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[Editor’ s note: The numerous typographical errors in these meeting notes have been corrected.
[This memo is in the section on Deborah Touchette, but the language and tone suggest it was more likely written by Sharon Amos]
(they said we ought to lecture at service clubs, and participate in the Youth Activities May 20-29 so people can know more about us)
NEWSPEOPLE visited two times (around the 20th or so of March, 1978)
– it was a hectic night that night. In fact most nicely dropped by it was hectic/the first night Vincent Hines was visiting and one group were talking to him so we had to take them in the other part of the room
– the second night, Jonestown was on alert, we were supposed to make contact with Walter Rodney plus some of [us] go to a lecture about USSR and someone was supposed to come to dinner Fitz the PM’s guard and he was here at the same time
– we ask a lot of questions and so the young people on both nights and others who were talking to them called for me because they didn’t know how to deal with them. I made a joke out of some of the things they said (like JJ has told us to do) and that strategy of J’s seemed to work the best as they stop the probing
– another thing I did was to ask them questions, another thing JJ has advised and it was really funny, they got into a big argument about what socialism was and what they thought about it and we all calmly watched them without getting involved and when they apologized for being so talkative and not letting us talk, and we graciously thanked them for being so willing to speak up and we said we enjoyed what they had to say
– the thing I made a joke of was they asked if we could marry people outside our group, and I said of course we would, “Who wants to marry us, we’ll start interviewing them.” He kept asking about this making various situations up, such as if someone wanted to marry one of us and yet didn’t want to live with us, could one of us marry them and still live with us and go visit the one they married. I laughed a lot and said “it sure sounds complicated, and the situation hasn’t arisen but I’m sure we can work something out.” I said “who are all these people who want to marry us. I didn’t know we were so sought after.” It got so ridiculous that they started laughing too. When they said the situation about one living in and one living out, I said, “you are sure making it complicated.” Then he said he’d like us to give a talk at his work to the people he works for (he works in a liquor company doing the newspaper for them as well as being a writer that submits to newspapers). I said we would be glad to. He said, “now of course I don’t want you getting any of the people I work with to come and stay in Jonestown.” I seized on this. “Oh, I thought you wanted to have people outside marry us and here you are the one that is holding out on us, and we are already to marry you people.” We all started to laugh and he started to hem and haw and say, “well it isn’t that, we just need the people to be the in the company”
– he said the problem of marriage had come up with the National Service or some group where they had to live together in barracks and they didn’t quite know at first how to work it out, if the people wanted to marry
– he said we were controversial and he (they) wondered why there were so many rumors that they had heard about us. I told him that every avant-garde movement had controversy and explained that even the mental health movement in the US (which is now very widely accepted) was considered very radical when they tried to stop having people imprisoned for mental illness). I mentioned that this is happened thru history, those that make changes or stood for principle, whether widely known or not, were not accepted at first, even though in the end they might be the originators of widely accepted ideas or practice. I said however that we had support from all the progressives in the US, that it was only reactionaries that didn’t like our stand on Nazi-ism that gave us problems, and that here we had the wide support and kind help from governmental leaders and we were very grateful to everyone who had helped us here. That people were generally very kind and friendly to us and that even when people at first had questions, like a couple of ministers, when they visited our project and saw for themselves what we were doing, they were always very supportive and even called us a model community. He said we certainly aren’t trying to be a mystery (as he said some thought of us that way), and that’s why we had open houses, why we invited people to our project, to look at every inch of it etc.). He said that they had come to the open house expecting us to be mysterious and weird and instead found a sense of brotherhood and warmth, Guyanese and us mixing very warmly. I said (again joking a little) that we sure were sorry to disappoint them about the mystery but as he could see we are a very open and direct people, and just like
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KIRTON AND BLACKMOND (PRESS)
we were talking to them tonight in a relaxed manner, we tried to be very communicable with people, and it’s usually people that start rumors that really don’t want to communicate and straighten things out, because every time there have been people that have misunderstandings about us we have tried to communicate on a one-to-one basis so they can ask questions and work it out. We said we have gone to every means to work it out, with our radio show different questions people have asked us, the cultural show presenting our cooperative spirit etc.
