Four weeks before the faithful raised the chalice to their lips, drinking from a pool of grape Flavor Aid and cyanide, they assembled to hear their prophet’s sermon. The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, American preacher Jim Jones told his followers, was the “purest communist model that exists”. The utopia in the jungles of Guyana had dissolved race and class and ended the use of money—but the problem of production remained unresolved. True communism needed hard work and altruistic sacrifice. “Eight hours of work, eight hours of study, and then eight hours of rest: There is such unity and solidarity that…