CLOWN COUNCILS
CIRCA works horizontally, we have no leaders, no centralised command -everyone is an officer, a general and a private. During the G8 we will be making CIRCA wide decisions using a system of autonomous Clown Gaggles coordinating via a series of Spokes Councils.
This form of direct council democracy has been used by diverse direct action movements throughout history - from the anarchist federations of the Spanish Civil War to the shut down of the WTO in Seattle, from the Argentine self managed factories and to the XXXX and most recently during the Bolivian Uprisings.
Each Gaggle will send spokes people to the Clown Council. Members of the gaggle can accompany their spoke to the councils and are encouraged to sit behind them so that they can communicate directly with their spokes person during the meeting.
If your Gaggle has a proposal that you want others to get involved with, write it up, send it out to the circaG8 list serve and make copies to pass out during the spokes council (the more in advance you do this the more time there will be for gaggles to discuss the proposal fully.)
Decisions that affect all CIRCA gaggles will be made by consensus during the Clown Council. In the unlikely result of failing to reach consensus, we will revert to a three quarters majority.
A Spokesperson may stand aside from a decision if their gaggle chooses not to participate in it. A block affecting the whole of CIRCA should only be used if a decision is seen to violate CIRCA's basic principles (such as a radical systemic critique and non-violence).
For more info see the CIRCA G8 field manual available in PDF format as either A5 booklet (1.82mb) or A4 version (1.79mb).
To open PDF files you’ll need Acrobat Reader which is pre-installed on most computers or can be downloaded for free from here.