This is the third picket of the Scientology cult in Poole, all during the spring and summer of 1997. The first time was all very new for both sides. The second we had introduced stuff like a guy costumed as the space tyrant XEMU from their expensive secret scriptures, and 100 "XEMU Loves You" helium balloons to hand out for the kids. The third time both sides were getting a little weary.
I rose in the very early hours of Saturday morning, and packed up the alien costume etc which I'd fetched from Roland last week (he was away in France); I forgot to grab the megaphone, as I had a fair weight of stuff already. Arrived in Poole around noon, and was met by Martin Poulter. There were a mighty half dozen of us: Martin plus two down from Bristol, Jens from Paris, a FUSS lady, and myself. The Bristol people lugged the cylinder out of the car and inflated about 60 of the 100 balloons to walk down with us---with only a few of us they didn't bother taking it down to site in the car.
We marched off through the precinct and down the pedestrianised high street to "old market". Big surprise --- no clams in sight! Usually there are at least five recruiters with clipboards and more turn out to greet us. A quick recce showed all three of their buildings very quiet and inactive. After a while they turned up in a rather dilatory way, eventually equalling our numbers but hardly or presence: they were very subdued.
Eventually they turned out the three female body routers skinny, grumpy and curly, plus another guy I call "porrige" as he's thick bland and grey. There was also a new one, the crewcut astronut, who was definitely not of this world. He accused the big fella from Bristol of invading his bit of outer space, and ordered him to depart ("what does he think I am -- an ashtray?"). The astronut wore a rather fetching dianetics tee-shirt. It's possible he may be an outside import.
The tall thin guy sat on the bench watching us, and a short tubby woman with a brown pigtail -- looks bit like their former reg Andrea -- later joined him. Somebody said she was supposed to be the new head of the mission: has Cancer Man (Malcolm), holder of the world speed smoking record, been displaced? I think they have lost one or two auditors over "the golden age of tech", and are in bad shape....the course rooms are not busy.
We were fairly quiet. I was tired from the early start and without the megaphone, so was mostly back to Jens who did most of the sloganising -- "we are protesting AGAINST scientology" -- and wore the space alien costume. The FUSS lady did sterling work on petitions and got abour 150 signatures in two hours. It was a nice mellow picket; we had a busker playing mostly classical stuff (bagatelle für elise and co) on electric guitar, which gave it a nice mood. There was a big airshow up the road at Swannage, and a couple of classic jets -- a Venom(?) and a Meteor--did one or two flypasts over the town. The clams were very much at effect; with a couple more people and a bit more assertiveness, we could have walked all over them completely. Near the beginning, one public Scn was quite engaged with us, when the astronut ordered him away: "you don't want to read that, Dave" (the Xemu leaflet). But he put it in his pocket and did not hand it over.
The clams did try to keep up body routing despite opposition. I was amazed that they managed to get someone to go with them despite a heckler--me--nearby saying "this is Scientology, they want your money, they are trying to sign you up for a #1500 course," etc, and trying to hand the punters XEMU leaflets. The clams are very good at manipulating social conventions, making it appear they own the street and are in private conversation "ignore him". Well, after all, they've trained and drilled at dissem, whicle I was newly trying intervention. With one couple, she wanted to go up to the shop but he had the XEMU leaflet; curly tired to get him to hand it over, I suggested he should keep it and he did. In another, they got this truck driver to go along, but I follwed them right to the door of the precinct and hit the right button: "they want your money, fifteen hundred quid, mate!" "Money? they'll get no money out of me". Ten minutes later he came back past the protest: "that didn't last long" he said.
One guy appeared (probably OSA) and tied Jens up in conversation, but otherwise they didn't really try to confront. The public were very supportive as usual. I tried to swap one of my leaflets for one of theirs but they wouldn't do it; so I got one from the rubbish bin, where theirs were in plentiful supply. Only one clam leaflet was in use, a standard 1/4 length of A4 strip advertising the Dianetics book. They were very downstat and didn't use of the weight of their numbers at all, quite often they would wander off and leave only one or two people facing the six of us. All in all, not a bad day out at all....
