{"id":27452,"date":"2013-06-16T00:20:15","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T00:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=27452"},"modified":"2020-12-30T15:04:45","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T23:04:45","slug":"q414","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=27452","title":{"rendered":"Q414 Transcript"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

To return to the Tape Index, click here.<\/a>
\nTo read the Tape Summary, click here<\/a>. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1<\/a>, Pt. 2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

(Note: <\/strong>This tape was transcribed by Jennifer Gibbons. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Side A<\/b><\/p>\n

(short garbled segment from earlier recording)<\/p>\n

Jones:<\/b> \u2013California, two to one in a referendum. A clear rightwing swing in terms of finance politics. It means a cut (Tape edit) of seven billion dollars in funding for welfare, poor people\u2019s needs, in terms of medical care, job opportunities. One of our own people\u2019s job will be discontinued, Reverend [Guy] Young. This is a serious blow to reform measures and the beginning of a nationwide tax revolt. It was also passed in New Jersey. (Tape edit) [Howard] Jarvis, a neo-fascist, former newspaper publisher, who goes way beyond the definition of ultraconservative. After his success in California, he\u2019s going to take a sweeping tour of the nation to set precedents for other such tax revolts as Proposition 13. Urban decay will remain. The\u2013 The brunt of the attack is racist in tone, aimed at minorities, black, Indian, and Chicano. It passed, as I said, two<\/i> to one, and means a seven billion dollar loss of revenue for welfare, for health care, for housing, for job opportunities, for the poor and minorities in California.<\/p>\n

Chemical warfare plans have been renewed, based on some type of propaganda that a few years ago, Soviet too, uh\u2013 Soviet troops and Soviet tank maneuvers in Israeli activities\u2013 actions when the Israel war with Arabs was completed many years ago, they found the Soviet tank, apparently, with defensive equipment to resist nerve gas warfare and a canister<\/i> of nerve gas.<\/p>\n

Now US propaganda is incredible. That was many many years ago. Why now all the ballyhoo? Why are we trying to whip up the mood in USA, and they succeeded, to pronounce that chemical warfare will be used against the Soviets in Europe. And of course, the Soviet Union responded that they had no plans. They will have to undergo the same extensive revamping of their military to prepare for chemical warfare with the Soviet\u2013 with the USA. These chemicals are known for a paralysa [paralysis], blinding, and slow and tortuous death.<\/p>\n

Disarmament talks are still being hindered by [Jimmy] Carter\u2019s own obstinance [obstinacy] over his resentment of Soviet efforts towards the Black Liberation movements in Africa.<\/p>\n

One historian compares man\u2019s stages in development to eight hundred lifetimes. Nearly eight hundred of those lifetimes would\u2019ve been spent in the caveman stage. Only six<\/i> lifetimes out of the eight hundred have involved the printed word. Two, the electric motor stage, and one-half of the material goods, the scientific developments of the world have occurred in one quarter of only one lifetime, if you were to divide human history into eight hundred lifetimes. (Tape edit) The atomic bomb has come in one-tenth<\/i> of one lifetime, out of the eight hundred. One eight hundred thousandth of man history\u2013 man\u2019s history has been devoted to atomic, nuclear, chemical, interstellar and outer stellar warfare. Says it does not speak well, said the BBC science symposium, of man\u2019s possible survival through the nuclear age.<\/p>\n

The Japanese are in a struggle with the Soviet Union over the Kuril Islands. Both are making claim to those island chains, and the Soviet Union have began war maneuver practices on the islands, so the Japanese, who have been a peace-loving people since the destruction of two of their major cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki\u2013 I mean, the populace<\/i> that is. Its government is very pro-Western, imperialist<\/i>. But the Japanese did have a constitution that would not even allow people in their fighting forces to be call\u2013 called soldiers<\/i>. They had defense laws in their constitution that forbid any<\/i> Japanese soldier or member of their security forces to be transported abroad. But now with U.S. imperialism\u2019s new efforts in Central Africa, the Japanese are changing their constitution to allow the use of Japanese fighting forces in this monstrous aggression of monopoly capitalism, U.S. imperialism, in the Trilateral Commission, in the core of Africa, in Zaire. Until the constitution is changed, the prime minister [Takeo Fukuda] is bending the law by allowing Japanese security forces to serve as medical and transport workers in the new aggressive efforts in Africa. (Pause)<\/p>\n

Birth deformities are noted throughout Australia due to the pesticide heroxin\u2013 dioxin. Particularly when fields are burned, it turns it into a dangerous pesticide that has been causing six<\/i> times the birth defects of the normal world population.<\/p>\n

