relevance in The Diggers Today: Enclosure, Manure and Resistance), we see echoes of the Diggers’ vision.
Modern projects to create community-owned farms, seed banks and food cooperatives can be seen as spiritual descendants of the Diggers’ movement, aiming to reclaim food production from corporate control and put it back in the hands of communities.
However, realising the Diggers’ vision in the current context faces significant obstacles.
The influence of agribusiness conglomerates over key institutions and policymaking bodies presents a formidable challenge. From the World Bank to national agriculture ministries, corporate interests often shape policies that prioritise industrial agriculture and global markets over local food systems. International trade agreements and memoranda of understanding, often negotiated with minimal public scrutiny, frequently benefit large agribusiness at the expense of small farmers and local food sovereignty.
Moreover, proponents of industrial agriculture often argue that it is the only way to feed the world. This narrative, however, ignores the environmental and social costs of this model, as well as the proven productivity of small-scale, agroecological farming methods.
The Diggers didn’t just theorise about an alternative society; they attempted to build it by taking direct action, occupying land and implementing their vision of communal agriculture.
The Diggers also understood that changing the food system required challenging broader power structures. Today’s food sovereignty movements similarly recognise the need for systemic change, addressing issues of land rights, trade policies and economic justice alongside agricultural practices.
In this era of corporate-dominated agriculture, the Diggers’ vision of a “common treasury for all” remains as radical and necessary as ever.
By reclaiming the commons, promoting agroecological practices and building food sovereignty, ordinary people can work towards a world where food is truly a common treasury for all.
The Diggers recognised that true freedom and equality could not be achieved without addressing the fundamental question of who controls the land and the means of production. This understanding is crucial in the current context, where corporate control over the food system extends from land, seeds and inputs to distribution and retail.
This vision also challenges us to rethink our relationship with the land and with each other. In a world increasingly dominated by individualism and market relations, the emphasis on communal ownership and collective labour offers a radical alternative.
The Diggers’ legacy challenges us to think beyond the confines of the prevailing food regime, to envision and create a world where food and land are not commodities to be bought and sold but common resources to be shared and stewarded for the benefit of all.
Their vision of a world where “the earth becomes a common treasury again” is not a quaint historical curiosity, but a vital and necessary alternative to the destructive practices of those who dominate the current food system.
Power Play: The Future of Food is the third book in a series of open-access ebooks on the global food system by the author (Global Research, 2024). Read it on Global Research
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Just like most people today, the Diggers probably did not realize that they were the proximate cause of their troubles. Through their covetousness, they were allured into binding agreements that they cried against as “oppressive”. But those agreements require oppression. Just like your agreements today require oppression. We must take from your neighbor so we can supply you with public schooling, ” free” healthcare and security. What goes around comes around.
In a nutshell, it was an anarchist movement that included ownership of the means of production. Marx, although not an anarchist, took the idea and ran with it, too.
There are many examples of this now: The Zapatistas and the Rojava, on a fairly large scale, exist and are battling to continue this libertarian communist practice against all odds, namely the oligarchies vis a vis the State and governments.
Good for you reminding us of our history and how we can learn about the universal laws of Nature.
Forget 1649 try 1694 that is when the fraudulent exclusive contract was set up.
The person that set up the fraudulent exclusive contract joined as a member of this group
of very rich men for a bounty that enslaves us all . As they were given in law the exclusive wright to create hand written or printed pieces of paper that had a notional value and initially the illusion of being backed by gold. From that that day to this the supposed kings and queens governor’s and the law were not allowed to produce paper money. But hat to borrow the money at the interest set. Also money supply could be increased or reduced to create a boom and bust economy as a means of transferring the earned wealth from the workers to the parasite’s with taxes also being taken just to pay the interest on the borrowed money. Read and weep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England
There was film about the Diggers’ endeavours.
Winstanley (1975):
http://archive.org/details/winstanley1975
That Winstanley was a lovely bloke….
“In Gerrard Winstanley’s Digger utopia anyone who professed the trade of preaching and prayer was to be put to death ‘as a witch’. (Source: Keith Thomas – Religion and the decline of magic, p.80).
This must be because he was such a rationalist…
“The Digger Gerrard Winstanley recommended that [astrology] be taught in his Utopia” (ibid p.445).
You must support those nasty landowners then….