Yesterday from 1pm to 4pm, six people staged a peaceful protest in Poole High Street about the aggressive and deceptive recruiting used by the Scientology/Dianetics organisation. This was part of an international series of Internet-organised protests. Unlike previous such protests, the two sides mostly kept apart from each other and the protestors were able to make their point to the public without being harassed or abused by the scientologists. The public response was very enthusiastic and supportive as always.
To see why people are angry at the Scientology organisation, see http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/mpoulter/scum.html
For previous picket reports from the UK (including Poole), see http://www.demon.co.uk/castle/scientology.html#Pickets
The protest involved Dave B, Jens T, myself (Martin P), two friends who had attended the other Poole pickets, and an older lady, also a veteran picketer, who has a family member in the cult. We had with us Duke, the toy dog with water-wings (in honour of dog which was allegedly drowned by the Scientologists when its owner, Judge Swearinger, found against them in an important case). Jens was dressed as Xemu the space alien (from the Scientology confidential scripture, which they claim to be a "religious trade secret") and we had plenty of Xemu balloons. Handing out free balloons to children was definitely a pleasurable aspect of the day.
The previous picket at Poole was very confrontational, with one of the Scientologists getting very angry at me and snatching all my leaflets out of my hand. The previous UK picket was at Brighton, where the protestors spent the majority of their time talking to the scientologists themselves rather than to the public. I'm pleased to say that yesterday's protest was very different from both of these. The most unpleasant scientologists from last time were not around, and those that were on the street mostly avoided us. We were photographed, of course, but I've never known a time where Scientology didn't take lots of photographs of picketers.
A couple of scientologists' reactions are worth reporting. One bloke with short hair and sunglasses walked by in a Dianetics t-shirt, slowing to a stunned halt as he saw us. He eventually came up to us and asked "WHAT are you DOING???" "We're protesting against Scientology." "What have you got against freedom?" I tried to explain that no matter what it says, Scientology vigorously opposes freedom by its actions. "Getting thousands of people off drugs? Freeing people from crime?" (Scientology has no independent evidence for these claimed achievements, which seem to be just a disgustingly cynical PR effort). As I tried to reply, he shouted "You people are CRIMINALS!" and stormed off, obviously upset.
The other reaction? Well, we've noticed that the Scientologists are on the whole, very, very reluctant - almost scared - to look at our leaflets. One bloke, seemingly a recent Scientology recruit, took one and was shouted at by another not to read it. He handed it over to a more senior scieno.
The star protestor of the day was our senior friend, who asked passers-by for signatures on a petition, collecting 139 signatures in less than three hours. Smart, polite and approachable, she had more success with the public than the rest of us could have (great streaks of human wreckage that we are. ;-> ) We were hampered a little by the fact that, standing on the High Street with a clipboard, she looked like a scieno herself.
People were keen to sign the petition, and gave us enthusiastic encouragement. Some of them told us their stories of how they had been affected by Scientology. One person had left years ago but was still getting regular hand-written letters begging her to return. Another claimed that Scientology had ruined her life, and that when she left she had been told not to talk about what she had experienced "or we'll kill you". Again and again, people expressed amazement that the authorities do not do something about such an abusive and deceptive organisation.
I'd like to thank my colleagues for putting the time and effort in to make this another successful picket, and I'd like to thank the scieno's (no, really!) for giving up the more childish tactics they have used on the previous occasions. We're always looking for more people to come along to these events: they are fun, but they have a serious message- Stop Scientology Ruining Lives. Also, if you like debating with people and want to talk to the most smug, closed-minded people anywhere, this is how to find them.
| Up | Pictures | More Pictures | Words |
To Jens' homepage To anti_co$ page |