D-2-C-28
Draft of Gloria Rodriguez Carter letter to Guyana government about rise of KKK in US, August 1977
[handwritten notation at top “1st week of August”]
COPY
To Ministers
An article reporting on the mood of the United States Congress is enclosed for your perusal. It was written by a prominent Time Magazine writer. I ran across it a few days ago and thought it rather succinctly portrayed a trend in the United States that has concerned me greatly for some time. It is most disturbing that racism is becoming increasingly blatant there – once again – as displayed in part by the horrendous rise of the Ku Klux Klan in all segments of U.S. society.
This trend is occurring even though there has been a ray of hope with President Carter. But, as the PNC has often said, Institutions of long standing go on and on, irrespective of personalities that come and go.
I thought this article was of particular interest because it comes from a middle-class perspective. I’m just bringing it to your attention because I think you, as a government minister, might find it interesting.
VTY [very truly yours]
GM [Gloria Maria] Rodriquez
Georgetown
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D-2- C-29B
[several words illegible] FOREIGN AFFAIRS FROM AN INDIVIDUAL
Dear Minister_________
The enclosed article is from the Trinidadian paper which says lets compare tiny Barbados with two Goliaths. The essence of the articles is critical of Guyana and Jamaica for not becoming economically dependent on the United States.
I, as a member of Peoples Temple, would never speak in reference to policy-only directly to you because this is the policy required by out Trustee and Bishop Jim Jones. It is not my business to seek out on such issues that perchance would cause difficulty for you. But I just wanted to say privately to you as a minister of this great Republic, that I believe you are taking the wisest possible course. Any alternative to economic dependance on the United States would be, I believe very wise. Even in modern USSR and China there is not the history of assassination and murder the brutal subterfuge which characterizes current American history. We have personally gone through hell and persecution for standing up for Guyana, as have [text inserted from following page: “other officials we’ve encouraged to speak out for Guyana such as Lt. Governor Dymally.”] The mood in the United States has not changed.
Any President of the U.S.A. no matter how good they appear, as has often been said by the leading spokespersons for the [illegible] is just a passing phenomena. The institution of capitalism remains the same. We admire your courage and anything we can do to help develop this country, making it economically self-sufficient we will be grateful to do because we believe you have taken the wisest of all possible courses.
In the states or here we have not and will not denounce the United States because we don’t want to create trouble for Guyana. But merely speaking out for [illegible word] in Guyana has incurred unimaginable persecution from the increasingly [illegible] wing reactionary sectors in the USA. As the Mayor of our city (and the authorities are after him for his stands) states that there is a new wave of McCarthyism that will make the old McCarthy days look pale by comparison. If this wave continues socialists and blacks are undoubtably going to be sacrificed as the scapegoats as were the Jews and socialists in Germany.
I appreciate your time in considering these comments and observations.
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D-2-C-29B
Other officials we’ve encouraged to speak out for Guyana such as Lt. Governor [Mervyn] Dymally.
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D-2-C-30
Unsigned letter to Ptolemy Reid, August 1, 1977
1 August, 1977
Dear Dr. Reid:
We’ve just learned from Jonestown that all progress on road building and land clearing will be further stalled because our bulldozers are still out of commission, and our latest efforts to get them to Georgetown for repair have again been frustrated. We had arrangements with GN to bring them in this week, But Captain Benn of the Jaimito left Pt. Kaituma without them. We understand that Isaac Lambert, who helped with the arrangements on that end, was upset that this happened, as we were. This has gone on for some time, we need some way of getting those bulldozers into town. They have been out since November and we have been having trouble since then. Unfortunately this problem has delayed some of our anticipated progress.
Jonestown also reported that Guyana’s ambassador to the United Nations, Rashleigh Jackson, accompanied a Mr. Gaskin of Georgetown to visit our settlement this week, and was very favorably impressed. The two gentlemen spent several hours touring the project and talking with our people. They were reportedly very happy to see our demonstration of concern for third world countries and the needs of mankind. We are glad they had a chance to view our work.
We have some affidavits on people that prove they are provocateurs and criminals which we mentioned to you before. If their names come up in immigration they should be scrutinized closely as they are dangerous. This information is in the hands of the most prominent attorney for the left in the United States, who is a good friend of ours and has now subsequently become a good friend of Guyana, Charles Garry. These people have been behind a scurrilous campaign against Guyana, ourselves, and several other processive elements in the United States.
We hope your health is much improved, and that this is a pleasant holiday for you and yours.
Cooperatively,
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D-2-C-31A – 31c
[Typed copy of Time Magazine article, “The Politics of Spite,” by Robert Shrum]
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D-2-D-18A
Al Touchette letter to Guyana government ministers re: radio, August 21, 1977
21 August, 1977
Dear Minister:
I just wanted to let you know our radio operators out here in the jungle at Jonestown have been doing some good will/public relations for Guyana when we have contact with other “hams” around the world. We must have had over 1,000 contacts during our radio work for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project (I’m sending you a list of the radio numbers of people we’ve talked to in just one day – and you could, if you wanted to, identify them in a QSL book – we expect to have ours in the near future.)
I wrote a while back to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the States, telling him the good word about Guyana and the work we’re cooperating on here in the jungle heartland. I’ve also written to a number of the radio hams who’ve had QSL’s with us – that is, a radio exchange. My letters are full of good things about Guyana and the project, and I’m getting some enthusiastic response.
It’s gratifying to find so much interest in what’s going on here. Often times we have contact with people who have never even heard of Guyana, or who thought of it as either British or French Guyana, as though it could be either. (A strange omission in their geography training.) Others ask if this isn’t a socialist country and we say it is and then we tell how free everyone is and how much the government is helping people and assisting us, for example in getting us information about seeds and plantings or where we can find needed supplies. We’ve said how helpful, too, the country has been for our youngsters who are getting the chance to return to nature and work the soil.
We just talk in a casual way and don’t do any propagandizing. They get interested when we talk about so many coming to work here and how much we love this country. We let anyone break in and then we begin to tell them about this beautiful place. We say not one person who’s come here has any negative feeling about this country. Naturally, we never say anything negative about the U.S. or the press there (though we have reason to) and we never refer to anything here in anything less than a positive, enthusiastic way. We talk about the lovely climate, the beautiful crops and above all the warmth and friendliness of the Guyanese people.
One station in the States stays on for hours wanting to talk and help with contacts with our California headquarters when the airwaves are blocked between here and there. He’s such a helpful chap – and he says he’s very much interested in Guyana.
Bishop Jones is a good one for making lots of contacts. He ends up talking to people almost every day in both government and other churches. It’s common for ministers to have radios, so he talks to people of every denomination and tells them how much we think of Guyana. One minister reported back that he had discussed Guyana in his Sunday sermon, he was so impressed with what he heard. People have been enthusiastic about our plans for a medical clinic, and they’re turned on when we tell about catching a bush cow.
Figuring that we’ve had well over a thousand contacts and then some of those people are passing the word on to others, I guess we are reaching a lot of people with the good word about Guyana. Since I’ve been telling others about all this, I thought I’d tell you, too. We’re making fine progress out here in the North west District, and we’re more and more glad to be here. Hope you visit us soon.
Cooperatively yours,
Al Touchette
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D-2-D-18b
[Editor’s note: This page, labeled as a “Sample of One Day’s International Radio Contacts,” is mostly illegible, and was not transcribed.]
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D-2-D-19 –21
[Editor’s note: These three pages are duplicates of D-2-d-18a.]
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D-2-D-13
“Jim Jones” letter to Natural Resources Minister Hubert Jack, September 28, 1977
[Editor’s note: Although this letter is supposedly from Jim Jones, it was likely composed for his review by a member of the Georgetown staff. The signature at the end does not match that of Jones’.]
PAULA’S COPY
Bishop Jim Jones
Peoples Temple Agricultural Mission
P.O. Box 893
Georgetown, Guyana
28 September 1977
Honorable Minister Hubert Jack
Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources
Brickdam
Georgetown, Guyana
Dear Minister Jack:
We just wanted to let you know how deeply grateful we were night before last for the GDF plane that flew into the Port Kaituma air strip to pick up one of our young men who had a very serious spinal injury when a piece of equipment broke and fell on him. The pilot, Michael Chan-a-sue, was ready within the hour after being called about the emergency (to fly the plane up.) Since there were no lights on the Port Kaituma air strip, our people made torches all up and down the strip to light it, much to the amazement I heard of even the pilot – it was so well done. The pilot was extremely courteous and sensitive to the seriousness of the young man’s condition, and thus he was most careful not to jar or bump him in any way, as the young man was paralyzed for several hours from the waist up. Amazingly enough, the young man seems to have regained full use of his facilities now and is in a Georgetown hospital.
Because of the seriousness of this emergency and the fact that our own doctor felt that if we didn’t get this young man to a hospital as soon as possible he could have lost all feeling in his body, we did not think about asking permission for the plane to land up there. After it landed, a local constable came up and made it known that he was extremely disturbed that we had not consulted him about the whole matter, even though we had no idea that we were supposed to contact anyone. We would deeply appreciate knowing from you which bureaucrats we are supposed to contact in this sort of an emergency.
You have my greatest respect and appreciation because of your commitment to socialism and Guyana. Please let us know if we can ever be of any assistance to you in any way.
Most Sincerely,
/s/ Jim Jones
Jim Jones
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D-2-D-14
Undated notes on Temple meetings with officials of Guyana government
SHIRLEY FIELD-RIDLEY
- She wishes to take a neutral position regarding the media. We make the decision and her office will pass it on to the appropriate media sources. I think she leans more strongly toward the “no comment” line of thinking. She feels that most of them will come in with pre-disposition, therefore they will try to support what their view is rather than try for any impartiality.
- When I gave her the photocopies of the Dennis Banks report and other articles, she said that we don’t have to defend ourselves to her. She understands what is going on, and referred several times to the same type of thing that happened to Guyana. She said that they finally opened their doors to the media because no matter what they wrote at that point, it couldn’t get any worse. I told her that we were tired of the harassment and that because of so many incidental things happening as well, meaning the shootings, that I didn’t think we would want any reporters or t.v. people out there.
- When we told her about the identity of Jeremy, she didn’t say anything. I didn’t feel that she responded one way or another, but I must admit that we explained it worse than we ever have before. It sounded so scrambled up. All the facts were given, but it sounded too disjointed, her tone of understanding did not change at all.
- She claimed to not know what the South American correspondent for Newsweek is nor where he is staying. I don’t know if she knows or not, but she did meet him and his wife.
FRED WILLS:
- When I told him about Father Morrison, he said that he has really been giving the government a hard time and that Morrison is CIA backed. We said nothing when I asked what to do about Morrison, just said that that was a tough one.
- He would not speak to me over the telephone about what he has planned regarding Jeremy’s situation, and said that he had already told me once that he would speak to me about it this weekend, he spoke in an irritated manner, however, he said he wasn’t feeling well either.
- He said that we are getting him into trouble by all of this high powered lobbying, and sending support letters all over and having people contact all of the leaders. He said that it may be all right for Washington or California, but not for Guyana. He said that when in a different system, your strategy should suit that system. (Perhaps the P.K. is asking why we are so insecure.)
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D-2-D-15A
Meetings with Mingo, Jack, Barker:
- Tell him about the last three days of harrassment in the interior.
- Tell about John.
- Harrassment beginning with Unita Blackwell Wright, to:
– arsons burning churches, animals tortured, assassin attempts, seniors tantalized, attempts to provoke us into violence.
– Joseph Mazor
– Try to use various methods to undermine us and discredit JJ and PT, John, who is so precious to JJ, is a means to torture JJ.
– Appears that with their lies, and after what you have seen PT do to help build socialism and this economy, that G [Guyana] is willing to sit back and not defend a group which would give their very lives in defense of their right to sovereignty and to uphold the name of socialism.
– How can a bunch of provacateurs be given so much credibility? Has G not suffered the same character smear in the press. We never believed that the PM killed people, or that this was like a dismal plantation, etc. We knew that they were assassinating G credibility within the capitalist world because G is socialist and the more that G was slandered, the more we knew that G was adhering to Socialist principles. Capitalism and the right-wing reactionary press tries to manipulate countries and groups like they were pawns, however we are not wavering our socialist commitment one bit under their attempts to discredit us.
– The very persons who have tried to bring us into a picture which made us look inhumane are the ones who practiced a great deal of their accusations. They were terrorists and not only wanted to do violent things to overthrow the U.S. government (which was a naïve theory), but they practiced their terrorizing on the persons living in the dormitories at Santa Rosa. We believe them to be provacateurs at that time and when they formulated plans to blow up the Santa Rota, armory, someone said something and it got back to the Bishop and he put a stop to this type of nonsense. We work through programs of human service as a living demonstration of our socialist commitment, not through violent means, although if we were ever attacked we would not lay down and die quietly.
– There is a conspiracy among certain agencies and low level officials. The President, Andrew Young, Rosalyn Carter, State Dept top officials (mention praising letter), have always been very supportive of us. The major officials in the state of Calif. support us. Mention about the Attorney General having never called either the Foreign Affairs Minister or Ambassador of G in Wash. The Lt. Governor of Calif. Asked him if he had called us. He said “no.”) [Marginal notation: “(Mingo & Jack)”]
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D-2-D-15B
4444. Dick McCoy from the U.S. Embassy has been getting very involved in the custody matter about John Stoen who is the son, in fact, according to our attorney, he has gone out of his way about this. And this in particular official knows that the son is JJ’s. The embassy called the Police Commissioner and asked him to have an escort go up to the project with the attorney representing the child’s mother. Without saying anything to us about this an escort auto, were provided for Jeffrey Haas and they appeared on the farm. Naturally we became somewhat alienated having this man sanctioned by the G government after explaining to Minister Wills and Dr. Reid what the background of this matter was. The man said he was from Home Affairs (that was with him) and was very unfriendly. When he got back to Georgetown he said that he had tried to serve papers on the B [Bishop Jones] and he was evading them. This man did not say one word about papers and we have several witnesses who will swear to this. He asked where the Bishop had gone and when he would be back, specifically if he would be back by Thursday. This was all that he said. Until two people told me that this man was saying that he was a marshall trying to serve papers, we assumed he was from Home Affairs. People keep throwing the name of Home Affairs around all of the time.
5. We need some assurances that G will stand by us. We have chosen our destiny by our choice and when the Cubans disaster occurred, we never wavered. We want to know if you are going to continue to let people come in harrassing and trying to intimidate us. We have no future here if this continues to go on. We would die for you and told the man at the US Embassy that we would fight to the last person before we would let Guyana borders be attacked, but we need to know what G is going to do and whether G govt is going to stop this harassment. For the first time, we closed our gates…
6. It would show little character in J if he were to allow a son to go back to one who openly expressed her hate for him and said to J “you take him, I never want to see him, again.
7. We do want to get some assurances that this kind of thing will stop. I am surprised that the govt has let it go so far as to almost lose the Bishop’s life. We said so before that this was in some ways a test to see how G will react. Our support has come from the left in the U.S., Third World countries and as far away as Russia. We will not fail you. Our loyalty is to G and socialism, but we must know if this harrasment is going to continue. John is only one case. If it even goes into the courts, it will open the way for others, however we understand what you are trying to do in allowing it to go to court, but this is exactly what will happen.
8. We believe that there are lower eschelon bureaucrats who are working with the U.S. Embassy CIA attache, Dick McCoy, according to Min. Wills. There is also some indication that there may be a conspiracy against us here which involved persons from G and the US. I am sure that some in the U.S. are surprised that it has gone as far as it has.
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D-2-d-16a, 16c
[Editor’s note: This document is a duplicate of the D-2-d-15a – 15b.]
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D-2-D-17
Fred Wills
Note: A primary concern of ours is that 500 of our best professional and technical people who have not come yet, be allowed to come. They were the high wage earners who stayed back and who will be invaluable skilled assets to this country which suffers from a brain drain. We hope to replace the skilled who were allured by material benefits. (W)e appreciate the qualities of being on the soil, good neighbors, racial harmony and a socialist economy, and we don’t need to have those creature comforts because we’ve seen that they are empty as far as esoterism. We want assurances that they will be able to come in the next couple of months or earlier if there is some kind of extremist or reactionary situation. They are the best of the lot in training and expertise. People are being trained specifically in tropical medicine. All of the skills of these people who stayed back to help support the project will help Guyana beneficially. They are people who can appreciate this country and the nation’s course. I send you my deepest personal regards.
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D-2-C-15A
“Jim Jones” letter to Deputy Prime Minister Ptolemy Reid, October 1, 1977
[Editor’s note: Although this letter is supposedly from Jim Jones, it was likely composed for his review by a member of the Georgetown staff, likely Sharon Amos. The signature at the end does not match that of Jones’.]
[Notation at top of page] Paula’s copy
Bishop Jim Jones
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project
P.O. Box 893
Georgetown
Republic of Guyana
1 October, 1977
Honorable Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Ptolemy Reid
Camp St
Georgetown
Republic of Guyana
Dear Dr. Reid;
WE NEED SOME COMMUNICATION VERY VERY URGENTLY. A SITUATION HAS COME UP THAT WE NEED TO KNOW EXACTLY WHERE WE STAND.
We were visited by Minister Desmond Hoyte, along with the Regional Minister, Fitz Carmichael, Isaac Lambert, and other persons. Minister Hoyte had an arbitrary manner and said that we now had to go through the region only and could no longer have any contact with any of the Georgetown ministers. We were also told that we could not distribute any more free food in the area. AND THE MOST DEVASTATING THING WE WERE TOLD WAS THAT WE CANNOT HAVE A SCHOOL.
These conditions are TOTALLY UNTENABLE AND UNACCEPTABLE TO US AT THIS POINT. We would like someone like you or Minister [Fred] Wills who understands what we are about, who understands the extent of our loyalty and commitment to socialism, to come up to Jonestown and talk with us about these situations.
Minister Hoyte is said to be interested in projects yet he has never looked at this farm. He has been in three times and each time he has stepped out of his car, made some commands and got back in the car and drove off, not one time looking at this project. He wouldn’t even sit down when he came. This doesn’t sound like a man who appreciates what we are working to achieve.
We have met with more hostility from local officials here than we have from the white racists in the U.S. We want to amalgamate and are encouraging it, but this is the same problem that we have with people in lower levels of the conspiracy in the U.S.
There is an Indian tribe that thought they couldn’t live on this planet – they didn’t feel they could make it. This is how many of our people feel – that they are too idealistic and there is no place for them. Surely you have seen the idealism of this group. Our loyalty has been extended to you to even die if necessary for you and for Guyana.
IF WE ARE INDEED TO PUT ALL MATTERS THROUGH THESE INDIVIDUALS OUT HERE, AS THEY SAY WE ARE, WITH NO CONTACTING OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN GEORGETOWN, THEN WE HAVE REACHED AN IMPASSE. WE MUST BE ABLE TO KEEP CONTACT WITH YOU WHOM WE KNOW WE CAN TRUST.
We cannot possibly understand why we would be told not to distribute food free to the people. Is this to isolate us from the community? These officials were trying to suggest that we would make the people in the area reliant on us. This is a
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D-2-C-15B
Page 2
ridiculous and unsocialistic concept: if people are in need, as there are shortages here, than we are not going to turn our backs on them. We cannot do it!! And obviously the amount of food we give away, though it is thousands of pounds, cannot possibly meet each Individual’s need. I might add that our doctor has given his assistance to people in the community and we will continue to do so, but why do we face such hostility when all we are trying to do is help people.
We were told as a guarantee when we first came to this country that the school would be left intact. We are willing to take other Guyanese children in. We were told by the Headmaster that the Port Kaituma school did not know where they were even going to get food for the number they have now. They CANNOT possibly take in 300 more children. And what are we expected to do for transportation? We have no means to transport all our children each day 13 miles round trip. This would cripple our production and threaten success with this kind of an extra demand put on us.
We have a vast program of schooling and many people in the community have said that our school is far advanced compared to other school. We have been able to achieve a great deal with the work-study program which gives the children all of the most advanced academic education and at the same tine teaches them a healthy concept about work. Classes are taught on socialism, Guyana history, regular academic subjects, trade skills, etc. The children choose the skill which they would like to be exposed to and work with someone in that area whether it be a doctor or a mechanic. They are allowed to work with someone as a privilege when they have done well in school, but we have been told that in the Port Kaituma school that children have been known to wander through the halls at class time, and teachers have fallen asleep in class.
One man who has praised our school so highly in the past, as he had visited us before and toured our school, came out with Minister Hoyte today, and didn’t step forward and tell what he knew about our school when we were told that they were concerned about our children getting a good education. We suggested building a school at Jonestown, but there was no comment. We want to amalgamate and have Guyanese children in our school and we have stated this many times. OUR CHILDREN ARE EXCEPTIONALLY PRECIOUS TO US. They are going through an adjustment period because of the racial harassment they met in the school system they came from. We have spent a great deal of individual time in working with both academic and emotional adjustment. To say we are not concerned about children as was implied by one of the persons who came out is ludicrous.
According to the law in The Regional Development Authorities Act 1977, Section 7, it appears that by nature of the fact we are an incorporated church in the laws of Guyana, we would not come under regional control. However, the attitude derived from the visit of Minister Hoyte, Minister Carmichael, and their party appeared to be, “AS OF TODAY, WE ARE IN CONTROL OF YOU AND WANT YOU TO KNOW IT!!” We asked about the law, we got no cooperation and had to contact Guyanese friends in Georgetown to get this information to find out even the basis of this proclamation.
Perhaps the reason we are meeting with so much opposition is because a true cooperative is too threatening. Maybe they don’t want a socialist experiment. Maybe they don’t like foreigners. We don’t know what it is. As you know, there is a documented conspiracy in the U.S. and we cannot forget what ends they have gone to already, especially when it is obvious that this conspiracy has reached here. It concerns us that some don’t even relate to the racism and harassment that one would get being an integrated socialist group in a capitalist country. We have had 25 years of this kind of harassment and we are tired of it. We are peaceful people and have always lives as socialists and we will surely die as socialists but we need to know where this will all end.
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D-2-C-15C
Page 3
Another complaint registered by these ministers was that when the GDF plane flew up the other evening (to carry to the hospital one of our youngsters who had been seriously injured in an accident) we did not inform them it was landing, There was no sensitivity expressed by these men for the young man who at the time appeared to our doctor there to be loosing spinal fluid through his mouth and nose, and who was in fact paralyzed for many hours.
Inspector Benjamin, who spoke to us several days ago about this situation, appeared at that time to be understanding. However, when he came out with Minister Hoyte’s party, he seemed antagonistic about the whole subject, and totally reversed his attitude and comments from our previous talk with him. (We have a hard time trusting people who are friendly one visit, and hostile another.) The fact is that the GDF pilot praised us for having the airstrip lit up like a Christmas tree in one hours notice, and that hours notice gave us no time to do anything except what that pilot demanded.
We have told you many times of our loyalty, and today we had a case in point. Two of our secretaries attended the Guyana Council of Churches meeting. They walked out of the meeting, explaining to me that they felt disloyal even sitting there when so much anti-government discussion was taking place.
The lectures given by father Malcolm Rodriques and father Andrew Morrison were reacted to by Mr. Miles Fitzpatrick. The overwhelming majority of people were anti-government. The government supportive pastors did not attend and the discussion topic “Human Rights” slammed at the government through examples such as the media control where Father Morrison is concerned and the middle class individual rights where Fitzpatrick is concerned. Fitzpatrick also compared Guyana to Chile and said we could learn from what happened to Chile. What a horrendous example! Laura Allende, Salvatore Allende’s sister, spoke at our church as did several of the Chilean refugees who ore now assisted by us. Obviously, the atrocities committee on them can in NO WAY begin to compare to anything that’s ever taken place in Guyana.
You might be interested to know that Lt. Governor Dymally was asked to speak with Andrew Young when he and Ambassador Young meet. If you would li.ke any points raised, please let me know.