No, it’s a fake dialectic. I support small and medium-sized farmers. BTW Winstanley wasn’t killed when the Diggers were closed down – he lived to a ripe old age by C17th standards.
But those Diggers were still heroes….
Funny how Billy Bragg sang a song about them. That’s Lord Bragg now – see some of his pronouncements on “conspiracy theorists”.
As for Christopher Hill….
‘The World Turned Upside Down’ – doesn’t that sound a bit like Satanic inversion. Hill was a Marxist who just happened to be in the belly of the beast at Oxford University (including being a Fellow of All Souls, the very belliest of the beast). Hill belonged to the CPGB, worked for British Intelligence in WW2 and there are rumours he was a Soviet spy although these remain unproven.
It’s touching really how some OG contributors cling to their 60s’ heroes without ever apparently questioning that they might have been duped.
‘Cling to heroes’. ‘Satanic inversion’. ‘A Marxist’. Billy Bragg sang a song about the Diggers. A Soviet spy. And so on.
It would be more honest to address the points being raised in the article rather than attempt to smear or undermine it via ad hominem – in this case, trying to tarnish the writer’s (or article’s) credibility by attacking certain individuals mentioned (ad hom by proxy).
And it is very easy to attack past figures (views on witches, astrology) on the basis of the norms and values of today’s standards (presentism). Nowhere in the article is it said Winstanley was killed when the Diggers ended.
The article is using the actions of the Diggers to make important and valid points. Challenging oppressive power structures. Advocating for ordinary people’s control of commonwealth. Rejecting corruption and corporate power. Promoting food sovereignty and food justice – none of that is ‘fake dialectic’. Easier to churn out cliches and accuse people of being duped while offering no solutions whatsoever.
Ordinary people didn’t control the commonwealth. Someone was telling them what you can and can’t do even if it “belonged to the people”. Just a pipedream like communism and anarchy. The sociopaths will run it in the end.
The article says – “Advocating for ordinary people’s control of commonwealth.” I’m not saying they did control it. But they were booted off the land. That much cannot be denied.
And what are you implying? We should just give up and roll over? Aside from defeatism, do you have an actual proposal?
I don’t know what the answer is. All I know is sociopaths have less rules in their head than ordinary people.
And that gives them an advantage.
Absolutely! Too many here disregard ideas put forth to assess value and then use speculation as criteria to crucify the messenger whether author or cited within the article. This assumption that everyone is corrupted fatally amounts to worthless nihilism we can all do without. The Diggers actions are a recurring paradigm that reappears throughout history and in more modern eras is snuffed out by the authoritarian/capitalist cult that has run the world since agriculture. Collectives working concepts and a vibrant egalitarian Public Commons that values life over personal profit is the way forward. When we can accept being adult among equals and respecting the “other”, we can abandon the ruthless selfishness of capitalism’s “disrupt” and warfare system that is a form of ecocide.
Too much of it on here. Some of the articles try to offer hope but are shot down. Monsanto had people posting comments in threads to counter any and all negative social media comments and posts about it. Part of its ‘Let Nothing Go’ strategy. And as we know during the covid event, there were those who were countering posts that challenged the official narrative. These days, sowing apathy, nihilism and despair seems to be a common tactic.
Don’t josh me,Frank. We’ve got to watch out for utopianism just as much as capitalism, the bastards won’t just go away. I don’t think Edwige’s knocking the article, just advocating a bit of caution and realistic scrutiny. The solution is not defining the problem, it’s difficult and very dangerous, there’s not many people prepared to be crucified around these days.
I believe historians as much a I believe the covid story.
His-story.
It’s never herstory or theirstory.
The Historian only gives one perspective of a story that may have many perspectives, and it is usually biased to the ‘winner of the war’ or based on the biases of the Historian. There is always an element of ‘truth’ to every story. We always need to be discerning as to the different perspectives… rather than taking ‘sides’ view it from somewhere in the middle.
Duping the competition into cutting their own throats:
https://news.sky.com/story/the-major-coal-producing-country-that-wants-to-leave-its-fossil-fuels-in-the-ground-13254177
Stewart Lee’s latest dreary hack attack on any who dissent from the accelerating super groovy Left assault on the population is a huge rant against Jeremy Clarkson that is buried in the customary obfuscating self admiring student vocabulary. But from what I can make out, the noise he drones out circles around Clarkson “being forced to pay his due to society” and a bizarre claim that these farmlands have been irreparably damaged by climate change anyway!
