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According to their website, The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) "aims to make clowning dangerous again, to bring it back to the street, restore its disobedience and give it back the social function it once had: its ability to disrupt, critique and heal society. Since the beginning of time tricksters (the mythological origin of all clowns) have embraced life's paradoxes, creating coherence through confusion - adding disorder to the world in order to expose its lies and speak the truth." The organization employs professionally trained clowns to engage in non-violent direct action, with the objective being to confuse, embarrass, and ridicule their targets of protest.
CIRCA was founded in November 2003 to celebrate and welcome a clown visiting the UK-- George W. Bush. Since then, CIRCA has participated in actions at the Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi) arms fair, various G8 Summits, military recruitment offices, the 2004 Republican National Convention, the Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, and many other venues. They carry out actions related to the environment, anti-globalization, anti-militarism, and many other social justice issues.
Check out their website as well as the embedded video below. It shows an action CIRCA held outside of a military recruitment office in Glasgow. Also, don't forget to join our online dialogue featuring Tactics That Tickle: Laughing All the Way to the Win from March 24 to 30, 2010 and share with us how you have used humor as a nonviolent tactic!