Five hundred million pounds in revenue have been cut off by a populist movement in Britain, also of a rightwing and racist nature, to reduce taxes, forcing the British government to have to borrow from U.S. imperialism\u2019s World Bank and IMF to offset its defi\u2013 its deficit that could lead to bankruptcy in the British Isles. As you know, there\u2019s an extreme<\/i> rightwing movement now of the Labor Government of Prime Minister [James] Callaghan in England, or Britain, or United Kingdom is in serious difficulty, as the Liberal Party has withdrawn its support that had made up the coalition Labor government. And the polls show that the next government will be the conservative<\/i> government of Margaret Thatcher, racist, who has called for the banning of all<\/i> black and Indian immigrants into<\/i> Africa\u2013 that\u2019s why the Guyana constitution referendum has as part of its change that Commonwealth nations will no longer automatically get Guyanese citizenship. Furthermore, Margaret Thatcher, speaking of expatriation, repatriation, of all people of\u2013 of color, an open racist move, as was the California victory for Proposition 13. Jarvis has long been known as one of the most anti-black members of the legislature, and a reactionary newspaper publisher.<\/p>\n

Joshua Nkomo in Zaire [Zimbabwe] proudly says, \u201cYes, we have Cuban advisors\u201d helping his forces of the Patriotic Front in Zambia. And he said, \u201cI have Soviet aid.\u201d He said the Soviet Union and the Cuban people have been the only assistance that Africa could depend upon. There was always a hypocritical reason for western imperialism to be involved in Africa. Bilk\u2013 Billions of dollars of profits for the ruling white classes of USA. Zambia is being brought under great pressure, President [Kenneth David] Kaunda, has been forced to meet with the dictator of Zaire, Mobutu [Sese Seko] to discuss security problems of the border, and to give certain guarantees to the new Pan African intervention force headed by US imperialism and its lackeys: Belgium, Britain, France and the Federal Republic of neo-Nazi West Germany. As you know, African puppet dictators have been utilizing their citizens such as [L\u00e9opold S\u00e9dar Senghor, president of] Senegal, and King Hassan of Morocco, which is a dread dictatorship, has also been using its<\/i> troops, but it\u2019s being spread (Unintelligible word, sounds like \u201crather\u201d or \u201cwafer\u201d) thin, in that 30,000 Moroccan troops are trying to stop the African liberation taking place in West Sahara, where 25 million people have died due to CIA intervention and experimentations with weather. And the Mauritanian government, a reactionary regime, is tottering, and it had to be sustained by some of these 30,000 Moroccan troops. Morocco is in real trouble in its economy. It depends on one product: phosphate. And the world market price of phosphate has dropped from 68 dollars per pound to 11 dollars.<\/p>\n

Continue with the\u2013 the\u2013 with the news:<\/p>\n

It looks like [Evelle] Younger slipped through a reactionary to promise to be the governor of California. [Ed] Davis almost made it, and uncertainly\u2013 with certainty would make it another time, but due to the interest of the people and the reactionary Proposition 13 Jarvis amendment, Younger slipped through. He supported Proposition 13, and is known for his corrupt police state tactics and rightwing perspective. He far out distances [Edmund \u201cJerry\u201d] Brown at the poll. But it really makes little difference, as we now find that Edmund Brown, so-called young populist governor of California, is involved in Indonesian oil scandals with his father [Edmund \u201cPat\u201d Brown] in the corrupt fascist state of Suharto. They\u2019ve been involved in the national Indonesian oil scheme, making profits, while five hundred thousand \u2013 a half million citizens of Indonesia \u2013 have been murdered by the state. Thousands will be unemployed, according to BBC, in the Bay Area alone, due to the passage of Proposition 13. Throughout the state, it would mean loss of employment in California for conservatively five hundred thousand people.<\/p>\n

Australia is in Europe, angered by competitive practices of the remaining imperialist capitalist nations, saying that European capitalists and American capitalists are looking after themselves. And Australia is there, demanding a bigger export market in Europe. Britain\u2019s response and Germany was they will expect very little guarantees to be given to Australia, who has not cooperated sufficiently with NATO in its new aggressive designs in Africa.<\/p>\n

President Carter will be conducting a major USA\/Soviet policy speech in Ann\u2013 Annapolis, Maryland, Naval Academy where he graduated some years ago.<\/p>\n

Soviet missiles have been placed around Haiphong in Vietnam to protect them against the renegade mainland Chinese imperialist designs. Chinese Foreign Minister [Huang Hua] is still in Zaire, working out details for Chinese aid and military assistance.<\/p>\n

USA showing\u2013 exhibiting the contradictions of capitalism, is quite nerved [nervous] over the prospects of actual Chinese troops, but if Zaire is to be maintained in its oppressive hold over the peoples who have been demanding liberty so long, like the Katangan people, who\u2019ve been forced to live in caves until their last liberation effort, Chinese troop assistance will be necessary. That\u2019s why the USA is seeking Japanese troops, because they trust the Japanese a little<\/i> more because they\u2019re capitalist. Yet there\u2019re great fears and distrust against the Japanese, because they are not white.<\/p>\n

