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.
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 high 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 | | | |
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- _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _SEA _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ - _ -
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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.
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