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Part 1
Jones: Guyana. (Pause) There are some indications that certain top administrators (unintelligible word) running the state banks will be replaced the reason being leaders suggest that has been serious mal-administration and corruption. (unintelligible word) rumors are that deputy prime minister Dr. [Ptolemy] Reid is ready to remove some other senior persons and ministers because of mal-administration positions counter to socialist policy. These are mere divisions on the part of the leading clique to shift the blame to mal-administration, corruption, (unintelligible word) malpractice (unintelligible word). By this, said the opposition paper, Liberation, this means the people who feel that [Forbes] Burnham and Reid are cleaning up the stables. They will have illusions that those individuals are to be blamed for their miseries. We do not agree with this policy, this paper, but we’re giving an alternate point of view always, to stir up our own thinking. Remember tonight, there’s a women’s meeting. There’s a women’s socialist revolutionary meeting this evening. Our movies did not get in on this uh, particular airplane, so it’ll be coming in our guest tomorrow or the next time a plane arrives, which will be Friday, I guess. None of the people at large – now those under the cloud of dismissal must allow the Burnham leadership to get away with this, said the Liberation. All the blame for the present economic and political collapse must be placed squarely on the shoulders on Burnham, his cabinet and the central committee of the Peoples Nation– National Congress for a start. It is not mere mal-administration at one bank or one ministry that has brought Guyana into this mess. It is the culmination of the policies and tactics of the Burnham leadership which is brazen and corrupt. It is this leadership which claims to be over and above all in this land of shortages of consumer items, blackouts, major cities and villages, unemployment, corruption, choke-and-rob and fear. The statement, not Burnham but his advisers, and the boys working under him is a big lie and diversion.
National occupation. The whole problem goes back to the PNC leadership which makes cheating a national occupation. The leading clique organized to win and hold power through the most corrupt methods and forced its underlings and supporters to engage in corrupt practices to ensure victory. The clique mismanaged public funds and public property, and refused to listen to this (unintelligible word) the protest of citizens. There has been no report on the auditing of the national finances since 1970, and the 1969 report disclosed scandalous practices in the PNC. The decision regarding elections and the auditing of state finances is not for a minor official but for the prime minister and his cabinet, along with the executive committee of the Peoples National Congress.
Authority. Every citizen knows that without the authority of the top Peoples National Congress leadership, there could not be such massive abuse of public property. Vehicles belonging to the nation are used for private purposes and carry PNC stickers. School buildings refused to other people’s organizations are treated as Peoples National Congress property by its leading members.
Undermine. The Peoples National Congress leadership undermined all Guyanese institutions, including the ombudsman and the courts, and caused them to be disrespected by the populace. Of course, much of this not true, but it is the worst opposition left, the most radical left opposition in the country. The imposition of incompetent and corrupt local government leaders is the work of the Peoples National Congress leadership. It is top direction which has resulted in the breakdown of our electricity and sewer system. It is the Peoples National Congress leadership which flew horses up to Matthews Ridge for personal reasons, transported– (pause) (off mic) What’s that? What’s that?
Voice: (too soft)
Jones: Oh. Oh, that’s good. The imposition of incompetent and corrupt local–
Well, we– we would like you to know that the demonstration is just a– a moment of news about the demonstration on the courthouse square, we’ve outnumbered the protesters four-to-one. There are four for us and one of theirs. So good. We outnumber those that gather today to make us look corrupt, and the people who’ve been here, including Vivian Davis, who just been here, we outnumbered with relatives – we’re talking about relatives – we outnumbered them four-to-one. Isn’t that good. That’s good news. That can’t help but be helpful.
The imposition of incompetent and corrupt local government leaders is the work of the Peoples National Congress leadership– the Peoples National Congress leadership, which flew horses up to Matthews Ridge for personal reasons, transported by aircraft (unintelligible word), for Caricom heads of government dinner – and that’s not true – used the army to hunt wild meat, also the clique and their stooges at public expense. This– this is much lies in this particular Liberation newspaper, but I’m giving you what the criticisms are of the country.
Because (unintelligible word), the Burnham leadership promised that ministers and other PNC would declare publicly their assets, according to the– the Liberation newspaper, last April. 1975 was the last date that ministers and other PNC leaders to declare their assets. (Pause) Our view is unloading. In 1968, those who now head the Working Peoples Alliance – no, no, no, that’s not true – Working Peoples Vanguard called for repudiation of the voting because they would be rigged. By the way, we’ve had friendship with the PNC, which is the government, or the ruling government under Prime Minister Burnham. Peoples National Congress. And the opposition party has shown itself friendly, the Peoples Progressive Party under Dr. Cheddi Jagan. Also, the Working Peoples Alliance has been friendly, under Dr. Walter Rodney. Now, this Working Peoples Vanguard is uh, just an anarchistic kind of party that tells a lot of lies, and we have found it to be so in many instances, but we still want to note their arguments.
By the way, we received high levels of praise from the Burnham Institute, which is the most important agricultural institute in Guyana, praising us for the most exemplary socialist practices in the nation, and that they thanked us for the delegation coming here from Burnham’s Agricultural Institute of future leaders of agriculture in the country, and said that they thought this is the one place they could learn more from than anyplace else in Guyana. It is was a very high level– letter of praise.
We are assured by the PNC, the government today, that action will be taken immediately on the mercenary matter, that the whole government, the– the intelligence agencies from [James] Mentore and the army will be alerted, they are taking seriously the mercenary matter, but do not feel that we are in any personal threat, because they will be reflecting to the State Department that this is a reflection on their national sovereignty, and they’re going to take action immediately to notify the State Department USA that they will suffer no such violations of their borders, that our position will be secure. (Pause)
Our views on voting, said the Peoples Vanguard Party, calls for repudiation of the voting because it’d be rigged. The opposition parties paid no attention then, and the WPVP declared a boycott of the 1973 election, the PPP leadership declared, this is playing into the hands of the PNC. We need to (unintelligible word) a section of our 1973 manifesto which called for unity and struggle. Elections and parliamentary institutions under present conditions of neo-colonialism are divisive and block the conquest of people’s power. The Peoples National Congress government has corrupted the bourgeoisie parliamentary system as to make it a total scandal. The parliamentary opposition parties allege extensive rigging, corruption in the 1968 national elections and 1970 local government elections, and the prime minister himself admitted there were irregularities in the 1968 election. That’s a lie. The government has done nothing to purge the 1968 list of unqualified persons, to correct the widespread abuses, and irregularities. In the light of the above, the right to vote has been debate– debased and made worthless. As a result of this, elections do not provide the opportunity whereby the people could change the government in Guyana, if and when they used to do so– do so, as is their right. (Pause)
The State Department official who was here to– today, the new consular for the U.S. Embassy [Richard Dwyer], said he did not buy at all that we were the victims of a conspiracy. He seemed to have a– a great deal of empathy for our press attack. He had been attacked for helping– by the right wing for helping in Africa in general social service ways while he was stationed there, so he understood that the press could be biased and sensationally inclined, only interested in selling newspapers, and never interested in goodness. Well, time will tell.
We are interested in knowing if anyone saw someone put a plaque of Che Guevara, anyone noticing anyone that put a plaque of Che Guevara amongst our toys two times in a row. This is obviously a provocative act, and we are interested in knowing anyone that knew who did that. We have some good ideas. Anyone that put a Che Guevara plaque with a machine gun in his hands twice on our toys, I got around it, you did us no harm, but we know that your purpose could not have been anything but counter-revolutionary and provocateur. You may be the infiltrator. Unless you explain yourself, we will consider you as an enemy of this great cause. (Long Pause)
The top brass of the Peoples National Congress never fail to s– ensure that while they spread the ideas of socialist equality, egalitarianism, they themselves are spared the arrangement and continued to enjoy the best, said the Liberation anarchy– it’s an anarchist newspaper that is against the PPP, the PNC and the WPA. For instance, it is no secret that while the masses are deprived the use of such items as imported liquor, white potatoes, soy beans, et cetera, the houses of some of the elite are flush with them. Some years ago it was noted that while the prime minister was talking about us, local– (pause) was talking about using local things, he himself was smoking Kent cigarettes. Talking about smoking. Vanguard Liberation is in the position– possession of a label of cigar which carries the colors of the national flag with the name of Forbes Burnham printed on it. So it seems if you are lucky enough to be presented by the great man with one of his special cigars, you at least can keep the initialed label as a memento. It must surely cost a great deal. Then for the present trip to Moscow, we understand that the delegation with Burnham that went to Russia amounted to 46, including his two small children, and their nanny. Each traveler drew in advance a sum of nine thousand dollars each through the Permanent Secretary for out-of-pocket expenses. We do not know if the children and their nanny enjoyed this bounty. I doubt this very much. I don’t believe this either. And by the way, why is it that the authorities did not reveal the true side of our passenger list to Moscow. We understand too that the round of cocktail parties are still being kept up with all choicest liquors flowing. The poor people are denied every item which will ensure their comfort, even if they do not have to buy them. Even when some of them are fortunate to travel, buy some liquor for which they pay custom duty, the police under the pretext of searching for foreign currency, relieve them of these. It appears that only whom the gods bless must enjoy this privilege. A caller to the radio program action line disclosed that when the Women’s Revolutionary Socialist Movement headquarters are chock full of items for the market day, the big ladies in their fancy cars turn up the eve of the great day and secure these items, far from the maddening and slo– sun-squelched crowd. That’s not true either. The smaller men and women turn up from 5 am and get into two lines which wind slowly to the seller and each person secures a nominal amount of what is left. You see, you can have what you really require for two reasons. Firstly, the top comrades carried away so much the night before, and secondly, you should be hoarding on the part of the small man. (Pause)
African bee dancer [danger]. (Pause) A correspondent has asked Vanguard to call attention to what he claims could be a serious accident because of the African bees. And the person said that a hive of domesticated bees in the vicinity of Timehri tarmac has been handed over to developers. He fears that since these people are not regular beekeepers, they may not be aware that the African strain had entered the hive until it’s too late. The bee in this situation will be very dangerous to aircraft workers and possible passengers. He feels that their hives should be removed. That also not true, they’re doing quite an experiment near the airport, with crossing the African bee with the Italian bee, with success in producing a great amount of hungry– uh, honey from (unintelligible word).