US and Soviet relations, according to world opinion, have de\u2013 de\u2013 deteriorated to the lowest point since the [Josef] Stalin era, over events in Africa. President Carter will address the nation with his new Soviet policy changes at his speech in Annapolis.<\/p>\n

The CIA has been given a blank check. Its budget requests are unknown to the American public, but both the Congress and the Senate, in a new rightwing move, have put to sleep all their fears of the CIA and given them carte blanche opportunities to bilk the American public, the taxpayer dollars to conduct their cloak-and-dagger murder operations abroad. As Doctor Ptolemy Reid, our good friend, the Deputy Prime Minister, head of the PNC, has stated, \u201cThe CIA is again about its murderous business in the Caribbean and particularly in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Callaghan, (Pause) Prime Minister of England, Britain or the United Kingdom, said the Cold War has begun all over again, because primarily a., the Soviet military buildup in Europe, (Tape edit) b., Soviet and Cuban intervention in assisting African liberation effork\u2013 efforts. He particularly is concerned over Europe, which he said is a highly<\/i> volatile area that could lead to nuclear confrontation and war at any time. Three, he said, Soviet in violation of human rights, was the next major reason for the beginning of a new Cold War between the Soviet Union and USA and NATO, its puppet allies.<\/p>\n

The human rights question has been a whipping boy by the US administration for some time. However, little is said about the denial of human rights to tens of thousands of black people and Indians, who are jobless and being framed in prisons every day. Ninety percent of the jails and prisons of the USA are filled with Indians and blacks.<\/p>\n

Great ballyhoo in US press and the new Cold War frenzy is now being held about the trial of Alexander Ginzburg, noted rightwing proponent of Zionism. He will be tried in (Unintelligible name, sounds like \u201cKaluga\u201d), for anti-Soviet propaganda and organizing conspiratorial dissent against the Soviet government. U.S. scientist educational tours, all governmental summer tours, have been canceled, that is, their planned visits to the Soviet Union, in protest. That includes Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare of the USA\u2019s [Secretary Joseph] Califano\u2019s high-level visit that had been planned. Worst strain in relations, says The<\/i> Chicago Tribune<\/i>, that has ever been known in Soviet\/US relations. Twenty more Soviet dissenters, as the US capitalist radio calls it, have been jailed. The Soviet Union charged they have arrested twenty of their citizens who were involved in CIA activities to try to subvert the Soviet government. They\u2019re being held in pretrial detention.<\/p>\n

Anwar Sadat comes out in a very aggressive stance today and says he will not hesitate to send Egyptian troops to Israel, if Israel doesn\u2019t come off of its high horse and its Zionist aggression and accept the peace approach that has been agreed upon. It\u2019s the first hint of war by him in several years. He said, \u201cWe will not give one inch of our land to the Zionists expansionists.\u201d [He] Demands return of the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Israel is equally adamant that none of this conquered territory by the Israeli aggressive actions will be returned.<\/p>\n

United States Defense Secretary [Harold] Brown pressuring the American people\u2013 it doesn\u2019t seem too much effort to do that, in that Congress passes a CIA budget not knowing how big it is, it\u2019s bigger than the budget for the State Department and several other departments included, but neither the Congress or the Senate even looked<\/i> at the budget and just gave a blank check to it. So U.S. Secretary Brown, reactionary Secretary of Defense, says Turkey\u2019s essential to NATO. He demands that the arms embargo be lifted because in the past Turkey had used the arms in aggressive actions against the Cypriots. But this little clause is being withdrawn from US policy. He said if Turkey withdrew from NATO, it could have severe consequences. Callaghan says this is a very bad precedent for USA to stop\u2013 to start giving aid to countries that\u2019ve been known<\/i> to use weapons aggressively. But it looks as if Congress will lift the three and a half year ban on Turkish arms supplies.<\/p>\n

Alexander Haig \u2013 noted rightwing general, chief advisor under [former president Richard] Nixon, now administrator\u2013 chief administrator, chief of staff of NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Or\u2013 Organization \u2013 says that Turkey is the bedrock anchor of the southern flank of NATO\u2019s military designs on Europe, and to contain the Soviet Union. In referring to a phrase that had left\u2013 left the rhetoric vernacular of USSR and USA\/Soviet uh, relations, the Soviet and American relations, General Haig said, if we do not respond to the Turkish people and government to give them military aid, there are more (Unintelligible word) of supplies waiting them on the other side on the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain as a phrase had gone out with [Sen. Joseph] McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Carter has gone back on plans to reduce naval efforts. He\u2019s going to increase the Navy force \u2013 Polaris nuclear missiles, submarines\u2013 submarine force, the naval force \u2013 will be increased by some 300 large vessels, mostly including destroyers, and mobile missile-carrying vessels. Soviets could not be confident now, he said, of a quick conventional victory because of the placement of chemical warfare ability on the part of US imperialist in Europe.<\/p>\n

