The world turned upside down
This song remembers the Diggers, or, as they were also known, the True Levellers. One of the more well known Diggers was Gerrard Winstanley. Dispossessed of their land, living in a time of extreme poverty, these agrarian communists sought to recover their freedom and plant the commons (the land that was not privately owned) for food. Their argument was simple: that following the Civil War, land should be made available for the poor to cultivate. 
The price of food had skyrocketed. The land owners, the state, and the church all stood against them. At St George’s Hill, in Surrey (England) the opposition overcame the diggers through arson, other brutal attacks and finally the courts, and they were evicted and prosecuted on trumped up charges.
I realise this is not New Zealand’s story as such (although the similarities are obvious) but it is my story, and that’s why I’m sharing it.
To learn about the privatisation of land in Britain, click here.
Download the version of this song by Billy Bragg to listen to by clicking here. Or if you like it up tempo then you could click here to listen to the version by the Oyster Band.
The World Turned Upside Down
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 law
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 wastelands 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 man has the right to buy and sell the earth for private gain.
By theft and murder, they steal the land;
Now everywhere the walls rise 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 gods they serve:
The god of greed that feeds the rich while poor men starve.”
“We work, we eat together, we need no swords.
We will not bow to the masters or pay rent to the ords.
We are free men, though we are poor.
You Diggers all stand up for glory; stand up now.”
From the men of property the order came:
They sen thired men and troopers to wipe out the Digger’s claim.
“Tear down their cottages. Destroy their corn!”
They were dispersed but still the vision carries on.
You poor, take courage. You rich, take care.
Thsi eart 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.
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