CIRCA members at a demonstration in Frankfurt
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[1]) is an anti-authoritarian left-wing activist group that uses clowning and non-violent tactics to act against corporate globalisation, war, and on other issues. The group originated circa 2003 in the United Kingdom as a response to the visit of President George W. Bush.[2]

Activity

Origin

CIRCA emerged from the direct action movement in London in November of 2003 in response to U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to the United Kingdom.[2][3]

The Clown Army was founded by Lawrence M. Bogad (Colonel Oftruth[4]), Jay [formerly John[5]] Jordan (Kolonel Klepto[6]), Hilary Ramsden (General Confusion[7]), Theo Price, Matthew Trevelyan, Jennifer Version, and Zoe Young.[8]

George Bush Protest

CIRCA's protest against George W. Bush’s 2003 visit to the United Kingdom was announced under the premise that the clown army would storm Buckingham Palace in a protest against the Queen inviting the 'wrong sort of fool' back in.[6]

The Clown Army paraded through the streets of London in a militant formation, following satirical orders of "Right-sneer!" and "Left-spit!". They marched behind the guards at the Tower of London and launched pink pretzels (in reference to Bush previously choking on a pretzel) at corporate buildings from a cardboard circus cannon. In the park across from Buckingham Palace, the clowns dropped to the ground and army-crawled towards the palace in a pantomime of sneaking, pretending to take cover behind singular fallen leaves they held up. Upon arrival at the Palace, the Clown Army delivered a manifesto denouncing Bush, cheered and celebrated, then disbanded.[9][4][6]

Occupation of Leeds

In response to the United Kingdom’s incomplete withdrawal from Iraq in June 2004, CIRCA occupied Leeds under what they labelled the Clown Provisional Authority in their Anti-Official Communique #3, “Re: the so-called handover of Iraq, June 2004”.[10]

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.[10] After the recruitment centre was forced to close early due to CIRCA's disruption, the clowns set up their own Clown Army recruitment centre outside.[7]

G8 Protest Recruitment Tour

Prior to the 31st G8 Summit in Scotland, CIRCA travelled to London, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Glasgow in a caravan pulled by a biodiesel-fueled van, courtesy of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination.[2][3]

In each city, CIRCA would put on a performance involving puppetry, origami, performance art, and video presentations that would spread their message and raise consciousness about the issues that the Clown Army was fighting against. They would also hand out organic chips to their audience, and explain that the leftover fat from the chip fryer would fuel their van to get them to the next city.[2]

After their performance, CIRCA would lead two day Big Shoe Camps for any locals who may be interested in enlisting in the Clown Army. [2]

G8 Protests

About 150 clowns acting for the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army showed up to the protests against the G8 summit in July 2005.[11] 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. [12]

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.[11]

During the Make Poverty History march on 2 July 2005, CIRCA marched alongside other protestors and played games, performed slapstick routines, and improvised. When a group of black bloc protestors were surrounded by police, the Clown Army encircled the police until the protestors were released.[12]

Faslane Nuclear Submarine Base Blockade/Operation Mass Distraction

CIRCA participated in a blockade of the Faslane nuclear submarine base organized by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament on 4 July, 2005.[3] The Clown Army labelled their deployment in the blockade as Operation Mass Distraction, in reference to the war on Iraq being framed as a war against a terrorist state with weapons of mass destruction, and distracting from the countries of the G8 protecting their own nuclear weapons.[12]

Carnival for Full Enjoyment

CIRCA facilitated and participated in the Carnival for Full Enjoyment in Edinburgh on 4 July 2005. This city-wide event called for workers to cast aside corporate concerns for the day and enjoy life without the pressures of capitalism. Filling the streets with festivities, the Carnival disrupted daily corporate proceedings and aimed to provide a free space for imagination to run wild. Carnival-goers played games, danced to samba bands, and celebrated.[2]

Since the Carnival was anti-authority in nature, no permits were requested for the event. Viewing the event as a possible threat, a police force of approximately 10,000 was called in response.[9]

