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"Gang
of Eight" edited document |
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| Date : 1973 Jim: 1. John Biddulph Before we explain ourselves further, let us say that
our departure has nothing to do with you. To us, you are the finest
socialist and leader this earth has ever seen. We plan to contact
you and, if you see fit, work with you, not staff. We have nothing
to say to or with staff. Proceeding, a revolutionary as you and staff would
say, does not engage in sex. Anyone with any awareness concerning
socialism would give up sex. The reasons for giving up sex are agreeable
with us. However, who takes the privileged liberty to abuse such a
decision? STAFF. Carolyn Layton, Sandy Inghram, Karen Layton, Grace
Stoen, Janet Phillips etc., have to be fucked in order to be loyal.
Jack Beam Sr., Tim Stoen, [name withheld by request], Mike Prokes
etc., have to be fucked in the butt for the same reason. Who has to
do it to them but Jim Jones. The thought of demanding your sensitivity
and dedication in such a manner is grossly sick. There are other staff
that's taken advantage likewise. However, the above is sufficient. One black potentially solid revolutionary young man
by the name of Ted Ballard was seduced by one older white schizophrenic
staff—Faith Kice. Ted's image is ruined in the church, and no
doubt in his mind, he's worthless. Now he walks the fascist streets
an outcast. Related to this situation, Dan Pietela tries to follow
guidelines set by staff—leave Robin Wages alone, especially sexually.
Robin's mother is told lies about Danny in order to make sure Danny
doesn't see Robin. To Dan's surprise, he catches Faith Kice screwing
Ted. But as always, staff remains out of public range, while Ted is
condemned—is made to look like a fag and a sexual deviant. What's
Dan to think when he witnesses such unfairness? How would anyone feel,
put in the same situation? Grace Stoen as everyone knows doesn't know her posterior
from a hole in the ground. In order to keep her in People's Temple,
she's allowed a fuck, or should we say, she had to be fucked. Accidentally
(?) she becomes pregnant, and contrary to People's Temple law, she
doesn't get an abortion. As can be expected, she's staff. The eight of us feel if loyalty has to be achieved
through such double standard measures, then loyalty will never be
achieved. At most a temporary secrecy will be kept, not loyalty nor
the spirit of socialism. Jim, many times in the past you've said that money
didn't talk in the socialist family. Presently, it seems that everyone
with money has been put on special projects and staff. It is known in People's Temple that Helen Swinney
isn't to be messed with. She brings in a lot of money for the church,
so she's left alone, in spite of the fact she's a racist through and
through. When Helen meets People's Temple's black members downtown
or in public eye, she ignores them. We're not speaking of outside
the ranks black people, we're speaking of Peoples Temple's black members.
We have many testimonies to this fact. These people are both black
and white (mainly black). It was staff that said "don't talk about
Helen Swinney unless you can bring in as much money." This is a cruel
and sick thing to say to poor white and black people that will never
have the opportunity Helen had. Too, it has a stinking capitalist
overtone with no socialist concern. It's true Helen has a lot of money,
does what she wants and enjoys a condescending capitalist position. Several people have come to different ones of us
with doubts about you, staff, People's Temple goal and money used.
Those that have expressed doubts about you felt guilty, worthless
and scared. We've told them all to write you and explain these feelings,
because we didn't agree and didn't know how to help them. Most of
them said, and we quote, "staff will only use it against us." To put
it mildly, there are many people that hate staff with a passion. You
know as well as we, if leadership is dishonest, if leadership is aloof
and sacred from the common people, if leadership has a white attitude,
a movement will be crippled if not destroyed. From our observation
and dealings with People's Temple members, they have faith in you—only
you. On what grounds is staff chosen? Does it mean anything
or warrant respect and camaraderie if a black person proves loyal
to People's Temple as long as 7, 8, 9, 10 years? There are black People's
Temple members who have proven themselves through the years. Still,
they participate in People's Temple from the same capacity as when
they joined. On the other hand, there are those who become members
of staff after 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 meetings. Mike Prokes, Annie Moore, Terry
Buford, Gene Chaikin etc. are examples. How much do they know about
Socialism? It's impossible to know what's necessary concerning Socialism
the way they were introduced to it. How is it justified that new white
people achieve such staff positions? New white upper middle class
put in charge of a Socialist movement. New white upper middle class
folk seem to be trusted and treated better than black folk who have
proven their loyalties through the years. There's never been one black
person who's come into People's Temple and put on staff right away.