Pledge by a conman. If it be your choice that the Peoples Nation– National Congress be given the opportunity of implementing its development plan and manifesto, let me assure you that we shall discharge the mandate within the framework of our national constitution of which – and this is something that many persons forget – we were the chief architects. This was the report of the broadcast made to the nation by Prime Minister Burnham on the eve of the 1973 voting, and published in the daily Chronicle, organ of the PNC, of July 16, 1973, the speech continued.
Democracy. The constitution upholds a system of parliamentary democracy where there is room for all parties and for all opinions. In the constitution are enshrined those fundamental rights and freedoms which we hold dear, and for which the Peoples National Congress fought the Peoples Progressive Party in the early 60’s. This democratic system, these rights, these freedoms, I as leader of the PNC, said Burnham, on behalf of myself and my colleagues, pledge to preserve by leading our Guyana and maintain it as a democratic society under the rule of law. The prime minister also declared that the develop– development plan which amounted to 1,150,000 was submitted to the electorate with humility but with confidence. The leader has left again to consider the pledge of the political deceiver and the complete collapse of the development plan.
Senegalese boycott voting. Writing from Dakar, Senegal – S-e-n-e-g-al – in west Africa, a correspondent pointed out that there was a severe boycott of the presidential and parliamentary elections held this last month. The government of President [Leopold] Senghor – S-e-n-g-h-o-r – who organized political representation in which certain parties were legalized. For the election, there were three legal parties, but there were a large number of non-recognized groups and clandestine bodies. All these non-recognized bodies campaigned for a boycott of the voting. It emerged that just over 37 percent heeded the call. The government has now declared that the voting abstentions were significant. In an area controlled by former prime minister now in the opposition, less than half of the 50,000 electors turned out. In some of the districts of the capital, where there is strong political mobilization, mainly by the government, the percent of absentinsion– abstentions reached the 50 percent mark. Senegal is one of Africa’s most sophisticated countries. President Senghor – S-e-n-g-h-o-r – again, who is leading member of the Social Democratic International Movement, was re-elected president, but is in for a hard time, to judge by the success of the boycott. (Long Pause)
(unintelligible name) Phillips of the Consumer Association of Guyana wasted va– valuable radio time on Thursday last, describing the beauty of Batika [phonetic] and advising citizens to enjoy a overland trip to that place. These people do not understand simple matters, as for instance the present crisis due to the high fuel charges and scarce foreign reserves. How would such trips help the country at this time? (Pause)
Wasting time. The Guyana Manufacturers Association held a symposium on last Sunday at the Pegasus, discussed among matters the Indian trip of their delegation and considered a long list of industries which were considerable– advisable in Guyana. A few days before the symposium, a delegation of the association met Minister of Trade and Consumer Protection, he– Dr. [George] King has been very friendly to us – who assured them that everything is being done to provide adequate electricity so we carry out (pause) the operations. He also spoke to them on the quota and licensing system around foreign exchange. Clear the GMA are wasting their time in all these efforts. If they are fooling somebody, it can only be themselves. What are the realities of the problem which face the GMA and which cannot now be collected as long as the PNC ruling clique holds power. The country does not have the necessary external funds to permit manufacturers to import raw material in sufficient quantities to make their operations worthwhile. This is enough in itself to cramp the style and prevent any development. The problem over quota and licensing are all related to this. No Dr. King or even the prime minister can solve the po– power crisis now. It is even impossible to maintain the present power supply. The corru– corporation only recently asked persons to do no ironing, and they should switch off all fans and unnecessary lights. Persons with generating sets are asked to operate them between the hours of seven p.m. and ten p.m. So it is clear that the power situation will not be corrected within the foreseeable future. However, this has already been changed, so apparently the Liberation doesn’t know all it’s talking about. But above all this, the manufacturers face the uncertain future concerning their right to own their property and operate them. During his speech on the constitutional amendment a fortnight ago, the prime minister himself made a distinction between personal property and property to be used for exploitation. A position has not been clarified, and the GMA delegation seemed to have raised it. After the referendum, all rights will be subject to the whims of the PNC leading clique. Clearly the GMA executives are fooling themselves. There does not now exist in Guyana any sure climate for the type of development in business by them. (Pause)
In a talk on economic problems in Guyana given earlier this year, Secretary General B. H. Benn, who is a liar, set out our position on the issues in the following words: So what is the way forward? Do we need so much economic oppression and social dislocation for advance. We say no. We believe that in an economic (unintelligible word) Guyana still needs the services and expertise of local private capitalists. It is necessary here to state that what is being considered is not more traders but persons in the manufacturing sector knowledgeable in this field. Our party resolved since 1976 that the EPB should be abolished. It is quite clear that incompetence cannot be an excuse for all the imposed suffering we face. The existence of the EPB has not brought down the prices of goods, neither has it made them more available. It was Ben– Ridley-Ben who was a liar, as I said, and who, Dick McCoy, the local U.S. consul, who’s now going to be elevated to the Guyana desk of the State Department, said he pitied him, asking him for CIA help in establishing a semi-capitalist government here. Well, he’s certainly glorifying the capitalist enterprise there, that’s capitalism’s still needed.
About 100,000 metallurgical workers in Madrid, Spain, went on a strike, to support their stand over the negotiation for collective contract. It was also reported that the strike held by present and (unintelligible word) mean a higher purchase price of– for agricultural projects was still continuing. Sixteen thousand tractors blocked the highways, and peasants drove their tractors onto the highways to back up their demand for a new price of agricultural products. Thirty vessels were anchored in the dock of Cadiz – C-a-d-i-z – in protest against the manager rejection demand for wage increases. Forty thousand unemployed workers gathered in Madrid from all parts of Spain to protest against their unemployment. A rally at the sports palace in the afternoon climaxed the march on Madrid, which began last month. The rally demanded guarantees of livelihood for the unemployed, job security, and an increase in the number of job opportunities. Spain unen– Spain’s unemployed, formerly a fascist dictatorship under Frank de [Francisco] Franco was reported to have grown to one and a half million.
By the way, the Portuguese Communist Party has denounced Eurocommunism and the Communist Party of Spain as being revisionist for not backing revolutionary struggle. The Portuguese Communist Party has come out in support of the operations of the Red Brigade and their demands and their action with Aldo Moro, the prime minister Moro, who was executed by the people’s court of the Red Brigade.
It has been announced that the military government in Ghana has arrested more than 300 people after a referendum on the constitutional (unintelligible word) for that country. The government has denied this report and issued a statement declaring that only 33 people have been arrested. Ghana has been under military rule for a long time, and some time last year, the professionals went on strike to support the demand for a return to civilian rule. By the way, the local State Department charge d’affaires, the consular left with us a copy showing that the CIA overthrew the government of Nkrumah Ghana in a– Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, the socialist government there. This has come out in The New Yok Times. This led to the committee– to an ad hoc committee last month to collect and collate the views of Ghanians on the establishment of a Union Democratic Government. The concept of union government as originally proposed by General [Ignatius Kutu] Acheampong – A-c-h-e-a-m-p-o-n-g – the head of Guyana– uh, Ghana, rather, G-h-a-n-a, imposed effective and automatic participation of the army and police in government on grounds of institutional representation. But the ad hoc committee rejected automatically the institutional representation of the army and police. Instead, it recommended that every Ghanian, irrespective of his or her status and occupation, including public servants, university teachers, members of the armed forces and police, should be able to stand election for parliament. The committee also recommended that parliament should be composed of members elected on an individual personal basis rather than on party platforms. Many people proposed– oppose the Union Democratic Government and have been going all out to express their dis– dissent. Those in opposition include Peoples Movement for Freedom under General [Fred] Akuffo and a former finance minister under President Nkrumah that was overthrown by the CIA, a professional body’s association, grouping together lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, (unintelligible word), an alliance of university professors and democrats. (Pause)
Sanjay Gandhi taken into custody. India’s supreme court today ordered that Sanjay Gandhi, S-a-n-j-a-y, son of foreign Indian prime minister– former prime minister Indira Gandhi, be taken into custody for tampering with the prosecution witnesses in a criminal case against him. The Supreme Court said Mr. Gandhi should be taken into custody for a month from today because he had abused his liberty by attempting to sub– suborn witnesses. The court said he had forfeited, given up his right, to remain free. Mr. Gandhi is being tried by a session court here for alleged conspiracy in destroying reels of a film about corrupt politicians. The charges relate to the period from 1975 until last year, when Mrs. Indira Gandhi, granddaughter of the famous Mahatma Gandhi, peace champion, world pacifist, when Mrs. Indira Gandhi ruled Indian under emergency powers. She established martial law. Her government was very strongly pro-Soviet. Mrs. [Mr.] Gandhi was given bail last year in anticipation of arrest, but the new administration, which is prosecuting him, sought cancellation of the bail on the ground that he was contacting prosecution witnesses and influencing them to change their statements. Chief Justice [Yeshwant Vichnu] Chandrachud, who deli– who delivered the judgment, said several incidents had provided satisfactory proof that Mrs. Gandhi– Mr. Gandhi, Mrs. Gandhi’s son, had abused his liberty. Mr. Gandhi, who was present in court, appeared unmoved by the verdict and later drove to the sessions court, escorted by police cars.