(And one thing I note about this dreary dirge is that the longer it takes an article to revolve around irrelevant waffle before vaguely “getting to the point ”, the more obvious it is that the writer is desperately scraping the bottom of the barrel and he knows it.)
Lee’s sophomore sludge is called “Flat-cap Clarkson only wants his nose in the trough” and can be perused in The Graud – if you are masochistically inclined.
Your Clarkson records showed he brought a farm as a tax swerve.
He will be the next Laurence fox /J.K. Rowling recarnation idolised
normal Clarkson man of the people.
Possibly – but no more ridiculous than the plastic Left now driven centre stage for the covid/climate/trans reconfiguration. “Sir” Keir as “man of the people”?
In my experience, almost everyone still drifts along the ancient Tory/Labour notion which is not only redundant but positively distracting. The Tories at least verbally supported the farmers. Labour is preparing us for the decimated hive.
Q: Put Clarkson and Trump in a room together and what have you got?
A: No room.
A very good grouping. I find Clarkson infinitely more repulsive than the orange man and that is saying something. Now here’s a tough one for readres: who is more repulsive Clarkson or Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian? ( I think Freedland wins hands down)
oops sorry. Meant ot say a very good pairing
So these diggers… what happens if other diggers want to come in and use the land they are using? When does someone start making rules and telling people what they can’t do? Who polices it? Do people get to vote on it? Yes it’s a simple idea to begin with but we are the human race after all and that is the reality.
the commons were enclosed by the tudors. prior to that they were common.
Do you think that was sustainable?
Inevitably someone would start making rules about who can and who cant do what on commons.
Actually I bet someone in the Diggers was already doing that.
I don’t know what the answer is but a free for all won’t last long before the sociopaths move in.
the commons were closed so as to prevent poor people from having food. begging/moving to town as wage slave labour was the only option. the beginning of capitalism.
An army of Roman Diggers? Anglo-Saxon Diggers? Viking diggers? Norman Diggers? Industrial Diggers? Capitalist Diggers? Global-monopolist Diggers?
Snuffing out dangerous ideas remains a priority. The approaches include character assassination, conditional populism (temporary allowances), and overwhelming verbiage (neologisms and fluff).
We last heard that “agro-ecology” was critical at the Paris climate agreement. Then, it sank without a trace. Yet, traditional farming remains far more productive. It produces ~70% of all food on ~25% of all farmland, with no subsidies. It requires no “inputs” from external parasites.
None of the heroes mentioned invented or discovered food security. It is the primary drive of every small farmer everywhere. Many nations acted collectively for such sovereignty during and after invasions and colonialism.
The capitalist alternatives include poisoned food, rigged prices, concocted shortages, paying farmers not to farm, prohibiting animal farming, inheritance taxes on farms, restricted crop strains, etc. The biggest threats to food security are (a) UN: WTO, WB, IMF, FAO, etc. (b) oliarchy within countries. Most of the seed and cultivar banks have been privatised with the help of traitors in government.
Ringo Starrider plus Bullshittery in Space. Disclaimer: This is not satire, but should be taken as a serious attempt to prank the audience!
https://rumble.com/v5s2ekb-author-john-w.-warner-iv-on-uavsets.html
https://www.wikitia.com/wiki/John_William_Warner_IV
Possibly the result of John W. Warner IV’s (also known as Tiberian Lovechild aka Triplex the Fourth) upbringing by his (in)famous stepmother, who was a frequent guest in the Neverland Ranch oxygen tent, where she even belonged to the intimate circle of the chosen ones.
And since Mr. Barrett not only believes in extraterrestrials (ETs) and sub-arctic Nazi UFOs, he also believes in the truth of the believe system of the inbred stone-aged “Qur’an”, which is only logical from his off-the-wall, outlandish POV as an acknowledged “free spirit” and mentally healthy adult.
After all, this is about his own, very personal “Truth-Jihad” [sic!]. Because, as he once again confirms as a proven expert in gross nonsense and every conceivable pseudoscience: “The mainstream media lie exclusively and always!” Simply hair-raising down to the last hair root.
What you never saw in 2024 or before on O-Guard ATL:
Students Revolt & Business Resistance: Why CCP’s downfall is imminent
NYT and Bloomberg are uncensored and in Chinese available in the PCR till today
EVEN hhtps:// off-guardian.org !!
that should tell you enough…
Pending: I discovered OmG’s dirty little secret in China!!