Now he said if the Soviets attempt the conventional efforts in Europe, there\u2019ll be an escalation to tactical \u2013 at least one stage \u2013 tactical chemical warfare, then strategic warfare. But Prime Minister Callaghan in Britain said it is insane<\/i> to think that all of these stages won\u2019t lead ultimately to nuclear war. (tape edit)<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister [Andrei] Gromyko of the Soviet U\u2013 Soviet Union said all the blocks to SALT talks have not been resolved. Final re\u2013 approval requires a number of meetings. He said, there\u2019s apparently no rush by the United States to speed up agreements in strategic arm limitation talks, which the Soviet Union considers essential to avoid nuclear war. He said the Soviet\/American controversy in Africa has no way of being resolved, because the Soviet Union is pledged to support the liberation efforts of the black struggling peoples in Africa. It is very clear: the Soviet Union interprets the USA, as The Washington Post <\/i>also did, as being guilty of stalling maneuvers and freezing all<\/i> efforts to bring about nuclear disarmament.<\/p>\n

Tanzania, a close friend of Guyana \u2013 in fact it was after Tanzania that the Guyana national service was modeled \u2013 attacks the USA in blistering terms, calling it an effort of US imperialism to turn Africa back into banana republics and a vicious form of neo-US stra\u2013 US western colonialism. The attack appeared in the Tanzanian Daily News<\/i>. Criticism even was aimed at US imperialism by Lib\u2013 Liberia, and that government had been a moderate nation of former US slaves that had settled back in Africa, and always been known for its support for USA. But he said\u2013 said Liberia president [William R. Tolbert, Jr.] (Tape edit) trying to dictate, or trying to determine the future of the African people.<\/p>\n

Luxemburg talks include France, Britain, West Germany, US and Belgium. The discussion of the dollar that is demoralizing many investors, particularly the OPEC oil rich nations and discussions of Africa will be taking place 16 out of the next 24-hour days for the rest of the week.<\/p>\n

French idea development fund to try to support uh, an\u2013 an international development fund to try to support the European Common Market economies that\u2019re in very difficult situation. Western imperative said the French to develop mechanisms to in\u2013 insure the maintenance of capitalism in Europe and the peaceful development of capitalism in Africa to stabilize the efforts of\u2013 or destabilize<\/i> the efforts of the Cubans and the Soviet Union to bring about liberation in Africa. Even Liberia, as I said, was very<\/i> critical of superpower invention\u2013 intervention. [Ugandan leader] Idi Amin said, oh, he wanted a Pan-African army. He welcomed the savages from USA to come to the heart of Africa. He made a pun of it. He said, USA will not be able to again dominate African affairs. (Tape edit)<\/p>\n

Peking is building up its own defenses more rapidly than ever against what they say is sure<\/i> to be a Soviet nuclear retaliation. It appears that Chinese foreign policy is aimed at this very thing. In their chauvinism, they are attempting to bring the USA and the USSR into conflict. and feel because of their large population that they will inherit the world after<\/i> the nuclear dust settles. Prime Minister Huang Hua [Foreign Minister] says the Soviet Union is the most dangerous source of war. Accuses the USSR of military aggression and imperialistic expansion in Africa. China thinks the US is not interested in fighting the African conflict, and is looking to Third World nations and China to do their dirty work. China obviously has some conscience but a very imperialistic foreign policy, and a very dangerous<\/i> one.<\/p>\n

The Warsaw Pact is fighting the frightening increase of NATO imperialism, was the issue of Warsaw Pact. USSR has superiority in nuclear arms and navy warfare potential and in outer space war, said General Haig. Stalin would\u2019ve cheered loudly the recent developments, says General Haig. Stalin never did believe that the Soviet Union could live peacefully with US imperialism and its lackeys.<\/p>\n

Thus ends the major points of the news. That news is not particularly pleasant, but that is the news as it is. Now we will discuss for a moment how economists juggle statistics. Remember, our interest will show whether we have a test this evening. Remember, women\u2019s rev\u2013 revolutionary socialist movement, seven thirty, and the men\u2019s liberation movement at seven thirty. Then a joint meeting following. Let us not have testing. We will show that by our interest. There will be tests over current events and news this week, as all of us are entering college stage, and we all want to show our knowledge of world events, because it\u2019s knowledge that enables people to be free.<\/p>\n