WE HAVE RECEIVED NO ACKNOWLEDGMENT THUS FAR TO THE WAY DISTURBING SITUATIONS THAT HAVE ARISEN. WE KNOW YOU ARE EXCEEDINGLY BUSY BUT WE ARE IN A DILEMMA AS TO WHO TO TRUST AND WHERE TO TURN. WE DESPERATELY NEED SOME COMMUNICATION FROM YOU. YOU KNOW OF MY BELIEF IN YOU.
Sincerely and Affectionately,
/s/ Jim Jones
Jim Jones
Copy to Minister Fred Wills
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D-2-D-11
Harriet Tropp letter to Development Minister Desmond Hoyte, October 1977
October 8, 1977
The Honorable Minister Desmond Hoyte
Minister of Economic & Regional Development
Avenue of the Republic
Georgetown, Guyana
Comrade,
In response to your suggestion that we apply formally for permission to have our existing school accredited, we have placed this written request to the Ministry of Education.
We would appreciate any further advice with respect to this matter. We know you are a very busy man, but would welcome a visit to our project from. you. At such time you could see the school in progress first hand, as well as view the development of the farm itself.
Yours Cooperatively
Harriet Sarah Tropp
Administrative Assistant to Bishop Jim Jones
cc: Sir Lionel Luckhoo
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D-2-D-12
Tropp/Chaikin letter to Regional Minister of Economic Development W.D. Wyatt
Cde. Wyatt,
The staff of the Peoples Temple agricultural project apologizes for not notifying your office regarding a GDF plane that landed recently in Port Kaituma on an emergency. However, as we did notify your office when private charters came in on previous occasions, this oversight in no way represents our practice or policy.
The situation that night was extremely critical. We had only one hour’s notice to prepare a runway for a landing, get it adequately lit, transport the injur ed young man, and give the pilot a weather report by radio. According to our doctor, the young man, who could not move at all, had spinal fluid draining from his mouth.
The pilot told us that our efforts finally demonstrated that night flights could be made for emergency purposes in this area. We would think that this would be a point of considerable value to the Regional Administration, who, after all, are responsible for the life and health of the people in this region. While we do appreciate Cde. Wyatt’s time and effort in pointing out those incidents where we have been in error, we do think it is appropriate for the Regional Administration to recognize the contributions that Peoples Temple makes to the North West Region, including the above referenced incident.
The tone of your letter of September 22 gives us the feeling that there must be some strain in the relationship that exists between Peoples Temple and the Regional Administration. If this is true, we sincerely regret it and wish to take steps to resolve whatever difficulties you perceive to exist.
To this end, we propose a regular monthly meeting be established between the Regional Administration (and whosever else they say designate) and several representatives of the Peoples Temple staff, Whatever points of mutual interest or questions there are that should be addressed, could be discussed at such meetings.
In addition, we note that several months ago there was a request that the Regional PNC organisation include members of Peoples Temple in its activities, proportionately to the population of the project. Me also feel that representation by Peoples Temple member on regional and district councils would be useful.
We look forward to discussions with the Regional Administration in furtherance of these proposals. Co-operatively yours,
/s/ Harriet Sarah Tropp
Cde. Harriet Sarah Tropp
Administrative Assistant to Cde. Jim Jones
/s/ Eugene Chaikin
Cde. Eugene B. Chaikin
Cc: Cde. P. Reid, Cde. D. Hoyt, Cde. Carmichael
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D-2-D-8
Carolyn Layton letter to Vincent Teekah, Minister of Education, October 8, 1977
8 October, 1977
Ministry of Education
Cde. Vincent Teekah
Georgetown,
Guyana
Comrade,
As you may be aware, the Peoples Temple agricultural project is currently holding school classes for the children and young adults living on the project, a number now nearly three hundred. We most certainly wish to acquire official recognition for this school, and thus I am enclosing a report that details the current structure and program of the school.
At the present time all transportation at the agricultural project is carried out by our farm tractors. It would be physically impossible for us to transport 300 youngsters into Port Kaituma to school daily and still maintain an agricultural program (the tractors are imperative to the implementation of this program.) We would be more than happy to accept students from the surrounding community to participate in our school program.
As you will note, at all age levels the emphasis in instruction is the development of the socialist man and woman, a sensitive person who has learned not merely the theory of socialism but also the application of that theory to one’s daily life. Our school does not teach religion in any form, except to point out how religion has been used to pacify oppressed people throughout the ages. The enclosed program is not simply a “paper plan.” On the contrary, it was formulated and written after the school was actually in progress, and reflects the actual, ongoing program.
Naturally, we are anxious to learn of the official guidelines and requirements formulated by the Ministry of Education, because we want to incorporate such into our program as quickly as possible. Whatever your office could do to facilitate our getting the proper, formal recognition of this school would be most deeply appreciated. It is our firm commitment and desire to educate our young people to be fine socialists, instilled with a sense of loyalty to the PNC and the ideals it so ably represents.
Yours cooperatively,
/s/ Carolyn Layton
Carolyn Layton
School Administrator
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project
Port Kaituma, N.W.D.
Guyana
cc: Cabinet
Regional Minister Carmichael
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[Editor’s note: This is a duplicate of the previous letter, with an additional note at the top of the page: “Lionel Luckhoo’s copy – left out how we don’t teach religion.”]
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Educational goals for Jonestown schools
PRIMARY AND PRE-SCHOOL – AGES 3-5
Goals
To promote perceptual, motor experiences intended to produce high success rates as foundation experiences for the development of a positive, assured view of self.
To begin the teaching of cause and effect relationships.
To instill a strong sense of responsibility for all actions and statements.
To instill a respect for collective property, collective opinion, collective qualities of leadership such as the willingness and courage to question and express individual opinions so that a true dialogue can develop and all minds can contribute to the collective.
To instill in each child that work is good and all that is good is the product of work. To instill that honesty and truthfulness are fundamental to comradery which is in turn fundamental to cooperative effort.
Time Allocation
The pre-school children are in a structured group setting for 8 hours. They learn and play in groups and so learn sharing at a very young age. Their day includes supervised group play, dances, songs, walks, naps and meals. Each child is encouraged to participate in the various activities cooperatively with the group.
With the exception of evenings and nights, the pre-school children are under the supervision of the pre-school teaching staff. The Director of the Pre-School worked for many years as a pre-school teacher in the United States.
No formal effort is made at this age to teach academic skills or information but educationally stimulating games are part of the program.
Daily Schedule
7:30 – 8:15 a.m. Breakfast
8:15 – 9:00 a.m. Post breakfast wash-up and journey to the pre-school playground and activity center. At the playground they have activity, an apparatus to challenge and enhance their development muscularly, perceptually and neurologically.
At all times teachers help the children learn through their daily experience socialist principles.
Following a group lunch and nap, the children again have a play period. The afternoon play period is inside with toys and puzzles. At this time fine visual tactile and special discriminations and fine muscle coordination are stressed as gross motor coordination skills were stressed in the morning.
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The children spend evenings and nights with their families. Those children who do not have their parents with them in Jonestown spend the evenings with married couples who are their parental figures. Parents and teachers have frequent meetings to coordinate their efforts so the child is not caught between conflicting expectations.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL – AGES 6-12
Goals:
Initiate new goals:
To inculcate the following socialistic principles:
- Each one teach one.
- It is the responsibility of each young socialist to acquire educational skills which can be used to learn and apply knowledge predicament and eliminate suffering,
- To inculcate the values that integrity and loyalty are important and honorable qualities.
- To inculcate the conviction that labor not only is honorable, but desirable..
- To inculcate the conviction that mankind holds the keys to his destiny: mankind determines his destiny, as the Marxist dialectical process unfolds.
Time Allocation:
The elementary students are awakened by their parents at 7:00 a.m. At 7: 30a.m., they eat breakfast at the community dining facility. Following breakfast the children are supervised through toothbrushing and final personal details before school begins at 8:00 a.m.
Classes include:
Language Arts: Becoming receptive and expressive.
Aspects of spoken and written English language. This includes Beading Skills.
Mathematics: Includes basic concepts of numeration, mathematic symbology, computation and reasoning.
Perceptual Training – Audio, visual, tactile training separately and in integrated patterns.
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Physical Education: Designed to provide mostly group or team cooperation experiences in setting that promotes development of perceptual-motor skills, strength and stamina, encouragement of the qualities of fairness and learning to be a “good sport.”
Social Studies: An integrated discipline including aspects of economics, politics, geography, history, philosophy and demography – interpreted within the context of the Marxist dialectic.
Guyanese History: Specific details of Guyanese history with parallels drawn with the struggles of all third world peoples. Study of Guyanese heroes and historical-figures as well as current Guyanese developments.
Foreign languages including: French, Spanish, Portugues, Chinese, Swahili. Depending on the age of the students, their language background and the language being taught the approach and goals may vary to include:
- Study of sentence structure (syntax) and grammar.
- Symbol systems.
- Conversational language.
Two and one-half hours of each day are spent in apprenticeship training for the children 10-12 years of age with 1 1/2 hours similar work experience for children ages 6-9. This work experience includes all aspects of the project life from electricity to carpentry, cooking to animal husbandry, and other fields included.
The initial phase permits several days experience in each project area unless exceptional interest or talent is exhibited. In such cases, the student may pursue further training of the field of interest.
An emphasis is made to protect the training aspect of the program. The trainees are placed with workers who have proven to be good workers with a collective conscience who have empathy and patience in working with young people.
The elementary school children are supervised by their teachers from 8:0O a.m. until 4:30 p.m. They are than released to their families for dinner and evening and nighttime activities.
SECONDARY SCHOOL – AGES 13 – 18
Goals and Values:
Continuation of the values and goals from the preschool and elementary.
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Initial New Emphasis:
- Socialist Work Means Change
- It is most honorable and desirable to work the earth to produce food.
- For education to be of real value, it must be incorporated into the work experience to practically benefit the people.
- The task will not be complete so long as there is one suffering human being.
- Ignorance is a capitalist luxury we cannot afford and do not want.
Goals:
- To learn and apply systematic reasoning and logic procedures to problem solving.
- To develop a degree of mastery of mathematic symbology, concepts, algorisms and reasoning as will enable the students to perform the computations native to their job or employment.
- To show greater respect for and take greater pride in active participation in the solution of a problem than the planning and discussion of it.
- To develop in the student receptive and expressive language skills and the development of skills of analytical reasoning as will enable the students to gather knowledge and ideas written by others; and to encode thoughts, beliefs, factual information and postulations in a standardized form in English and one other of 5 languages.
- To inculcate a basic respect for all life, but the conviction that to live: as a socialist is more important than life itself.
- To develop within the student the ability to translate plans into a methodic goal-oriented action sequences.
- To inculcate a basic conviction that implementation of Marxist principles benefits all peoples.
- To inculcate a basic and active belief in labor as tile process and route to human betterment.
- To develop in each student such organizational critical/analytic reasoning skills as will enable the student to approach problems dispassionately with
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moderate assurance, state problems accurately, thoroughly, and postulate solution steps, and evaluate cause and effect relationships. A Marxist focus on all problems helps keep a unified prospective.
- To engender in each student a sensitivity to the struggles of all people seeking freedom, self-determination and security.
Program:
The secondary school program is a work/study program, the work day being divided roughly equally between work and study.
As discussed for the’ elementary program, students receive training with the work experience. All aspects of community functions are open to apprenticeship training.
The courses offered are:
Medical First Aid
Nurse Science
Basic Biological Science
Animal Science
Literature and composition/ Language Arts
Foreign languages:
French
Chinese
Spanish
Swahili
Portuguese
Basic Arithmetic Review
Algebra
Geometry
Basic elements of spoken and written English
Social Science with a Marxist perspective and socialist concepts
It is our belief that our program will create students dedicated to the service of humanity, sensitive to the problems and struggles of others, possessing logical reasoning skills to approach problems effectively and having sufficient study and learning skills to learn technical data necessary to formulate and execute solutions to problems, i.e., the development of socialist character. The school does not teach religion, in any form, except to point out how religion has been used to pacify oppressed peoples throughout the ages. Students graduating from Jonestown School will have had training in manual arts as well as training in at least one trade or skill. Students who have the interest motivation and ability to go on to college will have completed college preparatory course work.
Through the program in social science, the students shall have been exposed to the histories of peoples struggling against oppression in its varied forms and shall have a strong identify with third world peoples and their struggles.
The graduate of Jonestown Schools we hope to be a sensitive socialist individual with well- developed problem solving skills and the ability to implement solutions. He or she will be able to work with their hands and their minds and will have their hearts in touch with the socialist cause, and will be loyal and willing contributors to the development of Guyana.
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Richard Tropp letter to Regional Minister Fitz Carmichael, October 30, 1977
October 30, 1977
Hon. Fitz Carmichael
Regional Minister
Matthew’s Ridge
North West Region
Guyana
Dear Minister Carmichael,
I am writing in response to discussions concerning our work here that have taken place between you and our project leadership as well as a letter recently received from your office. We are looking forward to full assimilation and absorption into the mainstream of the institutional, cultural and social life of Guyana. We want to move in this direction as fully and as quickly as possible.
One issue came up which needs to be fully appreciated is that of the removal of the school children from the farm. A problem which we face is that we have a relatively small number of working adults in comparison to our total population and we depend upon our older school children to assist in a number of project activities on a daily basis. These activities are in themselves educational as well as indispensible and necessary for the success of the project. Our school program is combined work/study, and in these formative stages of our development, it is critical that all of our young people be involved. These include agricultural work in the fields, diesel mechanics, welding, carpentry, medical assisting and so forth. We cannot afford the loss of even one of our able young leaders if we are to sustain ourselves and produce in a way that we are confident will not only help Guyana, but continue to be a model for the whole world, as many of your officials have characterized us. We are making many gains: we are able to build many implements highly beneficial to the nation. To name a few, household items, exquisite furniture, children’s play equipment of high quality, educational wooden toys and games which will acquaint every child with the wealth and beauty of Guyana and its capable leadership. None of this can he achieved without our full work force, therefore we are asking for some latitude and toleration in making a request for the exemption of our school children from attending the Port Kaituma school.
In our case, this request is being made in the best interests of Guyana with no personal gain or untoward motivation involved. We are not a community of salaried adults that can purchase their own food. Rather uniquely, in rural Guyana, we are almost entirely self-supporting by our own efforts, and because we do have many senior members and young people, we would not have sufficient food in this sort of program if we did not have the integral participation of young people in the maintenance of the farm. This factor makes it a practical impossibility for school children to be absent from the project in these early stages of development.
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Hon. Fitz Carmichael
Page two
In earlier discussions, before our project had even been formally started we were told we could have a school of our own. This was a major decision point for us, therefore to institute full integration of our teachers and students with the Guyanese school system we would gladly take in Guyanese of the area and become a fully accredited school through the Ministry of Education. Local children have attended our school in the past and done quite well. Already the children are taught Guyana history, social and cultural courses. We invite you to test them on their knowledge of the concepts and purposes of the PNC and the political facts of the attempts made to destabilize the economy. The degree of their understanding of these subjects would astound you. We are teaching them a national pride and loyalty to Guyana which becomes a matter of automatic response and intrinsic feeling.
As far as Guyanese teachers are concerned, we have no problem about their competence, but there are problems of a specific nature regarding the sophisticated “asphalt jungle” background of many of the children here. We have developed methods cowards restructuring their lives and goals on a constructive, wholesome foundation. It requires a special cooperative structure and this setting of love and understanding which is helping many of them to overcome the psychological and various other damage they have suffered in the big city ghettos. That is why psychological counselling has been integrated into our educational program; part of a massive program to overcome these problems. We are, happily, making considerable progress in building character among practically all of our young people. Our only recent difficulty concerned a couple of runaways who decided to return to the community after their “adventure” in the bush.
We have had to put a particular emphasis upon tutoring and special help since we are trying to counteract the damage done by many American high schools, especially in the black ghetto areas where children are passed from grade to grade without any standards of achievement. Many graduate high school as functionally illiterate.
As is our practice on all major issues concerning the members of the community, we took a vote on the matter of going to school off of the project, and with the exception of one child (who has a long history of juvenile delinquency) all of the children voted to remain here for school. We maintain a very competent educational program, if that were not the case our families would be very unhappy, and, in fact, someone asked us to take in their fourteen year old who was attending another school and could not yet read.
Another major reason for our concern .about sending our children off the project is the very real threat of kidnapping. We now have proof and a witness to verify that a central figure in the conspiracy that is trying to undermine our work, a man by the name of Mazor (who has a lengthy criminal record), is intent on using conservatorship laws to effectively kidnap children on our project. Even though we
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Hon. Fitz Carmichael
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have legal custody over the children, such actions would embroil us in the courts for years fighting the archaic and vicious concept of conservatorship. This makes us especially reluctant to place young people in a position in which they might be vulnerable to being seized by people like Hazor or those Guyanese without socialist concept or anti-government views who Mazor might induce through monetary enrichment.
Also, a problem that could cause great problem in terms of public relations for Guyana is that we have heard repeated reports from reliable sources of a small outbreak of malaria in the Port Kaituma school. We understand how that could happen, and we are in no way critical – the friendship and compliments of various delegations you have brought here make us feel accepted. We cannot thank you enough, as well as the great statesman of your nation whose life and character inspired us to settle here. But my point is that just one malaria case in our membership would doubtlessly create another round of smear campaign activity in the U.S. press, which would also reflect negatively on Guyana. To send our children to the Kaituma school before malaria prevention is ensured would be foolhardy. As you know we have a high level of medical skill which we are extending more and more to our good neighbors in the community. It was a life-saving to a Guyanese neighbor just a few days ago.
The water supply in Port Kaituma is very bad as was stressed by Cd. Wyatt and other officials, to a degree that the man who chairs the PNC party here, Cde. Green, lost a child recently to an outbreak of gastroenteritis. We have had a great deal of success in treating cases which have been brought to us and we were sorry to hear Cde. Green, who we find to be a very sincere and nice man, suffered such grief. We wish others would come to us under such circumstances because we have not lost one here with gastroenteritis or malaria as well. Although we wish for you to fully understand that we don’t mind venturing or facing new maladies (or we wouldn’t have come), if this were to happen to any of our young people when we are under a reactionary, political press attack there would be a new barrage of bad press about the poor water and health risks that would reflect poorly on the agricultural project and Guyana. It is just inopportune to send the children out at this time. As a people we are willing to face a few health risks but we were just thinking about what would be the best image for Guyana.
Another subject that was discussed was that of Guyanese being employed on the farm, We have no objection to that in principle, indeed we hire Guyanese workers presently. But we are opposed to bringing in persons who are not of the most firm support of the Guyana government and who would not be understanding of our need to maintain some careful security. This is not in an effort to be secretive as was reportedly of some concern, because we have Guyanese people working here on various shifts day and night. Without exercising extreme discretion, we know from experience that problems
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Hon. Fitz Carmichael
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could arise in which some of our youth who have come from adverse social circumstances might be drawn into activities such as excessive drinking and (as happened on one occasion in the past) theft. We have experienced people coming here to work who were anti-government and anti-structure, and who created many problems for us. We also noted that the only criticism ever registered against t.ie government was by the people we employed. We were also chagrined to experience among them some outright blatant racism. For these reasons we would like to see a very selective evaluation made of who will be placed to work here. We are happy to report that all of our people are presently free from anti-social patterns. However, we are aware that this is the case largely because they are removed from adverse influences, and are part of a community that encourages and rewards good moral conduct. What We want to build upon more is our ties with very high calibre people in the PNC, who represent the best in the local community. We enjoyed our participation in the Party (PNC) meeting. We also have several persons currently employed in the Guyanese community with land clearing being done by one contractor along with several Guyanese neighbors.
We have shown our concern about full co-operation and sharing with our neighbors and the local community. As you know, we are now building a recreation facility to be put in the Port Kaituma schoolyard and are preparing furniture donations. We went out of our way to employ a tractor and operator to send a movie into the community and will continue to go out of our way. We would like to continue to employ local workers. All we ask is to be able to avoid the kind of problems I mentioned earlier. Actually, the only reason we didn’t resume full-scale employment was a matter of income – the expense was too great.
We have 100% support of all minority U.S. media and we have been able to isolate the reactionary press attacks on us to a very small segment. In what Lt. Governor Dymally has called an open smear campaign on all black elected officials based on race, regardless of their political views, Andrew Young has come under heavy attack of late. The minority press which has been absolutely supportive of us, has even given in to attacking Andrew Young, calling him a traitor because of his support (or black majority rights in South Africa and other such views. This being the result of personal gain made by some journalists working for the minority press. Enclosed is a copy of a letter to the NAACP, which shows the extent of reactionary thought in the San Francisco area which mentions the call for impeachment of Andrew Young for his support or simply his willingness to have open discussion with countries such as Guyana. Some of the major medias have played into the hands of those who are desperately trying to impeach him.
We would of course do everything in our power to keep any adverse situation from being reported to the U.S. media that would in any way reflect negatively on the Nation, but with so many children writing their friends and even some of our seniors who are sensitive people but probably too trusting, it would be bound to leak out. Though we have full support of the minority press and support from all segments of the progressive and left liberal press, we would
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Hon. Fitz Carmichael
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not like to see any, of it eroded. Neither our agricultural project nor Guyana could afford problems that might come out of bad publicity, and we would like to take every precaution against it. The conspiracy against us is quite active (we will soon be making available a letter from Lt. Governor Dymally with details that will reveal it’s extent). People involved in it will stop at nothing to cook up schemes such as paying off people to seek conservatorships on people here in Guyana, (a very dubious and often vicious practice that has been outlawed in many parts of the U.S.), as well as other forms of harassment. We do not need any more of it, and the ounce of prevention we can take will avert situations that would hamper our production here.
I am sure that you know that we at the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project are proud to be here in Guyana. We want to participate with all of our energies and resources in helping the North West Region and the nation build, and to identify with the aspirations of Guyana towards achieving it’s great potential.
We want to communicate frequently on how we can best serve. Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time. We trust you will be understanding of the need we have for our youngsters to pursue their education here on the project for the time being, for the reasons outlined above, during these stages of development.
We look forward with enthusiasm to our work ahead of us in Guyana, and wish you, Minister Carmichael, the very best of success. Bishop Jim Jones conveys to you his very best, warmest regards.
Cooperatively Yours
F. Richard D. Tropp
Administrative Assistant
To Bishop Jim Jones
c.c. Prime Minister Forbes Burnham
Dr. Ptolemy A. Reid
Cde. Wyatt Regional Development Officer
Enclosure:
Copy of NAACP letter
Check for $200.00 to PNC to be used in any way possible for Region #1
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[Editor’s note: This is a duplicate of the previous letter.]
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Letter from “Jim Jones” to Guyanese Ministers, November 29, 1977
[Although this letter is supposedly from Jim Jones, it was likely composed for his review by a member of the Georgetown staff. The signature at the end does not match that of Jones’.]
SENT TO: [Ptolemy] Reid, [Vibert] Mingo, [Fred] Wills, [Forbes] Burnham Nov 29, 1977
Dear Cde. Mingo,
In an effort to improve the course for integration of our organization into the Guyanese stream of living, we wish to beg a few moments of your time to keep you abreast of developments and select matters which are felt to affect us both.
HARASSMENT:
In a letter to you dated November 15, the topic, “Examples of harassment” did not give the background required in understanding just how situations like that were able to develop. The location of the incidents of the arrest frame-ups of myself and my son, Lew Eric (who has a new son born in Guyana) was Los Angeles which is notorious for a fascist and racist police force. The late Cde. Claude Worrell (who was a courageous warrior against political repression and a great friend) was versed in the tactics of the Los Angeles Police force and mentioned to me the times when frame-ups were also attempted on him; a young woman he was seeing was approached by the L.A. police and offered a bribe to claim that Claude had raped her – enough of a charge to disbar him from ever practicing law again. Another time they tried to get a friend of his, who was a deputy sheriff, to lie on him. When the sheriff refused he was demoted and taken off of active duty. Claude confided to me the frustration of living in a racist legal system knowing that it was hopeless in receiving a fair trial for his clients. He felt a great pride in giving his life to Guyana and to a leadership which is working for a socialist economic justice.