The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, known for its grand welcome of world dignitaries, gave Prime Minister Forbes Burnham one of the most rousing receptions they’ve ever given any dignitary of state, when he arrived last week. The reception party was headed by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Communist North Korea, President Comrade Kim Il-Sung. On hand were workers, men, women and children, and others who chanted patriotic songs in appreciation of Prime Minister Burnham’s visit from our own beloved Guyana. In this picture, it shows a gathering of woman among the thousands that met Prime Minister Burnham at the airport. Well-dressed, beautiful, and the most modern background, the city of Pyongyang– Pyongyang, where the capital of North Korea is located.
Guinness ha– heiress kills self. Lady Henrietta Guinness, the Anglo-Irish brewery fortune heiress, who forsook high society for a quiet family life in an Italian country town, plunged to her death from a bridge Wednesday in what police said was a suicidal leap. The 35-year-old former London society beauty, who inherited five million sterling, 9.2 million US dollars, only three years ago, was seen standing on the parapet of a bridge in the medieval part of the town seconds before she fell. Sterling possession of over ten million US dollars. So it proves that capitalism, money brings no security, as this 35-year-old former beauty queen still committed suicide, having 10 million US dollars.
Two years ago, this ten year– ten million dollar heiress, US dollars, 10 million dollars, gave up London society life after meeting (unintelligible name), a medical student who was working as a barman. Last year, they had a baby daughter, and they were married in a simple ceremony in Spoleto’s town hall. Just this last– (unintelligible) this month, uh, last year. For the Guinness family, it was the third violent death in 13 years. In 1966, Lady Henrietta’s cousin, Tara Brown, was killed, and only 21. His sports car hit a parked van in London Chelsea. Only a year earlier, another cousin Patrick [Guinness], who was half-brother of Aga– Aga Khan, was killed in a car crash in Switzerland. Lady Henrietta and her husband, who was 29, lived quietly in a council house here with his parents. Her life is a far cry from the round of high living and the eccentric reputation Lady Henrietta had built up in London society in the 1960s. She had once planned to elope with Michael Beatty, a colorful character dubbed Britain’s best known beatnik, she was badly injured in France in 1963 when her Astin Martin sports car crashed with Beatty at the wheel. He was killed. Well, her 10 million dollars, as I say, brought her no satisfaction, as she jumps off a bridge. Guinness heiress, once of the richest people in the world, 10 million US dollars that she inherited, which had been multiplied several times by her investment, and yet her money did not give her satisfaction.
One uncommon– one common dieter’s downfall is un– is unwanted pounds, that (unintelligible word) away from home, but you needn’t punish your palette to keep from destroying your diet. (unintelligible word) strategists can help. Plan ahead, says Dr. [Henry] Jordan (unintelligible name) Kendall, author of Eating Is Okay. That’s the key to successful weight control– Oh, well, this is nonsense. Uh, just forget that. I’m not even going to read that. (Pause)
Rosie [Lee] Burgines, please report to the radio room. Johnny Jones, please–
(tape edit)
Confusion mongers, the news calls (unintelligible word) Deputy Prime Minister and General Secretary of the Peoples National Congress, Comrade Ptolemy Reid, who’s the head of the party and a very good friend of ours, has hit as confusion mongers among the people and has renewed the government’s pledge to work towards unity and retaliation of a better and brighter future for the Guyanese. In a broadcast message last night, Comrade Reid said the recent one day strike by the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union, which is a PNC union, succeeded in compounding confusion and was non-productive, but that one p– positive result should be that the workers would demonstrate greater understanding of the pains in the development of the country.
(tape edit) the radio room.
Dr. Reid said, there was one advantage, that workers would demonstrate their greater understanding of the pains in the development of Guyana. The Deputy Prime Minister referred to criticism of the constitution amendment bill, particularly from a– the group of lawyers of the Guyana Council of Churches and the Methodist Church and host of unions, he said antagonists to the bill had chosen to ignore the government’s expressed reasons for wishing to amend the constitution and have invented their own reasons. So we have this group of our legal brains and spiritual leaders going to the limits of illogical thought by opposing the measure on the grounds of arguments, motivations and principles which have never been expressed by the government, he said.
Pointing out that this was not the first time the constitution was being amended, Prime– Deputy Prime Minister Reid stressed that the government proposed to introduce a new constitution, because the existing one was merely a compromise which (unintelligible word) two years and was quite unsuited to a socialist system that now is practiced in Guyana, and the revolution of socialism which was taking place in Guyana today. We’re in the midst of a peaceful socialist revolution. We as a nation must strengthen our national unity so that the revolution will continue in a peaceful manner. It is a revolution aimed at providing a good life for all in the country of Guyana. Prime Minister– Deputy Prime Minister Reid said the text in hi– his message follows:
Comrades and friends. The past week has been an eventful one with a variety of occurrences and functions affecting the day-to-day lives of us– all of us. Dominating the week activity was the grand May Day parade and rallies of the trade unions and workers in our midst in varieties centers in Guyana. As you know, we were praised as being one of the most– as the most beautiful group in the entire parade on all the media, radio and all the news. I was pleased to be a part of the big demonstrations which the Guyanese trade union council organized (unintelligible word) the capital, said Dr. Reid, and quite honored by being asked to deliver the feature address to the workers. I felt that it was right that the governing party should demonstrate tangibly its solidarity with the working class movement as exemplified by the trade union council and its affiliates. In my address, I referred to the fact that we in Guyana were in the midst of a revolution, there is no bloodless, that was without violence, has now reached the most bitter stage. I made reference to the emergence of certain irregularities, increase in hoarding, profiteering– profiteering white-marketing, and increase in (unintelligible word) for which every new venture by the government is needed. I said that these were all part of the armory of the forces amongst us who would like to see our socialist revolution fail. Dr. Reid went on to say, I referred to the tactics of the confusion mongers who do everything in their power to spread confusion, alarm and dismay, and fear amongst the citizens of the Republic of Guyana. I said that there are some people in this country who blame our political movement, the Peoples National Congress, for everything. For every little evil, they blame the leadership. And what’s more, even when they organize the evil, they blame the leadership. Within a few days of my having made that remark, we were treated to a glaring example of this kind of behavior, when the Commercial Clerical Workers Union group of trade unionists was responsible in (unintelligible word) record of incisive militancy, suddenly fell prey to the confusion monster [monger] in our midst and indulged in work stoppage which could only succeed in compounding confusion. At a time when our country cries out for production, thousands of workers indulge in the luxury of idleness for one day on the surface ostensibly to protest against the shortages and against irregularities and bottlenecks in the distributive trades, which their own industrious efforts redoubled might have done much to eliminate. Judge the result of their action as is evidenced, the day after their demonstration, when the lines of consumers waiting for commodities in short supply became even longer. I wish today to say no more about this exercise, but I can only hope that one positive result of that non-productive work stoppage will be that workers will demonstrate greater understanding of the pains of development in our socialist revolution in this country.
And now, said Dr. Reid, I want to talk about another subject which has been constantly in the news in recent weeks. I refer to the constitution amendment bill 1978, which was passed by the National Assembly on April 10, 1978. This bill makes it possible for certain amendments to be made to the constitution with a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, the Parliament, and without the necessity for a national referendum to be held on the subject. The amendment, which was approved on April 10, however, will itself be the subject of a referendum, which must be held not earlier than June 10 and not later than October 10, 1978.
The question has been asked rightly, why does the government, the Peoples National Congress, want to change the constitution of 1966. The confusion mongers gone to work and have come up with a reason implying the most sinister and frightening motive behind the government’s desire to amend the constitution. These confusionists have been so convincing to some of our more articulate citizens that they have been able to persuade the lawyers of Guyana and the Council of Churches and the Methodist Church and the Catholic Church to come out openly against the amendment. These antagonists to the bill have chosen to ignore the government’s express reason for wishing to amend the constitution and have invented their own reasons which they insist are the real reasons why the Peoples National Congress government of Guyana wishes to amend the Constitution. So we have this group of our legal brains and spiritual leaders going to the limits of illogical thought, said Dr. Reid, by opposing the measures on the grounds of arguments, motivations and principles which have never been expressed by the government. This is indeed confusion powder of the most potent kind.
Now, socialist comrades, why does the PNC government want to amend the constitution of 1966? What I’m about to say is nothing new, it has all been said before publicly by various members of the government and the attorney general [Shahabadeen, Mohammed] and the comrade Prime Minister Burnham himself. First it must be established that this is not the first time that the constitution is being amended. The socialist republic of Guyana has moved away from the old constitution on many important issues. A constitution which was promulgated for Guyana in 1966 was primarily a compromise. It was a compromise to satisfy certain conditions demanded by the outgoing colonial power, and it was a compromise to accommodate the demands of the party which in coalition formed part of the government of Guyana.
