The True Levellers Standard Advanced:

Or, The State of Community Opened, and Presented to the Sons of Men.

A Declaration to the Powers of England, and to all the Powers of the World, shewing the Cause why the Common People of England have begun, and gives Consent to Digge up, Manure, and Sow Corn upon George-Hill in Surrey; by those that have Subscribed, and thousands more that gives Consent.

Thus begins the statement of the Leveller cause, forwarded, by William Everard and Gerrard Winstanley.

I was not told ANY of this at school. But having discovered the existence of this movement and its consequences. I tell you, it has changed my life, and unlike any religion to me, gives a cause, and reason for existence.

This fight is thousands of years old. Who has got, and who has not!

But 353 years ago now, an argument was made plain after the Civil War. Direct action taken. And the consequences for the world are obvious.

My tribe, squatters, travellers, festivals folks etc etc. are the direct descendents of this.

I went to St Georges Hill, with many friends, to celebrate the 350 year anniversary of their land occupation. I took some fine photographs of the day. Please check out my record at:

http://tash.gn.apc.org/diggers_350.htm

I tell you, to me, this is not history, but very much ‘current affairs’.

Why I’m more than a little confused as to why I was not told ANY of this at school, and , as far as I Know, is still not on the National Curriculum. This needs looking into to!

A Short Digger / Leveller History

The Diggers were a group of agrarian communists who flourished in England in 1649-50 and were led by Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard. The Diggers believed that since the English Civil War had been fought against the King and the landowners, and with Charles I executed, land should then be made available to the poor to cultivate. In April 1649 a group of about 20 men assembled at St. George’s Hill, Surrey, and began to cultivate the common land. The Diggers’ activities alarmed the Commonwealth government and roused the hostility of local landowners, who were rival claimants to the common lands.

On 16 April 1649 Henry Sanders sent an alarming letter to the Council of State reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables on St. George’s Hill in Surrey. Sanders reported they, the Diggers, had invited “all to come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes.” and that the Diggers claimed that their number would be several thousand within ten days. “It is feared they have some design in hand.” The Council of State sent the letter to Lord Fairfax, lord general of the army, along with a dispatch stating:

“By the narrative enclosed your Lordship will be informed of what hath been made to this Council of a disorderly and tumultuous sort of people assembling themselves together not far from Oatlands, at a place called St. George’s Hill; and although the pretence of their being there by them avowed may seem very ridiculous, yet that conflux of people may be a beginning whence things of a greater and more dangerous consequence may grow. Fairfax was then ordered to disperse the group and prevent a repetition of the event.

The Diggers were harassed by legal actions and mob violence, and by the end of March 1650 their members were driven off the St. George’s Hill. Despite this setback they continued their work on a nearby heath in Cobham. colony was dispersed. In April the Digger movement collapsed when a Parson Platt, the lord of the manor, and several others destroyed the Diggers’ houses, burned their furniture, and scattered their belongings. Platt threatened the Diggers with death if they continued their activity and hired several guards to prevent their return to the heath. Winstanley recorded these events as well as a final defence of the Digger movement.”

Prof. Christopher Hill – Gerard Winstanley: 17th Century Communist at Kingston

24 January 1996. Kingston University

This man is ‘the authority’ on Winstanley and this movement. Please check out his work, starting at: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/cusp/Lectures/Hill.htm

All of this added now, because of the re-showing of ‘Winstanley’, the 1979 film. http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_09_01_tash_lodge_archive.html#81194691

It is worth mentioning another.

An excellent film about the Diggers by Roy Hanney. Check out at

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~royhan/film/

You can see a preview of this film at:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~royhan/film/index2.html#PREVIEW

Land and Freedom

Digger pamphlet by Gerrard Winstanley

A

DECLARATION

FROM THE

Poor oppressed People

OF

ENGLAND,

DIRECTED

To all that call themselves, or are called

Lords of Manors,

Printed in the Year, 1649.

http://www.tlio.demon.co.uk/poor.htm

World Turned Upside Down – song by Leon Rosselson

In 1649

To St George’s Hill

A ragged band they called 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 sow

We come to work the land in common

And to make the waste land grow

This earth divided

We will make whole

So it can be

A common treasury for all

‘The sin of property

We do disdain

No one has any right to buy and sell

The earth for private gain

By theft and murder

They took the land

Now everywhere the walls

Rise up at their command

‘They make the laws

To chain us well

The clergy dazzle us with heaven

Or they damn us into hell

We will not worship

The God they serve

The God of greed who feeds the rich

While poor men starve

‘We work, we eat together

We need no swords

We will not bow to masters

Or pay rent to the lords

We are free men

Though we are poor’

You Diggers all stand up for glory

Stand up now

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 –

Only the vision lingers on

‘You poor take courage

You rich take care

The earth was made a common treasury

For everyone to share

All things in common

All people one

We come in peace’-

The order came to cut them down

http://cres1.lancs.ac.uk/~esarie/wturned.htm

see my own pages, on the GreenNET site at:

The Levellers and Diggers …… not the rock band!!

http://tash.gn.apc.org/leveller.htm

See earlier entry in my blog, to see that this is very much all still alive.

http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2002_08_25_tash_lodge_archive.html#80867277

The ‘Countryside Alliance’ [Parson Platts men, are still at it!] so on the 22nd September this year, while they are agitating in London and the cities, about foxhunting, in particular…… I / we will be going out to live on the commons again. Oh, hush, they don’t know this yet……….

This will of course, only be a temporary arrangement, before the ‘troups’ return, and put it all down again 🙂 What’s new!