This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items recently cataloged from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection.
During the blossoming of the counterculture movement of the late 1960s, San Francisco saw the formation of an anarchist collective: the Diggers. Taking inspiration (and their name) from the 17th century English Protestant radical group which believed in agrarian socialism and called for the cultivation of common land, 20th century Diggers sought an end to capitalism, calling first for “free streets” and soon after, a “free city.” Working out of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, the Diggers used theater and performance art to protest capitalism and promote their initiatives. These included daily free food services in Golden Gate Park, multiple free stores, and a free medical clinic for the influx of young people moving to San Francisco during the decade.
This Digger newspaper, believed to be from the summer of 1967, contains writing and artwork for the cause. The first page includes a goal for a Marx-inspired free society, instructions for making a fire bomb, a remembrance of Malcolm X, and reminders about the winter solstice. The paper also contains several poems, including a eulogy for Bob Dylan, and a list of free services and communes in cities from New York to Moscow.
Although San Francisco never became a free city, Digger influences remain within the larger culture of American and international activism. Their establishment of free stores and free clinics became the model for such institutions across the country. They are also credited with popularizing whole wheat bread, which they baked in coffee cans for their free bakery. Like many leftist movements of the 1960s, the Digger movement has also been criticized for a sexist division of labor, where women were expected to take on practical tasks such as meal preparation and men controlled event planning and decision making.
A digital archive of the Digger movement can be found here.
To learn more, Free City can be found in Widener’s collection: [San Francisco], [Free City], [196?].
Thanks to Irina Rogova, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.