Contrary to this site Moon of Alabama is blocked in China…
CCP-Guard
If OG works for the Chinese govt why do they keep calling out China’s fake multipolarity and reminding people China kicked off the covid scam and that China is in bed with globalism?
Why would the Chinese govt pay anyone to say that?🙄😂
Much welcome. It should be and is an universal right, unfortunately and sadly this too is also a fight.
There is plenty food to everybody. Another area where the West is full of lies.
One seed and one egg reproduces itself both 10 and 100 fold. This way we would also be done with ugly pesticides, toxics, and the food many fold better tasting and rich of vitamine.
A showcase from my own garden, a figen plant and its fruit. Much better than any figen I can find in any shop or supermarket nearby.
To quote Jackie Gleason:
‘Sweet as’
Our crop is on the way Eric.
(Gotta net em soon).
Gorgeous.
The Arabs say that the fig is the most intelligent of trees. When they don’t want you to pick any more they sort of burn you.
They will grow under quite harsh conditions. Like full-on drought. Funnily, the Spanish don’t rate them as a fruit And they grow wild, all over the place.
I picked, ate, and dried thousands when we lived in Spain. They are, as Eric implies, prolific. Like dates, they are extremely full of fantastic nutrition and vital elements. The Arabs know a thing or two.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/figs-benefits#nutrition
In 1649….
In 1800 those freemasons rewrite, rewrote, destroy.
We argue.
Getting into the stuff from my youth again
Life is hard but you better watch out for the…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw9mEFn38to
thanks, OffG !
Aw,
You used to embed me.
Do you not love me anymore ?
Always the sun
The Stranglers – Always The Sun (Official Video), Full HD (Digitally Remastered and Upscaled)
Low-earth orbit
seen a curve
I’m in low earth orbit
got a plum line
but got no curve
moons a disk
200 miles away
magnetic, see the change
from front to back
the sun is cold
until it reaches our ether.
Ingo Bading (born in 1966, studied history, biology and philosophy) is a likeable contemporary with a wide range of interests. Even if, or perhaps especially if, due to the general regression of cultural potency, he mainly talks to himself, as any junk or cat videos on Judentube are far more relevant. One question that he always gets to the bottom of is where not only the Germans, but Europeans in general, originally came from.
https://studgendeutsch-blogspot-com.translate.goog/2024/03/wir-germanen-wer-waren-wir-bevor-wir.html?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/@IngoBading/videos
Bob’s latest compliments Colin’s piece perfectly:
https://www.bobmoran.co.uk/
Australia had their own version of the ‘Diggers’:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Rebellion
The oligarchs prevailed of course.
They had more guns.
And don’t forget the American Henry George with his speaking tour of Australia in the late 1800’s. His wife was Australian and his ideas on land ownership and tax still resonate.
His book (now forgotten) ‘Progress and Poverty’ sold more copies than the Bible in its day. Town halls were overflowing with audiences keen to hear him speak. But do we read about this important part of Australia’s history? Of course not.
https://www.prosper.org.au/
https://henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm
Thanks May.
I’ll make myself familiar with his work.
If there is any more books left of “Progress and Poverty” they will burned too.
The fake news and fake homepages of revolutionary groups wanting to hang the British Queen will be subdued and closed in High Supreme Court……all of them!
Henry George was a horse-thief, homophobic, ultra-radical Conservative, anti-Semitic, old fashioned, Traditionalist, who thought he was Robin Hood. Not!
Don’t think this is true Erik. Have you any evidence?
Nope. As the British Empire’s and the Queen’s representative I dont need evidence. A word is enough.
Ingo Bading (born in 1966, studied history, biology and philosophy) is a likeable contemporary with a wide range of interests. Even if, or perhaps especially if, due to the general regression of cultural potency, he mainly talks to himself, as any junk or cat videos on Jewtube are far more relevant. One question that he always gets to the bottom of is where not only the Germans, but Europeans in general, originally came from.
https://studgendeutsch-blogspot-com.translate.goog/2024/03/wir-germanen-wer-waren-wir-bevor-wir.html?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/@IngoBading/videos
What is the difference between the Germans and the northern Europeans? I thought taht they were all the same