That was 14 years ago. Since then, Guyana has become a republic and has taken steps to own and control its own m– means of production and distribution, its resources, and the perspectives of this nation have been progressively widened. We are, said Dr. Reid, as I have said before, in the midst of a socialist revolution. We are moving from capitalism– a capitalist system to one that is a socialist in its entire orientation. The constitution in 1966 does not provide for this change in emphasis. There are consequent discrepancies which are entrenched by that constitution, and which can only be altered through an elaborate and cumbersome process calling for a national rerefer– referendum each time there is to be a change.
If this were to be done, then it would mean that each issue, each thought contained in amendment to the constitution might become subject to a separate referendum, a situation I duly ceded only to the confusionists among us. Comrades, friends and listeners, we are in the midst of a peaceful revolution. We as a nation of Guyana must strengthen our national unity so that the revolution will continue in a peaceful manner. It is a revolution aimed at providing a good life for all in this country. We must continue to provide free education for all, and free health services for all and to improve upon it. We must continue the struggle to provide as far as possible then the cap– capabilities of our own resources, the facilities to feed, clothe, and house all of our people. We, said Dr. Reid, must continue to struggle for environmental improvement, for better farm facilities, for more advanced industrialization, for better health facilities, for improved care of the aged members of our community. We must continue to struggle to achieve full employment, to recognize the right to live decent, and the right and moral commitment to work with knowledge and enthusiasm. These are our national goals, said Dr. Reid, head of the PNC party and deputy prime minister who has been our best support, according to those reliable, and he’s certainly the friend in the meetings that I’ve has with him personally. These are our national goals for a better, brighter future for all in Guyana. I believe the benefits you have already seen would strengthen you to overcome the difficulties of this period and deepen our togetherness along the road of socialism ahead. Thank you. (Pause)
(tape edit, music)
Part 2
Jones: (Voice rises throughout section) (unintelligible beginning) the sonsobitches. That’s what you got to deal with, (unintelligible) steps. We want people that’ll step up and say (unintelligible), for the young women that he tried to accost, anything that Claire can remember to be utilized. We need to have them sent up and said yes, has the church not taken care of you, free, an apartment a– for all these long months. Did he not give you thousands of dollars to help you? These are all a matter of fact, these son of a bitches, that they wouldn’t have had the courage if [Tim] Stoen hadna stepped out. But justice will (unintelligible word) ring down one day, gonna roll down on him like a mighty sea. But we as scientific Marxists-Leninists, naturalists who don’t believe in God, we have to help ourselves, our hands are our means of defense, our minds are our means of defense. Anyone have the idea that everything that [Wade] Medlock says must be gone over at [radio call letter, W86TJ], let somebody stand in his face and calls him a liar. Say you– I was there. Some of you can say, how can you be such a hypocrite? When you threatened, you threatened yourself. To have– this place was gonna be bombed, that means we brought right out in that press conference, (unintelligible word) whatever press comes out, that you said that they were– Stoen was gonna bomb this place, that you said Stoen was gonna send mercenaries over to kill. Did you say it? Your neighbors got tired of hearing your threats, and they even took it down. It’s on record, Wade Mad– Medlock. That’s the way you’re gonna have to talk to these sonsobitches in that press conference tonight. That you gonna have relatives that can stand up to that kind of an operation, because some of our people are going to be, not in a free-for-all, not a fight, but they’re gonna be right there every time one of those liars open their mouth, they gotta speak up. And your relatives at least have got to show support and not run and stand with a placard supporting the truth against these evil-doers.
So be sure that you listen to every word that you’re told now. This is essential. We’re on the front. This is why I go– I get so weary of being up at night and day, I need people to be more creative. If I hadna thought of this in the early morning hours, I don’t know where in the hell we’d be. I was thinking too much of dealing with the lies, with our own church demonstrators. The only thing, I don’t trust them. And even though I don’t trust them, I found my own relatives, I saved my daughter [Suzanne Jones Cartmell] from starvation, I gave her everything, I lived a perfect life before her, and even though she’s not got out in front with the enemies, she surely didn’t stand behind us. You’ve got to not miscalculate them. The only thing that’ll appeal to them, if it– later if they think they’re gonna get something out of it. (Pause)
And we can’t do it right now. We gotta say we– some months ahead, at the end of the summer, when we get housing built, guest housing, gonna have a resort area, gonna set up a nightclub– yeah, not a nightclub but an entertainment spot, our band is popular all over the nation, it’s a lovely resort area, even the government praises it, the best place in the world, the most beautiful place in the world, you’ve gotta talk of beauty, rave about beauty, and say that they can have a va– they can stay free here, and we’ll share our beautiful food with them, best fruits ‘cause we don’t have any chemicals, you gotta talk sensible on the issue of what you’re told, if you don’t, you’ll be cut off the radio. Now I’m telling you, you’ll be cut off the radio. Don’t start any shit. Get all of our relatives that know what they’re doing, that know they can count on your relatives, but be sure you don’t talk too much. I don’t go into my life as a (unintelligible word, sounds like “blinder”). When you see your daughter that you adopt, to save her from starving to death, do what mine did, as some of our relatives have seen what their children have done, you know damn well that you cannot depend on relatives, you cannot depend upon anything that is not purely communist, that’s why we’re moving towards zero.
Now some of you are questioning meetings. Now I don’t care what your hostilities are about meetings, if you have some special project that has to be done, medically, something educationally– occasion, that can be talk, but this is ridiculous for you to set in your damn emotional morass, when you know the only way on God’s earth– without God’s earth, on this green terra firma, the only way in the hell you’re gonna get people educated is in meetings, constantly reviewing the news, in the relevance of things. You can get the children participating, but some of the problems that children are having about meetings is being conveyed by adults. Meetings can be made of interest, they can be rewarded, children will be rewarded for their answers, and they are being encouraged and– We don’t have any problem. The problem is, it’s your attitude, it shows on your faces, some of you that’ve complained – only two – it shows in your face, you oughta look in a mirror. I’m telling you. Appreciate your honesty, but it shows in your face. You’re in a meeting, you’re hostile, and it shows. And you represent education. When you do that, you can’t possibly expect children not to relate to that matter. By God, we had to meet last night, when I had a blood sugar of 20. That’s not enough to keep your blood going to your brain. Brain has to have glucose, but by my will, and by my power, by my determination to love you and protect you, I keep myself going. So I don’t wanna hear no more shit about meetings. You have to keep occupied– people occupied until they come to zero, until they come to communism, till they come to the knowledge of communism. And you should welcome being– being part of the process by smiling and participating, and offering answers. Now when we have a project, we understand that. We will clear things on a one-to-one basis. But by God, anyone has to understand the intelligence. Some of you come with beautiful intelligent answers to so many things, creative things, but you think emotionally. There is no room for emotion, and if you really will work on your goddamn attitude and think about the people suffering, starving to death, going through hell, their family being tortured before their eyes, if you love at all, and care– or try to love, you won’t object to a little thing about– like a meeting.
Now, I mean that, folk. We have got get our shit together. When people don’t even know what the Soviet Union is, where it is, don’t even know where Cuba is, we’ve got to continue educating, and the group process has been proven to be the best process. Peer pressure. The collective consciousness has to be established, the collective goals have to be established in the minds of children and adults. We will certainly try to move forward in our Peoples Pally tonight, first part of it is Steering Committee, and then we will be– now that will be the face of it tonight, rather than Agriculture, next meeting will be Agriculture. We will then have educational testing, you better hear the news, I’m going to begin shortly with the news, but I really resent you writing me your hostilities about these matters when I’m– Oh, God, I don’t know how– (stumbles over words)
I don’t really know what I mean to you. You say, you’re grateful when I save your loved ones, I’ve saved your lovedones from– from death, and you thank me for that. I alone did that, and you’re bring about disaster upon loved ones, by your goddamn surly attitudes. Now I appeal to one brother I– I respect there highly, because I saved your loved one not long ago that woulda gotten– he’da dropped dead. I w– saved him. I saved him alone. You ask the entire medical staff. Now we need to correct our goddamn attitudes, children pick up their attitudes of their uh, parents, their supervisors and their teachers, and you know that. And you who have received so much, should work on gratitude, and not behave emotionally. Now two men have written me this, and you– you behave emotionally. Totally, incessantly and insanely emotionally. And if you worked on gratitude like a time you say you were grateful when I raise your loved one up, or healing one of you of cancer, when you were dying, the doctor said you were dying of cancer, and I raised your loved one– loved one up and corrected the heart where the doctor didn’t give us an ounce of hope for that person after they were raised up from their heart attack, I tell you, you are not working on gratitude, you’re not even trying on gratitude. When I’m sick as a damn dog, joint pains, can’t even get enough glucose on because people drain me with this kind of bullshit– Ridiculous, it’s ridiculous. You know– You know logically, intelligently, there is no substitute for activity. And there is no substitute for meetings, education, until everybody’s educated. And it’s obvious that people are not educated. And you’re not educating them in a school system, you’re not getting it across, it’s goddamn clear it’s not being gotten across in the school system.
So Father’s gonna get it across. Father will persist in communization, Father will persis– persist in the indoctrination of Marxist-Leninism, Father will persist in the news of the world and the struggle of the working class throughout the world, he will persist in this, he will keep it up until people finally get it.