The first inclination of learning that bourgeoisie economists are having a debate over statistics is to suppress a yawn and move on to more stimulating<\/i> matters. But a seemingly esoteric quarrel with the Bureau of Labor Statistics in USA (Tape edit) over how unemployment should be measured rests on much more, as we shall see. The argument surfaced not long ago with an article in the Morgan Guarantee Survey. Morgan is one of the rich families like DuPont, Rockefeller, I.G. Farben that made all the gas ovens to destroy Jews, blacks, and browns, that control imperialism in its final stages as it moves into a fascist mentality through the Trilateral Commission. As I said, the argument surfaced in an article recently in the Morgan Guarantee Survey, a business advice house organ of one of the most powerful finance capital groups in the world, the Morgan Guarantee Trust Company. The article by Richard Nixon\u2019s one time Commissioner of [Labor] Statistics, Geoffrey Moore, declares that there is fuller<\/i> employment in the U.S. today, despite the official 7.4\u2013 seven\u2013 nearly seven and a half percent rate, of unemployment, than there was in earlier so-called full employment years, such as 1947 to \u201948 and 1951 to \u201953, when the official unemployment rate then was under four percent.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s look at how capitalist economist juggle their statistics: (Tape edit) The basis for this argument is a new indicator now employed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the former indicator emphasized the number of unemployed, the new<\/i> measure focuses on positive thinking \u2013 religiosity is in every phase of capitalism, mystical diversion \u2013 and it calculates the number of unemployed, the\u2013 the number of employed. The new yardstick determines the ratio of employment, as a percentage of the entire working age<\/i> \u2013 that is 16 and older \u2013 of the population. According to the new indicator, the total number of people holding jobs in this year \u2013 spring \u2013 made up about 55 percent<\/i> of the entire working age population. But in those earlier boom years when, for all practical purposes, full employment was deemed to have been achieved, the job holders constituted only 53<\/i> percent of the total working age population in USA. In other words, only half of those who can work in USA have employment, whereas in the socialist countries such as Cuba, the Soviet Union, and the quasi-socialist nation of Sweden, you have nearly full<\/i> employment. It is falling in Sweden, but there\u2019s absolutely total<\/i> employment in the Soviet Union and Cuba.<\/p>\n

Ergo, e-r-g-o, concludes Moore, if those were full employment years, and jobs per capita were the criterion, we have fuller<\/i> employment now than we did then. Not surprisingly, a number of hard-nosed economists (clears throat) such as Federal Reserve Board Chief Arthur F. Burns and Herbert Stein, one-time chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for Nixon\u2019s administration, thinks this is a great way to look at things, for it can be demonstrated that present day employment is really the invention of the \u201cI won\u2019t work\u201d malcontents and bleeding heart liberals. (Tape edit) Then there is little reason for government measures to aid the unemployed or to promote jobs, because really the \u201cI Work\u201d\u2013 \u201cI Won\u2019t Work\u201d syndrome of blacks and browns, the bigotry of finance capitalism, excuses themself by saying it\u2019s just that blacks and brown people are shiftless and lazy.<\/p>\n

Behind this rests a much more fundamental set of premises which these gentlemen share with the rest of their class<\/i>. Wages are too high, worker productivity is too low, worker fringe benefits are too costly, and society is doing too much to cushion the hardships of being out of work so that the unemployed have gotten too<\/i> choosy about the jobs they\u2019ll accept. That\u2019s the reason for the reactionary fascist moves, such as the passage of Proposition 13, cutting back on funds, reduction of property taxes for major industries. Oh, how ignorant the Californian populace is to fall for such foolishness.<\/p>\n

There is of course nothing new in the above. The corporate board of directors that doesn\u2019t subscribe to this view has not yet been discovered. After all, since it is in their<\/i> interest to think this way, it should hardly come as a surprise that they would articulate their self-interest in the form of self-serving truisms. In order to understand the capitalist, which is almost now fascist bourgeoisie outlook, however, we must go beyond the immediate dollars and cents questions. Capital always wants to reduce cost and increase<\/i> profits. That goes without saying. But the key<\/i> to this consists in putting the crunch on the working<\/i> class as a whole so that the actual living situation of the workers will make them so<\/i> desperate that they will be forced<\/i> to accept employment under conditions completely controlled by the employers.<\/p>\n

How does all this square with the fact that a greater percentage of the population is holding down jobs today than ever before (Tape edit) including in times of full employment? Bourgeoisie capitalist economists, although they describe it differently, think that four percent and less is full employment, because under those<\/i> conditions, the labor force or the labor reserve is too small to operate effectively as a break on working class demands<\/i>, even though millions and millions, even at four percent, would be unemployed in USA.<\/p>\n