– he said that we should have a meeting with the community, he called it a “symposium” and have Guyanese people ask us questions from the floor and answer them. I told him that we had been advised that this wouldn’t be a good idea, because the ones that spread the rumors aren’t interested in objective answers (we have been told) and thus would just come to harass us and try to start fights which we don’t want. We said it would be different if it was people that are objective and really want answers. I said that those who don’t like us, we have been told are against an interracial group that is so successful where there is no racism, sexism, ageism and that kind of people you can’t talk to.
– I said that we find you can really talk in more depth on a one-to-one basis and you have more time to explain things in depth that way and to have a real dialogue
– he said (they said) they understood but they did bring up the same subject the next night they came by and I answered the same way. Then [They] again stopped the questions and said they understood.
(I should have given this info first but I will now. The three that came were 17-year-old Rawle Blackmon who work for the National Newspapers, the Citizen and the Chronicle, I asked him to bring samples of his articles which he did the second night. There was some sports coverage and a very nice article about a woman who is very active – I think if I recall she is teaching at the university and she is for women’s liberation and he covered it, I told him, sympathetically in terms of indicating her goals for women and for herself. He also covered the speech of a politician, which he said he doesn’t like to do as it gives little room for creativity).
– I should Xerox samples of his work and send it to you, will try to do this, I should have thought of it this evening.
– Rawle isn’t that unsympathetic when talking to you. He doesn’t probe as much as the other guy Wesley Kirton and he doesn’t seem quite as sharp.
Wesley Kirton 20 years old works for the Guyana Liquor Corporation GLC/it does processing and canning as well. He is the PRO (Public Relations Officer). He also freelances and submits to UPI (which his father works for) and Guyana newspapers. Both he and Rawle say they would for sure let us read first any article they would write, although Rawle said that journalists don’t like to do this generally as it could hamper your style but considering the situation we have been through they would do so
– Laurie Kirton 22 years also came, he’s not in the press but is a graduate student in economics, works for the Small Industries Corp. which helps small businesses (govt project). He was friendly and nice but had some trouble with his so-called brother Westley who had a fierce thing going with Laurie (who is a man). Wesley confronted Laurie every time Laurie talk and made him (or tried to) make him look like a fool. When I asked what they thought of socialism (to fill them out), they had a huge argument and Wesley said that Capitalist countries actually help Guyana more than Socialist countries do (they didn’t mention, nor did we, that Capitalist countries have huge strings attached to their help etc.). I asked Wesley what he thought of the Guyanese system and he said that there is a difference between a socialist system and an underdeveloped country (which he is saying without going into detail) has difficulty being socialist because they don’t have many resources in which to provide for the needs of the people etc.
– Wesley said he’d get us on night ride (to advertise our cultural program) – it would be free
– also he would get us on Radio Demerara with Pat Cameron who is a very good friend of his/he calls her Aunt Pat and he wants to invite us over to talk to some friends
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KIRTON AND BLACKMOND PRESS PG 3
and she’d be there. He invited some of us there
– he Wesley said after the first time he visited, his other brother, not the one that was with him had an argument with him and said “would you chuck your job to go and stay at PT Jonestown?” Wesley said he said “If I went up to Jonestown and liked what I saw” – his brother said he was crazy for wanting or thinking of chucking his job for anything
– Wesley was very nasty to his other ?? so-called brother that came with him/he’d interrupt him and ask him probing questions when the guy expressed an opinion/later he said they weren’t even real brothers and said something about that in a disparaging way
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[Editor’s note: Pages K-2 and K-4, the reverse side of the first two pages of this document, are scratch pages used in an effort to save paper. The text of the pages is here.]