White Flour! Clowns take on KKK in hilarious counter-action

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/white-flour-by-digby-via-perlstein.html

Saturday May 26th the VNN Vanguard Nazi/KKK group attempted to host a hate rally to try to take advantage of the brutal murder of a white couple for media and recruitment purposes.

Unfortunately for them the 100th ARA (Anti Racist Action) clown block came and handed them their asses by making them appear like the asses they were.

Alex Linder the founder of VNN and the lead organizer of the rally kicked off events by rushing the clowns in a fit of rage, and was promptly arrested by 4 Knoxville police officers who dropped him to the ground when he resisted and dragged him off past the red shiny shoes of the clowns.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.

Read the rest, it only gets better.

Thats hilarious.

Hopefully we can see more of those in the future.

Brings a smile to my face. :)

Brilliant!

Brilliant. I love aggressive clowns.

I assume you guys are aware of The Clandestine Insurgent Clown Army (CIRCA) ? They're my all time favourite political activists.

http://www.clownarmy.org/

Now that's the way to protest!

Love it. White Flowers? Oh, WIFE Power! ha ha ha

@Dana: What causes do the Clown Army stand for?

“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.

I'm glad the cops didn't yell "anthrax!" and tackle them.

Funny Anthrax story: Scotty Ian of the band Anthrax was reported to have stocked up heavily on Cipro during the Anthrax scare, because, as he put it, "I don't want to die an ironic death."

You had me at-

Flint;381690 wrote:

Funny Anthrax story: ...

Video from the parade

@Flint

In their own words...

We are clandestine because we refuse the spectacle of celebrity and we are everyone. Because without real names, faces or noses, we show that our words, dreams, and desires are more important than our biographies. Because we reject the society of surveillance that watches, controls, spies upon, records and checks our every move. Because by hiding our identity we recover the power of our acts. Because with greasepaint we give resistance a funny face and become visible once again.

We are insurgent because we have risen up from nowhere and are everywhere. Because ideas can be ignored but not suppressed and an insurrection of the imagination is irresistible. Because whenever we fall over we rise up again and again and again, knowing that nothing is lost for history, that nothing is final. Because history doesn't move in straight lines but surges like water, sometimes swirling, sometimes dripping, flowing, flooding - always unknowable, unexpected, uncertain. Because the key to insurgency is brilliant improvisation, not perfect blueprints.

We are rebels because we love life and happiness more than 'revolution'. Because no revolution is ever complete and rebellions continues forever. Because we will dismantle the ghost-machine of abstraction with means that are indistinguishable from ends. Because we don't want to change 'the' world, but 'our' world. Because we will always desert and disobey those who abuse and accumulate power. Because rebels transform everything - the way they live, create, love, eat, laugh, play, learn, trade, listen, think and most of all the way they rebel.

We are clowns because what else can one be in such a stupid world. Because inside everyone is a lawless clown trying to escape. Because nothing undermines authority like holding it up to ridicule. Because since the beginning of time tricksters have embraced life's contradictions, creating coherence through confusion. Because fools are both fearsome and innocent, wise and stupid, entertainers and dissenters, healers and laughing stocks, scapegoats and subversives. Because buffoons always succeed in failing, always say yes, always hope and always feel things deeply. Because a clown can survive everything and get away with anything.

We are an army because we live on a planet in permanent war - a war of money against life, of profit against dignity, of progress against the future. Because a war that gorges itself on death and blood and shits money and toxins, deserves an obscene body of deviant soldiers. Because only an army can declare absurd war on absurd war. Because combat requires solidarity, discipline and commitment. Because alone clowns are pathetic figures, but in groups and gaggles, brigades and battalions, they are extremely dangerous. We are an army because we are angry and where bombs fail we might succeed with mocking laughter. And laughter needs an echo.

We are circa because we are approximate and ambivalent, neither here nor there, but in the most powerful of all places, the place in-between order and chaos.

If you check out there website they're really interesting (and funny). They turn up all over the world (they're in Israel, they were there for the G8 summit, they stage activities outside army recruitment offices). They have Clowns in different countries (it's a global organisation):

The Smile liberAtion Front (Israel)
Brigade Clowns (fr)
Klovne.net (Denmark)
Clolonel (nl)
Bataljon Belge
LabOfII
BIRCA (oz)
Celebrating Clown Company (de)
Boredom Patrol (US)
WordPress

Each o those is a link on the site, but it doesn;t come up as a link here unfortunately. But that gives you an idea of what they are. the Boredom Patrol for instance works towards the removal of borders. You will tend to find clowns taking the side of the oppressed, the down trodden and the betrayed against their oppressors, their figures of authority and their betrayers (as the clowns see them). Their strategies are interesting, and funny and they are bizarrely well drilled....for clowns.

