thumb|CIRCA at the 2005 Make Poverty History March
right|thumb|CIRCA recruitment poster, with side by side comparison with [[U.S. Army incentives, standards, and values.]]
The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (also known as CIRCA and Clown Army) was an anti-authoritarian left-wing activist group primarily active from 2003 to 2005 in the United Kingdom. The Clown Army used clowning and non-violent tactics to act against corporate globalisation, war, capitalism, and heavy policing of protests, among other issues.
Activity
Origin
CIRCA emerged from the direct action movement in London in November 2003 in response to U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to the United Kingdom.
The Clown Army was founded by Lawrence M. Bogad (Colonel Oftruth), Jay [formerly John] Jordan (Kolonel Klepto), Hilary Ramsden (General Confusion), Theo Price, Matthew Trevelyan, Jennifer Version, and Zoe Young (Private Individual
The Clown Army occupied the Leeds BBC HQ, the Labour Party offices, the Menwith Hill spy base, and the local armed forces recruitment centre, causing a scene and refusing to leave. Each day of the protests, a clown council made up of about 15 affinity groups, called 'gaggles', would be held to determine courses of action for the day.
Make Poverty History March/Operation Brown-Nose
On 1 July 2005, the day before the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh, CIRCA held a press conference in Bristo Square and released the communique #8.86, “Re: Operation BROWN-NOSE”. The press conference demonstrated CIRCA's protest techniques such as marching and call-and-response, and explained their approach to the protests against G8. Operation Brown Nose responded to the promised presence of Labour Party leaders Gordon Brown and Hillary Benn at the Make Poverty History March. The operation would involve patrolling and protecting the march and otherwise participating in the demonstration as usual.) became defunct and was put up for sale in 2015.
Structure and organization
The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army was a non-hierarchical, horizontalist organization. It had no real leaders and operates as a collective of smaller locale-based affinity groups, known in the Clown Army as ‘gaggles’.
This non-hierarchical approach made surveillance and control of the Clown Army by authorities more difficult and served as a prefiguration for the autonomist future that the Clown Army was working towards.
CIRCA utilized 'clown logic', a form of associative logic which plays upon perceived stupidity, using improvisation, spontaneity, and humour.
In the American South, rebel clowns have responded against neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan rallies.
See also
- Loldiers of Odin
- Overpass Light Brigade
- Tactical frivolity