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"Gang
of Eight" original document |
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| Date : 1973 Jim: 1. John Biddulph Before we explain ourselves furture [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 priviledged liberty to abuse such
a decision—STAFF. Carolyn Layton, Sandy Inghram, Karen Layton,
Grace Stoen, Janet Phillips etc., has to be fucked in order to be
loyal. Jack Beam Sr., Tim Stoen, [name withheld by request], Mike
Prokes etc., has 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 facist streets
an outcast. Related to this situation, Dan Pietela tries to follow
guidelines set by staff—leave Robbin [Robin] Wages alone, especially
sexually. Robbin'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 witness 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 loyality has to be achieved
through such double standard measures than loyality will never be
achieved. At most a temporary secrecy will be kept, not loyality 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, inspite the fact she's a racist through and through.
When Helen meets People's Temple's black members down town 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 over tone 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 comradery 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 loyalities 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—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 prayes [praise] nor participates. She wonders [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] talkes 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? When the college students held socialist meetings
not one young person left the group. There was unity. The college
meetings were discontinued—every since the college dorms have
been going down hill. Cathy Stahl and Elizabeth Toth are now gone—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 are [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 to 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 to 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 ore [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 Chalvanism is used every other word. When this
world is in the condition it's in why be trivial? Of course, male
chalvanism exist, 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. 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 egotical 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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