Many confrontations occurred between police and protestors, ranging from benign to playful to even violent, in one instance where dancing clowns were baton-charged by police.[9] In another, more frivolous, instance, clowns atop a bridge convince the police to play a game of ‘Dwarfs, Wizards, and Giants’ (a variant on paper-scissors-stone involving teams and full body movements) with them. When both the clowns and the police chose to be wizards, they, as per the rules, called it a draw and hugged.[12]

The Carnival for Full Enjoyment was largely inspired by the 18 June 1999 Carnival Against Capital that occurred in response to the 25th G8 Summit in Cologne, Germany.[9]

Operation HA.HA.HAA

CIRCA’s Operation HA.HA.HAA (Helping Authorities House Arrest Half-witted Authoritarian Androids) took place on 6 July 2005, the first date of the 31st G8 Summit, during the mass protest organized by G8 Alternatives outside of the Gleneagles Hotel where the summit was being held.[12]

The operation was intended to invert the expectations of how protestors would act. It was based on the premise that the police guarding the summit were not keeping protestors out, but rather keeping the ‘dangerous’ members of the G8 inside. Rather than try to scale the fences and break in to disrupt the meeting, rebel clowns helped build fences higher and ‘guard’ where the members of the G8 were ‘being detained’.  The clowns also created mobile road blocks to disrupt travels to the G8 meeting.[3]

Decline of the Clown Army

After the protests at the G8 summit, CIRCA fell into a period of inactivity and eventual dissolution. CIRCA's website domain (www.clownarmy.org[13]) became defunct and was put up for sale in 2015.[14]

Structure and Organization

The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army is a non-hierarchical, horizontalist organization. It has no real leaders and operates as a collective of smaller locale-based affinity groups, known in the Clown Army as ‘gaggles’.[12] Each gaggle consists of roughly ten to fifteen clowns, identified by monikers such as Glasgow Kiss, Group Sex, or Backward Intelligence.[2][3] The clowns themselves are known as ‘clownbattants’, ‘rebel clowns’, or simply clowns, fools, buffoons, or any number of synonyms. Individual rebel clown names typically parody military ranks, such as General Confusion, Major Disaster, or Private Parts.[3]

Any decisions that affect the larger group are made through consensus via clown council. In a clown council, all gaggles of clowns sit in a circle. Each gaggle elects a spokesperson, and the spokes council discusses the matter. The gaggles then discuss amongst themselves before returning to the larger group to communicate their decision. Once the council reached a consensus on one issue, they would move on to the next. Sometimes this consensus would simply take the form of each gaggle doing what they wanted to do.[12]

Leadership responsibilities are distributed based on circumstances and are limited to temporarily organizing specific actions.[12] Most actions of CIRCA, however, require no leaders and are determined by collectivity, spontaneity, and emergent intelligence.[15]

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.[12] Since no clown had any more authority than another, members could not be coerced into doing something they did not want to do, and each member was equally responsible for keeping the army alive through participation and commitment.[15]

Appearance

The costumes of members of CIRCA were created and customized by each member, but they shared common characteristics- a ‘multiform’ rather than a uniform.[3] The costumes and clown personae help create a barrier between the members of CIRCA and the emotional or verbal abuse that they may endure. Insults are thrown at the clown, not the person underneath.[4]

All clowns wear face paint and makeup. The designs are unique and personalized, but they typically reflect the white-faced clown style, complete with red noses. The makeup adds to the comical atmosphere the Clown Army brings to protests while also protecting the anonymity of members, offering the clown a sense of separation from expected social etiquette, and fostering a sense of unity across the clown army.[3]

Second-hand military fatigues are cut up, decorated, and trimmed with pink and green faux fur, the signature colors of the Clown Army. They wore helmets made from steel colanders and were armed with items like water pistols and feather dusters.[7]

Clownbattant’s pockets were stuffed to the brim with absurd things such as strings of sausages, rubber ducks, flower petals, and sex toys. In cases of searches by police or arrests, the pockets would be emptied, and the items documented and itemized.[3][6][10]

