From: Dave Bird---St Hippo of Augustine <dave@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Subject: 3rd Picket of BRIGHTON (UK), 8/nov/1997
Date: 1997/11/08
Message-ID: <Q7VQQlAUCOZ0EwBi@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Present included Dave, Roland, Jens, JohnR, one of the Bristol crew, and a FUSS lady coming from London; Richard & Judy P, Richard & Bonnie Woods, and three other unnamed people. The barometer was low, cloud meant a mild night, wind and -- thankfully very little -- rain was always in the offing, but in the main Xemu smiled on our venture and Duke the (rather well travelled) dog enjoyed his walkies.
On arriving at Mitre House with our placards and megaphone, we set up and started taunting especiialy at the visible lack of clams. But a couple of tennants soon set us straight: the main Org building had shut down and the clams moved out this past Monday. They now have a small dianetics office in a groundfloor shop on London Road, where there is virtually no pedestrian traffic --- as in Poole, body routing is virtually halted because there is no building near the main pedetrian areas to which chumps may be taken.
The first picket of brighton, we went to London Road and, hearing about Mitre House on Western Road, moved on there. Is is fifteen minutes walk, took us over twenty going slowly, and the calms had called in every availabhle bivalve from around and maybe from saint Hill. Twelve clams to six of us they confronted us hard but fair and tied us up talking to them rather than the public. Looking back, however, this did them more damage thann they though because (1) we were "overwhelmed" but didn't give up and fade away as policy predicts but stood our ground, and (2) they exposed a lot of weaker members to strong entheta and caused them to blow. The second picket we cam back on a St Hill "fun day": a small band of 5 or 6 clams proceeded to move down the road and tried toi leaflet away from us. This third picket there was nothing at the empty org, so about half of us moved down to Church Square where three clams were leafleting but -- without a nearby base -- unable to body route.
O.T.3 -- THE RAP VERSION
Our updated PA gear isn't quite ready, but we had a TAPE of the "Xemu rap" with simple instrumental backing played down the mic of the megaphone. There was plenty of shouting and megaphone work along the lines of "$cientology is a barmy UFO cult! lean about their secret apce alien XEMU!!" Also learn about their crazy founder ElRon Tobbolard, in a programme coming up on Channle 4 TV towards the end of the month, and a few verses on tape of "the ElRonRon". Public response was very good, and the FUSS people got a lot of signatures in a petition for new controls on Scn. Leafleting was Roland's Xemu and FUSS (families organisation) leaflet with a series of quotes such as Judge Latey. LOTS of leaflets went out, and we were very well received. At one stage it was almost like a machine with, in sequence, me megaphoning; a rubbish bi; and John R leafletting. Automtically the hands shoved their Scn leaflet into the bin and grabbed one of John's XEMU leaflets with the same hand.
The demo started about 1300, at around 1500 their was a brief shower of heavy blatterinmg raindrops but -- within a couple oif mintes when we had located a suitable pub -- it stopped, so we went back to picketing. The clams, being a bit more acquatic than us, had simply kept on leafletting through the shower. The wind is rough and, as you get to the seashoore--of an open coastline unshielded by promentaries--very strong. Once it is blowing from the west along the line of the street, the buildings stop shielding you too. After about 15:30 we slowly convened back to the pub.
But we were very pleased with the demo. Both with a hiogh turnout of people who haven't been for a while (although Sol and MartinP couldn't make it this time), and for the effect we are having in shutting them down. Once we moved out of the metropolis into small towns like Poole and Brighton, the Orgs are very vulnerable indeed to sustained picketing. And these were the two big successful Orgs on the south coast. Soon, I hope--if we keep up the pressure--both will be closed down completely.
MAP:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
B R I G H T O N (UK). ' London<:::::
' # '''
======| |[_STA_]== 'Gatwick(Sth)Airport
| |________ ' #
| ____ ___ '______Brighton__..:
/ / | | ':::::::::::::::::::
/ / | |
| | |QUEENS ROAD |LONDON ROAD
| | [D]| |
| | \ \ / /
| | DianeticsShop \ \/ /
| | | (small) \ /
\|/ | | | |
| | the | |
/ | Clock Pavilion| |
_[MMM]_p#1_____p#2___/ C |_Tower__________________________| |_______
______________ ___ ______________WESTERN_ROAD______ ________
Mitre \____/ | | | |
House ChurchSq | | | |
_______________________| |________________________________| |_______
_____________________________________________________________________
- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -
- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -
- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _SEA _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -
- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -
=====
From: John Ritson <john@jritson.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Picket Report: UK Another org closes down
Date: 1997/11/08
Message-ID: <N+XOyCAj+KZ0EwCm@jritson.demon.co.uk>#1/1
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
This afternoon, a large number of suppressives, accompanied by the famous 'Duke' (a toy dog with waterwings, - in memory of Judge Swearinger's martyred pooch) descended on the Western Road 'org' in the South Coast town of Brighton, only to find out that the Scientologists had vacated the premises a few days earlier, leaving just the 'Dianetics' sign in the window.