A book which gives a great of background to the operations of the L.A. police is called the Glass House Tapes, written by Louis Tackwood, a black man who had worked for the L.A. police as a paid informer. He was later stricken by his conscience and told what he knew of the goings on within the “glasshouse” (as the political section of the police department was called). He told of the coordinated efforts of the L.A.P.D. with the C.I.A. In fact, it was Claude Worrell who first put Tackwood on the witness stand about the role he played as both informer and provocateur. (If you should wish to read this book, I’ll gladly provide it).
Several years ago before either of the arrest frame-ups mentioned occurred, there were simultaneous attacks on different black groups on the same Sunday morning. We were not expected. An apparent “set-up” was made by the L.A. police force, although to this day we don’t know the full background. Just outside our church some white ambulance attendants were trying to force an older black woman into an ambulance. She had evidently suffered a slight sunstroke, but had completely recovered and stated she did not wish to get in. The ambulance attendents started calling her “nigger bitch” and tried to shove her into the ambulance. We heard the commotion and went to her rescue. Evidently they radioed for help, although I don’t know when they found time, because within minutes an L.A. “riot” squad was there beating our people, women, and children over the heads with clubs. They had submachine guns pointed on us, and helicopters circled overhead. I kept most of my people indoors because we were, and are pacifists and did not want a scene like that which ensued through no provocation of ours. The outcome was the arrest of my wife,
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my oldest adopted son, Johnny (who is here with his wife and daughter), another married man who has a wife and son here, Michael Prokes [married on paper to Carolyn Layton to give legitimacy to her son, Jim Jon “Kimo” Prokes, a biological son of Jim Jones], and another black male member, C.J. Jackson. None of them had ever been arrested before and were only taken in after trying to stop the ambulance attendant from shoving and forcing the woman into the ambulance after she stated she did not wish to go. There were no grounds for arrest.
I could see what was happening: they were trying to provoke our pacifist people into violent action but I controlled the people and kept them inside. I told my people not to get alarmed, that I would go to the police station, try to reason with them and get our people out of jail.
I walked into the police division with officials of our church, member-attornies, and visiting officials. While in conference with the p.r. man for the police department, three white officers stepped up to me and said that I was going to be taken into custody also. They put me in a cell with blood splattered all over the floor, possibly to intimidate me. My wife, who was at that time a high state official, was put into a room without windows. It was as if they knew the one problem she had not overcome was claustrophobia. One man (who I don’t even remember the name of because they all looked the same to me) came up to me and said, “Well, you’ve got lots of people, you can afford bail,” I told him that being we hadn’t done anything wrong, I wouldn’t dream of putting up any bail, and in the first place poor people can’t afford bail, I am a socialist and I don’t believe in bail system. He said that I couldn’t stay in jail – it will be at least six weeks before I would get on the court docket. I said, “that’s your problem, I don’t take bail.” This went on for a few hours when finally a police commander came in and said that he understood that I had refused bail and that there had been some mistakes: my wife and I were to be released. I said, “No you won’t, You will have to release all of us because we’ve done nothing wrong.” I told him that I had instructed my entire congregation to wait for our return, I was getting weary of this and so was my congregation and they’d probably be down to find out what is going on.
He left saying he had to call somebody, who it was I never knew. After three hours had passed he came back and said charges were dropped on all of us. I told him that we wanted someone to come to our church and apologize to the people because it is difficult enough keeping pacifism. On the following Thursday a police officer apologize publicly to our congregation. Thereafter we paid for it.
Harassment went on and on for several weeks until it finally culminated in a second arrest (described in the November 15 letter). My arrest was not made at the scene of the “set-up”, but our in a hallway, a public place. I suppose it was meant to cause embarrassment. They said something like, “we warn you, don’t resist,” which showed that they were evidently counting on me to resist. Another attempt at intimidation occurred when we were crossing over a bridge, The policemen slowed down the car and said, “It would make a fellow in your position feel like jumping off a bridge, wouldn’t it?” So I went through the same old process: told them I wouldn’t take bail. I told them we didn’t care what they did, that we knew their workings and we will consider anything they say “a badge of honor.” The district attorney knew the judge I was to get was a conservarive, or moderate at best, but even he knew the despicable tactics they use and the charges were dropped, as the record, which was ordered sealed, shows, with “no stipulation to probable cause “and” no evidence that a violence occurred.
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My wife, my son, and all persons involved in both incidents have been completely exonerated. We will gladly produce affidavits as well as a copy of the sealed records showing that there was no evidence that any violation occurred. Amazingly, there was never a word in the press about it because of the adacious stand I took by telling all of my people about it. I have told all this to my people because I believe in being open and direct.
Two activist from integrated groups have had similar frame-ups this past week. Although they were not members of our organization nor have they expressed a desire to come live in Guyana, they have been very supportive of us. This same department has even tried to frame the mayor of Los Angeles on two different occasions. His opinion of this department was drastically modified.
Now the head of the entire Los Angeles Police Department, a man by the name of Davis, is running for governor of California. A man with a reputation as a reactionary fascist running for governor of our state clearly shows which way the political scenario is moving. In the black sections of Los Angeles there is an average of two slayings of innocent blacks each week.
POST RIOT:
After the riot they tried to start – a man working in the L.A.P.D. came to me in confidence because he shares some of our views, and warned us to be very, very careful and watch out. Unfortunately, we weren’t careful enough. This same man has come to us again, speaking to my associate minister in Los Angeles. Again in confidence, he said for us to watch out, that the police department is starting these tactics again. He wasn’t referring to us this time, but warned us (because of our association with Guyana) that any Guyanese official working in their line of duty was in imminent danger. These racists tactics have not involved any of our people, but they have involved black people we know. This warning about your officials worries me because it was through the knowledge of your consulate in L.A. that we met Claude Worrell and how we came to be in Guyana. Claude was a fighter and he knew the police state consciousness, but he is no longer there: I am a scrapper and a fighter but I am not there.
This is the same man with the same warning and his warnings came to reckoning. We have instructed all of our people to not go to any public places because we know we can’t be too careful – the last incident took place down the street from our church in a theater.
There have been only two situation with the law but we’ve had many “close shaves” with police harassment especially on our educational cross-country trips in our fleet of greyhound buses. One time on a street corner in New York there was a black lad and a Puerto Rican lad with knives in their hands going at it. We jumped off the bus asking what kind of inhumane treatment is this for a policeman standing to the side yelling things like “get on with it; get on with it,” to whip up temperament. The policemen told us to get back on the bus and stay out of it, they would break up the fight, which they subsequently did. Had our presence not been there, I don’t know what would have happened. (possibly one of them might have been killed; the other charged with murder).
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4
There are strong neo-fascist signals and right-wing turns, therefore I want to forwarn you because I know you have an office there. I don’t know if the man knows what he is talking about. But, he is in the right department to know and he was accurate on the last occasion.
PNC INVOVEMENT:
The PNC Conference held at Matthews Ridge within the past couple of days enthusiastically received the performance of our various talents of music, singing, and the Peoples Temple drill team. Our delegates and performers told us of the delighted reception we were given for our participation and we deeply appreciate this.
Minister [Hubert] Jack’s remarks about us publicly and also privately when he came in to visit us were filled with goodwill and encouragement. The Regional Minister at the conference also publicly acknowledged our contributions to the community with a spirit of fellowship. Minister [George] King mentioned the absurdity of bringing in and using soft drinks when the most delicious drinks are right there only waiting to be prepared. We couldn’t agree more. We only use local drink and find soft drinks to be inferior in quality and a costly indulgence.
Members of the conference were very understanding of the fact that our people were not in the best of appearance because they lost some clothing and had no clothing to change into after bring involved in the long train ride and the self-help program in the area before the meeting.
The conference was most stimulating to our delegates in attendance but they couldn’t help noticing the boredom displayed and the mannerisms of whom they found out to be, Gregory Gaskin’s wife. Because our new home means so much to us, they found it quite odd that she didn’t even sing the National Athem. The little girl sitting between her and her husband (apparently her little girl) must have found her behavior strange also because she kept looking up at her in stoney silence. However, the woman left early so she could have been sick.
On local PNC meetings in Kaituma are attended weekly by approximately twenty delegates from Peoples Temple. We are making up the deficit to meet the Kaituma Party goal.
REGIONAL COOPERATION:
Our medical program has been called the most advanced and thorough performing for any hinterland or rural project. Dr. [Larry] Schacht, our young doctor, is now going into the local community to reach people with medical attention.
ENTERTAINMENT:
During the tour of our farm one Minister made favorable comments about our elimination of violent films from our up-to-date selection of educational, entertaining, and comedy features shown on our video T.V. We found it very encouraging that the government shares our views about the association of violent films anti-social behavior. We also agree that the wrong sort of films tend to encourage an improper emphasis on materialism.
We are attempting more assimilation and many of the young members at the Matthews Ridge conference were very friendly to our young people but all they could talk of was wishing they could get married so they could move to the U.S.A. We found this to be the only discouraging thing about that otherwise absorbing conference.
We feel it would be helpful if a different kind of film was brought into the country; which didn’t give a Hollywood version of life as
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5
greener on the other side of the fence. We know it is difficult for a small developing nation to do much educating about the racism in the U.S. but we have seen our own children develop by leaps and bounds since we brought them only films with moral themes, or documentaries, or ones carrying messages about the bad social conditions of the Western Society (even Hollywood has made some good ones with these themes).
NECESSITY: THE MOTHER OF INVENTION:
We have completely elimated the need for cooking gas in our meal preparation for nearly one thousand people. Wood burning outdoor ovens and stoves proved to be more efficient, more reliable and less expensive in our communal cooking. Our boat took nearly twenty empty cooking gas cylinders to Georgetown to be filled. No gas was to be found anywhere so we had a meeting of our inventive people with practical skills and within a couple of days we developed a method of cooking which turned out to be superior.
A steam generator, which will operate on wood and waste, is on order to supply power to the entire community. This will eliminate any need for the very expensive fuel to operate our generators. We are doing what we can to become as “local” minded as possible and to save what foreign dollars we can for the important development necessities for Guyana.
Cooperatively yours,
[signed] Jim Jones
Jim Jones
Enclosure : Common Sense article
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D-2-K-6
Text of Common Sense article enclosed in Jones letter
October 1977, COMMON SENSE Page 7
Peoples Temple ‘Smear Campaign’
The Peoples Temple, an organization of poor, mostly Black, working class people, has recently been un-der severe attack in San Francisco. New West magazine, the SF Examiner and the SF Progress have run headline stories, based on interviews with former Temple members, attacking the Peoples Temple.
These major media reports have been one-sided, failing to cover the positive work of the Temple or the sentiments of its current congregation of 20,000 statewide and the Temple’s community supporters.
The following are excerpts from the Temple’s official statement:
During the last few weeks there have been concrete efforts to launch a massive smear campaign against the humanitarian and especially progressive activities of Peoples Temple…
We are not really appeased at the charges that have been made against us. Movements for fundamental social change have always been subjected to sophisticated and well-coordinated attempts to discredit their goals and destroy their leaders…
The Temple is targeted for destruction because it represents a determined effort to deal with the most fundamental problem of our society oppression of the poor…
The charges made against us are an inevitable result of the success of the work the Temple is engaged in. We represent the antithesis of the profit/greed system that thrives on ruthless exploitation of the poor. We represent an answer that the real power-brokers do not want, because if it succeeds, they fear that their power will be taken out of their hands and returned to the people…
But in the face of if all, we plan only one course of action; to proceed with our work.
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Michael Prokes letter to Guyana government ministers, December 8, 1977
[Editor’s note: This letter also appears as BB-29-ooo-1 – BB-29-ooo-2 at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=125541.]
Dec. 8, 1977
AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL MINISTERS OF GOVERNMENT
From: Peoples Temple Agricultural Project
PO Box 893
Georgetown, (Phone numbers: 68787 & 71924)
Dear Comrade:
Enclosed are some materials which we thought would be of interest to you:
First, a news item by the West Coast’s (USA) for most journalists, Herb Caen, regarding Bishop Jim Jones. (Caen, who is also a prominent author, is a good friend of ours – though, of course, he can’t show it too openly – and has said positive things about Guyana at our direction.)
Second, a Resolution on the US House of Representatives calling for the impeachment of Ambassador Andrew Young for, among other things, promising increased US financial assistance to Guyana. (Young is being harassed for speaking out on the same issues of social, racial, and economic justice the Peoples Temple stood for in the States.)
Third, an unsigned letter to Bishop Jones threatening his ministry if he doesn’t pull its money out of Guyana defense bonds. (This insidious letter is typical of many we have received over the years.)
Fourth, a letter to the Prime Minister from a journalist who has known Bishop Jones for over 20 years and is thus familiar with his background.
Before I joined Peoples Temple five years ago, I personally checked into Jim Jones’ history where he grew up and started his ministry. I was easily able to confirm the kinds of things that Mr. Preston says in his letter (enclosed). I found that Bishop Jones had operated a free kitchen for the poor and that he received constant harassment for his efforts to integrate businesses and fight for the civil rights of minority persons in an extremely racist area of the US (Indiana). He was finally forced to leave the area for the safety of his family. He went to Brazil for two years where he started an orphanage, then returned to the US and ended up basing his ministry in California.
A recent study has documented a nationwide conspiracy to destroy the careers of Black elected officials at every level of government in the US. Presently, 50% of all Black congressman in the US House of Representatives are under investigation. (Of course, this is hardly true of white congressmen.)
One of the victims of the conspiracy his Lt. Governor of California, Hon. Mervyn Dymally (who was born in Trinidad, and who visited and praised Guyana last year). Lt. Gov. Dymally
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came through two years of dozens of investigations – which, in effect, put his career in limbo – without ever being charged. However, it cost him many thousands of dollars in legal fees, not to mention the human cost of extreme torment to he and his family. His story is quite typical of scores of others contained in the report, which was sponsored by the National Association of Human Rights Workers and the Committee on the Status of Minority Elected Officials. (If you are interested in seeing this report, let us know and we’ll arrange to get it to you.)
As a result of identifying with and supporting the humanistic goals of progressive, enlightened public servants in the States, Peoples Temple has been targeted for the same harassment and persecution aimed at them. As a relatively large group that is having significant impact on life in the Northwest Region (as we are told), we believe you have a right to know all about the people in your midst, and we feel an obligation to do what we can to provide the necessary background and perspective.
If you have any questions whatsoever regarding our plans or goals (which are in essence the same as yours), or anything else about us, please don’t hesitate to ask; or better yet, come to Jonestown for an intensive look at fgerribleour program and facilities, as some ministers and officials have already done. We would sincerely appreciate any suggestions and criticism you might offer that will better help us to integrate ourselves into the Guyanese culture.
Cooperatively yours,
/s/ Mike Prokes
Mike Prokes
Associate Minister
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[Editor’s note: This letter appears several places on this site, including as page https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=113899.]
Jim,
I consider it my duty to do all possible to set the record straight. It is imperative that you and your people realize what is going on, and where you are all headed. You are playing right into the hands of international renegades who are preparing to betray you and let you go down the drain… when they present the US administration their comming deal with Jaggan [Guyana opposition leader Cheddi Jagan].
Why do you think Jaggan is coming to the USA so often these days? Your money is your appeal in Guyana. They are just waiting until you get all your money transferred there along with 50,000 dollars you put into defense funds and the government will take it all over. We know all your transactions in Guyana and we know some other things you have done for Guyana. It is all part of a scheme to get all your members on your location so that you can be isolated and systematically exterminated. It is difficult to understand how you could be so gullible. You have only to read a few newspapers to find out the international conspiracy is behind the whole thing, and you are being used as scapegoats, just like the many other communist sympathizers back here in the US. You say you believe in conspiracy but you can’t even see the conspiracy which is temporarily winning there too. We know about people in government there and believe me you have been sold out for money. It would be in your best interest if you redeem yourself with United States. If you don’t you will regret it. Get those defense bonds out now, or you will pay more than money. We can get the child for you if you cooperate. You can’t win. In the end, so the best thing for you is to save yourself now, before we proceed with our plans to get the child away from you. We have guarantees. You can count on our word that the transfer of money into Guyana and you not only lose the child, but the future for you and your people. You had better plan our way, or you will not forget soon how sorry you will be. Face facts, the Guyana Government is not loyal to you, so why be so stupid as to place confidence in them.
If you want the child and to save you and your people, let us know by placing an add in the San Francisco Chronicle for “James S. Black, Meet you at the picture show at ten”. Otherwise, lose everything.
PS Of course you must understand that you are not going to last longer anyway, because the USA and Guyana have already agreed to extradite you.
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[Column by Herb Caen, San Francisco Chronicle, Fri, Nov. 18, 1977.]
Friday’s Fickle Finger
ENTIRE NEWS: After long investigation, Dist. Atty. Joe Freitas has no plans whatever to prosecute him, so why does the Rev. Jim Jones, leader of Peoples Temple here, continue to live in self-exile at the church’s South American jungle outpost in Guyana? The reason has nothing to do with the blasts, some of them outlandish, which have appeared in the media. It revolves around a five-year-old boy who lives at the church mission in Guyana. His father and mother, both San Franciscans, were divorced recently, and she won custody of the child. The Rev. Jones is afraid that if he returns to S.F., she will take the boy away from him – and why does he care about that so strongly? Because, according to well-informed sources. the true father of the child is – Jim Jones.
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[Congressional resolution to impeach Andrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to United Nations]
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Note of Sharon Amos on Laurence Mann, February 11, 1978
LATEST HAPPENINGS 11/2/78 (Sharon Amos)
Then we told [Guyana Foreign Minister Fred] Wills yesterday (Friday) that Bunny [Guyana Ambassador to the U.S. Laurence Mann] hit Paula [Adams], he went and told [Rudy] Collins and it got back to Mann and Mann quoted it to Paula saying it came from Wills. Paula said to take out the parts in the Reid letter that relate to Mann and we shouldn’t mention anything anymore to Wills about Bunny
(I think we should confront Wills with this/ last time we confronted him with quoting us to Collins about the [U.S. State Department official Frank] Tumminia/Mann conversation, he said he didn’t do it and it must be a leak in his department) but this time we can say that Bunny definitely said the info came from Wills.
– Wills told us recently in regard to Bunny that he Wills wants to plant something on Bunny thru Paula. (Tim interpreted this as planting info thru her but I don’t know, maybe it would be drugs as he keeps asking if Bunny takes drugs.
– meeting with UPI, Mr. [Clarence] Kirton
– he said that the last time he submitted material on PT to UPI they didn’t believe what Kirton said about Jonestown and JJ – they said that JJ mobilized people and was in politics –and that JJ collected a lot of money for different reasons
– Kirton talked to the Ministry of Information and they, the Min. of Info, put out a story, an official story about PT which coincided with Kirton’s and Kirton said now UPI seems quite satisfied with material on PT.
– the man at the Caribbean desk of UPI, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Peter Von Bennoken was asked by his clients in the US for more info about PT/he said he was inquiring into PT
– Kirton said that Von Bennoken hadn’t stopped the material we sent by Kirton or changed it, but just said he was requested to inquire. (we wonder if we shouldn’t send some material to von Bennekon)
– Kirton appeared to be kindly, his article that he showed to us that he first wrote about us was very positive.
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Sharon Amos Report of meeting with Foreign Minister Fred Wills, March 1978
Sharon Amos
WILLS (3/78)
– in regard to JJ coming in to town, if JJ comes to town, the opposition will or could object by saying there are warrants out for this man/ it would appear to be flaunting it
– he said to check with Mingo and see if the PNC could live with the opposition being bothered by it
– he said however that he realizes that Mingo is very busy with the election referendum because Mingo handles that
– he said that the PNC needs our project
IMF:
– he said they were already here and found the country full of corruption and larceny and they are playing tough/ he doesn’t think they will help
RE CHINESE AID
– he said the Chinese are turning inward and he doesn’t think they will help
– he hadn’t heard anything about the case
– he said if JJ did come in to town and anything developed, J could go right back as it takes time to serve someone with papers anyway
– he said that JJ should have an unpredictable schedule/ make appointments and then switch them at the last minute
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Sharon Amos Meeting with Burnham aide Rashid, April 10, 1978
Sharon Amos
RASHID 10/4/78 (Debbie [Touchette], Mike [Prokes], Sharon)
– we asked him about the nurse at the hospital and what she said
– he said he didn’t know her name but said attacks will come and we shouldn’t take it seriously
– (asked if the nurse said anything to him about checks and old people) and he said that the nurse said something about us taking checks
– explained to him that when we are asked to deposit checks in people’s accounts, while they are in the hospital, we do so
– he said he understands
– he said he has read the Bentley [Brindley] Benn Articles but we shouldn’t pay attention to such things as Benn is against the government
– he is going with the PM [Prime Minister Forbes Burnham] to Russia
– we gave him the article about Stoen going to East Germany
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Report of Meeting with Aaron Adams, Ministry of Information, April 12, 1978
Aaron Adams, Ministry of Info 12/4/78
– we went in to talk to Van Dyke about the article not being published
– showed Aaron the booklet about Jonestown (A model Community) and showed him and Ron VanDyke some pictures of the project
– he said he “sincerely wants to help”
– said if we gave him some booklets he’d get them out to reporters with a note on them (I gave him some)
(He was going to send them to the CITIZEN paper with a note that they should cover our story)
– he sees what we mean about our story (Cultural show) being ignored/ says that happens to them too sometimes when they send in a story
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Sharon Amos Report of meeting with Foreign Minister Fred Wills, April 1978
[Editor’s note: This memo also appears here at D-1-I-4.]
Sharon Amos
Wills (Sharon, Debbie, Mike)
CHINA
– Wills suggest we invite the Chinese to visit Jonestown after a couple of weeks (since the Russians just came, let them forget it)/ [Deputy Prime Minister Ptolemy] Reid prefers China to Russia
– Reid prefers them not only because they gave aid but for other pragmatic reasons as well/ for instance the Chinese when they do a project here have a “scrupulous regard for natural customs” – they don’t make “outlandish requests” (for instance the Soviets in Yugoslavia asked for salaries they were used to in Russia which was too much to ask
– the Chinese don’t expect to stay at the Pegasus but will stay 9 to a dormitory
– also China has more understanding of a developing nation and will help you go for “intermediate industries” like textile skills, cotton gins etc.
RE National Development (Debbie and I working on that committee)
– he mentioned again us checking with Mingo (to go to Reid) about this
EMBASSIES
– he said that the Soviet Embassy has a staff (not counting wives) of 24
– he says the reason they have 24 is that’s the number of staff of the Amer. Embassy
– the Cuban Embassy has the most (120) the last time Wills counted them
– Russians have servants in their houses in Georgetown but Wills said it is an excuse to have extra KGB/ for instance their chauffiers are KGB and when he had dinner at the Russians he noticed that the man serving dinner had a gun (so he knew he was no more servant)
– he said that the cook can throw several people (karate or whatever she uses) and all the people around can defend the Ambassador etc.
