First Published: The Call, Vol. 7, No. 48, December 11, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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San Francisco–It has now been documented that many top U.S. politicians and ruling class figures were heavily hooked up with the Peoples Temple and the tragedy that took place in Guyana.
But an interesting sidelight to the Jonestown story is the fact that the Soviet ruling class also had ties with the Rev. Jim Jones and his cult.
For one thing, it has been reported that Jones had regular contact with the Soviet, Cuban and other East European embassies in Georgetown, capital of Guyana. Notebooks of commune victims show that Jones’ teachings were heavily influenced by Russian propaganda and included praise for the USSR and attacks on China.
The Chicago Tribune also revealed that officials in the Soviet embassy in Georgetown offered the Jones cult asylum either in the USSR or in Cuba. Possibly in preparation for a mass emigration of Temple followers, Jones ordered mandatory study of the Russian language at Jonestown.
Moreover, shortly before the massacre, several bodyguards were ordered to carry a suitcase containing $500,000 to the Moscow embassy in Guyana. The suitcase was never delivered.
The Communist Party USA–one of the Soviet Union’s most loyal apologists–has tried to cover up the massacre in Guyana. At first they ignored it altogether. Then articles in the Daily World (Nov. 28 and 30) painted the incident as a possible CIA plot, a mass murder by a few cult members including Dr. Lawrence Schact, the doctor on the compound, who, said the Daily World, had a “stockpile of mind-controlling drugs.”
According to the CPUSA, Jim Jones himself was a victim who underwent a “personality change” in Guyana as a result of “injections and pills” from Dr. Schact. Omitting any reference to the fact that Jones had several times forced his followers to rehearse mass suicide, the revisionists insinuate that Jones, too, was murdered.
“The assumption that [his gunshot wound] was self-inflicted,” declared the Daily World, “is based on pure supposition.”
With statements like these, the revisionists are trying to hide the fact that Jones was a thoroughly reactionary character and that the events of Jonestown reflected his thinking and ideology.
But why is the Daily World so intent on covering this up?
The answer lies in the fact that the Rev. Jim Jones and his liberal Democratic Party cohorts were key players in the revisionists’ political strategy of building a “left-center coalition.” Jones worked closely with top California politicians who are the darlings of the revisionists–people like Willie Brown, the late George Moscone, Mervin Dymally, and Gov. Jerry Brown. Revisionist leaders like Angela Davis were also closely associated with Jones.
After praising and promoting the Peoples Temple and its liberal friends for years, the CPUSA is now worried that the Jonestown massacre will cast a bad light on those in their “left-center coalition” and are running for cover.