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Mr. Sharma (the man who Joan [Pursley] met) visit to him by Jocelyn and Sharon 9/3/78
-he showed me the following articles which were sent to him from the US “Rev Jones’ Disciples May be Leaving” by Kilduff
-Oakland Tribune “Misfits build New Life in Guyana”
-SF Chronicle, “Shots Fired at Rev. Jones”
-”Magazine Attacks PT” Examiner
-he said he was in no political group but his sympathies were with the WPA/he said as a writer you can have no loyalties
-when I explained things mentioned in the articles such as senior citizens getting more out of PT in services, lodgings etc than they possibly could put in, he said “well I guess you’ve been mis understood”
-when we talked about the project and all it was doing he said “What you’re doing is a miracle”
-but he was schitzy because he said he attended the service at Sacred Heart Church and said it was obviously bogus, he said J’s coming on stage even was bogus (the way it was done),we talked about people actually healed, the forceof love etc and my own situation with healing but I said that wasn’t the main focus anyway because if it was we wouldhave healing services every weeek
-he prefers the English and American systems to the Guyanese, doesn’t believe socialism is practical
-he is basically not religious but his children go to the Catholic church
-he has been trying to get a job at aradio station on a talk show, either Radio Lucia or Trinidad
-Daniel Halprin Professor of Creative Writing at SF State sent him the articles about Peoples Temple (Dick Tropp might know him orperhaps someone couldcontact Halprin in SF ?????)
-he was writing a book about Guyana and had a chapter about “foreigners and Guyana” and was going to include a part about PT in that chapter/ I asked if he still was going to do that and he said he was tired of the book, the last work he did (for some paper?) was censored and this upset him greatly. (I said if he did the book, I sure hoped he would see for himself what is being done in Jonestown rather than write about rumors)
-he was not unfriendly, treated Jocelyn and myself to a soft drink/ said he would soon be going on a long trip to the US
-I told him I’d show him that article Tropp wrote (censored to remove any negative statements against US)
ERIC CLARKE 7/3/78
-regarding suits against the press, you can sue in England if the bad pressis in England
-Clark has associates and you would have to file it in England, you have certain things to prove
-if you were to sue in Guyana you would have to prove that publications would harm you in Guyana and few people in Guyana read English papers so that would be difficult
-you would get less damages in Guyana
-if he got one of his associates to help on it you’d have to pay the associate but Eric Clark would work in conjunction with the associate/ Eric would take the dispositions here
-you have to be sure to move fairly fast on a suit because there is only a certain period of time in which you can do it/ like a year in Guyana, it might be 6 mos. In England, he wasn’t sure
-you couldn’t get your travel money back on a suit but could get damages
-it’s easier to get settlement in England than in Guyana for instance/ newspapers don’t like adverse publicity/ they will pay you off/ people get settlements all the time Princess Taro of Uganda, she used to be Amin’s Minister (one of the govt. ministers)/ Amin told England something about an affair and it was printed in paper and she sued the paper/ they paid her fantastic sums for it
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-Clark will be in London for 10 days next week and he could check on the press to see if there are any negative articles about us (we told him one hadn’t come out yet but there might be one coming)
INCORPORATION
-he said we are incorporated already/ we were incorporated some time ago but in Dec. Gene Chaiken [Chaikin] wanted to change the incorporation so we wouldn’t be a branch of the Calif. church but a separate branch/ he said that Paul was to send the papers and they’d be filed (by Act of Parliament)
SUING BRINTLEY BENN
-he doesn’t have the money to pay a suit Clark didn’t think but you could sue him to have your character vindicated and get a judgment against him
-you can have an injunction to prohibit him from publishing the same kind of thing forever / Eric deeds copy of the papers Bonn wrote to eventually be present – but if it mentions PT in general JJ wouldn’t have to be there (however, the govt. has used Brintley Benn case and other cases like that to prove that they observe human rights for the opposition – Wills showed us a report by the Human Rights commission (or whatever its called) in the US and it even mentioned that kind of case as an example of human rights being observed in Guyana)
MINISTER [Desmond] HOYTE
-Clark read Hoyte letter, he didn’t see that Hoyte’s reaction was called for
-he said that he said that a while back Debbie and two other people had trouble seeing Hoyte and Clark was talked to Hoyte and he saw them the same afternoon
-Eric will find out Hoyte’s attitude for us and see what Hoyte is feeling about the situation first/ he said Hoyte is a “hot tempered fellow”
-he wondered if Hoyte had taken the situation to cabinet before he wrote the negative letter as it came right after cabinet session
-he said that our project is well thought of (we told him about the positive), and said [High Court Justice Cecil] Kennard said it was the best thing going
-he’ll check on what Hoyte is feeling about it
-Hoyte used to be a lawyer working with Clark
RE JUDGE [Aubrey] BISHOP
-he said the judges have been complaining that they don’t have enough time, they work Monday thru Saturday and they are backlogged so he thinks that might be why the case isn’t decided yet
RE EXEMPTION AS A CHURCH THRU IRS
-Duncan Moore has been checking on this/ he went there several times and they haven’t finished it/ they lost the papers 3 times on the Bautite case that Clark has been working on for the govt. so that’s how it goes with them
[Fred] WILLS visit 7/3/78
-he thought that Critchhow might be on the Ministry of Education team to check out our school
-he said it would be handled at a Cabinet level when they finally make their report about our school