Lee Inghram has been the almost exception, however, it took him about
a year or so. That's not saying much anyway, because his ideals were
and still are pseudo hippie intellectually oriented. To top it off
even he's being considered to be sent to L.A. Why not Gene Chaikin
or Sandy Inghram? Do they make mistakes? We know they do—as a
matter of fact, we know some of the mistakes they've made. Why not
send Patty Cartmell to L.A.? Patty's brave, however, she's hyper as
hell. When she was put in jail, she exposed People's Temple and Jim
Jones instead of taking a pill or keeping quiet. Yet she's held in
the supreme capacity—STAFF. Carolyn Layton, when she shows up
to church, is negative as hell. She doesn't praise nor participate.
She wanders around during service, even though she's not taking care
of church work. This is not just a testimony of ours—a lot of
people who are still in People's Temple have expressed this. Why isn't
she sent to L.A.? Karen Layton walks and acts like super pussy. Why
isn't she sent to L.A.? Susan Cartmell [aka Suzanne Jones] talks about people left and
right. Yet her wardrobe is enough to make a rich capitalist jealous.
Susan and [name withheld by request] didn't give any money to the
college fund last year, however [name withheld by request] took from
the college fund while he and Susan did their thing in Oakland (with
their own apartment). Why aren't they sent to L.A.? There's no revolutionary teachings being taught the
way it use to. At one time you told us to read. Yet, staff came in
the night to steal books from those who had them. Why haven't [name withheld by request]'s books been taken? Tim Stoen and other people are told not
to read about Socialism. Most of us were told this also. Why? Take a look at what the youth group used to be and
what it is now. Before, they planned, they were united and they were
aware of capitalism as opposed to Socialism. Today, they're dumb when
it comes to capitalism and Socialism, they hate going to all church
meetings, they don't go to choir rehearsal, there's no youth group.
Why? To regress a bit, it is our feeling that staff have
wiped out progressive and revolutionary thought. People's Temple members
are expecting to enter a cave or go to some isolated part of another
country—the bomb falls—they emerge and pow paradise. This
would never be the state of mind if the realism of supporting and
believing in Socialism were understood. With this we feel some of
us were kept from staff (by staff) because our ideals were and are
too progressive and black. Any body with a mind to be active concerning
Socialism is put down, called a queer, and big revolutionary in a
degrading manner. Why? We know you have far too much on you and have to
rely on staff for facts etc. This puts you in a vunerable position,
because staff lies and their personal prejudices are given to you
instead of fact. We've witnessed it as well as experienced it. How
can one judge or be objective about something they fear. The Staff
being uppity white folk fear blackness, they fear what some of us
had to offer, they fear the consequences of a do it now philosophy,
they fear action. Male Chauvinism is used every other word. When this
world is in the condition it's in, why be trivial? Of course, male
chauvanism exists, however, it's over emphasized. The male population
at People's Temple have been saturated with the word and with people
that use it. Again staff is responsible, they set the example. Planning Commission was created to handle emergencies,
to plan directions before fascism came, to plan what to do in case
you (Jim Jones) were put in prison. What a laugh. All Planning Commission
does is call each other homosexual, asking if each other suck cock,
planning to plant dope on people like Dan Pietila (what a contribution
to Socialism). Why be so trivial? The fact is when Jim Jones is put
in prison, staff will not do shit. You will rot and die in prison
with no help, support or action from the staff. It was discussed in
one of the staff meetings, that if you were killed, it should appear
you went away on a mission. This would keep the people happy. What
does this mean? It means that nothing will be done about your death.
This is similar to what happened to Golden Rule—when their silly
ass lady died they collapsed—look at them now. Jim, if you're
imprisoned or killed, we guarantee that a few people will not sit
still. It was you that made life meaningful, it was you that introduced
socialism to us, it's you that's carrying all the weight in this revolution.
We're grateful. The eight of us believe in historical materialism.
We feel that you came to the people giving them the greatest reason
to live, the greatest reason to die, the greatest reason to fight—socialism
(we have another name for it). However, you can't do it all, you can't
move unless your followers realize the necessity to shape history
themselves. This is again where staff has failed. They are to the
most part white egotistical people maintaining a hierarchy. Not allowing
you to take the reins and go ahead full steam. Holding you back saying
it's not time, having to be fucked, degrading people—especially
if they have a little knowledge about Socialism. All this leads us
to the conclusion the staff is chicken shit. There's a point where
you have to be cautious and compromise, yet there's a limit. We will not talk against Peoples Temple to anyone,
because of you and a few innocent people may be hurt. You're the one that showed us the way, you're the
one that boldly challenged capitalism and put a vision in our hearts,
you're the one that proved to us that nothing is impossible. This
is exactly how we feel—nothing's impossible. A lot more could be said—we have a million things
that could be said. But it's not necessary. Like we said earlier, we will contact you and wish
to talk with you and if you see fit work with you. We want it known by you and staff that we don't believe
in religion, we don't believe in God, we don't believe in reincarnation,
we don't believe in impossible. We are not concerned with the beginning,
the end or the hereafter. We are only concerned about today.
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