We were picketing the new site for the Birmingham 'org' in Edith Street, just off New Street- a major pedestrianised shopping street, ideal for 'body-routing' victims into the 'org' which is on the second floor of an shopping/office complex. It is a much better site for them than the previous location which was in a near-wasteland of car parks. But there was no sign of the ten or so youngsters we had seen receiving 'training' at the old 'org' - Birmingham having taken over from Poole as the most (actually, now the only successful 'org' in the UK). They managed to produce a couple of body-routers armed with clipboards, and a youth handing out 'Personality Test' leaflets. Plus the ED of the 'org' and someone trying to take photographs of us from the second floor, but who ducked out of sight when spotted. The sound-system playing Hubbard's rantings kept them away from our 'base' near a rotating advertising hoarding. We had a very positive reaction. People working in the area were fed up with being harassed by the clipboard posse. Several people asked for batches of leaflets so that they could carry on our work. The body-routing was not too successful either, with people going in armed with our leaflets. The "Can I just have a look at that for a moment" spiel used by the routers to get leaflets out of their hands didn't work too well when we provided extra leaflets. One bloke had been shown the E-meter, worked out for himself how to get 'Very Good Indicators' (most Scientologists pay a fortune to be able to do this) and summed it up as 'the biggest load of shite I have ever seen'.
We were reinforced by anti-Scientologists with personal experience of how Scientology damages families.
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