There is more involved here than playing with numbers. True, some bourgeoisie economists see the value in disguising the real em\u2013 unemployment picture for the reasons stated above. This is why the official figures are always so low. But if a higher<\/i> proportion of the population is actually employed than in the earlier periods, doesn\u2019t this prove that, far from declining, capitalism is actually making progress in solving its problems. Actually, it proves the contrary. It proves what [Karl] Marx said a long time ago: that despite certain superficial phenomena, which seemed to show the contrary, the conditions of the working class in the USA and all capitalist nations as a whole under monopoly capitalism becomes increasingly worse and severe. (Tape edit) The real question that must be answered is this: Why has the percentage of workers in the population increased? Is it because more people have become enthralled with the idea of spending eight to ten hours a day working in a modern factory under mind-deadening noise and life-shortening conditions? Have more people voluntarily entered the labor force because of new career opportunities? The absurdity<\/i> of such questions is self-evident.<\/p>\n

What has really happened in monopoly capitalism as it leads to the road to finance capitalist imperialism in the last stage, senile capitalism, open fascism. What has really happened? The real income, or to put it another way, the actual purchasing power of millions of working class families, has gone down. The general inflationary trend \u2013 the cost of living, that is \u2013 and the wider variety of necessities of modern life have outpaced<\/i> worker earnings. The latest Consumer Price Index figures for last month show along with a\u2013 a one point eight percent jump in prices, a three<\/i> percent drop in consumer purchasing power. On a annual basis, that will amount to a 36 percent decline in real income for the average worker in USA. At the end of this year, the US worker will be able to buy only 44<\/i> percent\u2013 or 54 percent\u2013 of what it did in January beginning this year. His dollar will only be worth 54 cents, and yet his wages won\u2019t have gone up.<\/p>\n

But do not workers today have a higher standard of living than their parents? They own automobiles, refrigerators, washing machines, don\u2019t they? Doesn\u2019t this make life easier and better? First of all for the average industrial worker in USA, an automobile is not a luxury, it is a necessity<\/i>. And where both husband and wife are working, two cars are even needed often. Without them, they could not get to work<\/i>. The fact is that today there are more working wives than ever before, because millions of working-class families cannot survive on the income of one worker alone. Public service transportation is fought by the multinational corporations that have been bleeding Africa and set up the dread concentration camps in Union of South Africa, like Ford, Chrysler, and all the big name car companies, because they<\/i> don\u2019t want public service transportation that would cut down on profits. They want to burden the back of the workers, even if it means asphyxiating then, causing early do\u2013 deaths with cancer, uh\u2013 other diseases related to the chemicals, the carbons in the air. And so a car is essential<\/i>, because there is no free public transportation or low cost public transportation. And with wives in the workforce, such things as refrigerators, washing machines, television sets, the automatic baby-sitter, fast foods and the like become a part of the necessary daily routine of family life, totally tied to social production for capitalist gain. (Tape edit)<\/p>\n

Number two. The disintegration of family life itself, a reflection of the general social crisis, immorality of capitalism, has brought into being a new phenomena: The single parent family. This single parent is usually a woman, and being the sole source of the support now for her children, she has to work often two jobs. (Tape edit) The breakup of the plantation system in the South has thrown millions<\/i> of black families off the land, transforming them from a class of semi-feudal peasant slaves tied to the land into proletarian \u2013 that is, workers \u2013 who have entered into industry in massive numbers.<\/p>\n

The economic effect of US economic imperialism in the Caribbean and Latin America has served to deform or destroy the agricultural base for millions<\/i> of people, large numbers of whom have had to move to the United States seeking employment. Among these people, a significant portion of whom are here without legal papers, starvation wages makes it necessary for all<\/i> members of the family to seek work and live in fear that they\u2019ll be arrested for not having proper papers. So in both absolute and relative terms, there are more<\/i> people working for wages today than ever before. But all this proves is that the actual situation of the mass of workers, the proletariat, today is worse<\/i> in USA than it has been before. The average working-class family cannot get by on one income anymore, as they used to even ten years ago. And so both husband and wife are absolutely obliged to sell their labor power to the capitalist class \u2013 the wife invariably at a much lower rate due to male chauvinism, than the husband \u2013 and thereby further reproduce the very conditions of their exploitation and enslavement to the bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n

Are wages higher than they used to be? They seem to be. But keep in mind that the actual working life of most workers is shorter than it used to be, to a great extent because the intensity of modern production burns workers out earlier. Actually, life expectancy is dropping<\/i> in USA. As a result, the income earning years must serve to cover many more years in which fixed pensions, Social Security, and the like keep retired workers barely above the subsistence level and not always<\/i> above it either. And now there\u2019s talk with the new reactionary move such as the Jarvis Proposition 13 bill that passed, that they will also ban Social Security, and then people will have nothing to retire on.<\/p>\n

