Welcome to the Digger Archives

Orientation

First time here? The Overview page explains who the Diggers were (are) and the intent of this site. The What's New page highlights additions to this web so returning visitors might check there first. The archivist's blog posts occasional missives of interest. The "How To Navigate the Digger Archives Site" has some tips for getting around and finding what you want. 

The Digger Movement was multifarious. It comprised numerous groups that resonated with the idea of Free in all its aspects. The San Francisco Diggers got the ball rolling but it snowballed from there. Free Food, Free Stores, Free Bakeries were the most recognizable forms. The Diggers themselves morphed into Free City which then inspired the Sutter Street Commune to set up the Free Print Shop and Kaliflower, the intercommunal newspaper around which coalesced a network of hundreds of communes including the Angels of Light, Hunga Dunga, the Free Medical Opera, Konnyaku, and dozens of others, all of whom were involved in creating a culture of "no buying and selling" — the principle that the 17th century English Diggers had first promulgated. Some of the San Francisco Diggers expanded the idea of Free to include a vision of an ecological balance that they called bioregionalism. Groups across the counterculture picked up the Digger ideas and traces are found even decades later such as the encampment at Occupy Wall Street. Even today, Digger Do is celebrated in ongoing re-creations.

Outline of this Web
Linkages and Lineages

•  Website General
  • Overview, Highlights, Links, What's New, How to Navigate the Site, Search, Archivist's Blog, Catalog, Sixties Date Machine, Virtual Free Store, Guestbook, Feedback
•  Roots of the Digger Movement
  • English Diggers (1649), Their Writings, Digger Songs
  • Beat Poetry Renaissance
  • San Francisco Mime Troupe, Guerrilla Theater
  • Artists Liberation Front
•  San Francisco Diggers (1966)
  • A Brief History
  • Digger Writings, Articles About Them, Photos
  • Free Stores, Free Bakeries, Free Feeds
  • Communication Company, Morningstar Commune, Hearthshire Community, Archives, Histories, Interviews
•  Free City Collective (1968)
  • Free City, Free City News, Free City Bank
  • Digger Papers Anthology, 1% Free
  • Free City Puppets
  • NOWSREAL, Les Diggers de San Francisco
•  Kaliflower Network (1969)
  • Kaliflower, Free Print Shop
  • Angels of Light, Cockettes
  • Hunga Dunga, Free Medical Opera, Konnyaku
  • Free Food Family
•  Outward to the Planet (1970+)
  • Planetedge, Planet Drum, Bioregional Vision
•  Current Day
  • Wigan Festival, Bolton Diggers, Occupy Wall Street, Streetopia

Coyote Howl: the Sixties Counterculture as Agent of Change

 

The Digger Thesis

The 1960s Counterculture was a pebble in a pond, sending ripples across the globe and across time. At the epicenter of that disturbance was the Digger movement—born in San Francisco but rooted in centuries-old visions of the Commons—whose radical experiments in living, giving, and being continue to shape cultural currents today.

Parting philosophy:

"When comes the time to leave this world someday, what you get to keep is what you gave away."

Note on Content Edits:

This web first emerged in 1993 and the content changes at varying rates depending on how much time the Archivist can devote to the coding.

Thumbnail images:

The latest versions of these pages have been coded such that clicking a thumbnail image ONCE will expand into a full-size version. Then clicking ONCE AGAIN will restore the image to its thumbnail version. Not all pages have been recoded. In those cases, clicking the thumbnail opens a large version and you will need to click BACK to return to the thumbnail.