(Marc Shuman has been researching various cults, new religious movements and sects since being involved in a cult himself in his teen years. Since that point, he has worked for numerous non-profit groups including Women’s March of Santa Maria and House of Pride and Equality. He lives in Santa Maria, California and can be contacted at marcshuman40@gmail.com.)
November 18, 1978, more than 900 men, women and children including infants and toddlers are murdered by a fanatical preacher with a Messiah complex. He instructs his followers that this is the best option, preferable to the non-existent threat of anti-communist U.S and Guyanese forces closing in, ready to exterminate them by torture. Another victim of this tragedy would be a congressman by the name of Leo Ryan, initially sent to the settlement of Jonestown by concerned family members to investigate rumors of torture, mind control, and of members being held captive against their will.
On the orders of Jim Jones himself, Ryan and three members of the press corps covering his trip to Guyana are shot to death at a jungle airstrip as they attempted to leave. A fifth person, a Jonestown defector, also dies in the crossfire. The next day, the horrors of this massacre would be revealed in the daylight to the Guyanese forces. The bloated remains of numerous men, women and children whose only crime was wanting to build a better world free from economic exploration, poverty and bigotry would be found baking in the intense Guyanese sun, their arms around their loved ones, their faces contorted in agony from the poison they were forced to ingest and give to their babies. All because they trusted a preacher by the name of Jim Jones who from humble beginnings, preached against the intolerance he saw in his society but ultimately used this cause for his own gain.
After the events of Jonestown, many family members would refuse to claim their loved ones remains, and many other bodies – especially those of the children – were unidentified. In death, they received no better treatment as when they were alive. The country of Guyana refused to bury the remains on their soil, while in the United States, numerous cemeteries outright refused the bodies to be interred. These people didn’t receive the justice they deserved in life, nor did they receive any peace after their deaths.
Recently, there has been discussion about restoring the Jonestown settlement site into a sort of morbid tourist attraction. This plan has been seen as attractive for numerous reasons, among them being a boom in Guyana’s economy from tourism, a reflection on the history of a tragedy and numerous others. However, I’m of the opinion that turning the site into anything but a memorial would be an absolute dishonor to the many victims and their families. Perhaps many of my generation don’t take this seriously as it’s not of recent memory. People just don’t care about a cult led by a madman that led to the deaths of many innocent people in the 1970s. I believe differently. I don’t wish for the deaths and memories of these people, their hopes and dreams, their desire for a better and more just world to be forgotten.
This plan mocks and is a huge dishonor to the events of November 18, 1978. Under capitalism, profit is far more important than people’s suffering and misery.