20/03/2024
One the earliest celebrated guerrilla gardeners was.
Gerrard Winstanley, of the Diggers in Surrey, England (1649), an activist during the period of the commonwealth of England .He was the leader and one of the founders of the group called ‘ The true levellers ‘ or ‘ Diggers ‘ .
Believing in ecological interrelationships with nature ,acknowledging the inherent connections between people and their surroundings; Winstanley declared that "true freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth".
Described as religious and political dissidents ie free thinkers associated with agrarian socialism .
•* Agrarian socialism is a political ideology , that promotes social ownership of the cultivation of land and agriculture as opposed to private ownership . And involved sharing land between peasant villages .
In 1649 Gerrard and 14 others published a pamphlet called the true levellers to set apart their ideas from the Levellers who in contrast opposed common ownership .
The group occupied formerly common land that had been privatised by enclosures and dug them over, pulling down hedges and filling in ditches, to plant crops.
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 (organising attacks on the Diggers, including numerous beatings and an arson attack on one of the communal houses) 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.