– re: who will be the next from the Russian Embassy that would visit, he said probably the 1st secretary Caval (Caval he said is the cleverest of them all at the Embassy)
Cubans:
– he said that the Cubans won’t come until they find out what the opinion of the USSR is about their trip to Jonestown/ they rely on aid from the USSR SO they would take the second position on things and let USSR go first
– they will come he said if the report is favorable
– the Cubans would have more interest in us in a sense and that is that tey would see us as a Latin American progressive force (the Marxist-Leninist principles ‘4 principles’ includes that you work with progressive forces whenever they are)
– Cubans might use us as a multi-racial example of socialism
– he even thought Cuba might invite some of us to Cuba eventually
RE NORTH KOREA (by the way you don’t refer to No. Korea as North Korea – you have to call it the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea as we made the mistake of writing North Korea on a letter to them (to go to their Prime Minister for his birthday greeting) and they called us and asked that we change it as they said that only imperialists refer to them as No. Korea) so we changed it (after apologizing profusely)
– anyway Guyana got So. Korea rejected when she attempted to be part of the non-aligned movement in 1975 (August), Lima Peru and at that time No. Korea was accepted (Wills said he was there to accomplish this) – he said it was the same time as the coup-de-etat in Lima, Peru and the president that said goodbye was not the president that greeted them
– he said that Jamaica and East Germany have semi-Embassy’s here in Georgetown (only 1 representative)
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Sharon Amos Report of meeting with Foreign Minister Fred Wills, April 14, 1978
[Editor’s note: This memo also appears here at D-1-I-6.]
Sharon Amos
WILLS 14/4/78 (Mike, Debbie, Sharon)
– he said that in most cases there is an automatic stay until the appeal but there are a few kinds of cases that you have to especially ask for a stay and he will check into those kinds of cases
he said that Lionel is going to have the job that they formerly offered Wills, with the Elections commission
– he called Hines about our Medical problem (the medical committee) –
– he said it’s a confrontation between peti-bourgeoisie standards in conflict with the practical needs and the problem of overextending oneself/ in other words the doctors want to keep standards up but then end up with not enough doctors to cover things
– he said the medical profession is even questioning Indian, Phillipine, and Cuban doctors that come here regarding certification
– there was an incident in Jamaica that people refer to/ Jamaica has a strong middle class and strong right wing/ most of the doctors are migrating out and Cuban doctors came ot help/ fascist paper said people were dying because of poor medical care/ finally Manley proved it wasn’t so (but Dr. Baird used the incident when talking to Larry Schach and me as if to say, we can’t have that happen here, an incident like that)
Regarding the people that were on the medical staff we talked to
– Wills said that the woman Sandifor is a lesbian and she has to tow the line and can’t oppose the doctors because they know she’s a lesbian
– he called the team the “medical Mafia”
– re Dr. Baird, he said Baird’s father used to be the headmaster of the Moravian Church
– he said that Commissioner Barker is the distant cousin of the PM/ he said there was an incident with a man (the case was called Carl Batson and Emmanuel Fair) and the case didn’t even reach the jury as the PM got Barker out of it/ a tear gas canister was exploded by a man’s genitals and his scrotum was terribly swollen
– regarding Barker making a big fuss about parents not being able to visit their children (the Olivers) when we have parents come all the time
– he said Barker is probably relating personally to it because his daughter ran away with a man and Barker begged to see his daughter, he begged everyone around and he couldn’t see her
– Barker was the one that pulled the guard off Wills right away before the guard was supposed to be pulled off
RE POLICE HAVING TO GIVE IDENTIFICATION (we asked him about this)
– he said they mudt show ID, it’s called the Elias and Passmore case
ARREST ORDERS
– order Nisi, (this is the order that was originally made for JJ to produce the child)
– the orders are bad/ absence of proof, they should dismiss the action and award the child to JJ
CUSTODY CASE
– regarding that committee of parents
– he said that if any more cases are tried, it should be orchestrated (by Barnwell) so that the cases of those over 18 are tried first
– Wills feels that the current of govt will move left into more anti-American leadership style
– regarding the pro-American people in Govt. he said they will do what the PM said/ he feels they can’t face the masses without the PM/only he can face them (the PM) and this they won’t vote for anyone but the PM
– he feels the tide has been running pro-PT ever since the Stoens left as he feels we have had good publicity (regarding the show etc)
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Mike Prokes meeting with Foreign Minister Fred Wills, April 18, 1978
From: Prokes
Meeting with Mario on Tues. April 18th: [Fred] Wills was worried about [Northwest Regional Minister Fitz] Carmichael disappearing because he said they are distant relatives and he (Wills) may be linked to the disappearance. He was worried that Carmichael may have taken money with him – he didn’t say from where. When he first told me about it, he said his word was that Carmichael was “on the lam.” Since Wills guard – Gaul – told some people that Wills gave him (Gaul) half a million to deposit in a New York bank, Wills feared that some people might link him to Carmichael’s disappearance – particularly if Carmichael took $$$ with him.
I asked Wills if he ever had us investigated and he said of course he did. He said what would I expect when a bunch of women come into his office with our type of approach (I presume he meant aggressive.) Sharon asked him what he found out. He said nothing, or I would not have had you come back. She asked him how he investigated us and he kind of smiled and said that there were some things we can’t talk about. From this I concluded one of two things: he didn’t have much of an investigation and this didn’t want to reveal it because it would show he wasn’t as sophisticated as he led us to believe (as far as intelligence gathering), or he is still keeping tabs on us for someone and doesn’t want to give anything way as far as techniques that might be used against us. This guy is an enigma to me. What is he getting out of our relationship? I don’t think he is seeing us out of loneliness because people come to see him all the time. He has given us inside information but maybe he thinks it’s necessary to keep our trust. Frankly, I’m suspicious of him. Looking at the other side, however, I suppose he is grateful to us for various things. He said if it weren’t for Larry, he would not have quite smoking and would not be getting an operation. He said he had a death wish and mentioned that when he thought about it on three occasions, something JJ had said to him made him want to keep going. I think he believe that JJ was sincere in offering our people up to protest his firing. He mentioned this to one of our people when I wasn’t there. Perhaps that means a lot to him. I don’t know. Like I said, he’s an enigma.
I asked him how many people the Soviets have in their Embassy (because I had seen a lot of different faces). He told me they demanded the same number as the American embassy has – which is 24. I asked why that many were needed and he said they were not, but by the time he became foreign minister, it was too late – the Americans already had that amount and there was no way to cut back without causing diplomatic problems. The Americans actually have more than the Soviets because the U.S. has other agencies here, such as USAID, USIS, and others. WILLS SAID GUYANA IS A HIVE OF ESPIONAGE, BECAuse it is the only Socialist country in South America. He referred to it variously as a spy base and hunting ground. He said the fact that there are many British and Canadians here is also significant in terms of foreign embassy interests.
HE SAID WE ARE VALUABLE TO THE SOVIET AND CUBAN EMBASSIES IN THAT WE REPRESENT A FORCE THAT CAN HELP WITHSTAND THE ONSLAUGHT OF CAPITALISM IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD. Plus, he said it was significant that we are multi-racial. I think he meant that it gives what we stand for, more credibility.
He said he was checked out by someone who he knows is a CIA agent – he could tell by the guy’s question. Wills interprets the visit as an attempt to see who would be the best successor to Burnham. (The guy came ostensibly to get Will’s advice on some matter, which Wills said was a poor cover. Something to do with agriculture I think.)
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Sharon Amos meeting with Deputy Police Commissioner Skip Roberts, April 21, 1978
Sharon Amos
SKIP ROBERTS
21/4/78 Sharon Amos, Debbie [Touchette]
– I casually asked him if there was an investigation into PT (said I had heard a rumor from a good source)/ he said that he could absolutely assure us that there was no official investigation
– there is a unit dealing with subversives and he wouldn’t necessarily know if they were investigating us or not but he doesn’t think so/ the only person he heard is bring investigated is House of Isreal (interesting [Fred] Wills told us that this guy is being investigated and Bishop Washington told Wills we were also/ he said that in the case of Washington, he is swindling people so he deserved to be investigated
– he said tho definitely the CID is not investigating us
– I asked if Mentor was the one who investigated subversives and he said “no, he’s too busy with things like the sugar strike”
– he said we were checked initially (as all churches are that come into Guyana) but nothing was found to be wrong
– he said one of our men had asked him about a film that came into thru customs and we hadn’t been able to get it/ he said that the film wouldn’t be with the police, but would be held in customs until they could view it as that is the rule for all movies coming into the country/ they have to be viewed. He said that it is probably just waiting to be viewed in customs
– said he has heard nothing suspicious about is and thought things are easing off/ said that when he responded to Interpol with 5 lines saying that he was responding to their letter of such and such a date and that there was nothing that we were doing illegal – that after that he heard nothing so he wondered if his letter had helped/ he said that we would have problems for awhile with harassment but they should get less and less
– Papmore, he said, who came out and checked on us came back (and he said he showed the report to Paula), he said that he questioned Papmore when Papmore was suspicious of us because he couldn’t understand why 1000 Americans would leave a “good” life with all the conveniences in the US to come to Guyana (Skip said he said to Papmore that it was Papmore that should look at himself), and Skip said the PM always gets exasperated at people who think life in the US is a panacea as the PM says to them they could make it good here if they tried
– I toldhim about Bruce and the “so called” special policemen who came to the house and their questioning Bruce when they met him in town/ he said recently a robbery was committed and the man said he was a policeman
– he was friendly, relaxed/ apologized for keeping us waiting/ gave us a drop down town
– I told him about the fact that if there were rumors about drugs in Jonestown we’d take in 100 people and let them look at every inch of the place/ he joked back that it would be quite a cost to do that (at our expense), said he was pulling my leg
– he says he knows we are not subversive and he doesn’t see any problem
– regarding relatives (I told him about the reactionary relatives) and told him about the relatives who are visiting, Muldrow, Moore. He said that if a relative came in, it wouldn’t be a police matter, tho he said if they came to Kaituma then a policeman might come with them to Jonestown and ask what the situation was/ -he said he thought that’s better than for the relative to make statements that we wouldn’t let them in
– I told him about Dick McCoy saying the State Dept sent out letters saying Tim Stoen lied etc.
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D-2-P-3B
Sharon Amos meeting with Minister Robert Corbin, First Vice Chairman of PNC, April 21, 1978
Sharon Amos
Minister Robert Corbin (Dr. Reid’s office) 21/4/78 Debbie & Sharon
– he was quite friendly, I told him about the fact we wanted to check it out with Dr. Reid about our working with the May Day Committee and the mobilization door-step meetings etc/ he said that he would check it out formally with Dr. Reid if I wanted but he didn’t think it was necessary, he could assure us that it was fine
– he said however that the meetings in Kitty and Campbellville (we mobilized for Campbellville) haven’t been a success
– we told him about the conspiracy (Clive Gaul) (he knows him but doesn’t think Clive is employed right now)
– he said he’d check into it
– he said that he knew officially we weren’t being investigated/ I said what about non-officially but he said he hadn’t heard of an investigation
– he said “I wonder if it is your people, CIA, FBI”
– I told him about the informer who came forward (didn’t give all the details about this but the basics) and the state dept. call Dick McCoy told us about mentioning kidnap and the plan to kidnap John and Wesley
– I told them about the concerned relatives and how they planned to hire mercenaries/ he said if they hire mercenaries, it wouldn’t be a matter for us but for the integrity of Guyana and they’d throw them out
– he said (re FBI and CIA) that they are capable of insidious things
– said he had gotten my calls inviting him and his wife over (his wife thought I might be a girlfriend of his but he reassured her) and he said he would come over for cocktails Wednesday (told us we could call him at home or work)
– said he had traveled widely over the world studying in depth the systems
– I complimented him on the Speech in the paper he did on South Africa/ said he likes to speak but has learned to listen too/ I told him we’d like to hear of his travels/ he seemed interested in our interest
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D-2-P-1A
Sharon Amos Report of meeting with Foreign Minister Fred Wills, April 22, 1978
[Editor’s note: This memo also appears here as D-1-I-5 (1).]
(present were Carolyn L [Layton], Mike P [Prokes], Debbie T. [Touchette], Sharon A [Amos])
Wills 22/4/78 Sharon Amos
– he said that in Mid-May troops will be deployed to various spots/ on the border of Venezuela and Brazil – admitted it was because of problems with the Constitution they were expecting to have but said it would help us (we don’t agree) if mercenaries come in (I think he’s possibly been told to reassure us about this ahead of time so we won’t object. He is still hopeful of holding office again or thinks he s got the charisma to be PM so he would be quite willing to sell us out I am sure/ he said he was going to be meeting the PM in England, he said that on the phone)
– he said the people are desperate, the decision would go against the govt. if it were a regular election but in a referendum all they need is a vote (even if hundred) and then there wouldn’t have to be referendums again
– he said Quiana, Walter Rodney, and Cheddi are aginst it (Eusi Kwayana)
– but the problem is consumerism so they have to do something
HE SAID THERE ARE SEVERAL ALTERNATIVES PM COULD USE TO DEAL WITH THE CRISIS
– 1) he could push Cheddi to violence (or do a sabotage act like burning the sugar cane fields and blaming Cheddi) and then declare a national emergency
– 2) he could push Surinam and then declare a national emergency in that situation
– 3) he could invite Cuban troops in as he said it is the Cuban foreign policy to get themselves invited in and that keeps CIA all over the world diverted from Cuba
(PM might invite Cuban troops in on the Surinam issue) – we felt this was very unlikely as it would offend US/ he said that it would offend US but he didn’t think US would send troops in (other than mercenaries) as US was so badly hurt in Vietnam
– Cuba has 3 battle tested divisions/ Angola, Ethiopia – they won in So. Africa with Russian equipment
– US might send in Brazilians (who are the watchkeepers of the Caribbean)
– US doesn’t want Guyana to be a Soviet base and doesn’t want problems for the multi-nationals (tho they presently make no money here and Wills thought PM’s trip to Russia etc would offend the US also, but I said I thought the US would be willing to let Guyana spout Socialist rhetoric and even make trips to Russia as long as the balance of trade is with capitalist countries which it is and as long as they have a hope for eventual business development here (which they may judging by the US Embassy view that Guyana has a lot of potential) – but I think he threw in that about Cuban troops to make us confused about this troop movement in mid-may
– Wills said if it was up to him he wouldn’t have gone to USSR right now because it messes it up for IMF aid. He said that PM is not even certain that he’ll get Russian money/ but Wills said the PM had been improperly advised by Mann, Collins, Jack thinking he would get both IMF (US aid) and Russian aid and he was told the IMF would deliver and Wills doesn’t think they will
– he said that he heard from the Soviets fraz about their trip to Jonestown but wouldn’t go into specifics tho said they “of course” said positive
– re a possible veer to the right, he said Hoyte, Green, Field-Ridley would go to the right/ he feels tho the grass roots won’t allow the socialism to reverse (I think this is totally untrue because everyone I talk to is pro-capitalistic
– he said the Soviets can’t afford two Cubas, they will tell Guyana just how far it can go but they can’t afford to support Guyana
– he said that regarding the “next” PM, Jack is the PM’s friend but he has no charisma
– he said Green has charisma and people generally trust him tho they don’t know if he has the intellectual ability to handle Carter
– Wills said that he himself has charisma and his “hat is in the ring”
– Wills said he never could work with Hoyte and Jack because they used Jack to get Wills out and Hoyte too. (I don’t believe this as I think he right now would take a job if Hitler offered it to him and I think he was saying that to impress us)
RE: the reason they need to have the referendum soon is that July 23rd Parliament would be 5 years old and it would no longer be valid without the referendum
– the bill was passed (for the change of the constitution was passed April 9 (OVER)
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D-2-P-1B
and it has to be passed by June 9th to become land
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D-2-P-1C
Sharon Amos Report of meeting with Foreign Minister Rashleigh Jackson, April 22, 1978
[Editor’s note: This memo also appears here as BB-2-vvvv.]
Sharon Amos
RASHLEIH [Rashleigh] JACKSON (MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFRAIRS) 22/4/78
(Carolyn Layton, Mike P [Prokes], Debbie T [Touchette], Sharon Amos)
-we gave him a ½ hour run down on the conspiracy, the QSLs, the marco medical net, the mercenaries, the Tim Stoen problem and the American Embassy saying Washington had to state (State Dept) that Stoen was not telling truthful things
-we gave him letters from Willie Brown, and others, showed him the state dept letters of neutrality/ showed him Angela Davis letter
-gave him Unita Blackwell Wright s article (hes prox-Chinese from what Wills said)
-gave him the letters from Greenfield about Larry Shcact [Schacht]
-he said he felt this was an Initial meeting to get to know us
-before we started talking, he said that we should just assume he new [knew] nothing about us (Mike said the conspiracy) and he said we should assume he knew nothing about it and start from there)
-he said he had visited the project and still felt the same way (he said he talked to someone there on the spot and didn t repeat what he had said)
-we asked for imput from him, said we appreciate directhess and criticism/ he said he d contact us
-we invited him for dinner or to stop by and he said he was leaving town tomorrow and would contact us when he returned
-he was friendly, uncommittal (didn’t respond to any of the material as if it bothered him or as if he disagreed), he is a good diplomat in that regard
-said we gave him a very compact view of the situation
-didn t seem shocked or opinionated one way or the other
-(he reminded me of Caudette in a sense, as Carolyn stated Caudette is more personable which I agree, but there is something similar in that he both impress me as being unconcerned with morality and they both impress me as determining their life as if morality is impractical and idealistic) – that is just a hypothese tho I’m sure it fits most govt. leaders – I agree with Wills, I don’t think he will put himself out for us but I don’t think he will go out of the way to attack us either if he doesn’t need to as I think he wouldn’t feel he’d benefit either way (personally).
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D-2-P-2A
Tim Carter Report on supplies coming through Customs, April 22, 1978
CUSTOMS REPORT 22/4/78 from Tim Carter
2nd Shipment – The second shipment is out. We payed $8100 deposit, which means that we have 3 months (which can be extended) to negotiate a duty free settlement on whatever part or all of the duty required. The $8100 represents 1 ½ times the actual duty, with the 50% being refundable when the negotiating period is over. The actual total for duty is $5400.00. Over $2,600 of that is for medical supplies. The total at first was $12,000, but I acquired a copy of the tariff act and made some adjustments on our entry forms and managed to get it down to $5400. (I took things like an organ, typewriters, file cabinet, a blender and kitchen utensils and out them under education for “Home Economics”, Business and typing training, music lessons, etc. The education department let it go, so that helped. The rest I just studied the tariff act until I could find a category different things could fit under that was cheaper than the one they had been listes as, and the customs let that go.
The shipment itself will be sent to Jonestown as soon as we can negotiate a boat, which we have started on. I hope to have it there within a week, two at the most. We have no price estimates on chartering the boat as of yet.
Our storage charges are a big problem. A week ago they stood at $32,000 which the person I talked to said he would give us an 80% break on. That reduced te price to right around $6,000. The only person who can waive that is George King, Minister of Trade. We have a problem because if we approach King, we can’t tell him Stanley (the man at GNEC who’s giving us 80% off) deal. If King decides to give us less, than we have hurt ourselves, instead of helping. But if we don’t approach King, then we’re stuck.
I talked to Charles Hines, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health about the whole situation. He is going to talk to [Hamilton] Green about it on Monday, and sent a copy of Hope’s letter to us to Green to look at. He said the tone of Hope’s [Frank Hope, Minister of Finance] letter was very strong, and he sensed that Hope probably doesn’t like us (he probably knows this, as the Sec. to the Treasury, Bill Wilkinson, is a good friend of his.) He found out from Wilkinson that the letter was written by Hope himself, even though having a junior secretary’s signature.
Hines feels that the Minister will be sympathetic to our situation and call Hope. The problem is that Hope is not due back until May, and his ever returning is actually questionable. [Ptolemy] Reid is acting Minister of Finance, and he doesn’t feel Green would approach Reid because of their long-standing feud. So we are at an impasse of sorts. He also said that he would talk to Green about the storage charges, to have him call Minister King to have him waive the charges. I was there when he sent the letter up to Green’s office, and he said he would talk to him on Monday. He said that Minister Green likes us as far as he knows. (Hines is good drinking buddy’s with Wills, and Wills has always told us that Hines likes us very much. I’m sure that Hines knows alot about us from Wills.)
I am working to get the 3rd shipment on with the second, the same way that we’ve done with it – by making the deposit. I am in the process of getting the license for the shipment. I got the license for the x-ray machine and advent-video machine separate from the rest so as to ensure they get on the ship with the crates from the second shipment. I do not forsee any problems however, and hope that the license for the 3rd shipment will be finalized by next Wednesday. The process takes a bit longer now than it used to because all license s are signed by Minister King now, both going to the bank and coming from the bank, where as before junior officers used to do that.
Other than that the only items that I know we have in customs and there status are
Cardiac machine – we had been waiting for a duty free clearance on our medical. Since Hope’s letter, I will get this out on deposit and wait to see what happens with Green.
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D-2-P-2B
Yaesu Radio – We are going to have to go through some bullshit to get this out. We are going to have to convince them that we need this as back up, because they say we have had many back-up sets already come in the country. (I haven’t pressed this as the top priority because Edith Parks got a radio in in her footlocker which we have been using.) At first the people at Telecoms siad that Peoples Temple is not licensed to operate the radio, that it was Al Touchette and Paula Adams, so they would have to be the ones to get the radios out. Anyway, I am setting up an appointment with a guy named Roberts (who is in charge of this type of thing) for next week, and we’ll see k what he says.
late arrival baggage – I was just given the passports and names, and will godown nest week to see if they are there and try to get them out.
seabags and trunks – we have 5 trunks and 8 seabags in the gov’t warehouse. This is one of the case s in which customs fucked us over and even the ass’t comptroller had admitted to me more than once that it was malicious. I went to get the lockers and bags out of the G.A.C. warehouse. The head of the warehouse was going to give them to me on the spot. I had already talked to the commercial manager of G.A.C about waiving storage charges which he agreed to do. When we got to the customs official there he told me that the “Want of Entry” date had expired and we would have to get it extended. So we went to Stanley White the Deputy Comptroller (and who has been very helpful lately) to get the Want of Entry extended. He did this. He was amazed that the lockers had been in the G.A.C warehouse for that long, and said the customs officer was supposed to have moved them to the state warehouse earlier. I went back that same day to get the stuff out, and in the interim from the time I had previously talked to the customs asshole at GAC he had the bags and lockers moved to the state warehouse. I went back to White and told him what he had done, and White said there was nothing he could do, and now we would have to pay the storage charges unless waived by Hope. He admitted, and so did the Asst Comptroller – Thompson, that this man would never even have known the things were there if we hadn’t approached him. But he was probably worried he would get in trouble, so he moved the stuff. Needless, to say, I don’t feel customs a damn thing at G.A.C. until it is ready to be re-moved on the spot.
backhoe tires – this arrived late, was supposed to be part of the 3rd shipment. I have not received any invoices fo r these items as of yet, and until I do I can’t get them out. I can go ahead and get the licesne, which I will do, but that is as far as I can go until the shipping company sends me their invoice.
The reason we had not done the deposit deal before this is simply because I did not know about it or of it or anything. Customs people do not mention it for obvious reasons, botht they and the state can make more money. The person who told me was the customs specialist inside the Ministry of Health. I am slowly but surely learning this bullshit bureaucratic game and how to maneuver around it. It is the most complicated thing (as well as inefficient) I have ever worked on.
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D-2-D-27
Mike Prokes report of meetings with Guyana government ministers, April 22, 1978
From (Mike) Prokes
April 22nd Meeting with Foreign Minister Rashleigh Jackson: Sharon, Carolyn, Debbie T. and I laid out the background of the conspiracy to him in as much detail as we could fit in, in a half-hour’s time. He listened throughout. After it was over I asked him if he had any questions and he said he did not. He said we were quite thorough. Sharon asked hm if he had seen the project and if he had any suggestions or comments about what we are doing. He said “no” and that he had given some remarks when he visited and nothing has changed since then. I asked him about bringing Dr. Walt [Thain] in as V.I.P. He said we should write up the proposal and submit it through Home Affairs, so we’ll take up the matter up with Mingo. Finally, we invited him for dinner and he said he was leaving the country but that we’d be in touch when he got back. Though he smiled, he said very little. It’s anybody’s guess where he’s at with us.
April 22nd: Fred Wills: Highlights: He said the latest effort by Stoen, Maria’s dad etc. and the mercenaries, indicates that our enemies expect the custody case decision to go against them (otherwise they would wait before choosing such a desperate course of action.)
