Levellers and 'Digger Communism' in the English Civil War.

 

In his book entitled 'An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations' (1776), Adam Smith openly admitted that government "is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those that have none at all." 

John Locke, the architect of English Liberalism, wrote in his 'Two Treaties of Government', "Whereas Government has no other end but the preservation of property", he added, "civil government is the proper remedy for the inconveniences of the state of nature.' Thomas Hobbes taught that the function of civil government was to restrain the depravity natural to all men.

At the time of Putney Debates in October 1647, Cromwell's son-in-law, Henry Ireton, dismissed the Leveller proposal for almost universal male suffrage as anarchy and suggested that suffrage (the vote), should be limited to landowners. He told the Leveller spokesman, Colonel Thomas Rainsborough, "no man hath a right to an interest or share in the disposing of the affairs of the kingdom...that hath not a permanent fixed interest in this kingdom." Ireton was basically saying that liberty and property ownership were incompatible and that private property is the only protection against the encroachment of state power. The Grandees, who he represented, had a real fear that if common people were given the vote, they would use political power to expropriate the property and wealth of the rich. Theoretically, this has always been possible but it has never happened in in a country like England where the working class are essentially conservative in their political outlook and acquiesce in their own exploitation. People are so brainwashed that they vote for political parties that are the defenders of established privilege.

Before the English Civil War started, King Charles I, had warned the supporters of Parliament of the danger that "at last the common people" may "set up for themselves, call parity and independence liberty...destroy all rights and properties, all distinctions of families and merit." The Levellers had denied that this was their aim and the 'True Leveller' or 'Digger Communist', Gerrard Winstanley, never advocated for the expropriation of private property even though he believed the land was a common treasury for the use of all.

Oliver Cromwell lumped all levellers together describing them as "a despicable and contemptible generation of men...”persons differing little from beasts." He added: "Did not the levelling principle tend to reducing all to an equality...to make the tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord?... a pleasing voice to all poor men, and truly not unwelcome to all bad men."

Major General Skipton told Parliament in December 1656, "The more liberty, the greater mischief." He added, "I would not have a people know their own strength." I suppose that is where government power really lies. In the ability to alienate people and make them feel powerless and unable to change anything.