These are the members of the Caravan
Elsa (Italy/England), Ria (England), Xhanthe (England), