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The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and
street theatre Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or universi ...
actors operating from 1966 to 1968, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. Their politics have been categorized as "
left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
;" more accurately, they were "community anarchists" who blended a desire for freedom with a consciousness of the community in which they lived.''Contemporary Authors Online'' (2002) Gale, Detroit The Diggers' central tenet was to be "authentic," seeking to create a society free from the dictates of money and
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
. The Diggers were closely associated and shared a number of members with the guerrilla theater group San Francisco Mime Troupe. They were formed out of after-hours Mime Troupe discussions between Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote,
Peter Berg Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy '' Very Bad Things'' (1998), the action comedy '' The Rundown'' (2003), the sports drama '' Friday Night ...
, and Billy Landout. The Diggers fostered and inspired later groups like the Yippies.


Origins

The Diggers took their name from the original English Diggers (1649–1650) who had promulgated a vision of society free from buying, selling, and private property. During the mid- and late 1960s, the San Francisco Diggers organized free music concerts and works of political art, provided free food, medical care, transport, and temporary housing and opened stores that gave away stock. Some of their events included the Death of Money Parade, Intersection Game, Invisible Circus, and Death of Hippie/Birth of Free.


Publishing

One of the first Digger activities was the publishing of various broadsides, which were printed by sneaking into the local Students for a Democratic Society office and using their
Gestetner The Gestetner is a type of duplicating machine named after its inventor, David Gestetner (1854–1939). During the 20th century, the term ''Gestetner'' was used as a verb—as in ''Gestetnering''. The Gestetner company established its base in Lo ...
printer. The leaflets were eventually called '' The Digger Papers'', and soon morphed into small pamphlets with poetry, psychedelic art, and essays. The first issue of ''The Digger Papers'' was published in Fall 1965.
Peter Berg Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy '' Very Bad Things'' (1998), the action comedy '' The Rundown'' (2003), the sports drama '' Friday Night ...
was one of the regular contributors to the publication. ''The Digger Papers'' originated such phrases as "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." They often included statements that mocked the prevailing attitude of the
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
promoted by less-radical figures like the Haight-Independent Proprietors (HIP), Timothy Leary, and Richard Alpert. The first paper mocked the
acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...
community, saying "Time to forget because flowers are beautiful and the sun's not yellow, it's chicken!" They rarely included authors' names, though some had pseudonyms like "George Metevsky," a reference to the "Mad Bomber" George Metesky. (After some HIP members tried to find out who the Diggers were, Grogan and Landout responded with a telegram: "REGARDING INQUIRIES CONCERNED WITH THE IDENTITY AND WHEREABOUTS OF THE DIGGERS; HAPPY TO REPORT THE DIGGERS ARE NOT THAT.") The ''1% Free'' poster, showing two Chinese Tong assassins under the Chinese character for "revolution," was thought to be demanding a 1% tithe from merchants, but that was not the case. The poster was a challenge, implicitly suggesting that "free" people were the minority, and inciting others to step up.


The Communications Company (ComCo)

Writers Chester Anderson and Claude and Helene Hayward helped found the publishing arm of the Diggers, known as the Communications Company (ComCo). Using "two 'beautiful' Gestetner mimeograph machines that had been nefariously obtained through the offices of '' Ramparts'' magazine," the Communications Company distributed daily (and sometimes hourly) broadsides on the streets of the Haight-Ashbury district during the early part of 1967 and the Summer of Love. ComCo was a member of the Underground Press Syndicate, a network of countercultural newspapers and magazines. Through the Communications Company, Anderson circulated a number of his own bitter broadside polemics in the Haight, including, in April 1967, "Uncle Tim'$ Children," with its infamous, often-quoted line, "Rape is as common as bullshit on Haight Street." Richard Brautigan's poem " All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" was first published, in March 1967, by the Communication Company on an mimeographed broadside with both the title and imprint handwritten. The first run included a picture of a megaphone, and a second printing had an image of people working on a large computer, rotated to run vertically beside the poem, with simple line drawings of animals all over the page. In April of the same year, the Communication Company published it again as the title poem in the collection by the same name. It included 36 typewritten yellow pages measuring , in a print run of 1,500, all of which were given away for free. Brautigan then gave permission to The Diggers to include the poem in the final edition of ''The Digger Papers'', published in August 1968. Also in March 1967, ComCo distributed Willard S. Bain's ''Informed Sources: Day East Received'', a satirical allegory of the
assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onas ...
in the form of fictional news wire bulletins, in an edition of about 500 mimeographed copies. The Communications Company also published Harry Driggs' pioneering underground comic ''The Life and Loves of Cleopatra'' (June 1967), an obscene 28-page narrative inspired by the
Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...
film ''
Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
'', and which featured artwork that today would be seen as
child pornography Child pornography (also abbreviated as CP, also called child porn or kiddie porn, and child sexual abuse material, known by the acronym CSAM (underscoring that children can not be deemed willing participants under law)), is Eroticism, erotic ma ...
. The Diggers gave away the comic in their free store at the corner of Cole and Carl in Haight-Ashbury.
Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...
described the role Chester Anderson and ComCo played in Haight-Ashbury in her 1967 essay for ''
The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...
'', "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", which was later included in the book of the same name.