-he said that Hoyte and Teeka [Vincent Teekah] aren’t buddies, Hoyte is grooming Teeka but doesn’t like him/ Hoyte doesn’t like turncoats
-Wills said that he thought the education situation would be the “2nd front” for PT, Stoen is the 1st front (but that didn’t turn out to be true) he said the Soviet newspaper played up the retirement (his retirment)
-he said the Ministry of Education may use bully tactics with PT but they couldn’t afford to have a confrontation with PT before the election as we are their ranks
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Wills 7/3/78 cont
-ater the election there will be a new PNC govt/ must be a popular process this year (may not be new people but must be a popular process)
Teekah has to achieve before the election
-he said he would call [Court Registrar K.W.] Barnwell tomorrow, he can’t call Bishop right now, wants to let him simmer
[Robert] Corbin (minister of State in the Ministry of National Devt., [Kit] Nacimiento is Minister of State in the PM’s office) (by the way there is another Corbin that Tim and I heard speak at the Georgetown PNC convention and that’s this Corbin’s brother 14/3/78 (Debbie and Ann)
-he has read reports about us and they show we are doing a fine job in the North West/ we are a good example
-he’s interested in the wing bean, said it’s a new crop for Guyana, Corbin is an agricultural enthusiast
-we gave him the whole run down on the Stoen situation and showed him the papers re Tim Stoen and Grace (transvestite, unfit mother, and asked JJ to sire child) and I gave him a Peoples Forum that goes into Interpol etc. / also loaned him a copy of merve Dymally’s book
-he asked if we were religious/ I asked what religious background he was and he said he wasn’t religious and didn’t attend church and didn’t believe in God and I explained how JJ was able to reach out to people thru religion and bring them into an understanding of socialism so they wouldn’t be afraid of the word but could see the word meant what they heard Jesus had talked about
-he said that made sense as Jesus would have been a socialist
-we invited him for dinner/ he can’t come this week but said to get in touch with him next week/ he’s been sick and can’t eat right just now anyway
-he said “call on me if I can be of assistance to you”
-his secretary Mrs Maxwell was very nice too
-Corbin is in the office in the Ministry of Natl Devt that Debbie said [Ptolemy] Reid used to occupy, very nice office
-he said he had read a negative article about Tim Stoen/ he didn’t actually say it was badly negative but it did show sympathy for Tim
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[John] BLACKEN 13/3/78 Debbie and Sharon
-said he’d write a note to JJ before he left
-when I mentioned the World Council of Churches article and the USSR article and Angela Davis saying we help all people progressives and conservatives, he said that we good strategy that J was moving way from ideological differences
-said you’re doing a fine job, you’re very productive, I like what you are doing
-he gave Debbie and me a kiss and a hug
-said he liked the present we gave him, said the wood was a souvenir of Guyana as well as a nice gift
-said that now that he is leaving he is getting a bit emotional about it (not just because leaving us but Guyana in general)
-I mentioned hearing Anderw Young in SF and how he said he got in some difficulty because of what he said/ Blacken said “Anyone who does anything decisive gets into some difficulty”
HENRY HARRY 15/3/78 to make contact about Walter Rodney
-he said that Walter was on his way to Hamburg Germany to spend 3 mos there/ I asked why he would want to go to West Germany and he said the University there was interested in Walter’s book “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”
-he said that Walter’s wife is in Jamaica at the University studying there
-he said that Walter has done some work for UNESCO in Haiti (which I wonder about) over
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Walter Rodney cont.
-he said that Walter is writing a history of Guyana
-I asked whether Walter was a marxist and he said “totally, so much that he won’t compromise his ideals and that’s why he hasn’t had a job for 3 years in Guyana” he used to work at the University and he gave us a book that was written about Walter Rodney and how Walter was not permi (was barred) from Jamaica on one of his trips
-Walter has also written a book “Groundings with My Brothers”
-Walter teaches classes at his house, anyone can come even policemen/ he has dialogues/ one man (I think a policeman) asked Walter if there was a way to make change here / Walter said he couldn’t give the man any tactics for that, but when the people felt the need to make changes they would unite together and find a way to do it.
RON VAN DYKE
-he said that he will put an article in about the twins with some background (because I said the original article didn’t even mention Larry but mentioned the other doctor) and didn’t mention PT. He showed the news release he had gotten about the situation and it showed Bunny Mann meeting with the Dr. Greenfield at the Washington Embassy of Guyana giving some award to Greenfield
-he said that he drinks too much (like many news men)/ we talked about newsmen drinking in general and I said I thought many people feel helpless about things so they drink (referring to newsmen in the US), Ron said that’s how he feels but didn’t go into it more/ he said “confidentiality in this room (his office) is nil
-he said there is not stand off on us and he will send the material he compiled about this-info from Ministers etc about this – he would send it in the mail
-I showed him Dick Tropps article (modified to take out anything about drugs and any negative mention of the US)/ he said he’d like to meet Dick/ he likes his style and he started making notes in the column and said he’d use it/ I asked if we could read it if he made any changes on it and he said that was his policy to do so / to show people when he makes changes.
-regarding Fernanz’s article, he said he’d get it this afternoon and will be reviewing it
-he said he will come to dinner 23/3/78 but he eats very little