The Diggers: On Jan. 30, 1649, King Charles I was beheaded. What followed was a brief period in English history without a monarchy. This period, called the Commonwealth, was a time of extraordinary social ferment, as nascent political groups demanded increasingly democratic reforms and expanded religious tolerance and liberty.

Among the most famous of these was the Diggers, also known as the True Levellers, a group made up mostly of common people under the inspiration of a Christian radical named Gerrard Winstanley. In a series of published pronouncements, Winstanley claimed that “the earth was made a common treasury for anyone to share.” The Diggers argued that England’s poor should form themselves into self-supporting, classless communes, and their most famous experiment in this took place on a patch of common land near St. George’s Hill in Surrey.

In April of 1649, a group of Diggers began planting their own food near St. George’s Hill, calling for the poor of England to join them, and building communal homes on the lands. They suffered repeated physical attacks from the local lord, and were eventually forced off the land after a court case at which they were not allowed to speak in their own defense. The Diggers abandoned St. George’s Hill in August of 1649. Several other communal agrarian experiments were attempted, but the Diggers were always quickly run off by the local landowners. Nonetheless, they left behind a body of writing and folk songs that continue to inspire. In the Sixties, a radical offshoot of the San Francisco Mime Troupe took their inspiration from Winstanley’s writings, renamed themselves The Diggers, and set about providing free food, housing and health care in Haight-Ashbury. In 1988, the English band Chumbawamba recorded one of the Digger’s songs on their album English Rebel Songs, which they then re-recorded in 1998.

The Paris Commune: After France’s defeat during the Franco-Prussian War, Paris found itself briefly occupied by Prussia after an extended siege. When the Prussians left, French soldiers joined with the Paris citizen militia in rebelling against the authority of Louis-Adolphe Thiers, who would soon be president of France. He was driven out of Paris while, on March 26 of 1871, the Parisian militia arranged for local elections, culminating in the creation of the Paris Commune, a provisional—and generally radical —self-government. The Paris Commune abolished rent, legislated a separation of church and state, demanded that local pawn shops return to workmen the tools of their trade, and legislated universal free education. Democratic ad hoc groups looked after the needs of the two million citizens of Paris. Beginning April 2, the Versailles army bombarded Paris, starting an extended siege on the war-torn city that lasted until May 28, when the commune fell to the army. The siege on the Paris Commune left an estimated 30,000 dead, and after the army took Paris they executed as many as 50,000 communards.

The Hobo College and the Wobblies: Ben Reitman, a physician, anarchist and lover of Emma Goldman, spent his life working with America’s itinerant underclass, then known as hobos. He provided basic health care, including abortions, which were then illegal. In 1908, Reitman formed the Hobo College in Chicago, a unique educational undertaking, based out of a skid row storefront. The college offered free trade education, advanced courses on such hobo sciences as panhandling, and cultural and political lectures. Hobos lived in extended dropout societies, called “jungles,” and took advantage of America’s extensive railway system for free transportation (often at great personal risk) from one semi-skilled job to another. Hobos worked as carnival roustabouts, picked crops, set type and cut timber throughout the United States, and sometimes formed themselves into roving, democratic communities. Hobos formed the backbone of the International Workers of the World, also known as The Wobblies, a universal trade union that organized direct actions and strikes against unfair labor practices beginning in 1905. The IWW agitated for fair working wages, an eight-hour work day, a five-day work week, and health care for employees—benefits which have been eroding over the past decade or so. The IWW was organized democratically, and differed from most trade unions in that, rather than electing officials to act as representatives in disputes with employers, the IWW favored collective, direct action.

The IWW was heavily repressed by the government, particularly during World War I, which many Wobblies opposed. In 1917, 165 IWW leaders were arrested and charged with a variety of offenses, stemming from their opposition to the war. Many were given sentences of up to 20 years, effectively breaking the back of the IWW. While the Wobblies still exist, their influence has never been as profound as it was prior to 1917. ||