Uh– You will do it or die trying. And anyone that’s a communist will be glad to die trying, and certainly won’t object to being in a meeting to try to scintillate or try to challenge and try to stimulate thinking. And I don’t care how hostile you get, because you ought to be in my boots. You oughta have the shit poured on you, planning strategies. Yeah, I don’t give a goddamn. I’m really tired, with blood pressure raising so high and get this kinda shit, said, well, I’m being honest, I don’t give a fuck about your honesty. I’m being honestly crucified by you people that press me with these kinda things, that press me about how hostile you are and how much you hate this and how much you hate that. My existence is a living hell. (unintelligible word) any goddamn difference. If you don’t want this hell, then let me know. I’ll see that you can be dropped in Mozambique at the proper time. But in the meantime, goddamnit, you keep a smile on your face, you get your attitude right, and you help me bear the load, and you remember the loved one you said you loved, when I raised them up, and you remember your own body, the other gentleman, that I healed of cancer. Now please do this. And anybody else objecting to meetings, I wanna tell you frankly from my heart to yours, I love you, I would be tortured for you, I lo– I am tortured, I’d have my eyes taken out. I’d die for you, but any more of your goddamn writing (unintelligible word) about something, fuck you now and fuck you eternally. When you stand and see me last night working on security for people– I’d’ve liked for the enemy to come in. Goddamn them, they could torture me in a Chilean prison for 20 years, I’m not even touched by that book, because that’s no misery to me, Chilean torture would be ideal for me, but torture of ungrateful human beings, one day you lift up their relatives that died right here in the project, you lift them up one day, and then next goddamn day, hostility prevails. You oughta look at your goddamn self-centered self. If you care about people, then you will show it, and you’ll get an attitude in your face, and the problem the children are having, I repeat, is but a problem of resentment in the adults, in the supervisors, their teachers. That’s where the problem comes. If you tell them the necessity of education, the beauty, the reward of learning the communist principles, and uh, learning about news of the world, if you tell them that, then they’ll understand. They’ll be happy, and they’ll be of composure. But if you’re going around all uptight, hostile, you stand out– Most of the people that are hateful to you, and you stand out, you– you emanate hate. You emanate your goddamn hostility, you stand out so much like a sore thumb. You can get a control on your goddamn life, you don’t have to be with people like I do, all night and all day. And I empathize with what you do, there some of the creative genius you bring forth, but please don’t talk to me about hate meetings, and can’t stand meetings, and the battle of children’s behavior at meetings. First, it– it’s your– it– You’re a part of the problem with children. These children are given security by their Father, and if they’re educated in the classroom, what their Father’s providing them, what these meeting are doing, by educating people so that they’ll have knowledge to protect their little lives, so that we won’t have to worry about being hurt, so they’ll always have somebody that’ll fight for them, that’ll (unintelligible word) send them in like I did this baby, to get the best medical surgery, and there a risk, a high risk, because very few children ever live, and can expect to live at seven-and-a-half months, but I’m sure to expect to keep anybody alive, no matter if it’s impossible. Yet when I do, when I do keep somebody alive, the next goddamn day or a few days thereafter, uh, the– the hostility begins, the gratitude’s forgotten. It’s a hell of a life. A miserable life I’m living, a life I wouldn’t give to nobody. I don’t even hate– see anybody in the world I hate enough to give my life. Not my life to anybody, goddamnit, I don’t feel anybody I want to impose my life on. I wouldn’t even want to resurrect Adolf Hitler and put him through the misery I’m going through. So you think about what the hell somebody else has to think. When you’ve seen through everybody and knows nobody gives a shit, nobody cares but just a poor old draw– drained make demands. So don’t burden me with your fucking goddamn– one of you that healed of cancer, twelve-page letter, don’t you burden me with your goddamn twelve-page letter about your fuckin’ hostilities. Just fuck you. That’s all I say. Fuck you. Work on some gratitudes now. When my blood pressure’s high, and you– you go ask the doctor what it is to have 20– uh, 20 blood sugar. You ask him what it is, and that’s what I’ve got. Twenty blood sugar. And yet I have to conduct the meetings for security and think on provisions all through the night. And thank the ones that stood with me, thank you that are grateful, I don’t know why some of you don’t look around and see those. Both of you are educated people, both of you have education, and you think your shit don’t stink. That’s basically the ingredient. That’s the basic salient factor with you. You’re elitist, or you wouldn’t even think this way. You’d be goddamn glad for the security this gives to children. You’d be goddamn glad for the time I saved your loved one, raised him up from the dead, right here in the field. You’d be glad for time I healed you of cancer when the doctor said there was no hope for you. Goddamnyou. Now get your attitude straight. Even though I love you and you have great creativity and great potential, that phase of you that burdens me in these times of crisis, when I’m fighting these sonsabitches who are trying to frame our people, getting ‘em out, had to get another one out last night, just in time, we had to get two more out, because of Tim Stoen, and you’ve got the nerve, the goddamn nerve to bother me with your fucking resentments about setting in a meeting. Well, I say, fuck you.
Thank you.
(tape edit)
Part 3
Attention, attention, attention. News of the day. A very startling breakthrough in relations with the Philippine Islands. President Fer– Ferdinand Marcos is considered ill. His wife Imelda Marcos, one of her husband’s chief advisers, made the disclosure today, that unless the United States were to stop its colonial policies in the Southeast Asian area, she would seek closer ties with the Soviet Union. Now this is a very, very strange bit of news, and don’t know what to make of it.
Subsequently upon that offer, the Soviet Union said, that if indeed they will stop their repression against minorities, the Philippine Islands, they will offer to replace a planned US-built nuclear plant, whose design and financing arrangement is suddenly being questioned by North American multinationals since Imelda Marcos is taking more and more a chief role in the government of her husband. When asked who Imelda Marcos’ hero was of the present era – this will take you back – she said [Vladimir] Lenin and Mao [Tse Tung]. The Union of Concerned Scientists said that the design for the 620 millawatt [megawatt], one point one billion plant, 45 miles northwest of Manila, is unreliably and probably unsafe. Foundation work has begun on the project, which is scheduled for completion in the early 1980s. US News reports implied irregularities in the financial arrangements for the plant, (pause) and have said this money was being diverted for other assistance given to Third World developing nations. This is a very strange bit of news, but I’m gonna– just as it is. We’ll pass on it later, we’ll keep a close eye on it.
Mrs. Marcos said the Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Mikhailov, came in to her residence and offered to replace the Wes– Westinghouse plant. His statement is that Westinghouse used to control the plant and regulate all things as of the nuclear reactor. But while you see every nation, no matter what its hue and color, right wing repressive regime as her husband’s has been, now that he’s ill, you never know who you’re married to. Maybe indeed, the woman like Mao’s wife [Jiang Qing] when he began to totter, with her personality cult, and hero worship, to the almost absolute degree, she came out, trying to bring the Chinese people back to internationalism. And all nations, no matter what their color, politically, their spectrum, don’t like to be dictated to, and that’s one of the contradictions of capitalism. And we have to understand pragmatism, that the end does justify the means. If the Soviet Union could move in the Philippines and gain some base of operation for world liberation, then we should say, all power to them. He made the offer, she said, the day after– (Pause) Mrs. Marcos threatened to conc– cancel the United States deal, because of unfavorable attitudes in the news of the United States towards the fact that the Philippine Islands would not allow– the government would not allow Westinghouse to operate the nuclear reactors. Mikhailov– This is a different policy than the Soviet Union’s followed in the past, they’ve been very careful about nuclear reactors. It’s also strange (unintelligible word), but they must feel that nuclear war is just around the corner to want to get something there, a midway Pacific base. Mikhailov said Russia would supply a complete plant, even a reactor, to replace the Westinghouse one. He even offered to help the Philippines develop (stumbles over words) uranium resources, Mrs. Marcos said. She said her husband has not decided, being ill, whether to accept the Russian offer. An aide to Mikhailov said the ambassador would not comment. Daniel Ford, Executive Director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the financial questions about the plant are all trivial. What they should be worried about is whether thing will work, and whether it will do it safely, he said. Ford said the scientist group, many of whose members are professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is thought to be a front for the CIA, by the way, acting on its own and studying the Philippine and other Asian nuclear plants, were recommending that Westinghouse take sole responsibility for the control and operation of the Philippine nuclear plant, whose design and the beginning process of building had begun by Westinghouse, a multinational corporation that’s been involved in the simple cloak-and-dagger technique, trips, murders, all over the world, in South Africa, Westinghouse is strong, and Chile also.