Wills said he does not think the country will move to the right as far as popular sentiment but there was a danger with people like Hoyte, Green and Jack. He said Jackson (the new For. Min.) is a stooge, a front man and Jack is the power behind him. He said it finally took Jack’s support to get him (Wills) busted. So Wills hates Jack.
He said the reason for the referendum is to keep Burnham in power. The government can’t afford elections at this time because its popularity is low due to the shortages, blackouts, etc. The alternatives are: 1. Pass a bill to amend the constitution (already done). Hold a referendum to make that bill law resulting in no further elections. 2. Push Cheddi Jagan to the point that he pushes back. Then a state of emergency can be declared which would keep Burnham entrenched in power. Wills said that Cheddi has fallen for that tacktic before and is wise to it now. 3. Push Surinam dispute to the point where a state of war could be declared when, in fact, there is no real war.
Since #1 is being pursued, the referendum must be held within two months of the passing of the bill, which means the referendum must be held by June 9th. (Parliament closes on July 23rd.)
Wills said he thought some “wild men” might try to get Cuban troops brought into Guyana. He said they might well come because it is Cuba’s policy to keep the CIA busy all over the world in order to keep it out of Cuba’s area. (This didn’t make sense to us since Guyana is in Carribean) He said all it would take would be an invitation to come, made by Burnham. Then he said there is a liklihood that Brazil or Venezueala would come in retaliation. However, he said the latter two would think twice because Cubans have three battle tested divisions (one is in Angola – the one which beat an effective S. African army). The Cuban troops are thus respected for being effective and highly trained. Wills said the U.S. would never interfere here with troops in the wake of Vietnam (in response to a question by Sharon). He said the U.S. however does not want to see this area as a Soviet base, nor do they want any threat to free enterprise trade in the area. He said the U.S. has $16 bil. invested in Latin America, $4 1/2 billion of it is invested in Carribean countries – but none of it in Guyana.
He said Burnham was advised by people like Bunnie Mann, Jack, and Collins that he could get both JYF money and Soviet money and he will end up getting neither. Thus he views Burnham’s Soviet trip as a mistake because it will alienate the U.S. and hurt the chances of getting U.S. aid.
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D-2-P-25A
Mike Prokes report on meetings with meeting with government officials, April 22, 1978
From: Prokes
April 22nd Meeting with Foreign Minister Rashleigh Jackson: Sharon [Amos], Carolyn [Layton], Debbie T. [Touchette] and I laid out the background of the conspiracy to him in as much detail as we could fit in, in a half-hour’s time. He listened throughout. After it was over I asked him if he had any questions and he said he did not. He said we were quite thorough. Sharon asked him if he had seen the project and if he had any suggestions or comments about what we are doing. He said “no” and that he had given some remarks when he visited and nothing has changed since then. I asked him about bringing Dr. Walt [likely Walter Thain] in as V.I.P. He said we should write up the proposal and submit it through Home Affairs, so we’ll take the matter up with [Vibert] Mingo. Finally, we invited him for dinner and he said he was leaving the country but that we’d be in touch when he got back. Though he smiled, he said very little. It’s anybody’s guess where he’s at with us.
April 22nd: Fred Wills: Highlights: He said the latest effort by [Tim] Stoen, Maria’s dad [Steven Katsaris] etc. and the mercenaries, indicates that our enemies expect the custody case decision to go against them (otherwise they would wait before choosing such a desperate course of action.)
Wills said he does not think the country will move to the right as far as popular sentiment but there was a danger with people like [Desmond] Hoyte, [Hamilton] Green and [Hubert] Jack. He said Jackson (the new For. Min.) is a stooge, a front man and Jack is the power behind him. He said it finally took Jack’s support to get him (Wills) ousted. So Wills hates Jack.
He said the reason for the referendum is to keep [Prime Minister Forbes] Burnham in power. The government can’t afford elections at this time because its popularity is low due to the shortages, blackouts, etc. The alternatives are: 1. Pass a bill to amend the constitution (already done). Hold a referendum to make that bill law resulting in no further elections. 2. Push Cheddi Jagan to the point that he pushes back. Then a state of emergency can be declared which would keep Burnham entrenched in power. Wills said that Cheddi has fallen for that tactic before and is wise to it now. 3. Push Surinam dispute to the point where a state of war could be declared when, in fact, there is no real war.
Since #1 is being pursued, the referendum must be held within two months of the passing of the bill, which means the referendum must be held by June 9th. (Parliament closes on July 23rd.)
Wills said he thought some “wild men” might try to get Cuban troops brought in Guyana. He said they might well come because it is Cuba’s policy to keep the CIA busy all over the world in order to keep it out of Cuba’s area. (This didn’t make sense to us since Guyana is in Carribean) He said all it would take would be an invitation to come, made by Burnham. Then he said there is a likelihood that Brazil or Venezuela would come in retaliation. However, he said the latter two would think twice because Cubans have three battle tested divisions (one is in Angola – the one which beat an effective S. African army). The Cubans troops are this respected for being effective and highly trained. Wills said the U.S. would never interfere here with troops in the wake of Vietnam (in response to a question by Sharon). He said the U.S. however does not want to see this area as a Soviet base, nor do they want any threat to free enterprise trade in the area. He said the U.S. has $16 bil. Invested in Latin America, $4 ½ billion of it is invested in Carribean countries – but none of it in Guyana.
He said Burnham was advised by people like Bunnie Mann [Guyana Ambassador to the US, Laurence “Bunny” Mann], Jackson and Collins that he could get both IMF money and Soviet money and he will end up getting neither. Thus he views Burnham’s Soviet trip as a mistake because it will alienate the U.S. and hurt the chances of getting U.S. aid.
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D-2-P-25B
Wills dropped something of a blockbuster to us. He said he couldn’t talk about it, then proceeded to talk about it. He said we could expect to see troops in the Northwest in Mid-May. He said it had nothing to do with us but implied it had to do with Venezuela. I asked him why that particular time and he said it was because of the domestic crisis – and I don’t know what that has to do with Venezuela. He acted as if this would benefit us (the troops) because it would serve as a deterrent to any mercenary activity that might be forthcoming. But it seems obvious that this will be used to assure that things go well with the referendum as a means of protecting the party in power. I see grave problems when the troops decide they want to march in Jonestown. Burnham, if he doesn’t know now, better learn quick that he’ll have a war he doesn’t want if that were to happen. If we are to stay, we’ll have to have absolute guarantees, and there is very little time. It’s going to be difficult to protect Wills as a source of this, if we even want to keep him with us.
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D-2-D-25A
Undated Marceline Jones report of meetings with Guyana government ministers
Tony [Walker], Marcy [Marceline Jones], Tim [Carter], Terri [Carter Jones]
We told him what happend with our crates, and one of the instruments could be used for Jim. He said I explained to you a simple procedure of just letting me know ahead of time. We explained that the FCC was giving us problems that we couldn’t communicate that easily and sometimes we just couldnt know ahead of time. He told us to get it written to him immediately and he would take care of it. He seemed interested in this like he couldn’t believe they could just cut our communications off just like that. I feel that it is abloslutely imperative that we let him know ahead of time what is coming in. He has agreed to let us get in all our Medical supplies free though there is a new rule that all medications must go trhough Guyana Pharmaceutical Co. (even your own personal) and say a duty tax on them… so if we can get S.F. to send us an inventory the time ahead of the next person it would save us some problems. Marcy told him about the situation with Cheddi [Jagan] and he said I wouldn’t worry about it. We told him about Dr. Goodlet [Carlton Goodlett] and he asked us if that was peeks the person we asked him to get in on Protocl last week, we said yes and he wanted to know if we had gotten the message at the airport that he had paged us and arranged it. I think by the time he got Sharons phone call at the airport and returned it, they were gone. He was more curious about Goodlet and who he was after we mentioned he knew Cheddi and he was friends. He asked again his tital. That was about it. it was not more than 15 minutes at the most. As we were leaving we asked if he knew what time the Adult Education Ceremonies started and he said that he would call Shirley F. Ridley [Field-Ridley] and find out. While we were wai5ing he mentioned that he wanted her to quit her job that there were problems with the children tend getting proper sitters. He said in the old structure if the parents worked there was a grandmother or an Aunt who could take care of the children but they didnt have that luck. He said they couldnt get a resopinble sitter, that food was missing and they finally just sent their children away until things could get settled. He said he believed in equality but there had to be a line drawn, becasue his children were getting disoriented. The phone rang then and thats when we left.
I think we should tell SF also if they can pack medication in clothes in duffle bags they don’t check them nearly as much and then when they check the Medical trunks it should be Medical trunks not personal effects and have mostly bandages and gauze etc. on top and we probably won’t get harassed. Medications is the biggest issue, so far they have never opened one of our duffle bags.
Marcie
Adult Education Ceremony. We sat in the front row so they obviously saw us, Marcy couldn’t stay through for the whole thing because of her other appt. afterwards Tony and I shook hands with Rashleigh Jackson and [Vincent] Teekah. Teekah was very nice and said yes I’m glad you could make it. Jackson just shook our hand and that was it. We went on to [Vibert] Mingos, Rosie and Armondo said that was when Teekah came in, he went right to our exhibit shock hands with them and told them to keep up the good work. Tehy said he didn’t stop at any other table. Our exhibit looked very nice and people wanted to buy mainly our soap, educational toys and the Quilt… We had alot of compliments about our exhibit.
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D-2-D-25B
Appt. with [Vibert] Mingo
Tony [Walker], Tim [Carter], Terri [Carter Jones]
We started off with telling him about Goodlet and who he was and how the black press was attacking Guyana but he praised guyana and they took his lead etc. We then told him about Goodlet and what he said that the CIA was absolutely involved, thats how we approached him to write a guarantee. We said I don’t see why he needs to have something written? I have jurisdiction over the police I wouldnt let any one of them do anything. We said how they could be paid off and he wouldn’t have any control. He said that they could do that even if he wrote something. I asked him about if we had to go on how could he get out of the country, and he said he couldnt do that he had to have permission of the court. He then said I’ve never heard about this I thought he just needed to get into town. I said no the Dr. feels absolutely certain he will need to go on to another country for specialized care, ne said it would be Chancellor [J.O.F.] Haynes would have to grant him the permission for him to leave the country. We asked him to Dr. Reid about this and he said he would We then mentioned what Janet Jagan had done that we were just trying to pass the message on to Goodlet he just had kind of a knowing look on his face. Like he would expect that kind of behaviour. He asked what day the article was in and we said he didn’t know because we didnt take it. He said he didnt het his Mirrors for the week until next Monday. He said not to worrry about it though. Tony mentioned about Doris Rodgers but he read it almost right off the notes and so he used the code Mrs. Reno came to visit. He didnt ask who Mrs. Reno was so I left it. It was our fault for not going over the notes, but we recieved them that we went for Greens appt, to the Education Ceremoneis and then we were acutally late for Mingo. so I just a gave him one page of notes and I the other, and I didnt really notice that that part was in code. It won’t happen again. We told him all about Donald Freed and he wanted to know if he got his visa ok, we said yes no problem. He seemed interested in hearing about him (a little more than usual) and he said he could call when he arrived here. We told him how he didn’t get on his plane because of GAC not letting Mrs. Brasila know he smirked and said that is typical. We told him about the exhibit and he said he would drop by. He said he was trying to get out to the North West he hadnt been there for 3 ½ years and he needed to get up there anyway. We went back to the subject of Jim, Tim said Min. Mingo if Chancellor Hyanes says not will the Govt intercede. He said I’ll discuss it again with Dr. Reid I started to cry and he said well that is enough and got up so we had to leave.
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D-2-D-26A
Forbes Burnham
He became Prime Minister by unification with the United Force Party reactionaries against the PPP. Burnham used an “anti-communism” platform to get in power. The same scare tactics were used as in the McCarthy communist hate campaign. Burnham is known to have a promiscuous behaviour pattern where women are concerned. He drinks too heavily. The doctor told him no smoking because of his heart (according to Mann), so he is trying to stop. Burnham has recently been on a wide “meet the people” campaign after his long illness to try to regain his popularity among the people. This all out drive to gain the support of the people along with his progression of events which indicate a new alliance with the U.S. leads me to think he is losing hold of the people and is making sure that he gets stays in power one way or another.
Ptolemy Reid
He became Deputy Prime Minister and General Secretary of the PNC party at the choice of the Prime Minister. Apparently is a committed socialist. His ministry, National Development, is the largest ministry and receives the largest funding. He two state ministers which I know of: Mortimer Coddette [Codette] and Robert Corbin. Coddette you know about. Corbin was formerly involved with all of the youth programs and movements. He was the parliamentary secretary in Office of the Prime Minister before moving to the position with Dr. Reid. He was involved in the Young Socialist Movement (youth arm of the PNC), the Guyana National Service, the Youth Core, and other youth programs encouraging young people to work in cooperatives. There may be other programs which I don’t know about. The comment that you made to me about what Dr. Reid said. It was something about Dr. Reid assuring you that you didn’t need to worry, that there are others who were with him and his socialist ideas. Corbin has a lot of support from the youth element along with this comment made me wonder if Dr. Reid and some of his older supporters and this youth support weren’t planning [illegible word], if necessary.
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D-2-d-26b – 26c
[Editor’s note: These two pages were illegible and were not transcribed.]
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D-2-D-26d
Vibert Mingo
Minister of Home Affairs. He apparently has more power than his portfolio would contain. A lot of the functions that he now carries were formally given to the Prime Minister, but his portfolio was enlarged to make more “at his Discretion” decisions. He is not a senior cabinet minister. His home is not fancy and he still lives in the same community that he grew up in. He is always courteous to us, but took a long time to finally give his approval. He probably just wanted to make very sure that we were a safe bet because it would have put his head on the chopping block. He has been fairly straight about criticisms made against us; e.g. lack of integration into the school system, Cudjoe not stopping at Moravhanne, etc.
George King
Minister of Trade. He is a friend of Neil Cheong who is the person Mann stays with in Guyana. King is not a socialist. He doesn’t even talk like one. He is concerned with boosting the economy in trade as a primary consideration. Socialism is not that much of a campaigning [illegible rest of paragraph]
Frank Hope
Minister of Finance. He is an old civil servant, ([illegible 4 words] experience). He is finally straight [illegible] out trying [illegible sentence.] He is not that flexible about making [illegible rest of paragraph.]
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D-2-D-26E
Shirley Field Ridley
Minister of Information and Culture. [illegible sentence.]
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D-2-D-23a
Debbie Touchette memo on minister reception, May 9, 1978
May 9, 1978
Deborah Touchette
Prime Ministers Reception
Timehri Airport:
Jim Jones Jr.
Terri Jones
Margaretta
Beverly Mitchell
Brenda Cobb
Deborah Touchette
– A rep from the YSM, a CADRE-person who is trained both in military & political knolodge, said he was interested in going to Jonestown along with a friend of his, their names are: Cde. Noor Mohammed & Cde. Greaves. They are from the Kitty District Office PNC, Cde. Mohammed’s home address is 13 Sandy Babb St., Kitty. They said they had talked to Sharon some time ago, she was to call him back and he wanted to know when it would be convient for us.
– Minister [Hamilton] Green stopped me last night and asked how we were doing? I thanked him for his assistance with the doctor. He said we were welcome and we could get in touch with him at anytime. He was very friendly.
– Later in the evening we ran into him again. He was talking to Mr. McClean, (Man in charge of National Service), I introduced Jim Jr., they both seemed impressed
– McClean said we had rejected them (meaning himself and others in National Service) said we just didn’t come around anymore. I said we had not rejected them and he could come and visit our project or our home in Georgetown anytime.
– He said he was going to Papaya within the next week or two and thought he would stop in and see Jonestown.
– Minister Green said he was going to go up sometime, but he didn’t committ himself to a time.
– Mrs. [Viola] Burnham, Jim and I welcomed her back on behalf of the Peoples Temple, she said yes. she recognized us.
– Mr. [Forbes] Burnham, I shook his hand and welcomed him from the Peoples Tmeple. He said thank you. He seemed sick, he staggered a little and appeared slightly dazed.
– Dr [Prolemy] Reid, Jim greeted him and introduced himself and walked around the area with him for quite a while. He said Jim Jones, his fathr had spoken highly of him. Jim said Dr. Ried wasn’t unfriendly, but just shook his head in acknoledgement and approval
– Cde. [Mortimer] Codette, came out of the VIP room with the other Ministers, I guess hes back at work now. He stopped and greeted us, asked how we were doing.
– Minister [Vibert] Mingo, I introduced Jim to him, he was friendly, but moved on quickly
– Minister Vincent Teekha [Teekah], greeted each of the people present, he was very friendly, he stopped us as we were walking about.
– Cde Joe, Koren Embassy, I introduced him to Jim, Terri and all the people present, said he was glad to meet Jim. He wanted to know how long Terri had been in the country? I told him she was Lew’s [Jones] wife and we would stop, by the Embassy before she went into the interior. He said that was good.
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D-2-D-23B
– Ron Van Dyke, He was at Timehri, I introduced Terri and Jim to him along with all the rest of us, he was not friendly, very standoffish I told him Sharon wanted to come in [illegible few words] this week, but she was going into the interior, that she needed to rest because she was an excitible person, and had pushed herself to much. He said making her rest would only make her get sicker because people like her could not slow down, I told him in a way she was like him, she pushed herself unnecessarily. We re-invited him to come to Jonestown.
– He said Yes, but you know my situation don’t you.
– I said yes to move on, it was obvious he didn’t intend to get any friendlier: and he was standing right next to the task .correspondence
Task [Tass] Correspondent… Introductions were made, I told him we were glad to run into him, we were trying to get ahold of him in ref. to the article.
– The article is already gone, he said, there’s nothing wrong is there?
– we said there were a couple of small things, but we didn’t have the details with us, we had to speak to Sharon first and could we call on him tomorrow? He said Tue. was a special holiday in the USSR and that he would not be working and that he would git in touch with the Embassy and call us on Wed.
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D-2-A-11B
Debbie Touchette notes of meeting with Robert Williams, July 1, 1978
July 1, 1978
Deb Touchette
Robert Williams
w/Marceline, Sharon, Deb. T.
– We made an appointment for 7:30, but he didn’t come until almost 9: PM
– he brought his wife
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D-2-A-11C
– the whole time he was talking, I got the impression he felt it was a waste of time as though we were beneith him
– If anyone could top Bonnie Mann in mannerisms, he is a possibility.
– He said he worked his hardest when he was in Guyana, as long as he is out of the country, he doesn’t stay so busy, said he liked the Bahamas, but missed his home cooking, and certain items only found in Guyana.
– He said he came home about four times a year and everytime he did, he had togo shopping, basically it wasn’t very informative.
– We went to the Prime Ministers speech that night at the statue of Cuffy,
– Minister V. Teekha [Vincent Teekah] spoke, he was very dynamic, spoke on Marxism, Lenism as a way of life, and what Guyana was heading for.
– spoke of the PPP, that they are a oppertunist group and do things underhanded, said he felt that the only way to come to socialism was through the PNC
– told of clauses in the referendum that would provided free medical care, then would elaborate on the issue eg. said there was a doctor who in fact was the brother of Dr, Jagen, he used to put a basket with a string and hand it down to people to put ther money in and would fill out a perscription without even seeing the patient, and this was an eg. of the exploitation.
– he gave other examples – doctors will recommend to there patients to see them at there private offices when they could get free medical care provided for them by the govt., or will send then to a privat hosp for an opperation, will actually make it necessary for them to go there and charge them a large fee, when that service should be provided free bythe govt. hosp.
– mentioned that the service of lawyers should be provided free, said there were many cases of exploitation by lawyers, said he would know because he is a lawyer
– when he was studying he would come around to some of the lawyers tha he knew and would want to talk about law, they would tell him it wasn’t necessary to discuss all that (in so many words they were in the bussiness of making money and werent concerned about protecting people, they were concerned in some cases about exploiting both parties involved in the case.
– He refered to him in the speech as “Cheddi Boycott”
– he mentioned that even Cheddi was embarrassed by his brothers actions and people had been complaining to hima about his brothers situation for years.
– there was more, but it was basically a repeat of how the doctors & lawyers have now banned togather, and some are fleeing the country.
– he mentioned about the land going to the tiller, each aspect of the refrendum was covered.
– The P.M. also spoke about the doctors and lawyers, a few of them banning together because they didn’t want to loose profits.
– he told of some of the rummors that he had herd people pass, for eg that inheariince could not be passed down, or that if you had two houses Burnham would take one away from you, After the new constitution you will be able to recieve inhearitance and keep your homes
– his speech was also basically a repeat of each step of the referendum
– while he was talking a very bony man came marching through the crowd wearing only what appeared to be a diapper, he had a pole in his hand
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D-2-A-11D
3
– that was about ten feet tall with a picture of Burnham at the top and said vote yes.
– people started to laugh, he walked like he was really drunk and the guards didn’t try to stop him as he approched the stage where the P.M. was speaking, while all the while they had been pushing people back from the stage, they didn’t try to stop this
– it looked like something that the opposition might do to make Burnham look like a fool (one of the opposition parties)
– the way the man stalked up dramatically towards him, with this diaper that was falling off, it looked like a set up to kill him, or something that could be used in the future in that the police don’t seem to react.
– one of the body guards of the P.M.’s finally stopped him when he got right up to the P.M., and carried him and the sign away.
– There was a white man standing near to Sharon and I taking notes throughout both speeches and there, and there was another white man who went up and sat down next to the P.M. and talked tohim for about ten munites before he started talking, I asked a couple of people near me who it was, but noone seemed to know.
– Sharon and I both thought he looked american rather then Russian.
– Referendum day;
– began at five-thirty a.m. at the voting polls
– Versie Perkins and myself were asked to absurve as people came to the polls and try to figure out if they were opposition or pro Govt., try to get them to tell us there names and if they were voting for themselves alone or for others like there husbands or wives, mothers voted for sons and daughters too.
– I was given a list (which is attached to the back of the page) and had to mark off each person as they drove up and every two hours a car was to come by and get a slip of paper from us, our analysis of the situation so far.
– the lady we were to work with said she only needed one of us, so Versie went home.
– she told me that what we were doing was illigel because there was a law that the people that were not voting, that were working to get people to vote had to be so many hundred feet away from the voting station and we were right in front of the station, often going inside to aske who had voted, and if they were positive if we could not get the information from them.
– we also had a list which was illigle of all the people in the area
– she said only the person in the polls was to have the check list,
– the lady I worked with, her name was Mrs. Bone, very active womand in the Campbelville/Lamaha Gards PNC, and has been for many years Cde. Duke once said in a meeting that everyone should take advise from her because she had alot of experience with the polls.
– Cde. Duke was the person that came around every two hours and he and Mrs Bone would go off to the side, they wouldn’t talk in front of me: she would usually go inside shortly after then come back out to work.
– this process happend most of the day until the last few hours, and then someone brought us lunch
– at the close of the day, everybody around the office voted and Mrs Bone asked me if I was going to cast my vote?
– I told her I would like to, in fact I would if she would let me.
– we had discussed earlier that I didn’t think we could vote because we were not citizens of Guyana.
– She told me to wait until everybody left the office then vote, so I did
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D-2-A-11E
– her son was working in the polls and said something to the effect that “Well I guess you get to be apart of the crookery too” Crookery was not the work he used, but it ment the same thing, I cant think of the word right now
– I said something to the effect of “well anything I can do to help out”
– Mrs Bone asked me to wait she would walk me home.
– in the mean time every person that did not show up to vote, the people in charge of the polls voted for them, I voted for someone that didn’t show up to vote.
– most of the people in our area on our list came to vote, there was one hundred and ninty-nine on our list and about one hundred and seventy came to vote, the rest were filled in marked yes
– at first they acted a little unsure of me, but when I voted, they were fairly open about filling in all the ones that didn’t show up
– I think they were still a little unsure, but they didn’t have musch time so they had to go on, because the polls were going to close in a few munites, and the police were going to come and pick the box up.