A little telling perhaps, that they can maintain a chapter in Israel but not in Pakistan.

I think the Israeli action is by outsiders. There was a call on the website for as many clowns as possible to go to Israel to protest the Wall.

Which they will undoubtedly be doing from the Israeli side of it, if they see themselves as fit to protest in the Middle East then I'll listen to them when they hold a rally in Saudi Arabia or Iran.

Haha! So unless someone puts themselves at great risk they're not worth your time? That's a pretty interesting way to look at the world.

They aren't commandos, they're clowns. They protest by mocking and belittling the powerful. In the Middle East the powerful are the Israeli government and 'defence force' so that is who they go to to belittle and mock. Fools have always had the privelege of mocking the powerful.

Fools have always had the privelege of mocking the powerful.

Not everywhere.

I'm saying that if you can't hold your rally among the people you are supporting, then it's time to reevaluate your agenda. If they want to protest the wall, let them do it from the Palestinian side.

Haha! So unless someone puts themselves at great risk they're not worth your time? That's a pretty interesting way to look at the world.

I want them to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. You yourself admit that there's some serious hate'n going on over there that they can address if they really feel that strongly about it.

You can feel pretty strongly about something and still not want to risk your life over it. Ever stop to think that they're protesting in favor of the ones who aren't a danger? Most palestinians don't feel like killing anyone they can get their hands on, but there are some that do. The idea that these people have to risk themselves to prove a point is beyond stupid. There's no reason for it.

MY opinion is that you just feel like finding some way to ignore them because you disagree with them. "That's it, I'll just call 'em pussies!"

I'm saying that if you can't hold your rally among the people you are supporting, then it's time to reevaluate your agenda. If they want to protest the wall, let them do it from the Palestinian side.

The point isn't to talk to the Palestinians though. Their whole modus operandi is to protest to and at the people in power who are, in their eyes, the villains of the piece. Protesting to the palestinians about their plight wouldn't help.

Now that was funny. :D
"White Powder!"

Villains of the peace? It's a UN founded and supported country, 2/3'rds vote. Effectively, to challenge Israel's right to exist is to challenge the authority of the UN in all such matters. You can of course, I'm just clarifying.

Effectively, to challenge Israel's right to exist is to challenge the authority of the UN in all such matters. You can of course, I'm just clarifying.

There's a difference between challenging Israel's right to exist and protesting against their treatment of the Palestinians.

It's a UN founded and supported country, 2/3'rds vote.

The same UN that time after time attempts to censure Israel's actions only to have that censure blocked by one member using its veto (USA). The same UN that has deemed Israel to be in contravention of International law in its continued occupation of Palestine Territory. The same UN which has voiced serious concerns about Israel's continued Human Rights breaches.

I don't think they're challenging Israels right to exist. Aren't they trying to help people understand that building a wall to shut out those you disagree with is silly, and even sillier when they're supposed to be on your side anyway (meaning of course that it's jews against jews for the most part).

DanaC;385044 wrote:

There's a difference between challenging Israel's right to exist and protesting against their treatment of the Palestinians.



The same UN that time after time attempts to censure Israel's actions only to have that censure blocked by one member using its veto (USA). The same UN that has deemed Israel to be in contravention of International law in its continued occupation of Palestine Territory. The same UN which has voiced serious concerns about Israel's continued Human Rights breaches.

The UN as an orgainzation is a dismal failure. I wish we would stop throwing money at it.

I'm sure that if it was just a disagreement instead of a daily rocket exchange they wouldn't bother with a wall. A wall is purely defensive, not an attack on anyone else.

It's an attack when it effectively imprisons the populations of entire towns (refugee camps). And Walls aren't the only weapon Israel employs. You cannot reduce the Middle East conflict to Palestine firing rockets and Israel building a wall.

DanaC;385044 wrote:

The same UN that time after time attempts to censure Israel's actions only to have that censure blocked by one member using its veto (USA). The same UN that has deemed Israel to be in contravention of International law in its continued occupation of Palestine Territory. The same UN which has voiced serious concerns about Israel's continued Human Rights breaches.

Do bear in mind that all of these complaints come from Near East Arab states who are UN members, and these only -- the same pack that nurtures genocidal fantasies every day of the week, every week of the year. Considering the ultimate source -- it's not something that one should complain about having the censures blocked.