Diggers (theater)

The Diggers
Formation1966 (1966)
FoundersEmmett Grogan
Peter Coyote
Peter Berg
Billy Landout
Dissolved1968 (1968)
TypeCommunity-action group
PurposeTo create a mini-society free of money and capitalism
HeadquartersHaight-Ashbury, San Francisco, California, U.S.
Region served
San Francisco; California
Services
  • Free music concerts
  • Works of political art
  • Free food
  • Medical care
  • Transport
  • Temporary housing
  • Free Stores
  • happenings: Death of Money Parade, Intersection Game, Invisible Circus, Death of Hippie/Birth of Free
Publication
The Digger Papers
Websitewww.diggers.org

The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and street theatre actors operating from 1966 to 1968, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics have been categorized as "left-wing;" more accurately, they were "community anarchists" who blended a desire for freedom with a consciousness of the community in which they lived. The Diggers' central tenet was to be "authentic," seeking to create a society free from the dictates of money and capitalism.

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, and Billy Landout.

The Diggers fostered and inspired later groups like the Yippies.