– I overherd her saying to the police officer “be sure to tell them not to say anything inside and not to say anything about today outside this office”
– the police officer said o.k. and they closed the gates
– Mrs Bone was insistent on walking me home, although her house was right along the way.
– I had the list in may hand which I had curmblled up and carried it like a peice of trash, I was afraid she would ask me for it, and I was trying to bring it home so I could hve some sort of evidence as Sharon had instructed.
– As were walking, I told her we were very understanding of the situation (ref. to the day) and as Cde. Jim Jones often says, its for the betterment of the people and thats what counts, whatever it takes to get there.
– I’m not sure if she walked me home because she was afraid something would happen to me, or because of the paper in my hand, because she didn’t ask for the paper, she just handed me my flask and invited us to come over to her home and visit her sometime and truned around a quickly walked away.
– I tried to get her to stop and not walk me all the way home, but she just refused to leave me.
– In the afternoon there was a lall and I talked to her about the history of P.T. and the attempts on your life and Marceline’s life when I was talking to her, she wouldn’t appear to be listining, but then she would ask questions about what I had said.
– I told her about the progress that has been made and invited her and her husband to see the project,
– she told me her husband had worked in cooperatives for many years that he believed in socialism and that he was the eldest brother in the family.
– she said that the parents had died at an early age and he had to raise the children, but when they got older, they moved to the U.S. and would not assist him at all, they say he is stupid for beliving in socialism and they refused to help his children get into any special schools in the U.S. because they say he is waisting his money in Guyana.
– Her husband is in charge of the Guyana Public Service Co-operative Credit Union Ltd., she said he believes in cooperatives and has been working with cooperative socities for a long time, infact he started the public service cooperative in Guyana.
– she said they refuse to ask for assistance anymore for there children because her husband and her are doing o.k. finically and will send them to the college here or someplace, but they wont approch his brothers
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D-2-A-11F
– in the U.S. because the want him [handwritten insert: “Mr. Bone & family’] to come the U.S. and mr. Bone said he likes Guyana and he refuses to leave here (there is a book given to us by Bone on Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union, he said it gives some idea of what they do, and will be used for their next meeting this month
– actually it is written by Minister Hoytes brother, who is Commissioner for co-operative Development [illegible initials] Hoyte
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D-2-A-11A
Debbie Touchette memo on Referendum Elections, July 10, 1978
Referendum Elections
July 10, 1978
Deborah Touchette
– the last three or four days of work in the PNC office we participated fully and reported in late at night, as well as I called one morning when Cde. [Comrade] Duke asked us to help Robert Williams put up signs in the middle of the night and said someone would come and pick us up. I called the office at three A.M. and told them we would come down if they needed our help.
– they said they did not, that it was all right.
– this was the same night that Bonnie Mann came to the house and demanded that Sharon and I go out with him, before Paula came to town.
– helping consisted of -filling out slips of paper that had everyones name and identification # on it.
– It was idvided up into districts and it showed each person where he or she would vote asthere were several voting places.
– the paper had a house on it and said “Vote Yes”.
– then we delivered them from door to door and verbally telling each person where to vote as well
– the day I delivered these I worked with the chairman of PNC in Fraphud Nagar, a district near to ours. (people of all districts mixed and went to different areas to volunteer time, I didn’t find this out until the last. It probably would have been a good idea for us to do that)
– He came to pick us up for a break once and took us to the little shop of a friend of his, which turned out to be his friends home
– when we got ther he said something like, “o.k., theres no strings attached, were just all going to go and have a little drink and come right out”
– that made me think there were strings…
– we were introduced to a cde. Phillips, Ambassador tothe Bahamas, and a cde. Baird who writes for the news in G/Town, the Guyana Chronicle
– we did a little chit-chat about local drinks, then Cde. Baird said he had spoken to Sharon Amos on the phone, but had never met her he said she had wanted an appointment with him, but he was on leave at the time, but that he was back in office now.
– I told him I would tell Sharon so she could make arrangments to meet him.
– Maria McCan [McCann] and I were togather that day.
– Baird asked about project and how it was comming along.
– He said he had been up there in the very beginning when we were living in Port Kaituma and working on the project, but had not been back sence.
– I told him alittle about the new developments, although talking time was a little short because we had to leave.
– I mentioned to Cde. Phillips that I thought I had seen him in one of the Ministries before
– He was very arrogant in mannerisms and tone of voice, said he didn’t think I had ever seen him, in what ministry would I see him in?
– I told him I wasn’t sure, we had visited several of the Ministries, but he justtseemed familure (this was before I knew he was an ambassador) I bluntly asked him what he did, which obviously intimidated him, and he perseeded to aske me where I had seen him
– I mentioned Home Affairs or Foreign Affairs because we had gone to both quite a lot.
– he finally agreed that Foreign affairs was a possibility and said he was an ambassador
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D-2-K-11A
Sharon Amos report on Jonestown to government supporters, August 12, 1978
For pro PNC people
see * articles attached
Will go in both
[Letterhead of Peoples Temple Agricultural And Medical Project]
12 August, 1978
Dear Friend in Christ;
As fellow Christians, we are writing to you because we know that there are some who do not appreciate the efforts of an interracial group to live cooperatively in a Christian lifestyle. As you know “those who live Godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Because we know those words to be true, we are not in the least despairing that we have faced persecutions, but we wanted to pass on to you some of the things that we are doing so that you can judge for yourself.
Peoples Temple is a group that has for thirty years devoted its energies to racial and economic equality, a goal that has taken the toll of many lives such as Martin Luther King, Jr. There are those who are racist and reactionary who do not want anyone to survive and be successful in exemplifying these ideals, if they are in any way a living proof that an interracial egalitarian lifestyle can survive. You can see for yourself when you visit Jonestown, and we welcome many guests daily, that Jonestown is a beautiful cosmopolitan community in action.
It is an obvious tactic of racists and reactionaries to discredit a person through lies and innuendo rather than to come to grips with their dedicated efforts to improve the human condition. There has never in history been anyone who has tried to assist humanity; even in the slightest way, that hasn’t found an element that is anti-humanitarian and threatened by any change that benefits other than himself.
In One World Magazine, of the World Council of Churches, Peoples Temple is described as “emulating the ideals of communal sharing of the earliest Christians (Acts 2:44-46).” The article goes on to describe the Jonestown community as “an amalgam of races and ages, including over 250 senior citizens (the oldest is 107), most of whom were ghetto dwellers in the United States. In Guyana they are finding a new ‘lease on life’, a peaceful, wholesome environment.” This life is described as representing “the heart of Christ’s teachings – a way of life where selfishness, greed, and exploitation are overcome.” Since it’s founding 25 years ago in Indiana by Jim Jones, Peoples Temple has stressed total racial equality, extending vital social services to needy and desperate persons.”
A Tass reporter visited Jonestown recently, and though we in Peoples [Temple] do not have a pro-Soviet outlook, we do practice cooperative living. The reporter described the residents as pioneers who had left the urban centers
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D-2-K-11B
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of the United States to provide a new life for seniors and youth. He states: “Today’s Jonestown has neat houses, farm buildings, dining halls, schools, kindergardens, some cottage industries, medical clinic, and a future hospital. The medical personnel give free medical services to not only members of the community but also to surrounding villagers. Special care is given to the children. There are about 250 children in the town, many of them adopted. No less care is given to the seniors in Jonestown. After being in Jonestown, one can hardly believe that everything was created in one or two years. The inhabitants of Jonestown are creative, they love work, and they celebrate life. They demonstrate real care and concern for children and seniors alike.”
[starred paragraph] The Tass reporter quoted Bishop Jim Jones, “I have chosen Guyana first of all because this country is socialist oriented and is working towards the establishment of socialism for the most just and humane society in the world.” Peoples Temple expressed its readiness to assist the people of Guyana in this endeavor,” stated the Tass reporter.
Charles Garry, a very dedicated and well-known attorney for civil rights cases, wrote a letter to the Editor of the San Francisco (Friday July 7, 1978) with his concern that the other side of the story be represented. He quotes Rev. and Mrs. John Moore who spent “in excess of two weeks at the jungle mission.” Garry, who has also spent a number of days in Jonestown, felt that the “1200 people who are in Guyana pioneering a new life” should get objective coverage. The words of the Moores follow:
“I’m John Moore. I’m a pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Reno, Nevada. We have two daughters who are members of the Temple; obviously my wife and I are not members of the Temple. One, the older girl’s a teacher and the younger one is a nurse. The two words that come to my mind, immediately as I was there and as I tried to reflect upon my experiences were ‘impressive’ and ‘amazing.’ It almost boggles the mind to see that great clearing and to understand how so much could have been done in the relatively short period of time. I think about a thousand acres have been cleared, and it’s in the midst of jungle, and that’s a part of what’s impressive, and all except a part of the land that’s not been finally cleared, has been planted with various crops.”
“I had a feeling of freedom. Neither in Georgetown, where there were about 25 or 30 people living, coming and going, all the time, with total freedom, nor at the project itself, did we – did I have – I’ll let my wife speak for herself – did I have any feeling that anybody was being restrained or coerced or intimidated in any way. What did impress me was that people who were living in Georgetown, in the house there, were eagerly waiting for the time when they could return to Jonestown, and the project itself. One of the great things, I think, is the opportunity for some of the younger people, particularly, to be learning skills when that opportunity is not present here.”
“They have probably 35 pre-schoolers. I don’t know how many they have in school; they have newborn babies, several babies have been born there. They have a daycare nursery for parents who work, and there are those who are caring for them, and then they have the older people. That’s really a part of the beauty of it, we felt.”
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“The school is accredited by the government of Guyana. They have had people from the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural stations working with the people of the project.” Health services are provided for the Amerindians or people who live in the community as well as members of the project itself.”
Mrs. Barbara Moore said: “my impressions are, having just experienced our visit there, that this is a beautiful, heroic, creative project! It is absolutely miraculous. There are excellent medical services, excellent educational services, and…it’s a community of caring and sharing with an added dimension, and this dimension I would say, is love. If you want to use that term, in a sense it reminds me of…a New Testament community, in the purest sense of the word, in the love and concern for all, that we observed. And with complete freedom for creativity; those who want to farm, are farming; those who want to teach, teach; those who like to cook, cook; they have an excellent nutritionist who is working scientifically all the time to discover new uses for the indigenous plants and growths there, and is in contact with the Guyanese experts to discover new and useful uses for these various crops there. That was very impressive to me. It was most impressive to see the elderly people, the older folks, who had their neat little yards, their white picket-type fences, and their opportunity to take classes if they wished to, or to garden, or to just sit. They also have a lovely library of over 8000 volumes, from poetry to ‘how-to-do-it’…”
“It’s a complete city and one thing they do encourage is the nuclear family. You can choose to have you own home, or if you’re a single person, you may live in a dormitory, whichever you prefer. They have a lovely nursery for infants. They have a nursery for toddlers, and, of course, a fine educational set up.”
Though we have given you the above viewpoints of Jonestown, we invite you to visit and see for yourself the kind of community that has been created there. We welcome constructive criticism and invite you to contact us directly if you find any area of our work that we can evaluate to make improvements. We also include a couple of articles for you to read. The author, Tom Fleming, is a very prominent editor of a black newspaper, the Sun Reporter, the most prestigious newspaper of its kind in California. The publisher and owner of the paper, Dr. Carleton Goodlett (Ph.D, M.D.) is President of the National Newspaper Publishers Association – head of all black press in America as well as Publisher of the Sun Reporter and Metro-Reporter Newspapers. Both gentleman are planning to visit Jonestown and have followed and supported the work of Peoples Temple very closely in the United States. Ebony Magazine mentions Carleton Goodlett as one of the 100 most prestigious black leaders in the United States.
Thank you again for your sensitivity and understanding of our work and we are always interested in working with you and your church in Guyana in Christian endeavors.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Sharon Amos
Sharon Amos
Assistant to Bishop Jim Jones
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D-2-K-12
Newspaper articles included in Sharon Amos’ letter
THE SUN REPORTER, Thursday, June 15, 1978 PAGE 31
Relatives Praise Jonestown, Gy.
Recently Peoples Temple held a press conference to let the public hear about Jonestown, Guyana, from people who had just returned from a visit with their relatives at the Agricultural Project. Rev. John V. Moore, former superintendent of United Methodist Churches of Northern California, and his wife, Barbara Moore spent several days with their two daughters and grandson in Jonestown. They came from their home in Reno, Nev. To relate to the public the great beauty and accomplishment of the thriving community in Guyana. The Moores are not members of Peoples Temple. They visited Guyana at their own expense, and traveled to San Francisco from Reno at their own expense for the press conference. Rev. Moore said, “I’m John Moore, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Reno, Nevada. The two words that come to my mind, immediately as I was there and as I tried to reflect upon my experiences were ‘impressive’ and ‘amazing.’ It almost boggles the mind to see that great clearing and to understand how so much could have been done in the relatively short period of time. I think about a thousand acres have been cleared, and it’s in the midst of jungle, and that’s a part of what’s impressive, and all except a part of the land that’s not been finally cleared, has been planted with various crops.”
“I had a feeling of freedom. Neither in Georgetown, where there were about 25 or 30 people living, coming and going, all the time, with total freedom, nor at the project itself, did we – did I have – I’ll let my wife speak for herself – did I have any feeling that anybody was being restrained or coerced or intimidated in any way..”
When asked whether people told him they were happy, he responded, “It was so obvious. We talked about what they were doing, and all of them were engaged in some activities or work that was particularly important for them. We talked to anybody and everybody we wanted to, and we wore ourselves out walking around the facility. We went to the piggery, the chickery, the dairy, the sawmill, the cassava mill, the nursery.”
Rev. Moore went on to tell about the day care nursery, the accredited school, and a health facility that is “the best facility in that whole region in Guyana.” Rev. and Mrs. Moore commented on the “beauty” of the inclusion of older people in the community life, and the library with more than 8,000 volumes, where old and young read for pleasure or do research. Mrs. Moore described both the medical and the educational services as “excellent” (one of the Moores’ daughters is a nurse, the other is a teacher), and went on to speak of the project as a whole as a community of caring and sharing with the added dimension of love. In a sense it reminds me of a New Testament community,” she reflected, “in the purest sense of the word, in the love and concern for all. It is a beautiful, heroic, creative project. It is absolutely miraculous.” One newscaster commented Mrs. Moore seemed very impressed and asked would she describe it as “utopian.” “Yes,” she answered, “It’s a lovely utopia.”
Other specifics were provided as well about the lifestyle and quality of life in Jonestown. “it is a cooperative…Food is provided for everyone. There’s medical care for everyone, and educational opportunities for everyone. There are work needs and opportunities for the members of the community. One of the great things is the opportunity, for some of the younger people particularly, to be learning skills when that opportunity is not present here.”
Mrs. Moore added that the housing is well suited to the specific needs of the residents. “It’s a complete city, and one thing they do encourage is the nuclear family. You can choose to have your own home, or, if you’re a single person, you may live in a dormitory, whichever you prefer. The older folks have their neat little yards and white picket-type fences, with the opportunity to [Continued on Page 34]
People Temple
Relatives Praise Jonestown
[Continued from Page 31]
garden, or just sit.” Attorney Charles Garry, who was also present added that, when he visited, he saw them put up a cottage in one day, from the ground on up ready for occupancy.
Garry concluded with remarks about the medical center in Jonestown headed by a young Doctor, who was put through medical school by Peoples Temple and who graduated with high honors. He said that he was particularly impressed with “the senior citizens” cottages right around the (medical) compound.” They are looked in on by medical helpers first thing every morning.
“Medical services are provided free to every resident on the project, and extensive clinic work is done in the surrounding community. The medical compound is something you have never seen, and you probably won’t see it unless you go there. It’s almost a miracle.”
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D-2-K-14A – 14c
[duplicate of D-2-K-11A – 11c]
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D-2-G-11A
Deb Touchette meetings with Bertie Orderson and with Brazilian Embassy, September 1, 1978
Deborah Touchette
September 1, 1978
Berti [Bertie] Orderson at the House of the President
w/Tony Walker & Deb. T.
– We took him a gift on behalf of Cde. Jim Jones
– He said he would like to go back another time this year; he didn’t feel he got to see enough and wants to spend a couple of days.
– He thought that the medical program was very good, and said he would like other rep. of other communities to be able to see Jonestown as an eg.
– he wished the medical program could be more extensive, but felt it was the best in Guyana now.
– If other communities could see things like the wood being used for fuel ect. These type of things could be applied in Guyana.
– “How is the road doing”?, It’s in very bad shape he said.
– I told him they were working on this, but the rains persisted so we were sort of holding off until the rainy season was over; but it was a priority on the list.
– he said he ken [knew] it was aproblem and he didn’t think there were any fines for repairs.
– He said he was supposed to come by our house for dinner but things didn’t work out right that evening and couldn’t come
– He opened the gift we gave him while we were there and seemed appreciative
– I asked him if he had opportunity to talk to Jim very much?
– He said no, there wasn’t enought time.
– He was on his way out whtn we arrived, so we didn’t spend much time.
Deborah Touchette
September 1, 1978
Brazillian Embassy (Study Center)
w/Tony Walker, Deb. T.
– we met with the receptionist and told her we had visited the Embassy about three months ago. We explained that we had given some background of the Peoples Temple, and had an agricultural project in the North West.
– I told her we had a school and the Embassy had suggested we come by the study center to get some liturture. (I explained that the sxhool had been incorporated
– into the school system in Guyana.)
– we asked if they had any books, records or films that could be taken to the North West and shown in the classes.
– She said they did not allow films or slides to be taken from the office, although if we bring a delegation of students, or anyone they would show the slides there.
– said if we write a letter to Prof. Paulo Cesar Puls, Director, Centre of Brazilian Studies 308 Church St., Queenstown, Georgetown and explain what the slides would be used for, and how long they would be used, they may release them to us for a short while.
– I told her we also taught different languages at our school, French, Spanish, and it would be nice if they had records or books.
– She said they had Portugese classes, but they weren’t really in motion yet, but what they had was all audio-visual. They might get some books later.
– She gave us some literature. We thanked her and told her we would write.
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D-2-G-1A
Terry Jones Report of meeting with Guyana Police Commissioner Lloyd Barker, September 1978
Appt. with Comm. Barker
Terry and Debbie
Debbie gave him the gift and said this was a token of appreciation from Cde. Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. He seemed quite pleased.
Then Debbie asked when he would be coming up to see the place, he said he didn’t have it on his schedule to do, he was too busy with things here, to me, he made it quite clear he had no real desire to go at all. He said if I do come I’ll come at 4:00 in the morning when no one is around. We sort of laughed and he said really how would I come in at 4:00 am there is no way to get there. I felt the implication was he would if he could, maybe to check on us?
We asked if he heard anything new about us and he said I’m always hearing things you know, but I don’t care as long as the Peoples Temple is doing how they are doing now I have no problem. He said You have the good graces of the Govt. I understand. He said “It takes the positive along with the negative to generate power or electricity. For instance there are people in my dept who I don’t agree with or who don’t like me but as long as they do their job, I will put up with it.” I have no problems with Peoples Temple We told him he should come uop and see the place so he could disprove the lies, he jsut said I’m too busy with my job.
Then he had a long telephone call right before he got on the phone he said, I understand cde. Jones passing on his. After the phone call we forgot to answer that. We had to leave to go to the Russians When we got there Debbie called to clarify and he said I’m glad you called to tell me that I’m glad to hear that, but you people do worry to much, but thank you for calling. He didn’t mention where he had heard it.
One thing he also said when we mentioned if he had heard anything he said don’t get so worried no one is perfect, no one is everyone makes mistakes and has problems.
We very stupidly forgot to tell him about Goodlet [California newspaper pubisher Carlton Goodlett] and [writer/playwright on] Freed. Very Bad! Paula told us and we haven’t forgotten since then.
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D-2-G-9A
Deb Touchette meeting with Steve Narine, Minister of Works, September 2, 1978
Deborah Touchette
Sept. 2, 1978
Steve Narine
w/ Deb T.
– Tim C [Carter], Tony [Waler] & myself went to an appt. w/Skip Roberts with the intention of going from there to see Steve, but the two appts raninto each other, so Tim and Tony stayed to talk to skip.
– I told him Mr. Harris from Guyana Stores said we should talk to him about the land rover they had for sale. I explained that we were in desperate need of transportation because of medical emergencies, that sometimes it would take and hour and a half to get people to the main road, when by land rover it would take only fifteen munites. -He said he didn’t know of any landrover at Guyana Stores except the one that they had bought, but he would check it out. He called his secreary in the room and told her to check with Mr. Harris to see if it was the same land rover, then to check and see if any other ministries had applied for a landrover and that we should contact him again on Tue. Morning.
– I told him another problem was that at times we had very prominent people visiting from the U.S., people like Don Freed, who was a famous writer, and had published a few books, and was the quthor of the movie Paralax View. I explained that for those coming in to view the project, transportation was not the best, and this looked very bad. I gave a little mofe background on Don Freed, investigating the conspiracy of Dr. Martin Luther King and Kennedy.
– Narine said he was coming to visit us w/in a couple of weeks and he would let us know the exact date, he wasn’t quite sure of the time yet, he had to travel out of town for a couple of days, but he did think it would be w/in two weeks
– I mentioned that he had visited before, but he had not stayed very long.
– He said yes he had,
– I said perhaps this time he would taste some of the delicious foods we have.
– he said he had eaten a little when he was there before.
– I said that Cde. Jones would be glad to meet with him and talk to him again and thanked him for taking the time to meet in that he was a very busy man.
– he said it was quite all right.
– before I went into the office, in the waiting room, I met Mr. Adams who said he had been invited to come and visit J/town, but had not been able to visit as yet. He sia d the boat was due to go up in a couple of weeks and he would go to port Kaituma and see whats going on, (not our boat, their boat)
– Steve Narines Secretary said she had been to J/town, and was very impressed said she came with the Minister.
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D-2-G-13A
Tony Walker report on meeting with Deputy Police Commissioner Skip Roberts, September 4, 1978
Skip Roberts
w/Tony, Deb, & Tim C.
Tony Walker
September 4, 1978
– we talked to Skip Roberts about Velma Jones.
– We told him of her taking pictures of things that showed what people in the states might think of as poverty and even made statements of that fact.
– Tim told him of the lady (Velma) only having a two and a half day of the week job, but having money and an expensive camra.
– Skip said his only qualms with taking her film was that it might make the police look bad and they weould have to answer for it.
– I responded, she did make the statement “wait until the people in the U.S. see the poverty here.
– He asked for her name and wrote it down.
– Debbie asked if he was going to do something and he just sort of passed the question over.
– we told him about her taking pictures at night and if she were taking tourist pictures, surely there wouldn’t be any value in taking pictures at night
– He said it would be taken care of and we would not be connected.
– Tim asked him if he could aske what was to be done
– He said he couldn’t tell us, but it would be taken care of.
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D-2-G-13B
[Reverse side of page is scratch paper]
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D-2-G-6A
Deb Touchette phone call with wife of Guyana Chief Justice, Harold Bollers, September 4. 1978
Deborah Touchette
September 4, 1978
Mrs. [Eileen] Bollers [wife of Guyana’s Chief Justice]
w/Deb, phone call
– Mrs Bollors said she was in Barbados, had gotton very ill, and had to call her doctor in upon return. had to have injections.
– I gave her a message about us not calling her anymore until the case was resolved and to tape any phone calls she might get, because we were told that judge Bishop had received calls, and this was counterproductive for us to do that type of thing.
– I asked her if she understood what I was talking about ?
– she said yes, she understood
– I said I was sorry it had to be this way, but we thought it would look bad if we had contact while the case was on.
– she said o.k., and asked that we give all her love to everyone in P.T.
– I told her I would, and would she do likewise, and tell her husband
– she said she would do that.
