Every Moment Has A Song

Billy Bragg: “The World Turned Upside Down” (1985)

Billy Bragg tells the story of the Diggers, a movement in mid-1600’s England to create a classless society by seizing land (which they felt had been unjustly taken through the Norman conquest) and holding it in the common good. They did so successfully and peacefully in areas of Kent and Northamptonshire, in defiance of laws and landlords, for over a year. They were eventually, and easily, suppressed by Cromwell and Fairfax.

Bragg sees lessons in the story for the powerful and dispossessed alike:

You poor take courage/You rich take care/This earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/03/22/songs-you-may-have-missed-59/