Well, let us hope this breach, this is good foreign policy on the part of the Soviet Union to try to even move into an area like the Philippines where a rightist has been in control, a very far rightist at that, no use to try to color that, one who’s dealt with his enemies in a most repressive fashion. But Mrs. Marcos obviously has some flair for being different, to call her favorite heroes of this time of our era Mao and Lenin. It contended that Westinghouse, whose domestic nuclear reactor sales to the USA had dramatically declined over the last four years, is apparently trying to sell to developing countries, defective technology. That is a reason that the Philippines have turned against him. they can no longer market successfully at home, and the Philippine government has seen that they were building a reactor that was unsafe for the Philippine people. Now, isn’t that nice? The multinational corporation Westinghouse was preparing to build a nuclear reactor near a fault, near a volcano, that had already been to proven the US to be unsafe, and not allowed to be built. The port question was the (unintelligible word) with the plant being built near a fault line is designed to withstand shocks from earthquakes without springing potential deadly leaks, that would’ve killed uh, literally tens of thousands of Philippine people. Westinghouse principal contract is for 320 million, more than 644 million of the plant’s cost is being financed by the US Export-Import Bank. Mrs. Marcos said the Soviet Union offered to finance their plant with loans of two percent interest. This is a much more attractive offer. Officials said this would be much lower that the uh, Export-Import Bank’s rates, which have not been disclosed. Also the Soviet Union promised a safely-built nuclear reactor in a safely-built position, and would begin the design from the ground up. Representative Clarence Long, Democrat of Maryland, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, has asked that export licenses for the Westinghouse reactor be withheld until possible conflict of interest on the part of (unintelligible word) can be investigated and further study can be made of the project’s economic and environmental and injury– engineering aspects, as well as to whether it in the security interests of the United States, in that Mrs. Marcos, Imelda Marcos is showing such courtship to the Soviet Union. Well, let us hope. The last time this happened, when Mrs. Mao Tse-Tung, attempted to succeed her husband when he was ailing and dying, she was arrested by the Chinese people renegade government, a government that is more pro-USA than many capitalist uh, governments these days in foreign policy, even though its domestic policies have been good.
The only breakthrough this week was that the prime [foreign] minister Hua– [Huang] Hua of China didn’t travel to the Peoples Democratic Republic of North Korea, the communist government there, and state unequivocally that USA should withdraw its forces, its troops that it has refused to withdraw, and furthermore, he said that reunification of North Korea would be a demand of China’s foreign policy, and they would continue to make that demand. These are contradictions, and they’re very hard and some political scientists amongst us, and we always welcome your opinion on such matters.
Fidel Castro said over Radio Cuba last night that China is a socialist country, but its foreign policy is indeed pro-US and has been indeed a renegade to US imperialism, but he said these– this is changing. He said he has it on sure word that there are changes taking place within the Chinese government that will bring it back into line with international communism, Marxist-Leninism of the Warsaw Pact headed by the Soviet Union. Let’s hope that Dr. Castro’s not just posturing, which would be justified, to propagate goodwill uh – the end justify the means – try to propagate unity and strength, but I doubt that it would be uh, in his interest to make such a statement if he didn’t have some basis of fact. Let’s hope that China’s position on North Korea represents some change.
Minneapolis, Minnesota. The eighteenth city to turn down gay rights. The city’s four-year-old protection of gay rights was repealed yesterday by a three-to-one margin in the first major test since residents of Dade County, Florida threw out a similar ordinance last June, and Portland, Oregon followed by Seattle. After the results were announced, Mayor George Latimer [mayor of St. Paul] bage– begged gays please not to flee the city. Please stay in St.– uh, Minneapolis and St. Paul. St. Paul outlawed gay rights only just two weeks ago. Latimer urged in a rally, as long as I’m mayor, each of you will be treated as a human being, which is what you are. Well, it’s very nice for the mayor to admit that homosexuals are human beings. The turnout for an off-year election was high, almost 55 percent. Unofficial vote totals were 54,096 in favor of repealing a section of an ordinance which prohibits discrimination in housing, jobs, education and accommodations – which also doesn’t just necessarily affect those of homosexual background but can affect other minorities – whereas the vote in favor of them was only 20,000, less than 20,000. A Temple Baptist Church, where 200 supporters of the initiative had gathered, shouts of hallelujah and praise the Lord greeted announcements of vote goals. As the right wing turn in America is reaching– reaching a frightening degree, according to this news commentator writing in the Chicago Tribune. The Rev. Richard Angwin, who spearheaded the a– appeal– the repeal as a leader of Citizens Alert for Morality, said at the church that the vote means that Minneapolis and St. Paul queers will have to keep their sins quiet. We don’t want to see them around our town. Some 2000 gay right activists marched through downtown Minneapolis after the repeal. Marchers tossed yellow carnations and daisies on the steps of Silly– City Hall – Silly Hall, which probably a Freudian slip – to mark what they called the death of human rights for gays there. Greg Anderson, spokesperson for Minneapolis Citizens for Human Rights, which opposed repeal, told a cheering rally held before the march, that now St. Paul and Minneapolis gays would continue to fight for their rights, though the prospects for non-discrimination of gays look dim throughout the United States. Some gay spokespersons were talking about moving to other parts of the world. Where the hell that would be, I don’t know, because not very many places favorable to gay rights. Both sides spent tens of thousands of dollars in their campaigns for and against the repeal revolution– the resolution. Fact of the matter, Guyana has one of the most fair attitudes along those lines of live-and-let-live policy, which you can‘t realize how important you– and how grateful we should be for our community here which we can be self-governing without interference. Singer Anita Bryant, Pentecostal, who was a millionaire from success with being the– well, you know, the orange– uh, the seller of orange juice, she’s always been a little gal that comes on and sells orange juice, they’re in a lot of financial trouble, though, because she’s being sued for slander, and it looks like it may win. She’s also been reportedly operated for cancer. So even these tyrants do have their pains too. She helped lead last year’s successful campaigns through uh, repeal the Dade County, Florida gay rights ordinance, also in Portland, Oregon and in Seattle and in St. Paul and Minneapolis. In a statement last night, Miss Bryant said St. Paul vote was a victory for the morally Christian-committed majority. Well, that’s wonderful. Picture shows gays crying in the streets, down on their knees. It’s hardly the place to be, ‘cause it won’t do you any good to be on your knees.
Environmentalists turn on [Pres. Jimmy] Carter. Consumer and environmental leaders saying that they can no longer blame everybody but Jimmy Carter for energy policies they find dismaying have now placed the blame on Carter for abandoning his campaign promises. For all of us who were concerned about nuclear power, candidate Carter offered an incredible opportunity, said uh, Anthony Royson (phonetic) of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He opined the phrase, nuclear power as a last resort. He pledged to minimize our dependence on it, and guaranteed that those energy resources which are des– desirable would be pushed. He lied. The post-election reality was different, Royson said. He focused special criticism on Carter’s proposal to speed up atomic plant construction and licensing, while reducing the opportunity for public opposition to nuclear power. It is in our judgment a major departure by the president and his energy people from promises made during the campaign and even since, (unintelligible word) Royson said. Coalition of 12 major groups issued a statement yesterday accusing Carter of lying and turning from his campaign pledges to support solar energy and conservation while reducing emphasis on the atom, that was going to become a danger factor to the health of the United States citizens. The coalition said Carter has proposed cutting federal spending on solar power and still has no permanent Injury Department– Energy Department officials in charge of conservation, which he promised to do before elected. The (unintelligible word) of us feel betrayed. Louise Dunlap of the Environmental Policy Center said many people feel double-crossed. Many people have spent the last year blaming everybody but Carter. It is time that he is held accountable for this sin, for his hypocrisy. (Pause)
Atomic tests phone swamps Pentagon lines. More than 2000 united veterans of the country’s atomic testing programs and their relatives have inundated toll-free telephone lines in the past five days to report their experiences to the Defense Department. The calls have been in response to a crash program to track down more of the 500,000 estimated military personnel and citizens– civilians who participated in Nevada and South Pacific nuclear testing programs which may have resulted in them being damaged for life. The Defense Nuclear Agency, which is coordinating the program, has recorded 2800 calls by midday yesterday on a toll-free line set up specifically for it. An agency spokesman said that during the first day in operation, the line (unintelligible word) 500 calls in eight hours. To handle the deluge, the spokesman said the DNA has since added four lines and opened them around the clock to make it easier for callers to get through to an interviewer. The program was started in response to criticism from the House Commerce Subcommittee on Health and Environment, which is holding hearings on the long-term effects of radiation exposure on these 500,000 military and civilian people in the United States that were forced to go through the Nevada and South Pacific nuclear testing programs, even many of them pushed up as far up to the line as possible by the Pentagon, the Armed Forces. That subcommittee, headed by Rep– Representative Paul Rogers, found that although 500,000 persons had been exposed to harmful doses of radioactivity from those tests, there had been no effort to monitor participants for subsequent health effects, not one program in the entire United States to follow up on these people that were exposed to harmful doses of radioactivity. Note, 500,000 U.S. civilians and military people were still exposed. Moreover, records of participant– participants are either sketchy or non-existence– in non-existent entirely. Military officials admit, many of those service records were lost when a fire swept the Army’s records center in St. Louis in 1972. Some say this was a CIA maneuver, so there would be nothing to show the evidence of the inhumanity of the U.S. military in the fact that it exposed 500 million– 500,000, one half million U.S. citizens to dangerous levels of radiation, dangerous levels of radioactivity. Well, not to be any surprise that U.S. has no concern for its own people, not black or white. (Pause) Not to be surprised, not to be surprised.