Chancellor [I.O.F.] Haynes – phone call;
– the first time I called, a couple of days ago, a lady answered the phone, I think it was his sister I asked to speak to him, and she said he’s sick. I asked if he was in the hosp? she said that he was, but she couldn’t reveal which one.
– today I called again and asked if he was doing any better, that Mrs. Jones had the greatest respect for his character, and we wanted to do something for him, perhaps a get well gift?
– she said that he wasn’t having any visitors.
– I told her that we were always available, and if theres anything we could do to feel free to call on us and left our number.
Berti [Bertie] Orderson [Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture];
– said he was getting a friend to come with him, he wasn’t sure of the dat yet because both of their schedules were tied up right now,
– said he was asking on of the Permanent Secretaries and would be contacting us I asked who was coming with him ?
– he said he didn’t really know yet, he was thinking of asking the PSM, or OPM.
– he was very friendly
– he asked that we look for his red big pen he left, he thinks he left it when he took his shirt off at J.T.
[Feodor] Timofeyeve, USSR;
– he said that he was very busy this afternoon and tomorrow morning, but that he would see us Tue afternoon at 4:PM
– he said hehad the films and the lessons in Russian ready for us to pick them up
– I thanked him and said that everyone would be very happy to receive them.
– he said we could pick them up when we came by for the appt.
[journalist] Carl Blackman;
– Tony and Erin took him a gift today and thanked him for his kindness to P.T. and said that Cde. Jim Jones welcomed him back to visit again.
he thanked them and said he would be printing the article in the next two
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D-2-G-6B
[Reverse side of page is scratch paper]
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D-2-G-6C
– weeks, but that he wasn’t really back to work yet, and that he would also be printing a political article on us for an overseas paper, and he would let us know when he was ready to send it.
– Margaret is still out of town, but will be back sometime this week
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D-2-G-6D
[Reverse side of page is scratch paper]
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D-2-G-5A
Deb Touchette report on meeting with Guyana Police Commissioner Lloyd Barker, September 5, 1978
Deborah Touchette
September 5, 1978
Commissioner Barker
w/ Terri J. [Jones] Deb T.
– we took him a gift and thanked him for his kindness
– we asked if he had herd anything else from anyone, relatives etc.
– he said he heres things all the time, but he doesn’t put any revelence to it as long as your just farming and doing agriculture everything is fine.
– he siad that ie was his understanding that we had the blessing of the govt.
– he said in so many words, that you cant always expect the positive, and used eg. Of electricity takes pos and neg. to make it work, to charge it.
– said eve n on his job, not everyone agrees with his ideas, but he has to here them and work out something so that things will run smoothly
– when you here all those neg. things just don’t pay any attention to them.
– said he herd things about him all the time on the radio and it didn’t bother him.
– and that’s something I keep telling you people
– he maintains that stance
hes on the side of right, and as long as nothing is going on up their illegal he said, no problems, but if I find the wrong things are going on, then I will be at your door.
– I asked him if he would come and visit, and see for himself what was happening so that it would elivate some of the problems?
– he said he’s not ready togo up there now, said he hardly leaves town, and he is rarely out of the office theres so much to do.
– he said he herd that Jim Jones was no longer the head of that program.
– Then the phone rang, and was a long conversation. By the time he got off the phone the conversation had changed and we didn’t answer the question.
– I told him that we were not overly worried, but that we felt it our duty to defend anyone who is being lied on regardless of weather it be him, the Prime Minister, or Cde. Jim Jones; and that this was the same type of thing that Dr. Martin Luther King and other leaders like him went through.
– he didn’t respond, he just looked at me with a sort of half smile.
– I told him we didn’t want to keep him long, we just wanted to deliver the gift, and the invitation was open.
– he asked me to tell his thank you to Cde. Jim Jones.
– I called back as soon as we got to a phone, Terri recalled just as we left that we didn’t answer that question.
– I told him I was sorry to bother him again, but I just wanted to clarify the question of Cde. Jones no longer being the leader of P.T., and that he definately was, but that we had total participation when major decissions were made
– He sia he was glad I clarified that, but we worried to much.
– he said someone had told him that, he didn’t believe it was true, and he was glad he was still in charge.
– he did say jokingly at his office once that he may come to our door at 4:00 in the morning some time, and say Lloyd here.
– he said this jokingly, and said, how could I get out to Jonestown at four in the morning?
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D-2-G-5b
[Reverse side of page is scratch paper]
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D-2-A-12
Debbie Touchette notes of meeting with Guyana Post Office, July 1, 1978
Deborah Touchette
October 2, 1978
Mr Ferriera/Guyana Post Office, Register General w/Deb T. Jim, Evette [likely Yvette Muldrow Jones],
– Mr Ferriera the Register General determines how easily the marriges and death cirtificates ect. will be taken care of, also he will be responsible for issueing the Marraige Lisence to ministers etc.
– He has been very friendly and helpful to Peoples Temple,
– he said he was a friend of someone high in the U.S. Embassy, I’m not sure if it was the Ambassador, or Mr Dryer [Richard Dwyer], that he said he went fishing with.
– he said that they had promised him a trip up in the plane which they had access to, sometime when they were going to make a trip up and they would take him
– he sadi they had talked to him some [some] about the P.T. and they had praised our community, particularly the medical part, that they thought it was the best medical facilities avalible in Guyana.
– I said that there had been some contraversie in the media regarding the Peoples Temple and wondered if he had herd anything?
– he admitted he had herd there were some problems surrounding the Peoples Temple, that people were there against there will, and had herd some things in ref. to barb wire fences.
– I told him about Mark Lane and Don Freed visiting Guyana recently and how they became interested in the Peoples Temple, I asked him if he had read the article in the Guyana Chronicle about Mark Lane?
– I quoted Mark Lane as saying that all the accuations against the People s Temple were unfounded.
– He said in a rather joking manner that that was not what he had herd, he herd it on the news briefly and thought it was said that the accuations weren’t true
– I told him he had not listened very well, because the opposit was said,
– I told him what Mark had said about the things he had herd in the press in the U.S. , he could not believe that Guyana would allow these things to go on, but if he had a son, that was interested in commlng to the Peoples Temple in Guyana, he would have been worried, because the media had made it look so bad.
– but since he came and saw for himself, he found people very happy, certainly walking about freely and that all accuations were unfounded.
– he kept saying, I thought he said they were true, in a joking manner I don’t know what he hoped to achieve in saying this, weather he was trying to make me angry, or if he felt he herd this….
– anyway on my next visit, he was too friendly, I was alone and asking him some questions about Lynetta’s death certificate, he had to sign this form for me.
– he called me into hisoffice and told me I had something on my back, powder I guess it was, and started stroking my back while standing behind me while I was sitting in a chair in front of his desk…needless to say I got a little worried,
– I told him the U.S. Embassy had asked us for this document and wanted to know if he could possible expidite it for me. I acted like I was in a hurry and he signed the document for me. I thanked him and left as quickly as possible. He kept rubbing my back and waist as we walked to the door. ..I don’t know what possessed him that day, because I have been to see him many times before and hehas never acted like that before.
– oh well, at least he friendly, I just won’t visit him alone again.
– his comments about the accuations being true were unnecessary, but he is helpful.
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D-2-A-13A
Debbie Touchette notes of meeting with Minister of Mines, October 4, 1978
[Notation at top of page: “Don’t write [Ptolemy] Reid till after talking with [Vibert] Mingo.” Notes in left hand margin make suggestions to “Tell Mingo” and “write to Reid”]
Deborah Touchette
October 4, 1978
Dept. of Mines, Min of Energy and Natrual Resorces
w/Terri, Deb, Jim,
– Terri & I were walking doen the street when this car stopped suddenly beside us and a man jumped out of the car yelling hey, you people piss me off, something about you people think you run everything don’t you?
– I asked him what he was talking about?
– he said he was getting ready for filling suit against the Peoples Temple in ref. to the shell lisence that we never paid for and after pressuring them we needed it right away, and you never came back he said.
– I told him I was sorry, that there must be some mistake, he just started walking away. I asked him if we could talk to him for a munite, could he come back and talk about this, he just got in his car and drove away.
– we went to his office a few munites later along with Jim, because Men tend to talk to men when they wont talk to wemon, a guy at the front desk named Mike Lindsy was very friendly, and told us to be quite frank, my boss does not like the Peoples Temple, said he did not know the reason why, but when it came to the subject of the Peoples Temple, he was totally unreasonable.
– he said that he had a hot temperment, but he would come back a few munites later and be cool and friendly with him and the guys in the office, but with the P.T., he did not cool off, he had never seen him get this way with anyone else.
– he said his advise to us, was to watch him, take his cues, if he says don’t talk then we shouldn’t talk because it will just make it worse.
– we explained to him that some weeks ago when I came in asking for an extension of the shell permit and an added 250 tons, to be picked up from shell beach by the Van Slytman shipping co., they had told me to come back that afternoon and pay for the shell permit, I came bringing a check which the cashier refused to accept, I had explained to the cashier that I was on my way out of the country and would miss the plane, could she just call the bank to verify, she had refused said they could not deal with checks and that was that.
– I had Ralph Jackson carry the money to take care of it that afternoon, but he did not do it, or at least that is what we were finding out now, is that it was not done. We apoloigized, said ther was a miss-communication somewhere and presented him with a bottle of wisky, said we were sorry and this was not the way cde. [Comrade] Jones conducted bussiness.
– he said no, he could not accept the gift. the boss walked into the room and said well I’m just wondering how you do conduct bussiness. he told Mike to tak to us and read the laws of Guyana, said we were rude people, I believe, and that wethought we ran everything.
– I tried to explain to him and he kept talking over me, then Jim said the same thing and he shut up to here him talk.
– but he still picked up his keys and walked out on us and told Mike to handle it, he didn’t want to deal with it.
– Mike – the law is you are not supposed to pick up any shell without a permit, that is an offinse in Guyana, one of which you will be prosecuted. Said they had a case right now of a man who had uplifted some shell w/out a permit and they were taking action against him,
– Even if we want to protect the person who commits this offense, someone usually writes us a letter from another department that finds out about it and demand that we withdraw any lisence issued after the fact, in keeping with the law and that that person must be prosecuted, said the govt of Guyana is imfactic about this issue.
– he said the only way around this would be to get some top official lie [like] the P.S. or the Commissioner to do it, he said the P.S. whose name is Bovell, would be better in this case., other then that we should go right up to the top, (meaning the Minister
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D-2-A-13B
-2-
– we were qbout to leave, and he said he would do everything in his power to help us he said he liked the Peoples Temple, he had herd of our broadcast on the radio many times he had listened, he was always explaining to friends the type of things we were doing, infact defending peoples Temple, and one of the main questions he is asked is why Guyana, out of all the places we could go why here.
– he said he had not been able to answer that question so he would like us to explain so he would have a comeback.
– We told him about the fact that Cde. Jones and his wife had come to Guyana many years ago, and about there being many nationalities here, we are a cooperqtive and that is something you are working for and are interested in an agricultural drive concerned that 2 out of three babies go to bed hungry every day, don’t feel we can solve the whole worlds problems, not idealistic, but want to do something to contribute, our dent in humanity.
– he seemed satisfied with that answer. he said he would do what he could in his way to solve the problem, and that would be to bury the papers under some large pile of papers and everybody would forget, he hopped wth time, but since the boss did not like us, infact seemed to hate us, he wasn’t sure that would be so easy to do but he would try.
– he said we should not contact anyone unless we receive a not [note] from him in the mail stating that there was going to be a problem, otherwise let it lie.
He said you better leave now, I can see my boss comming back.
– we had left the office and were walking down the street when he called us back to the office, he said that everything is settled and o.k. we have nothing to worry about that his boss had changed his mind, he did not know why, but we could but a new permit and they would just let it pass this time.
– when the boss looked the other way Mike signaled for us not to say anything and get back there and pay him immediately after lunch before his boss changed his mind. Which we did.
[handwritten addendum] I asked Mike if he had any idea why his boss didn’t like us? I said we are a cooperative & like social living, is he a socialist? Mike said his boss was definitely not a socialist & that’s off the record he said. Terri asked him if he felt it was because we were foreigners? He said no. His boss had all types of friends that type of thing didn’t phase him. Terri felt he didn’t like us for that reason because of the statements he kept making about us feeling we could do anything we wanted & didn’t have to obey the laws of Guyana.
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D-2-K-18A
Jonestown resident Scott Thomas undated letter to Guyana government ministers
Mingo, Reid, Burnham
Re: movie films
[first few sentences illegible]
We have no housing available for these residents and cannot afford it. We are not self-sufficient yet. We are trying to build 101 houses. We are crowded, but we do not mind as we are in a black nation, free from racism.
We have a structure that most would not be willing to comply with. You would find it beautiful. Others would like the benefits, but not the work patterns. For instance, Jim Jones, in his health condition, unloaded a heavy load of wood on top of the other things in his 18 to 20 hour work day. We work hard.
When the students do come, they will have to come from desperate poverty, so that they can appreciate the beauty of this. We have several Guyanese who came from dire poverty. Anyone else would not appreciate socialism.
We are giving medical care to the region. One [of] our families had to live under a tent, while a patient was here for a week. If she had gone back to alcohol, it would have been bad because of the medication she was taking. She and her husband wanted to stay with us until we could get her directly to a surgeon in Georgetown. They are enroute now.
If there are any questions about our devotion to the government, tell people to just ask the Guyanese who live in Jonestown and have stayed there upwards of two years, and one of them for three years. We are totally committed. We never criticize the government – that is more than we can say for several other officials. You and Dr. Reid are the purest socialists – we have been in your homes and have seen your lifestyle. You live socialism. We have no one else to go to, because they are not socialists in the sense you are – by no degree – and we do not know who is. So many are critical of socialism and the government, and exault the U.S.
We cannot afford these additional students. And when we are economically ready, what we need are families to move in who come
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D-2-K-18B
-2-
from poverty and would appreciate the beauty. 95% of the applicants want our recreation, films, beautiful library, and excel-lant medical care. Many times people just want a one night stand. Our community must insist on constancy between husband and wife. Both husbands and wives share responsibilities for children and domestic duties. We just cannot have adultary; we allow divorce but not adultary. It would destroy the community. History has shown that it has destroyed every cooperative. We are not prudes on the subject. It is not a matter of prudishness, but a matter of logic.
We are also not prudes about smoking and drinking, but we just cannot afford it. We also teach in our school the health factors involved because all medical societies in the world have shown how unhealthy tobacco and alcohol are. But we do use the highest grade of alcohol when the medical staff doctor or dispenser recommend it for certain instances of heart and hypertension, where small degrees are recommended. That is also a matter of medical record the can be checked with medical authorities in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere. It is comment [common] knowledge in the U.S.
If you can understand this, and I know you can, then you understand why we have to come to you. We are sorry to have to bother you. We have created the most dedicated people to Guyana and to the PNC. We implement and follow-through every word we hear from the Prime Minister, Dr. Reid, and you.
Please respond as soon as possible as this is urgent.
Cooperatively Yours,
Scott Thomas
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D-2-K-22A
October 6, 1978 letter to Ptolemy Reid from Gloria Carter
PEOPLES TEMPLE AGRICULTURAL and MEDICAL PROJECT
P.O. BOX 893
Georgetown, Guyana
6 October, 1978
The Honorable Dr. Ptolemy Reid
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Development
200 Camp Street
Georgetown
Dear Dr. Reid;
HANDS OFF POLICY IN THE PRESS TOWARDS PEOPLES TEMPLE
Two topnotch people in the government told Peoples Temple that there is a hands off policy in regards to Peoples Temple. One important government official said that the United States tried to get Peoples Temple expelled from Guyana. This official said pressure was put on Guyana to do this. Is this true, we would like to know, because we in Peoples Temple are sick of it. We are trying to build and we don’t understand why we are treated this way.
NEWS COVERAGE IN THE UNITED STATES OF PEOPLES TEMPLE
TV Channel 7, Radio Station KCBS and many other radio and TV stations gave very positive coverage of Peoples Temple. They interviewed Dr. Mark Lane, and Donald Freed and told about the conspiracy against us. We were on the front page of the prestigious Sun Reporter and this was a very positive article. Even the Hearst Press, which you know is most conservative, was forced, out of fear of being sued, to do a good and honest story. It is surprising that this story was covered as well as it was in the United States. Perhaps it was because two people in the conspiracy stepped forward and said that they had lied in the past about Peoples Temple. The S.F. Chronicle printed a retraction. Several people who have recently visited the project were at the press conferences in the U.S. and raved about the great works they had witnessed for themselves at Jonestown. These visitors are in no way gullible people. They all have studied social environments for many years and are objective. None are members of Peoples Temple, nor do they have any prior emotional connections with Peoples Temple.
In regards to the recent lack of coverage of the significant trip to Guyana of Mark Lane and Donald Freed, and their findings of a conspiracy against Peoples Temple, it is obvious that there is a hands off policy towards Peoples Temple. The reasons for this should be explained honestly to us because it appears strange to us and we could far better deal with the truth than with being ignored and then to find out the truth from others than yourself or Minister Mingo, as we know that both of you are totally committed to socialism.
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D-2-K-22B
Even the Hearst Press in the U.S. had to admit we had been lied upon. It is not just the black press now. We don’t intend to sue U.S. Agencies although we could use the money and we could get it, we just want the U.S. to lay off us and off of Guyana.
Cooperatively,
/s/ Gloria Carter
Gloria Carter
Secretary to Cde. Jim Jones
Cc: The Hon. Minister Hamilton Green
The Hon. Minister Vibert Mingo
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D-2-H-1A
Memo of Sharon Amos meeting with Dr. Sharma, October 9, 1978
SHARMA (DR. SHARMA) meeting with him 9/10/78 Sharon
– I went with Beverly and Al Bell as they were going to have to see him alone and there was no-one else available today
– he had seen Al Bell already and I came in and told him I wanted to talk to him as I thought he had some misunderstandings about PT/ he said he didn’t think so
– I went on and said that we were Marxist-Leninists and it was a shame for people of the same principles to be divided as I thought that’s what happened in Nazi Germany when socialists were very divided and Hitler could make a sweep into power taking ahold of the uncommitted and there was too much division among socialists to fight it
– he said he disagreed about this (I think he was going to make some correction of me historically) but he didn’t seem to disagree with what I said about divisiveness
– he said he didn’t understand how we could be Marxist-Leninists when we were religious/ I told him we weren’t/ I was an atheist, JJ was an atheist. I explained about JJ being a bridge for people who were lost in religion, blacks who had no political awareness and how JJ used the bible to bring people to socialism/ (how he used such teachings as the apostles bringing in all their property and sharing as they had need) – he did pick up on this right away and said “Oh, yes Christian Communism” – I said yes. I told him also it was a strategy because all socialist groups in the US had been destroyed and gave the example of the Panthers infiltrated by people like Elaine Brown and destroyed. I said I had read a Soviet pamphlet that said the FBI set up socialist groups and used their FBI informers as members and these ersatz socialists used divisive tactics to destroy other socialists and confuse etc.
– I told him that Mark Lane had a long history in investigating conspiracies and was convinced that we were victims of a conspiracy and was planning to sue the CIA, FBI etc so how could we be CIA/ he said he know Mark Lane had a long progressive history
– he said he could check on us by checking with Gus Hall (Gus has been to Guyana) – I said fine and he could talk to Timofeyev of the Soviet Embassy who has visited Jonestown and said we were very communistic
– he said communal or communistic/ I said communistic and that we had no money system in JT, worked on destroying all elitism, were totally racially mixed and taught Marxist Leninism
– he said he knew Timofeyev
– I said we couldn’t speak out on the referendum because we were still in the process of immigrating and we had 200 people in the US and didn’t want to have a problem so we couldn’t be altogether as conditions in the US had been very bad for our people
– he said something about the Grenada situation and did I know about that/ I said I knew Chilian troops are there. He said yes and in that country the people had told the intellectuals what they thought about them. And some expression about not getting down on your knees to tyranny or some such thing/ I told him we had been prepared to die in the US but the time wasn’t right and we would have been branded as common criminals and wouldn’t have died for socialism at all. He said that would be true of Guyana also as it is very bad here.
– he said with the IMF loan, it is getting worse and worse
– he said that his life is in jeopardy and so is the life of his friend
– I asked if he knew that to be true or did he just feel it would be the case because of conditions
– he said he believed it would be the case but didn’t give me any details other than this
– but when the phone had rung before this – he answered saying to his friend (later he told me the friend was the other one who’s life is in jeopardy) he said “I’m still alive” and he kind of laughed
– I said I hoped he wouldn’t lose his life with no meaning and he said as a Marxist you can’t worry about such things
– I explained how Lenin had gone into exile so he would be able to continue to live and come back later. He said he disagreed with me and said Lenin worked twice as hard in exile. I said of course, we were working very hard too, but I meant that Lenin had realize the wisdom of preserving his life so he could serve his cause and Sharma didn’t argue this.
– he said “well if you are really Marxist-Leninists you are in trouble here as this is the worst place you can be.” He said Guyana is not socialist and would be very hard and perhaps kill some of us (meaning himself and others and perhaps we would be included in that if we shared his ideology).
– I told him we were very unhappy about the IMF loan
– he said he had found Anita [Ijames Kelley] very intelligent when he talked to her/ he said he hadn’t known any black-Indian (American Indian and black) mixtures and hadn’t realized that those two races in America were as cooperative as they are. I said in some areas they are, some not so much
– he said he liked Anita
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D-2-H-1B
[Reverse side of page is scrap paper]
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D-2-H-1C
Dr. Sharma: pg 2
– he said that unless we were talking about arms (weapons) we weren’t Marxist Leninists as a Marxist Leninist knows you can’t change a society with evolution but by force of arms. I said I knew all about the theory but that I wouldn’t discuss such a thing with him anyway. I said I didn’t know him very well and as far as I knew he could be an agent too. He didn’t argue with me (Hope this wasn’t a clear admission by saying this/perhaps I went too far)
– I told him Mark Lane had met with the PPP when he was here with us being there too and it was a very good meeting.
– he became very interested in the conversation/ Beverly [likely Beverly Ann Mitchell] started to come in the room and he asked her to wait outside. Perhaps this was a mistake tho she wouldn’t have known how to handle it, but it was too bad I was alone.
– he seemed to look at me right in the eyes as if in wonderment at it all
– he asked about Christa [Amos] and seemed concerned he see her again for medical care/ asked about me too as I had been his patient
– he asked if Beverly had her x-rays and we were explained her condition to me/ he seemed willing to take time with me and he’s usually in a hurry. I told him Bev hadn’t paid for her x-rays and we were waiting for our car to come with the money. He said he would see the x-rays anyway and he walked over with us to the x-ray dept/ looked at the x-rays and said he would operate on Bev. He said it was a good sign that in the x-rays urine was in her bladder as if her bladder was torn, it wouldn’t hold urine. Said he would do exploratory surgery and when did we want it. I told him as soon as possible and Bev agreed. He scheduled it right away on Weds. He put his arm on my shoulder at one point and seemed quite warm. This is unusual for him as he is quite smooth and usually very business-like.
– I don’t know how to take him. I feel like saying, “if you have any trouble we’ll stand behind you.” But not fully knowing him or his sincerity I didn’t want to make a commitment, but I wondered if we shouldn’t have him over and cultivate him – because if it is as bad as he says, what do we have to lose and maybe he could tell us more as he seems to feel he’s a goner any way and what more does he have to lose to share info with us. I was surprised at how interested he was in talking to me.