What becomes obvious after a while is that the myth of high wages must be contrasted with forced overtime, high rates of absenteeism, total annual income, layoffs, absenteeism, non-job related illnesses, all serve to reduce a worker\u2019s annual income. Family purchasing power and lifetime income is thus reduced. When put in this context, Marx\u2019 statement on the absolute impoverishment of the working class does<\/i> not seem to be so at odds with reality, as some have claimed in USA propaganda.<\/p>\n

All this is important not merely to refute the bourgeoisie propaganda, such as the nonsense now being peddled about full employment, which does not exist. More to the point is that the working class in USA itself must be disabused of these self-same illusions. They must and can<\/i>\u2013 they can<\/i> be brought to understand not<\/i> to confuse brief periods of relatively high<\/i> income for some<\/i> with the permanent deterioration of their conditions as workers. For instance, there\u2019s an increase in the middle class\u2013 the upper middle class amongst blacks, but equally 40 percent of the blacks are now living in substarvation conditions, in poverty, as opposed to only 25<\/i> percent ten years ago. Such an understanding is indispensable if the working class is to learn the objective limitations on its ability to improve its lot within the prevailing class relations of capitalism in its senile monopoly stage. It is only when the working class learns that it must change its class position vis-\u00e0-vis the bourgeoisie that it must take away from the bourgeoisie its economic and political power, that the working class can become in life the revolutionary class it now is only in potential, and a very poor potential with the apathy and despair that exist in USA today.<\/p>\n

Thus ends commentary and news. Thank you, and all my love.<\/p>\n

\n

Part II<\/b><\/p>\n

(Burst of sound) \u2013to complain about. (Silence for 10 minutes)<\/p>\n

Jones: <\/b>(reduced tape speed). Jimmy, please come to (Unintelligible word) please. Jimmy, please come to (Unintelligible word) please.<\/p>\n

Silence for another moment.<\/p>\n

Jones: <\/b>(speaking on tape recorded at slightly faster speed) Attention. I would like to announce that we are in order to arrange for children to have eggs. All children through junior high to have eggs two times a week. There will be adjustments on the (Unintelligible word). I will announce later when you will get your eggs, but if you\u2019re used to getting eggs three times, four times a day [week], it will just be three (Unintelligible) three times a week (Unintelligible word). So please don\u2019t cause any problems with the kitchen if you get fewer eggs than you want, because we\u2019re going to give our children eggs two times a week. Thank you.<\/p>\n

Silence, picks back up back to speed.<\/p>\n

\n

Part III<\/b><\/p>\n

Jones:<\/b> (normal speed) (Unintelligible word) Thus ends the news, and we will see you after your discussion. We are glad to welcome our new family, we give them cheers, they\u2019ve just arrived from our boat. Let\u2019s give them cheers of welcome.<\/p>\n

Crowd:<\/b> (Cheers, applause)<\/p>\n

(Tape edit)<\/p>\n

Jones:<\/b> Uh\u2013 They should be briefed about the necessary security, no bearing messages, giving messages to anyone privately, by orders\u2013<\/p>\n

Woman in crowd:<\/b> Be quiet.<\/p>\n

Jones: \u2013<\/b>by orders of the foreign minister [likely former minister Fred Wills, could be Rashleigh E. Jackson], no receiving of messages, or bearing of letters or tapes. You have perhaps lost contact with what\u2019s happening in USA. Even in the last few hours, USA is showing its ugly fascist character openly, not even secretly anymore. The renegade Chinese who join them in their military aggressiveness and imperialist designs, and the world hangs on the very thread, right on the brink of nuclear hell.<\/p>\n

We have to have structure here because we have had this land attacked, the enemy has died on this soil, none of us have been lost. We have lost no blood\u2013 or no life, we lost some blood, but no life. We know that they plan mercenary actions against us. We\u2019re capable of resisting and overcoming without a shadow of a doubt, but we do have to have structure, because our enemy is highly, highly organized. Uncle Tom sellouts and Judases like [Tim] Stoen working for racist lynch mob rulers like Senator [John] Stennis and the CIA. The deputy prime minister Ptolemy Reid of this country says the CIA is back in\u00a0 full<\/i> bloom doing all of its cloak and dagger work once again in the Caribbean and in Africa. We are free<\/i> here. We have something to fight for, something to live for, and if necessary, something to die for.<\/p>\n

Crowd:<\/b> (Cheers, applause)<\/p>\n

Jones: <\/b>We are sorry about crowding. We do have all of the food we can eat, the best of medical care, and the miracle of a little baby [Martin Luther Smith] today, Ollie\u2019s and Eugene [Smith]. It should\u2019ve been born dead, strangled with its own umbilical cord around the neck and twice around the body, three times in all. Every day there\u2019s a miracle here, like the baby that was dying last night, impediment for its breathing, hours the medical team, which is the best of the world, the moment I walked in, the impediment was removed. Just the presence of one dimension of socialism confined only to this body.<\/p>\n