A growing concern. The rise in child suicides. Last week, a high school girl in San Carlos wrote a shote– short and poignant note – I love you, Mom – note to her mother, then in the privacy of her bedroom, she put a .45 caliber pistol to her temple and pulled the trigger. She was only 16. A few weeks earlier, a 14-year-old Redwood City boy set five fires in his apartment, he got on his bicycle and pedaled to a nearby three-story apartment building, climbed onto the roof, and flung himself to the driveway. Fifteen-year-old San Francisco boy, depressed over a black eye beating he took in a schoolyard fight, couldn’t face up to his injured ego, he sat in his mother’s idling car and smoked a marijuana cigarette until carbon monoxide filled the family garage and forever blotted out his memory. Bar Area coroners and private organizations throughout the San Francisco area report a noticeable increase in number of adolescent suicides in the last few months, part of a national rise that is of increasing concern for mental health experts. Suicides of the teens have increased ten times since 1973. There are ten times more suicides in USA of teenagers than there was in 1973. In addition, said child psychiatrist in clinics, their offices are overflowing with emotionally distressed children who are suicidal. We have a waiting list of children in our adolescent day treatment and tutorial counseling programs, said Bill Cunningham, a social worker in San Francisco Sunset Mental Health Center. We’re serving 24, but we could be serving twice that many. We should be reminding them in our press releases, Terry [Carter Jones] should be made– someone should remind Terry who’s very busy in the radio room, that we should notify them that we have no suicides. While San Francisco’s going crazy with suicides and people are waiting in line, unable to be treated, there’s not enough treatment programs and counseling programs for the suicidal, our children are leading healthy, productive lives, producing with joy, perspective and goals in kind. It says we’re serving 24 but we could be serving twice that many, said psycho– psychiatric nurse Judy Dolan, who runs a program in San Francisco General Hospital under contract to the city. The youngest one we’re seeing, the young– youngest ones we’re seeing is 12 years of age. Even grade school kids are not immune from suicide, which is the third leading cause of youthful deaths now, after homicide and accidents only. In San Leandro, on August 29, 11-year-old elementary schoolboy fashioned a noose from a belt and hanged himself from a bathroom shower. All these are white children, too, that’ve been mentioned so far, from– coming from good backgrounds. So capitalism does not make happiness. Both parents working, trying to make a name for themselves, keep up a standard of living, their children are in miserable hell to such a degree to (unintelligible word) fashion a noose from a belt and hang themself from a bathroom shower bar, after being given some reprimand for not completing his homework. A 12-year-old boy who had been warned repeatedly not to play with the family .22 caliber pistol, shot himself in the back outside the Union City home on July 20. (Pause) But because of the pain, it was not mortal, first time, he then shot himself in the head. A Newark boy also hanged himself with a garage rafter– from a garage rafter last month. He was depressed because of a weeklong restriction due to disciplinary action for school infraction. He was only 13.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics in Washington, D.C., there were 1170 suicides of children from ages 10 to 14 last year, the lattest– latest year for which data is available. No, it’s 1976. And some of these, 260 of these deaths occurred in California. Traditionally a national leader of suicides, according to the state health department, is California. The number also rose for the 15- to 19-year-old bracket, there were 1711 such California suicides in 1975. The problem definitely has Bay Area experts worried. Only lightly-populated Marin County, with one death of a 20-year-old man last year, failed to show a significant increase in suicides of persons 10 to 20 years. I would mention just that there have been an increasing amount of suicides in the area, and here we have not one. Not one. Of course, we realize from the debate– the extensive study of the office that there’s only one way that one can give their life, and that’s in a revolutionary effort, because suicide– selfish suicide always leads one to come back. And I gave you scientific proof of hypnotherapy clinicians and doctors that were doing studies and analysis this very past week, the weekend, I gave it to you, the names now, even the illnesses were carried over from past lives. Contra Costa County had five such deaths, San Francisco had 18, up from eight the previous year, San Mateo recorded– reported 10 suicides, up from five last year, and Alameda County had 15 deaths, with the youngest, the 11-year-old hanging victim. It’s really amazing, said Ronald Prow (phonetic), Alameda County’s chief deputy coroner, you wonder why these things are happening, what’s causing this when you get down to 11, 12, and 13 years of age. Mental health experts say many children commit suicide for some of the same reasons adults do. Unrequited love, reponden– despondency over a loved one’s death, fear of punishment and pressure to perform well. (Pause) And as you might point out, as a capitalist characteristic, such as getting straight A’s in schools, competition, in other words, instead of cooperation. (unintelligible phrase) said San Francisco chief coroner Boyd Stephens, citing the death of the youth who suffered the black eye, it’s such a minor thing, and it couldn’t be that important, but to the person, it is. And Dr. Martin Glasser, chief psychiatrist and pediatrics consultant to San Francisco General Hospital agreed. It may seem irrational to everyone, except the kid. Well, it’s not so irrational. People make fun of you for all sorts of things. You have to maintain an image of being tough, strong, the best, you gotta make the best grades, you gotta be the best-looking, they’re just not being factual, they don’t want to admit the errors of capitalism, it’s capitalism that creates this kind of terrible pressure on children to live up other people’s standards. Glasser said that it’s fairly common. Starting to have thoughts of using your life as a vehicle of expression at that age, he said, teenagers are losing their basic foundation from mom and dad, out to society, and they have normal development depressions. Some overcome it. Children 10 to 14 years are still, their strong family support system, Glasser said, that a suicide at that age of the result of a very unusual sick child with a lot of other problems. Hah. A very sick society, they never talk about the sick society that creates the sick children. Glasser and many other experts believe that suicide rate is actually higher than the figures show. Many are listed as accident because coroners fail to comprehend the true cause of death or don’t state it out of deference to surviving family members. And also, it’s done by the press. As we know, from John Harris, they don’t want to admit how many murders, they don’t want to admit how many people don’t like US life, they don’t want to admit the danger of it, the pressures of it, so they do it– just won’t admit in the press how many suicides there are. Hazel Levitt, a San Francisco suicide prevention center consultant said, there’s a lot of pressure among young people, parental pressure to get straight A’s. That’s capitalism, you see. Pressure to compete. Peer pressure for drugs. Gotta get– everything depends upon the competition between those around you, Levitt said, and competition is capitalism. In its vicious form, it takes the form of monopoly capitalism. Levitt said children depression is significantly– significantly more rife in one parent homes. Every kid I’ve ever talked to had a bad encounter, and had a broken home, she said, so the broken home is number one on my list. Here in the collective, we have no broken homes, we are one family. We all have many aunts– and many aunts and uncles, we have many brothers and sisters, we have one father and mother, for sure, Father and Mother Jones [Marceline Jones], and then all the other supervisors that love the children. How much love they have. They’ve loved on so many levels, and that’s why you should all take time to stroke them, pat them, speak to them when they go by, instead of being caught up in your self-centeredness, and some are. Always be smiling. That’s one rule in this camp, this entire lovely community, we should smile and we should speak. It is the law, and we have forgotten that law, and I’m reminding you that that law will be enforced in Peoples Rally tonight at 7:30. There’ll also be a test on news tonight, so be sure– you don’t know which one will be tested. There always will be a test on news each night. Anyone failing will go to the extra class. The class will begin at the end of this week, the extra class.
How many traffic accidents of ad– adolescents that every hospital sees are really suicide attempts? It is suspected that 90 percent, Glasser adds. These involve leaving their lives up to fate by running stop signs, riding motorbikes while high on alcohol or drugs, or popping down a steep hill at 80 miles per hour, or 60 miles an hour on a skateboard. Purposely running into another car on another lane. These are never reported as suicides. If they were, said the suicide rate of you– America’s youth, even down to ten, 12 years of age, would be astronomical. That means way beyond anything mathematically calculated or understandable. Capitalism does not bring happiness. This shows what America’s white youth kill themselves and do all these things in the most horrible ways. It goes on– the article goes on to tell how the people who did in most horrid ways. In adolescence, look at the anti-social acts such as robbing a store, getting caught and shot, or the drug abuse, he said. In all these areas, how much is curiosity or adolescent suicide attempts. Stephens’ office is one of the area’s most aggressive pinpointing. The reasons for death is not convinced that the actual suicide rate is ever brought (unintelligible under tape distortion) it ought to be and considered a suicide, which it is nearly always. One of the things that they can look– that can look like suicide is sexual asphyxia, Stephens said. That is the term used to describe sexual gratification received through controlled strangulation. Let a young boy die of that. We get two or three a ye– a year, he said. If you don’t know enough about it, it’s called suicide rather than being called an accident. Sadism, masochism. My god, the American society is sick, sick. No society on earth is so sick as this, trying to find sexual satisfaction from sex– uh, sexual affix– asphyxia, strangulation, they even got now a psychological term for it. Stephens also cites the example of teenagers who on a dare drink bottle of– (unintelligible word) bottle of liquor. Is that suicide? Of course. I think most parents on the whole do not want to recognize it. Parents don’t want to look at it, Levitt said, they say, my God, my can– my kid can’t feel this way. This is America. Wonderful country. Two weeks ago, Levitt said, the Suicide Prevention Center talked a 12-year-old boy out of jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. He had been a troubled child since he was six, and this boy said he gave out all kinds of clues– cues, and clues. His father said, oh, come on, he’ll grow out of it. Yeah. Easy to say. And that’s all he would ever could get, the– the 12-year old child said. Glasser warned adults to take everything that someone says at face value initially. When a child says, oh I feel like killing myself, and later says I was just kidding, pursue it and get an evaluation, he said. It’s important to let those kids know you’re listening, and we want to be sure we’re doing that in the schools. That’s why we have community meetings, we want the children to participate, we welcome them in the town forum to participate, to mention news, to ask questions, they’re so beautiful when they ask questions about our agricultural program. We want them to do it in Steering. Very– uh, that’s beautiful. They can talk about their problems. Teachers make it easy for them to talk about their problems.