– I also told him we had come here as he questioned why we had picked Guyana for several reasons :
1) because another country might not have taken us straight from the US, not trusting anything coming out of the US and how could we directly demonstrate to them our lifestyle in the US
2) our young people could be lost into drugs (as almost every young person takes drugs and are surrounded by it) – he clicked his teeth sympathetically to this/ also I said capitalism keeps trying to seduce the young and others and it is hard to have a movement when you are so surrounded by
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D-2-H-1D
[Reverse side of page is scrap paper]
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D-2-O-3A
Sharon Amos meeting with Kenneth Denny of Guyana Trade Union Congress (TUC), October 11, 1978
Sharon Amos
Cde. Denny visit to our house (Anita, Tim C., Sharon 11/10/78)
– we had asked him to visit a couple of weeks ago but he cancelled once and then the next time he didn’t show up but called today and said he had come by but it was a blackout and could he come tonight/ I said sure
– we showed him the Mark Lane Article in the Sun reporter/ he started to read it and said he would like more clippings to read
– we asked what was new with him/ TUC is in the process of taking a stand on a restaurant strike/ it was in the Citizen and he pointed it out to us. It’s a private restaurant, Chinese owner, and the people have been fired who were on strike and scabs have been hired and the TUC will take a stand and want the govt. to make it possible for any company or store etc. to be able to have a union.
– I said I was sorry that I had missed the TUC barbeque and that I heard it was quite successful and I knew he had been one of the organizers so it was to his credit to put on such a successful program.
– anyway in general I complemented him a lot about being someone we could talk to comfortably and his being such a lucid expounder of unionism and socialism etc. Tim C. made some mention of Marxist Leninism in regard to JJ but I said we weren’t necessarily marxist Leninists (PNC people are rarely Marxist Leninists and Denny said he hadn’t read Marx or Lenin so he couldn’t say he was one)
– he said he wasn’t religious and Tim explained how religion had been a transition for people which he didn’t oppose (but later I found he was no [not] unreligious – just meant he didn’t go to church) – but in a context that Tim and I put it about the Christianity in the bible helping people find both Christianity and socialism, he didn’t have much argument
– he asked what we did if someone got into a problem, anti-social behavior/ I told him we didn’t mind answering the question but it so often comes up, I had wondered if he had read any negative articles about us
– he claimed he hadn’t
– we talked a lot about PT – he wondered how we were motivated etc. We told him about the experience of living in a cooperative. How you get to know the real side of people without the sham and images. How people get more secure when they know they don’t have to play a game etc.
– he had the same misinformation about the IMF loan (unless the Russians were lying to me) – he said that no loan was available to Guyana from the USSR
– we talked about motivation in PT – how JJ has set an example/ how people feel involved in the process of decision making etc.
[handwritten note at bottom of page] Socialism is a safe word.
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D-2-O-3B
[reverse side of telegram used as scratch paper]
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D-2-M-1B
Sharon Amos meeting with PNC official Margaret Ackman, October 12, 1978
Sharon Amos
Margaret Ackman (telephone call 12/10/78)
– told her I missed her/ she’s always very effusive – said she missed me too. I said we needed to see her because GT isn’t GT without Margaret Ackman
– she said she’d be in today but I had an appt so I told her I’d drop by Monday
– told her all about the guests who have been coming and that Dick Gregory and Mohammed Ali will be coming
– told her she should come to visit/ she said that we should tell her when the next guest comes in and she’ll come too
– I told her I would but that we could have her come in special too (by herself) – she said fine
– she hadn’t been feeling too well
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D-2-O-1
Sharon Amos Meeting with Guyana Chief Justice Harold Bollers, October 12, 1978
Sharon Amos
Chief Justice Bollers (12/10/78) Jimmy Jr & Sharon
– we brought him some cookies and a plaque/ and chatted for awhile
– he asked how JJ was doing/ I said he still hasn’t gotten medical care and that the one test had showed cancer cells
– he acted like this was just rediculous that JJ didn’t come to town/ he said it’s perfectly OK, [Registrar K.W.] Barnwell has given his word nothing will happen
– I said that I know that people like the Chief Justice would certainly honor their word but if something happened like when Dr [Ptolemy] Reid and [Vibert] Mingo and others were out of the country signing the panamanean treaty, JJ would be in town and he certainly couldn’t turn over the child [John Victor Stoen] to be used as a pawn and JJ would remain in jail forever
– he kept pooh-poohing the idea JJ would be put in jail
– I said it would be better to have it in writing but he said it wasn’t necessary and it couldn’t be done
– but he said I could call Barnwell about it and Bollers would call and tell him I was going to be calling him
– he talked about another case involving custody he was handling he said maybe the same thing will happen in that case/ It may be re-assigned to another judge – Bollers now has the case but it may be re-assigned
– he said that regardless of whether the child went to the mother or father, justice will not be done because either way someone will be unhappy. The mother had the child in the US but both parents are Guyanese and the father went there and took the children back and now both parents are here. The mother has re-married. The children have been with the father for several years and the first judge maintained that the father could keep the children but now the mother is appealing the case. Bollers thought maybe the father should keep the children and the mother’s visitations should be increased but he didn’t know how he’d decide the case. One child is 11 and one is 13.
– I asked if they ever asked the children the preference and he said he didn’t know if that would work as the child might be put up to say something. I said that you could usually tell if that’s so if you talk to the child for any length of time
– he said that should have been done by the first judge
– I asked if they ever do a home study to see which environment would be better for the child and he said that should have been done by the first judge but it usually is done when a child has gotten into trouble
– anyway he said it was a most difficult case
– I asked him if he had any idea when our case will be re-assigned and he said he’s waiting to see if Tim Stoen will withdraw from the case as Clarence Hughes is going to contact him.
– I said it’s a terrible shame that this has gone on so long and he agreed and said that [Judge Aubrey] Bishop had no reason to draw it out so long before making a decision
– we chatted about all the visitors who have been there/ Bollers like Charles Garry a lot and had gotten his address to write him. He met Mark Lane also (guess he was more impressed by Charles than Mark), as he said he liked Charles.
– he is still fascinated by SF/ wonder if there is something we can offer him there to help him there
– told them Mohammed Ali and Dick Gregory will be coming. Elaine Bollers said she’ll have to come then too and meet Ali. She said she’d like very much to visit
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D-2-I-1A
Memo of Sharon Amos meeting with Doris Rogers, October 15, 1978
Sharon Amos
Doris Rogers (lunch 15/10/78) Tim Carter, Anita I [Ijames], Jimmy Jr, Sharon)
– she started by saying that she had heard rumors about PT/ that people don’t always understand that they think JJ has taken people’s money and that they think there is some kind of charge against him in the US
– we told her both are absolutely untrue – that JJ has no charges against him/ that he lives very simply so how could he have taken people’s money/ if he had taken money he wouldn’t have come to live with them/ he would have built himself a castle somewhere else – instead of living in a simple cabin
– she said she had hoped that people would have seen JJ as a model but that since he has accomplished what they haven’t accomplished themselves, they seemed to be threatened.
– she said even people she talked to in Kaituma don’t always understand
– she said she heard that black people in the US were lazy *
– we gave her background on that – how if you try and try to get a job and none are available you find difficulty staying motivated and I told her how young people are counselled not to have any big goals/ black people are counselled this way and I have talked to school counsellors who have admitted this (she really seemed upset about that)
– she said “well why do Guyanese seem so eager to go to the US” – Guyanese don’t understand why you would come here/ they feel it must be something suspicious about it. We said that lots of people are seduced by consumerism and initially the US might seem to offer something. We said that US films are a great mistake to show here – not realistic ones, that would be OK, but much of what is shown seduces people to want to go to the US, She agreed about this. I told her that it’s no place to raise children – your children are offered drugs by 9 year olds and they often start taking drugs at that age – it’s all around the schools.
– you can’t sit out on your porch because there’s somuch violence / someone said about the whole street being roped off and everyone brought in for questioning
– we talked about restrictive legislation – Bakke decision, no knock type bills, black legislators being persecuted
– she was very responsive to this
– we told about cooperative living being against the law – 5 unrelated adults and that’s how seniors or others can afford to live – to join together but the capitalist class doesn’t want anyone to make out ok – they want each to pay separate rents etc
– -we talked about our recent guests and how there was good publicity now about PT and admissions that there were former lies/ told her we’d give her an article when it comes from SF – a copy of the Sun reporter article/ told her about Mohammed Ali and Dick Gregory coming
– told her about one publication not putting out a slanderous article about PT because they were told we’d sue if they put out lies and they didn’t publish it and admitted they had been paid to lie
– we talked about the early days of this country – how the British and Dutch had divided the races by only giving assistance to East Indians and Portuguese in the sugar fields for East Indians and Portuguese to start their own businesses and the blacks were never helped. The East Indians went on the sugar plantations and survived well at this kind of work. The blacks didn’t do so well at this kind of work and tried to buy some land but they would even flood them out to try to discourage them/ the Indians brought more over and did even better in some cases than in their home country of India and they had a lot of children.
– she said that blacks don’t work as hard here as East Indians/ they used to be the majority in the schools but now you find mostly East Indian teachers and mostly East Indians in the colleges. And she said the East Indians give preferential treatment in the classes to East Indians
– we talked about Apanjot – she said that Chetty [Cheddi Jagan] did appeal to east Indians on that basis in trying to get power.
– I said that the PM had done everything possible to bring East Indians into the PNC gov and not to have people be judgmental of the east Indians like [Minister of Education Vincent] Teekah etc.
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D-2-I-1B
Doris Rogers pg 2
she agreed that it was good that PM said not to be judgmental and yet a few minutes later she said she didn’t trust anyone East Indian/ she seemed to feel that even if they were in the party – they would go for their own
– we talked about taking in Amerindians to our community
– she said that the govt had tried to do all they could for the Amerindians but they preferred to live in their own style/ that they let their children go for several years – they want to work when they want to work and they don’t want anyone telling them what to do and even if you help them like build a nice cottage like the govt did, they’ll just walk out of it and build a little shack like they’ve always done
– they make love and they like to be like children
– she said Dr [Ptolemy] Reid had adopted two little Amerindian children when they were very young and they liked him a lot and didn’t want to return to their former mother but she Doris said that you can’t tell/ one day they might just go back to their people and live the same old way
– I said don’t you think that environment makes the difference
– she said “no, it’s instinct, that’s what keeps them that way, instinct”
(I was boiling and Anita was getting pissed as hell too but we just tried to be real nice to her and not let her know we were pissed)
– she said some people have said it’s not really good to try to make people give up their style of life
– she said the Catholics exploited these Amerindians/ the Amerindians would get diamonds or fish or all kind of things and bring them to the Catholic prists and the prists would give them a few worn out clothes for the stuff, but she did say that the Catholics gave them some education
– she said the Amerindians don’t always settle down/ they’ll go back and forth to Venezuela or other places
– she went on and on about Amerindians as if this was her favorite subject of rationalization
– she said Reid loved the two girls and they loved him and they even call him daddy
– she said he went to the interior and saw a woman who had quite a few children and offered to take one – he felt his mother (she said mother, but may have meant wife) needed a companion as their son? had grown up. Then the mother came to town with some sick children and said she needed Reid to follow up on the medical care of another of her children and she left this girl and never came back for her and that was the 2nd girl. But now Doris thinks Reid has adopted the girls legally.
RE VENEZUELA:
– she said the President Perez of Venezuela is coming and his term of office is over soon. They expect a more rigid person to take his place so the PM is playing up to him as much as he can
– the Venezuelans haven’t ratified the protocol agreement again and so when I asked what happens if they take the disputed land, she said, there’s not much Guyana could do/ the Venezuelans already took ½ of an island and Guyana could do nothing.
– I said that one of our members was there for medical care and that the maps show that territory as Venezuelan and she agreed
RE IMF LOAN
– I asked her about this loan and what she thought about it/ she said that no-one likes it but there’s no alternative/ that people were surprised that after the PM’s trip to USSR that no money was offered from them (this seems to be a general brain-washing over this tho the Russians say it isn’t true that the loan is available)
– she said the consequences are quite stringent and that’s why everyone is upset because of the need to have savings – they have to tax and also there is something about NIS (National Insurance Scheme) payments going up to make more savings
– also there can be no more nationalization and those arguments that the Guyana govt made when the nationalized private business must be honored to the T – payments to the former businessmen
– she said you will have to teach people who their real enemy is – and they have to learn right now it’s survival (their real enemy is not surviving in other words)
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D-2-I-1C
Doris Rogers pg 3
– Doris says she has been to the US, but only to NY/ her children both are there but they act like or say it’s to study there (but the way she said this was as if they were probably going to stay there but were just saying they were there to study)
RE JAGAN: We were saying how JJ has turned around all the famous guests because Jagan is popularized around the world with progressives and she said yes that’s true and when I told her that JJ had turned them around, she said “good you gave them the correct idea” – and told her how JJ told guests that it was PM who nationalized when Jagan only talked about it/ how Mrs. Jagan was so cold and her policy of apanjot etc
– we were talking also of Durant and how we liked him as our new regional minister and she said he was in the PPP up until just a couple of years ago, maybe ’74. He was in Russia several times as that is where some of the PPP people are trained.
– -she said she didn’t think the Russians would help Guyana unless there was a unity govt between Jagan the [and] Burnham and we all believe in that but on what terms, that is the issue
– she said that Jagan follows the soviet’s line so carefully that he can’t always do what would be effective for Guyana/ he has a great loyalty to them and them to him/ he’s stuck by them over the years
– she said she loved Yugoslavia, a wonderful country and she thought DPRK was amazing also and that Kim II Sung had been with his people thru thick and thin for many years and whenever a factory opened he would be there to tell them what to do and help
– she said that the way to change people is not by violence but by education (we agreed with her on all this – that Yugoslavia was beautiful, and that they had found their own solution, independently from Russia and that education, not revolution was the way to change people)
– I asked her what her background is – she said she is born in Guyana/ her mother is black and her father Chinese/ her father was an indentured servant. She said there used to be a large Chinese community/ many who escaped from Red China because they didn’t like the system there but when Guyana went socialist, many of them left for Canada
– she said she had talked to the PM about us just this last week (she had talked to him and the subject of us came up) – she said he said he didn’t know much about us except what he’s heard from others. Dr Reid has talked about us to her and he’s very praise worthy about us and what we’ve done.
– I said I heard he was going to come up and visit in a month. She said that would be good and “I’m sure he will be going eventually”
(I have to end now as Tarik is going – this is about it)
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D-2-O-3A
Sharon Amos meeting with Kenneth Denny of Guyana Trade Union Congress (TUC), October 11, 1978
Sharon Amos
Cde. Denny visit to our house (Anita, Tim C., Sharon 11/10/78)
– we had asked him to visit a couple of weeks ago but he cancelled once and then the next time he didn’t show up but called today and said he had come by but it was a blackout and could he come tonight/ I said sure
– we showed him the Mark Lane Article in the Sun reporter/ he started to read it and said he would like more clippings to read
– we asked what was new with him/ TUC is in the process of taking a stand on a restaurant strike/ it was in the Citizen and he pointed it out to us. It’s a private restaurant, Chinese owner, and the people have been fired who were on strike and scabs have been hired and the TUC will take a stand and want the govt. to make it possible for any company or store etc. to be able to have a union.
– I said I was sorry that I had missed the TUC barbeque and that I heard it was quite successful and I knew he had been one of the organizers so it was to his credit to put on such a successful program.
– anyway in general I complemented him a lot about being someone we could talk to comfortably and his being such a lucid expounder of unionism and socialism etc. Tim C. made some mention of Marxist Leninism in regard to JJ but I said we weren’t necessarily marxist Leninists (PNC people are rarely Marxist Leninists and Denny said he hadn’t read Marx or Lenin so he couldn’t say he was one)
– he said he wasn’t religious and Tim explained how religion had been a transition for people which he didn’t oppose (but later I found he was no [not] unreligious – just meant he didn’t go to church) – but in a context that Tim and I put it about the Christianity in the bible helping people find both Christianity and socialism, he didn’t have much argument
– he asked what we did if someone got into a problem, anti-social behavior/ I told him we didn’t mind answering the question but it so often comes up, I had wondered if he had read any negative articles about us
– he claimed he hadn’t
– we talked a lot about PT – he wondered how we were motivated etc. We told him about the experience of living in a cooperative. How you get to know the real side of people without the sham and images. How people get more secure when they know they don’t have to play a game etc.
– he had the same misinformation about the IMF loan (unless the Russians were lying to me) – he said that no loan was available to Guyana from the USSR
– we talked about motivation in PT – how JJ has set an example/ how people feel involved in the process of decision making etc.
[handwritten note at bottom of page] Socialism is a safe word.
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D-2-J-1A
Sharon Amos meeting with Margaret Ackman, October 17, 1978
Sharon Amos
Margaret Ackman [member of Parliament, People National Congress] 17/10/78 (Jimmy Jr and Sharon Amos)
– chatted with her – she gave me a big hug and we laughed because we were almost dressed like twins/ both with a similar dress
– we were chatting about the guests we’ve had recently and Mark Lane and Mohammed Ali, and Dick Gregory
– I said I was worried JJ wouldn’t be able to come and meet M. Ali in town and how bad that would look – the whole bit
– she by the way wants to meet Ali so very bad/ wants to ask him about a donation for one of her projects for the needy
– by the way we started all this because she was telling me there had been a lot of gossip about her because she spent her vacation in the US during the referendum period (or right after) but the PM [Prime Minister Forbes Burnham] needed to get ahold of her for some vote and so he called all over the US trying to locate her and as people heard about it in Guyana that he was calling all over for her and it was the time when people were being exposed for frauds, some thought that was why the PM was calling for Margaret to come back
– she did come back for a vote and then told the PM that since she had to return, she still wanted to finish her vacation which he said he understood and she wanted the govt to pay for her ticket back, which he was very agreeable to
– but people talked about that too, said she was jetting around and living above the people
– I said that certainly was untrue as I’ve seen her house and it is very un-pretentious / it’s not in a fancy neighborhood at all, like Bel Air park, in fact it’s a simpler neighborhood than ours and it’s a small one story house – and all the people around know her
– she said “I know – and I could have a fancy house in Bel Air but I want to live with the people. And if they need me I’m right there.” (and that is how she is, quite accessible to people)
– She was upset about this and some set a rumor around that she had absconded or misused the funds in her welfare fund. But she doesn’t even know the amount of the funds, she doesn’t handle it. Her group had given her a vote of confidence (it was in the paper by the way – just as a vote of good work , not mentioning the rumors) and she said Dr. [Ptolemy] Reid had called her and told her not to be worried about the gossip and the PM too told her not to worry that they both had total faith in her etc.
– I told her that if anything ever happened to her, we’d be out and picket I told her JJ loved her very much/ she said “yes I know JJ cares about me.”
(somehow I felt that having gone thru what she did, she might be sympathetic to JJ and what we’ve gone thru) – so I told her about Grace [Stoen] and JJ trying to save the movement and Marcie [Marceline Jones] and the board meeting and asking him to relate to Grace – she said she understood that and knows what you have to do sometimes for a cause
– she said “no, you don’t mean that’s happening in Guyana”
– I told her that we’ve tried to get a paper so JJ could travel for medical care on humanitarian grounds and she said of course, he must go / I explained why we needed the paper/ how otherwise someone in immigration might stop him/ how the arrest order had been wrongly made at the time when PM, Reid and Mingo were out of the country
– she said I should talk to [Justice Minister Mohammed] Shahabadeen about this and surely he could arrange it on humanitarian grounds/ then she reconsidered and said she’d talk to him herself if I could get the details on a paper/ about the medical situation etc.
– I said I hope so as if something isn’t done, he’d die out in JT
– I said “I do hope you can come out and meet him before he dies. I said you wouldn’t believe how good he is until you meet him.” (she got upset about this and said Of course he’s too good a man to die) but she said we have no time right now first you get the paper and I’ll talk to [Justice Minister Mohammed] Shahabadeen (OVER)
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D-2-J-1B
and then I’ll come out there
– I said she could get Brigadeer Price [Brigadier General Clarence Price] to fly her out and she said of course she would come
Margaret Ackman 19/10/78
– I called her to see if she could come on the flight Friday and she said she didn’t know if she could make it as she’d have to say goodbye to the Venezuelan President and she didn’t know what time he was leaving
– I told her that someone had gone into JT from our GT headquarters and told JJ what Margaret had said/ I told her I had gone into all this on my own and he hadn’t known about it but he was very moved by what she had said and said to give her his love/ She said “you just made my day, how sweet”
– she said she told Chancellor [J.O.F.] Haynes about Ali coming to visit and he was very excited about it
– I asked if she had mentioned to Haynes about coming to dinner and she said she had and he said sure, I should call him.
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D-2-O-2A
Sharon Amos Meeting with Burnham aide Rashid, October 17, 1978
Cde Rashid (Aid to the PM) 17/10/78 Sharon Amos
– he said he hadn’t seen me for a long time but a couple of women had come by to see him. (think Debbie T [Touchette] and Terry Jones)
– told him about Mark Lane’s visit and all the publicity and showed him the article in the Sun Reporter – and told about Dr. [Carlton] Goodlett’s trip here. He said “The prime minister would have wanted to meet with him.” I said that I am sure he would have emjoyed meeting the PM but I had been surprised that he wasn’t given VIP treatment when we requested it as Ebony magazine mentioned him as one of the 50 most important black leaders in the US
– he said we should have contacted Kester Alves of the Public Relations Office as he makes the decision as to who the PM sees/ I told him I had never heard of this man but next time I’d do so as Mohammed Ali and Dick Gregory will be coming
– he said it would be good for Guyana if Mohammed Ali comes
[marginal notes: “Keep this [Kester Alves] in the code sheet/ Keep this name in our records!”]
– I told him it would be very good for Guyana but it’s kind of a problem since JJ is stuck in the interior and Mohammed Ali will expect JJ to meet him in Georgetown. He said why is JJ stuck. I told him it’s because of this court case.
– he said that wouldn’t be happening in Guyana. I said well this is confidential but Judge Aubry [Aubrey] Bishop delayed 8 mos. on the case and now he won’t act on it so it has to go to another judge and start all over again and JJ may have CA [cancer] and needs medical care and he can’t get it until the case is resolved or until he gets something in writing for humanitarian grounds stating he can leave the country and get back
– he said “well he should get his medical care
– I said that our guests from all over the world have said that it is rediculous that JJ doesn’t get medical care and they wonder if his human rights aren’t being neglected. [marginal note: “Too strong!”]
– I said we had defended Guyana to them but it did look kind of bad and would be very bad if [Jones] died in Jonestown and couldn’t get medical care
(I started to cry)
– I said that a French Film company is coming to film JT and many people now very reknoware realizing JT is a very important social experiment
– he said that he didn’t think the PM knew anything about this
– I said I’m sure he doesn’t and explained what happened once in the PM’s absence and Dr Reid and Mingo’s absence and I said that this wouldn’t have happened if they were in town and that’s why JJ needed something in writing because if he left the country and couldn’t get back in it would be a tragedy for all of us and for his children [marginal note: “Put wife in also – Wife and children”]
– he agreed and said that he didn’t think the PM could know about this (or it wouldn’t be happening) and he said he would talk to the PM,/ the PM is busy now but he will get to it
– he asked if we were going to sue (Mark Lane) – I said we wouldn’t want to embarrass Guyana – he said you should
– I said what about the IMF. I hope that isn’t a problem/he didn’t seem to know if the suit would embarrass Guyana or not
– I said if he could just get an answer for us one way or another – if we are a problem we’d like to know it/ if the IMF makes us a cause of problems, please let us know so we can deal with it
– he said I certainly don’t think so
– I invited him to JT/ said he was going on leave pretty soon and would like to spend a week in JT (he has a 2 week leave) – I said “sure”
(he’d be a good one to have out there. He’s ideologically more socialistic than many. He’s young and responsive and he does have the ear of the PM. It would be good for you to evaluate how he talks. I don’t know if he is fooled by the PM or just passive. He seems to have some principles. Does he have doubts about what’s going on or what. Is he in conflict??? I don’t think he’d try to do us any harm. He’s a very gentle kind of soul. I think surely he must be irritated by some things that go on in Guyana. I know he hates rumors.)
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D-2-O-2B
[Reverse side of receipt used as scratch paper]
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