Parties, theater events, and happenings

The Diggers threw free parties with music provided by the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
,
Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful Rock music, rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her "electric" ...
,
Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...
and other bands. They also staged street theater events, such as driving a truck of semi-naked belly dancers through the Financial District, inviting brokers to climb on board and forget their work. On December 17, 1966, the Diggers held a
happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow in 1959 to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" i ...
called "The Death of Money" in which they dressed in animal masks and carried a large coffin full of fake money down Haight Street, singing "Get out my life, why don’t you babe?" to the tune of Chopin's "Funeral March" (or "Death March"). This was a precursor to the happening "The Death of Hippie," staged in October 1967, in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Masked participants carried a coffin with the words "Hippie—Son of Media" on the side. This event was meant to mark the end of the hippie era of Haight-Ashbury. The event was staged so as to make any media outlet that simply described the happening to unintentionally transmit the Diggers' message that Hippies were a media invention. This was called "creating the condition you describe". The Diggers skillfully used this technique for media relations.


Free stores, food, medical care

The Diggers opened numerous free stores in Haight-Ashbury which offered discarded but usable items, free for the taking or giving. The first free store was in a six-car garage on Page Street that they found filled with empty picture frames; they tacked these up outside the building and called it the Free Frame of Reference. The Diggers provided free food service in the Panhandle of
Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...
every day at four o'clock, feeding about 100 people with a stew from donated meat and vegetables that was served from behind a giant yellow picture frame, also called the Free Frame of Reference, which people were required to step through before being served. This was superseded by the Trip Without a Ticket on Frederick Street. It was unclear how the stores were funded. The Diggers also opened a free medical clinic, initially by inviting volunteers from the University of California, San Francisco medical school up the hill from the neighborhood. The free food and medical clinics were immediate responses to conditions caused by the enormous influx of young people during the heyday of the hippie scene, conditions that the San Francisco government was ignoring.


Digger Bread

The Diggers also popularized whole wheat bread: their Digger Bread was baked in coffee cans at the Free Bakery in the basement of Episcopal All Saints Church on 1350 Waller Street. In cooperation with All Saints Church and later via the Haight Ashbury Switchboard at 1830 Fell Street, they arranged free "crashpad" housing for homeless youth drawn to the Haight-Ashbury area.


Division of labor

The Diggers' division of labor between men and women has been criticized as sexist, with male members primarily forming ideas while female members were tasked with most of the practical work to realize these ideas. For instance, in providing free food, the men socialized and promoted the events, while the women did most of the collecting, cooking and serving. Decision-making in the organization was controlled by male Diggers, who either came up with or took credit for new ideas, while female Diggers, who provided much of the organization's income via welfare checks and social assistance, were sidelined. This stratification "typifies prefeminist-era radicalism in the sixties."


Leaving San Francisco

Running soup kitchens and medical clinics, however, was not the authentic, long-term concern of the Diggers' founders. After passing those institutions on to a local church and David E. Smith to continue, the Diggers moved out of the city, creating various land bases in California, including Forest Knolls, Olema, Covelo, Salmon River,
Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...
, and Black Bear Ranch. There they integrated with other groups — The Free Bakery, the Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers, and the Gypsy Truckers — creating The Free Family. That larger group still exists informally, and many of the Diggers' children and grandchildren remain in contact with one another, and many are still involved with progressive causes.


In media

Various alternative communities like those of the Diggers were covered in a feature-length documentary film by
Will Vinton William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Academy Awards, Os ...
, later known for his ClayMation studio in Portland, Oregon. This early-1970s documentary (1974 according to one source) was titled ''Gone for a Better Deal'', but it has never been released in any video format. Haight-Ashbury Golden-Gate park poet Ashleigh Brilliant, later known for his ''pot-Shots'' epigrams, released a CD of his songs and parodies about "life in the Haight," including two songs about the Diggers. A fictionalized version of the Diggers was featured in Haleh Roshan's play ''Free Free Free Free''.


See also

*
Counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
*
Gift economy A gift economy or gift culture is a system of exchange where valuables are not sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. Social norms and customs govern giving a gift in a gift culture; although there ...
* Zippies


Further reading

* Coyote, Peter. ''Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle'' (
Counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...
, 1998). * Grogan, Emmett. ''Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps'' (
Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...
, 1972). * Martin, Bradford D. ''The Theater is in the Street'' (
University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
, 2004). * Perry, Charles. ''The Haight-Ashbury: A History'' (New York:
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
/ Rolling Stone Press, 1984). * Sinclair, Mick. ''San Francisco: A Cultural and Literary History'' (Oxford, UK: Signal Books, 2004). * Torgoff, Martin. ''Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age 1945–2000'' (New York:
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
, 2004).


References


External links


The Digger Archives Home Page
excerpts from ''Sleeping Where I Fall''.
Diggers/Communications Company collection 1966–1968. Collection guide, California State Library, California History Room.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diggers (Theater) 20th century in San Francisco Defunct anarchist organizations in North America Far-left politics in the United States Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco Hippie movement New Left 1966 establishments in California 1968 disestablishments in California Arts organizations established in 1966 Organizations disestablished in 1968 Anarchist organizations in the United States Anarchism in California