Local people were eager to inform us that they had seen Scientologists handing out leaflets elsewhere on the same road (the main shopping street in Brighton) so we set off in pusuit, to find only two (later increased to three) clams handing out 'Personality Test' forms with 200 questions on the back, checking for likelihood to commit suicide, readiness to turn in 'fellow-travellers' etc. Such forms were to be posted to the last Scientology outpost in Brighton, in London Road, about a mile away, so as in Poole, there was no possibility of doing effective 'body-routing' - 'Would you like to take part in this survey? Why not come with us to complete filling in the form....'
So we handed out leaflets, obtained signatures for our petition, and generally enturbulated the poor clams, who were faced with members of the public asking about the death of Patrice Vic, the existence of Xenu etc.
Since the London Road building is not in a tourist or shopping area, we are looking at another collapsed "org".
Brighton is larger than Poole, so most people have not been exposed to as much Scientology, and are not as hostile to it, but since the street is busier than the Poole equivalent, we had about as many people coming up to us and thanking us for 'doing something' or recounting their own Scientolgy horror stories.
Another cracking day out at the seaside.
=====
From: jensting@imaginet.fr (Jens Tingleff)
Subject: Picket report, Brighton, UK, Nov 8th 1997 - Hip, Hip, Hooray!
Date: 1997/11/08
Message-ID: <jensting-ya02408000R0811972351580001@snews2.zippo.com>#1/1
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Fellow suppresives: Hi There!
Today we had a really good demo in Brighton. Lots of people turned up, the weather held up, we made good contacts with locals; but most importantly: the Co$ had moved away from their "high street" office and was now reduced to one little office, out of the way.
In what was a very pleasant repetition of events from last month in Poole, we arrived to find that the main office for body-routing had been vacated. When we started doing Brioghton, they had two offices
(http://www.imaginet.fr/~jensting/pictures/Brighton9706/brighton_g.jpg
out of the way, and
http://www.imaginet.fr/~jensting/pictures/Brighton9706/brighton_h.jpg
on a busy high street). The second of these - again, like in Poole, the place were "raw meat" was taken for personality tests and fleecing - was now vacated. Some asking around uncovered that the clams were still leafletting on the very crowded sidewalks (pavements, to the locals) a bit further up. We found two clams who were busy leafletting, and immediately swamped them. After an hour, or so, another clam joined the leafletters. They were all handing out personality tests (marked with "Copyright COSRECI 1988," hmm??). No other clams came out to play. I wonder where the guy who always took pictures has gone? The lack of response could surely not have been because the leafletters had not phoned back to the remaining office, could it?
We had so many protesters that we split up into two clusters, each with five or more protesters plus the odd observer. More than 200 signatures were collected to encourge the government to start an enquiry into $cientology. One local walked up and said he was so fed up with the clams that he was considering doing someting about it. He got details, and hopefully we will be able to ship some Xemu leaflets to him. A person with an interesting story to tell received a phone number for future contacts - more news as events warrant...
In general, the reactions from the locals were good. On two occasions, people told me that they had wondered up to one of the clam leafletters, mistaking them for protesters. So, we have achieved very good recognition: whereas before, people would assume that a crowd standing around with picket signs and handing out leaflets were pro-Co$, this time they assumed (correctly) that the majority of the people handing out leaflets were protesting AGAINST the cult of $cientology. This was *very* nice to experience.
We shifted an estimated 1000 Xemu leaflets, making this protest easily the most productive in that very important aspect. The street was absolutely packed with shoppers, and our local friend from the last picket
(http://www.imaginet.fr/~jensting/pictures/Brighton9709/brighton_9709_b.jpg)
did his usual sterling work, handing out masses of leaflets.
Our very own suppressive ZZ-top tribute band (Dave) was playing his suppresive songs on a portable tapedeck (into the megaphone mike) and gave the crowd some music to go with the leaflets and the shouting.
It was really superb to end the protesting year with visiting a second town where the Co$ have quit their most effective premises. I guess we shall have to look around for other Co$ hives to enturbulate. By now, the routine is fixed: we arrive in a small-ish town, spread a few thousand Xemu leaflets, and watch as the Co$ wraps itself up. While it would be silly to ascribe the shrinkage of the Co$ orgs solely to our protesting, I remain convinced that a sufficient number of Xemu leaflets, spread in a fairly small town, doesn't do the Co$ *any* good at all.
As we were having an unusually "high-tone" post demo session in a pup, some interesting dissemination projects were discussed. Lets just say that the Co$ isn't going to like what we do next - not one little bit ;-)
Pictures sometime next week. Cheers, Jens
