We are in desperate need of remembering the UK’s rich history of social struggle. Fortunately, the Wigan Diggers Festival reminds us how this history holds the keys to improving our country today.
Wigan Diggers Festival: bringing radical history into the present
In celebration of the life and ideas of Gerrard Winstanley, the Wigan Diggers Festival on Saturday 13 September did just that. A free event for all with a day of live music, entertainment, inspiring poetry, stalls, and speakers, the community was able to come together and share in their common interests.
Winstanley, a local legend, championed social justice in the 17th century, fighting for the oppressed people of England to have a right to share in the ‘commons’ and be able to work the land to grow much-needed food for their communities. This was in direct challenge to the status quo of the time, when wealthy lords restricted access and increased taxes on ordinary people for their own profits. People fighting for a better Britain in 2025 can, and should, draw inspiration from this movement.
There were stalls representing the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Make Votes Matter, Your Party, Wigan’s local Green Party, the Socialist Worker, and several other social justice and reform groups.
Addressing people’s anger
After the anger that was on display at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protest on Saturday, the Wigan Diggers Festival was a markedly different space.
As Winstanley said in his appeal to the House of Commons in 1649, oppression breeds anger, the flame currently ignited in our society, and Winstanley argued that the only way to “quench” that flame is to champion values of love, justice, and compassion. Winstanley instead appealed to the most wealthy and powerful to prioritise social justice and individual freedoms:
And truly the hearts of the people are much falling from you, for your breach of Promises when you have the power to keep them, and for your neglect of giving them their freedom, and removing burthens; and what danger may ensue by that to yourselves, and the Nations, you know how to judge.
Curbing billionaire power and wealth
When we consider the social issues we face today – widening inequality, decreasing access to opportunity, and families struggling to feed their families sufficiently and nutritionally, it is hard not to see the relevance of Winstanley’s words, further signifying how our society still has a long way to go to ensure ordinary people have the right of freedom from exploitation by the richest in our society.
This is evidenced even further when we see the growing disparity between the extreme wealth of the rich and the income stagnation affecting the majority. Oxfam says that currently 3,000 billionaires across the world hold 14.6% of global wealth, seeing a surge of £4.8tn, whilst the incomes of the majority stagnate and inflation keeps rising, costing hard-working families even more.
In the UK, according to the Equality Trust, the average wealth of billionaires has increased by 1000% between 1990 and 2024, whilst paying a disproportionately low tax rate of 0.3% of their wealth, significantly lower than the average worker in the UK, who have also experienced stagnating wages since the financial crash of 2008. According to TUC, before the financial crash, weekly wages saw an increase of 1.7% each year, dropping to -0.2% since 2008.
Proposing a tax of 2% on the annual wealth of billionaires, French economist Gabriel Zucman argued that “there is overwhelming public support for this idea”, with 130 countries in support of a minimum tax on multinationals. Zucman stated this is technically feasible and could raise up to £197bn per year.
The commons of today
In modern times, our essential services could be argued to be the commons of our day: the NHS, our schools, water and energy, together with our democratic freedoms of free speech and the right to protest.
All of these face a severe threat from some of the super-rich in our society, and foreign wealth, who exploit the anger of our fellow citizens and our growing need for their own private profits. Through civil agitation directed at immigrants and refugees, there are blatant attempts to divert blame for our shared struggle away from the richest in our society, cashing in on monopolies and lucrative contracts, onto those suffering real hardship and trauma.
Public and Commercial Services Union general secretary Fran Heathcote spoke on Saturday in the anti-racism counter protest:
Trade Unions only succeed in winning for working class people when we unite working class people, all of us standing together. The billionaires, the corporations, the landlords and the media barons, they want us to be divided…Scapegoating migrants won’t get you better pay, reduce NHS waiting lists, or reduce your rent and mortgage.
Class war and inequality have long been tools of the oppressor, as we see through Winstanley’s advocacy, and it is clear we’re facing the greatest threat to our society as it is currently working in the favour of the richest in our society, exploiting the anger of the majority, leaving minoritised people in fear for their safety.
Time for hope and moral leadership
As Winstanley predicted in 1649, in his Appeal to the House of Commons, and still relevant today:
Unrighteous oppression kindles a flame; but love, righteousness, and tenderness of heart, quenches it again.
Britain must listen to the calls to tax the richest, and support Brazil’s call at the G20 to implement a fair tax on billionaires and multimillionaires. Then we can finally address the urgent issues in our society, ensuring no community feels left behind or disadvantaged.
Until then, people driven by love must fill the vacuum and address the anger in our communities. This is how we remove the hate that is blinding the disenfranchised, and strengthen the bonds in our communities.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Sadfish9889
This post was originally published on Canary.