Adolescent depression often can be hidden by temper tantrums, boredom, restlessness, defiance, according to Dr. David Schaeffer, Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric Institute in New York, and the warning signs may be as oblique as a child saying that no one cares if he lived or died. A lot of adolescents think of death, not as a theology but as a fantasy, although there’s a theological movement growing in the United States that glorifies suicide. I don’t know why they should then wonder so much about us when we say that for revolutionary deeds, we would lay down our lives, rather than be taken prisoner or subjected to the fascist system of monopoly capitalism and racism in USA. They don’t have a concept of death per se. They think of death as a metaphor, it need not necessarily be (unintelligible word) reality. Asked for example what would happen if he died, a child might answer, Mom will get angry, Gra– Glasser said. As children become older, they learn that death is not reversible, according to Schaeffer, who has conducted psychological post mortem studies on children’s suicides. Children do not develop mature ideas about death in United States society until they’re of age, mature years. Well, that’s where you’re wrong. Children should be confronted with the realities of life and a purpose for living, uh, the purpose for dying, which is and only can be, socialism, Marxist-Leninism, communism. Then children will not behave so immaturely, they will not feel the pressures of stupid competition, ‘cause we will not allow a child to be singled out, made fun of because of race, because of color, because of some physical difference, we will not allow that. And we demand that that continue. There’ll be no fun made of anyone, no fun made of anyone’s particular physical disabilities or any differences that they may have. We do not allow guilt being made upon people. This is not tolerated. If you want to make a joke, it must not be at the expense of another person. That’s capitalism, the desire to cut down people cruelly, as was done even by some people in leadership give cutting remarks at all times, and we should be cordial, we should be quick to disagree, because only in self-criticism and group criticism comes growth, but we absolutely demand, we absolutely demand that you give your criticism in love, give your criticism in courtesy. If you don’t feel the love, you can be courteous and think about the other person. There’s not enough done about that, even amongst leadership, and I demand that be changed.
Ex-CIA agent faces suit over book. Attorney General Griffith [Griffin] Bell, known racist, former member of the Ku Klux Klan, who heads all the law enforcement of the United States, said yesterday the Department of Justice is preparing to file suit against former Central Intelligence Agency CIA employee who printed a book about his experiences with the agency before publication. The attorney general told a news conference here that the government is going to seek damages and perhaps an injunction against Frank W.– W. Snepp III, a former senior analyst for the CIA whose recent book, Decent Interval, describes intelligence activity during the Vietnam War. One of his books has already been stopped from being produc– produced. That’s freedom. They talk about freedom in USA, there is no freedom of speech, only freedom of speech within the confines of what the press wishes to allow it. Such a lawsuit would represent the first time that the Justice Department has invited a full legal test of the contract that all CIA employees may not submit in anything they write after leaving for pe– unless it is for pre-publication censorship by the CIA itself. If that contract is invalid, he and everyone ought to know it, Bell said. If it is valid, then we think it ought to be enforced. There’s something wrong with the system when people can back down on their contracts at will. Well, he was upheld. The attorney general is in New Orleans for the annual winter meeting of the American Bar Association, and since that time, since this article, he was upheld by the court– agents– he– the agent was fined– the agent was charged with damages, because it was decided that no CIA can– can write anything without the approval of the CIA itself. That’s the new pattern of events, US-style, 1978.
Well, I see. Good news that we have been written about in the World Council of Churches Magazine again. That’s good news. A very timely article of praise saying that, in essence, Peoples Temple does more for humanity than any church group known anywhere. That’s quite a praise. Let us hope we can live up to it and deserve that (unintelligible word) of praise. Yes, the magazine, One World, that goes all around the world has again praised us. They praised us in the March issue, and now they praise us in the May issue, as being, as I said, the most active church with helping human beings of any church known. I don’t know why we’re faring that well with the World Council of Churches, but it seems, in looking at their writing, that they are undoubtedly on a socialist course, and probably don’t get too much encouragement in their socialist position. So we’re grateful at least that we find somebody somewhere that uh, is willing to tell the truth about Peoples Temple, that we indeed do more for humanity than anybody else. There’s no question about that, although we are a socialist movement, and the church was only– the position we took and we had to take, anybody with their right mind would know was essential to take to achieve the results that we needed for the working class. By following that example, and following that position, we were able to free a lot of people. If indeed we had not taken that position, a lot of folk would never have known the freedom that they now know today.
I was trying to find the exact text of the book. I don’t seem to find it this moment, but I will get it for you at later time so you can stand by, hold the tape– and hold the tape where it is at this moment. Hold the tape.
(tape edit)
–quotes in May, the One World, monthly magazine [of] the World Council of Churches, all the churches of the world, comes from Geneva, Switzerland. Guyana praise for the most outstanding program to help humanity in the world. Peoples Temple Agricultural Mission in Guyana. More than any other group in America, the Peoples Temple has lived the principles of early Christianity. The comment is typical of the enthusiasm shown for the project in Guyana of the Peoples Temple Agricultural Mission. It’s in bold headlines, Guyana Project (unintelligible word). Guyana group finds a new lease on life. Said I was just reading over the copy of September issue of One World, enjoying the article submitted from various confessing communities. This is the one in March. In differing– different parts of the world, I thought that I would share with you some news of a very unique community which had been developed here in Guyana by Reverend Jim Jones and 1000-some members of their large church. Peoples Temple Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, who have moved here from the United States, Peoples Temple is one of the most socially-active ministries in America. We are very proud of what has been accomplished in Guyana over the past three years. Peoples Temple is a strongly socialistic church, emulating the ideals of communal sharing of the early Christians, Acts 2:44-46. Reverend Jim Jones has been heard by tens of thousands of people and his fearlessly– his fearless witness to the gospel of liberation in his own life, which has been a ceaseless struggle against tremendous opposition and persecution. In 1973, the large San Francisco headquarters of Peoples Temple was struck by an arsonist and gutted. There have been attempts on the Reverend Jones’ life many times, and the catalogue of harassment and maliciousness against him and his immediate family, which includes seven adopted children of different races, as well as his church’s extended family, is a grim testimony to the persistence of vicious religious and political persecution in the United States of America. The Jonestown community in Guyana is an amalgam of races and ages, including over 250 senior citizens – the oldest is 108 – most of whom were ghetto dwellers in the United States. In Guyana, they are finding a new lease on life, a peaceful, wholesome environment, free from the tensions bred by American cities and (unintelligible word) racism. Former drug addicts, sociopaths, hustlers, and despondent youth who couldn’t see any future for themselves, have been transformed in this environment, in this extraordinary community of love, sharing and cooperation. This for us is the heart of Christ’s teachings, a way of life where all who believe are together and have all things common. Socialism. Participating in a new society where selfishness, greed and exploitation are overcome. Since its founding 25 years ago in Indiana by Reverend Jim Jones, Peoples Temple has stressed– stressed completely total racial equality, extending vital social services to needy and desperate persons. We believe that socialism, cooperativeism, communalism, whatever you may call it, points the way to a future for mankind, a way of life that transcends mere dogma, doctrine, an empty theory, and theological abstractions, as well as empty Sunday morning pieties. That was written by Professor [Dick] Tropp in– a large bold headlines in the March issue. It’s amazing we’re getting covered twice. Having said in the Mar– the May issue that I just read before that, part of it, that we have only sent 25 letters. Professor Tropp, for God’s sake, let’s see that we get everybody in here writing letters and let us see tonight that all– all, for Christ’s sakes, all the people in San Francisco write letters so that we can continue that good tie with One World. It goes to all the churches of the world, it’s headquartered out of Geneva, Switzerland, in English and in all languages. Catholics, Protestants, every church, belongs to the World Council, and this magazine goes to every denomination and every religion in the world, all over the world. So we’re grateful for that breakthrough. Whatever. We continue on, whether we get praised or damned. We are standing for what is right. That’s what’s important. The rightness of communism. (Pause)
We shall move on with (clears throat) news about Namibia. South African troops. While its war of liberation with South Africa continues, in the north and central regions of Namibia, the Southwest African Peoples Organization, SWAPO, is bracing for a new round of talks with the five Western nations that have been actively urging a settlement for Namibian independence since last spring. Talks are not expected to begin again, according to SWAPO representatives at the United Nations. The five western nations, US, Britain, France, West Germany and Canada, have apparently been meeting in New York since late in December in preparation for a meeting among themselves. South African representatives and SWAPO leaders talks were originally proposed for early in January, but both SWAPO and South Africa have alternately requested postponements. Now as you know, the military have completely invaded. The US was getting nervous, and was trying to bring about a settlement in Namibia, South Africa, on your map, that would’ve been suitable to capitalist interests and not Marxist interests, but it appears that the special multinational corporations and the rightwing leaders of US government hold more sway than even Carter, because an invasion has taken place of– in the entirety of Namibia, and the resistance is rising– increasingly rising against the invasion by SWAPO. SWAPO reportedly today killed 19 of Pretoria’s government representatives. Pretoria is the capital of the government of the Union of South Africa. Officials today (unintelligible under tape break-up) US mission to the United States– uh, the United Nations have reportedly stated they have managed to reach workable compromises before, between SWAPO and Pretoria on 11 of 19 bargaining points, but as another Western diplomatic effort, such percentages may be (stumbles over words) may be misleading. There are some points on which neither SWAPO nor South Africa appear prepared to budge an inch in their longstanding positions. It appears that the Union of South Africa was not even prepared to keep their word. They promised independence to Namibia, but they counted on getting it with puppet leader that– Union of South Africa dictatorship have put in power. However, they got a surprise of their life when the two puppet leaders were assassinated by the people. Now in that–
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