After dragging myself out of bed and off to Manchester I arrived at Piccadilly station to find John and Neil in the upstairs bar.  We waited for the rest of the gang to turn up and discussed the days entheta ahead.

Manchester hadn't seen a proper picket for a few years and it was about time that they found out that we were still around and were still intent of telling the public all about the spirits of dead space aliens and the 4th and 5th Invader Forces.  After a short period of time Dave and Damien arrived and Jens called to say that the OTs (Operating Traffic) had delayed him and he would see us at the org so we set off. Hartley was off sick with his Body Thetans and we were not allowed the boom box but John was in fine voice so we got the message out.

Clam Headquarters Manchester

The org is in a tall thin building, not unlike the London org, and the clams were waiting for us with a Narconon display on the other side of the street and small children cleaning and scraping the pavement with metal paint scrapers.  Why is it that most of the UK clam buildings are real grot holes? Possibly this was another initiative by the culties to introduce a program of "Early Years RPF" to prepare them for their "better" life within the cult, or is it Estates Project Force?

Early RPF Program (Don't they look happy)

I think this was supposed to disrupt our picket but we just moved it a little down the road and still had the clams rattled.   They cam straight out with their counter pickets and there were a couple of snappy clams who tried to spread us out on the pavement and surround individual picketers but the problem was soon resolved.  The usual snapping of cameras as our piccies joined the massive collection of OSA and we took photos of them. We did notice that there was the presence of some fairly "upstat" cameras so either they are attracting a richer kind of meat or they are fairly busy and can afford some better kit.  We are usually used to the clams having disposable or the old 110 cartridge camera to point at us and I was seriously impressed when a clam pointed at me and said "Look who it is! Don't you recognise him?"

       
       
Camera Clams

After a short period of time Jens and Andy turned up and as our numbers increased the clams got a bit snappier.  There was one guy, who wasn't the brightest star in the heavens, who cold only say "You can only destroy" so he must have been on the communications course.  Either that or he was still practising on ashtrays getting ready for it.

Mouthy Clam

This guy couldn't cease to entertain as you can see by the look on the faces of the picketers in the next photograph.

He tried his bullbaiting and all he managed to raise were a lot of laughs from the surpressives on the street.  He tried following around Jens for a little while until Jens shouted "You Flunked" at him and he scuttled off.  There was a Clamette there who kept asking us why we wanted to destroy something good but when asked about OT III and the spirits of dead space aliens she started to back peddle and when we read out some of the text of OT III she scuttled off just like mouthy clam.

There was an interesting guy there who had the stamp of old Jacques Vollet all over him and was very calm but we didn't get his name so we will refer to him as "white Beard".  He kept asking me why I wanted to destroy his religion.  I told him I didn't want to do that.  I wanted his cult to stop pressurising people into parting with all their cash and I wanted them to stop screwing with peoples minds.  He was so reasonable that I even managed to get him to shut up the mouthy clam which was a result.  It also proves that he had a certain amount of seniority within the organisation.  If anyone can put a name to this man can they publish it on alt.religion.scientology so we can update our records.

All in all it was a good day out and lots of entheta was spread by us and we managed to get rid of all our leaflets to happy members of the public.  Now we know that the Manchester org is quite busy we will have to play a return game there so we can ensure that more of the public know about their dirty little tricks. 

Representing the clams:

           
       

Representing ARS:
Dave, John, Damien, Steve, Neil and Andy.

from Dave Bird

Manchester is about 100 miles (90 minutes) further north than my own location. I was in a hurry to catch the train, but no need: it was in late. And ran later, thanks to a lorry driver who did not understand that his trailer was higher than our low bridge and got stuck underneath. Grr! It is a long way along the moving walkway to the far end of the main Manchester station -- which has now been redone rather smartly like one of the London terminals -- to the railway bar where I found Damian, John, Neil, and Steve CT. Jens and Andy joined us later at the demo, and a veteran of the old Manchester demos passed by who will probably join us next time in Manchester.

The clams had found out we were coming, presumably through the city council, and sent police a notice of their own "say no to drugs" event on the same day. Again because of city council hassles, we didn't bring the sound system; but John and I were in good voice, alternating and occasionally overlapping on various slogans. John had also prepared a quick "Nar-CON-on, bogus drug rehab" leaflet based on http://www.narconon-exposed.org

The type and width of road is similar to Tottenham Court Road in London, but further from any corner or crossing and with markedly fewer passers-by. Since the clams were outside the Org and also outside the cafe opposite, we formed up outside the building next door to leave plenty of room. No placards because Hartley was off ill, and one of the group somehow translated "get some of our Xemu balloons gassed up" as "fetch a blue mylar dolphin and a yellow mylar star balloon." Never mind.

The clams were out in large numbers, and very snappy. One chap, the brightest wit OSA could produce, stood opposite John saying "you can only destroy" over and over. He asked me what I could create; well, usually I can create better than Hubbard's outpourings, but alas no baked beans for breakfast so my ass wasn't up to it this time. I told him to go away and shout orders at ashtrays until he could make one stand up. He wasn't the brightest lamp on the tree: I reckon the ashtrays give him orders. Sorta tone 4 1/4.

By this time it was coming up to three p.m., but the clams seemed to be well stirred up so I reckoned we should do the full mileage until just about 15:30. It was definitely worth the extra effort of going to Manchester. We had them in a right tizzy, which makes me think it is well worth a return visit. All in all, we had a grand day out.

From John Ritson

The Manchester 'org' has had only one one-man picket in the past few years. They were getting confident, although they are not picking up many new recruits.

One new recruit was 'ashtray man'. He had obviously been through the early training, such as the part that teaches how to avoid being diverted from the point. This works very well in the controlled conditions of a Scientology classroom, and may have limited use in the real world (If you go into a store to complain, do not get diverted into the 'The manager is the only person who can authorise a refund, and he isn't here at present, why not come back next week and see if he is here' trap - just stand at the cash-till and keep demanding your refund). But Scientologists seem incapable of adjusting their reactions to the situation (so much for 'think for yourself' and overcoming the 'reactive mind').

When this results in an adult Scientologist standing in the street and chanting 'You can only destroy things'. for an hour, it does not improve the public image of the cult. It also does not help if you are up against a person with a considerably louder voice and a much larger repertoire. We told him we were destroying Scientology and after a while we managed to get him to change to 'You can only try to destroy things'.

The other new recruit got himself tangled up in the "You're distorting what Scientology is all about' trap - which opened him up to a rapid re- education course from experts.

Being forewarned, Scientology had put out an all-points alert, and had the children of Scientology members washing the pavements. No doubt this will be proclaimed as a 'clean up Manchester' campaign. (note to non-UK readers: Manchester is notorious as England's wettest city so the pavements (sidewalks) really don't need washing). Yet it took these people with their expensive 'superior abilities' two hours to work out that it might inconvenience us or cause a confrontation if they tried to wash the pavement we were standing on (actually it didn't as we simply moved a few feet away).

"What did you do last weekend, Jimmy?" "My Dad's a member of the most ethical organisation on the planet, so he made me wash pavements".