The "ultimate nationalist"?

The following is an extract from the Wikipedia article Peoples Temple.

Organizational structure

Although some descriptions of the Peoples Temple emphasize Jones's autocratic control over Temple operation, in actuality, the Temple possessed a complex leadership structure with decision-making power unevenly dispersed among its members. However, within that structure, Temple members were subjected unwittingly and gradually to sophisticated mind control and behavior modification techniques borrowed from post-revolutionary People's Republic of China and North Korea.[25] The Temple brightly defined psychological borders over which "enemies", such as "traitors" to the Temple, crossed at their own peril.[25] While the secrecy and caution he demanded in recruiting led to decreased overall membership, they also helped Jones to better foster a hero worship of himself as the "ultimate socialist".[25]

In the early 1970s, the Temple established a more formal hierarchy for its socialistic model.[26] At the top were the Temple's Staff, a select group of eight to ten unquestionably obedient college-educated women that undertook the most sensitive missions for the Temple.[26] They necessarily acclimated themselves to an "ends justify the means" philosophy.[26] The earliest member was Sandy Bradshaw, a 24-year-old socialist from Syracuse, New York.[26] Others included Carolyn Layton, a 31-year-old Communist since the age of 15 who was the mother of a child with Jones; Sharon Amos, who worked for the social services department; Patty Cartmell, Jones' secretary; and Terry Buford, a Navy brat turned pacifist.[26] The group was often scorned as being elitist within the egalitarian Temple organization and were viewed as Temple secret police.[26]

The Temple's Planning Commission was its governing board.[27][28] Membership quickly ballooned from 50 to over 100.[27][28] During the week, members convened for meetings in various Redwood Valley locations, sometimes until dawn.[27] The Planning Commission was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Temple, including key decision making, financial and legal planning, and oversight of the organization.[29] The Planning Commission sat over various other committees, such as the Diversions Committee, which carried out tasks such as writing huge numbers of letters to politicians from fictional people mailed from various locations around the U.S.,[30] and the Mertles Committee, which undertook activities against defectors Al and Jeannie Mills.[31]

A group of rank-and-file members, referred to by outsiders as "the troops", consisted of working-class members that were 70–80% black who set up chairs for meetings, filled offering boxes and did other tasks.[26] Most made the leap from Christianity to the Temple's quasi-socialism both because of the Temple's political reeducation and because "the troops" were responding to the form rather than the substance of the Temple's services.[26] Jones also surrounded himself with several dozen mostly white privileged members in their twenties and thirties who had skills in law, accounting, nursing, teaching, music and administration.[26] This latter group carried out public relations, financial duties and more mundane chores while bringing in good salaries from well-paying outside jobs.[26]