We have a miracle of a thousand strong to fight for you. When people have been threatened to be removed by courts, by police, we\u2019ve said no, and each time, we\u2019ve gotten our people free. Our unity is our strength<\/i>. We are unfortunately more security conscious, we have to do inspections, and have more structure than we will one day, when all of our people are free and here. Then the biggest enemy we have (Pause) is removed. We won\u2019t have to fight on two and three fronts.<\/p>\n

Welcome to Jonestown. I love you. I\u2019ll protect you. But I do ask that there be no anarchy. Tomorrow, your day off, you\u2019ll be briefed why we have our rules, ask any question you want, bring any criticism about anything to our face, but no criticism behind our backs. That is not to be tolerated. You can come under now if you wish. Now go ahead with your meeting, brothers and sisters, comrades of this Marxist-Leninist community, the purest form of socialism in the world. I love you.<\/p>\n

Woman in the crowd:<\/b> Everybody be quiet, and get back to at the meeting!<\/p>\n

Jones:<\/b> Get back in the meeting, take care of your responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\n

Part 4:<\/b><\/p>\n

Jones:<\/b> \u2013more inspired<\/i> that something can happen to resist and to pay back the tyrants for their infamy against the poor people and the working class of the world. In fact, the events predicted by the French communist that has stimulated other Western European governments likewise to justify strengthening of the repressive apparatus, has<\/i> been done, but it\u2019s called for division<\/i> in the European Common Market, and one member of NATO, as even England is saying that Carter is acting like a man ill-informed about Africa and is entirely too aggressive. Now that [Aldo] Moro has been slain, said the French communist revisionist, these efforts will be further<\/i> encouraged, and here is the real reactionary essence of it. A significant section of the masses will be sympathetic to and even supportive of such measures, and this is understandable<\/i>, said the communist revisionist of France, but repression will take place everywhere.<\/p>\n

It sounds like these apologists, gradualists who believe in working in the parliamentary or legal system of capitalism to bring change are really afraid. They\u2019re comfortable, and their convenience has blinded them to the fact that Lenin said revolution does<\/i> take place by violent means, and that Mao said, in interpretation, not revisionism, that all change must come out of the barrel of the gun. But the French communist revisionist go on: None of this action will be confined to the bourgeoisie in its governmental form. The state of anarchy which the terrorist seem intent upon producing, provides the most fertile ground for the proliferation, the spreading and legitimization of rightwing neo-fascist groups who can also gain a measure of support among the masses as a result.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s time that people decide on which side they\u2019re on, would be the state of most people\u2019s consciousness. A world that is even uh, by one of the puppets of USA, Prime Minister Callaghan of England, standing\u2013 or barely\u2013 barely holding on to the edge of the brink of nuclear hell. It\u2019s time people decide whether they are revisionist, communist, or renegades of fascism monopoly capitalism, would be our answer. All this is readily apparent and perhaps is the political intention of the Red Brigades, to bring about a state of unrest under the long-since discredited theory \u2013 I don\u2019t know, that\u2019s just a French apologist that say that \u2013 that even stronger dose of political reaction is required to realize the revolutionary potential of the masses. I think one has to strongly weigh<\/i> when you take such acts of violence, but it certainly has had a very open and obvious effect in breaking up the entrenchments (unintelligible under radio) Italy. If such is the case, the terrorist (unintelligible under radio), said the French apologist. The open naked terror of the most reactionary sector of monopoly capital, which is the political essence of fascism, can hardly be in the long term, let alone immediate, interest of the masses. I think it can<\/i> be, if it causes them to wake up and quit going on with the sell-out policies. Under such circumstances, their organizations, their trade unions, their political parties and revolutionary leadership are smashed<\/i> and decimated. German and Italian fascism of the 30s, after all, effectively<\/i> suppressed revolution while intensifying the exploitation of the working class and visiting untold horrors on the masses of the people. Yet have the French revisionist communist forgotten, that it was only because of the contradiction of [Adolf] Hitler emerging upon the scene and gaining his own independent lust for power that brought the support of US capitalism finally to even aid the avant garde of world proletarian liberation, the Soviet Union, and out<\/i> of the distress of the terrible misery and pain of the millions who died under Hitler fascism\u2013 (unintelligible, sounds like \u201cinitially means\u201d) fascism, the Soviet Union\u2013<\/p>\n

End of tape<\/b><\/p>\n

Tape originally posted June 2010<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you. To return to the Tape Index, click here. To read the Tape Summary, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2). (Note: This tape was transcribed by Jennifer Gibbons. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.) Side A (short garbled segment from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":27291,"menu_order":235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27452","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27452"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108092,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27452\/revisions\/108092"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}