Beliefs

CIRCA claims that there is more to the group than simply dressing up and being playful. There is also a psychology which informs its actions: the clown persona can be used to defuse tense situations and engage with police in public order situations. In order to learn this 'recruits' must participate in a training workshop aka Big Shoe Camp before deployment.[16]

In an article about the G8 protests, the Edinburgh Evening News described CIRCA as "an anarchist splinter group," but a member denied this, saying that while some members would describe themselves as anarchists "...most would consider themselves 'horizontalists' where we engage people without the need for leaders."[17]

Police infiltration

In 2020, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that CIRCA had been infiltrated by undercover police in the early 2000s, with one officer having trained as a clown in order to infiltrate the group.[18] Robert Childs Jr., a Washington man currently serving a life sentence for the rape of a child, previously served as an informant for the FBI posing as a member of CIRCA.[19]

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army.

References

  1. ↑ "BBC NEWS - UK - Scotland - Day of uncertainty and contrasts". bbc.co.uk. 7 July 2005. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bogad, L. M. (1 January 2011), "Clowndestine Maneuvers: A Study of Clownfrontational Tactics", Cultural Activism, Brill, pp. 179–198, doi:10.1163/9789042029828_010, ISBN 978-90-420-2982-8, retrieved 11 November 2023
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Routledge, Paul (2011). "Sensuous Solidarities: Emotion, Politics and Performance in the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army". Antipode. 44 (2): 428–452. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00862.x. ISSN 0066-4812.
  4. 1 2 3 Bogad, L. M. (12 November 2020). "Antiauthoritarian Clowning". HowlRound Theatre Commons. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  5. ↑ "Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination". labo.zone. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Bogad, Lawrence M. (2017), Favretto, Ilaria; Itcaina, Xabier (eds.), "Tactical Carnival and the Global Justice Movement: The Clown Army and Clownfrontational Protest", Protest, Popular Culture and Tradition in Modern and Contemporary Western Europe, Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 209–227, doi:10.1057/978-1-137-50737-2_10, ISBN 978-1-137-50737-2, retrieved 20 November 2023
  7. 1 2 3 Ramsden, Hilary J. (2 September 2015). "Clowns, buffoons and the killing laugh: An investigation of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army's (CIRCA) power to disrupt and provoke through joy and humour". The European Journal of Humour Research. 3 (2/3): 145–163. doi:10.7592/EJHR2015.3.2.3.ramsden. ISSN 2307-700X.
  8. ↑ Bogad, L.M. (2017). "Playing in the Key of Clown: Reflections on the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army". Fifth Estate (397).
  9. 1 2 3 4 Bogad, L.M. (2010). "Carnivals against capital: radical clowning and the global justice movement". Social Identities. 16 (4): 537–557. doi:10.1080/13504630.2010.498242. ISSN 1350-4630.
  10. 1 2 3 Klepto, Kolonel (2004). "Making war with love: the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army". City. 8 (3): 403–411. doi:10.1080/1360481042000313536. ISSN 1360-4813.
  11. 1 2 Klepto, Kolonel; Upevil, Major (2006). "The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army goes to Scotland via a few other places.". Shut Them Down! The G5, Gleneagles 2005, and the Movement of Movements. Autonomedia. pp. 243–254. ISBN 978-0955206504.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Routledge, Paul (2004). "Reflections on the G8 Protests: An Interview with General Unrest of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA)". ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies. 3 (2): 112–120. ISSN 1492-9732.
  13. ↑ "CIRCA - The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army". Archived from the original on 17 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "clownarmy.org". Archived from the original on 6 October 2015.
  15. 1 2 Fremeaux, Isabelle; Ramsden, Hilary (2007). "We disobey to love: Rebel clowning for social justice". The arts and social justice: re-crafting adult education and community cultural leadership. National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. pp. 21–37. ISBN 978-1-86201-250-9.
  16. ↑ "Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army". beautifultrouble.org. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  17. ↑ Rebel Clowns Army | at.indymedia.org Archived May 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ "Leeds officer dressed as clown during five-year undercover police operation into "clown army"". www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  19. ↑ "Former FBI informant sentenced to life in prison for 2006 rape of 12-year-old girl in Seattle". The Seattle Times. 18 January 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
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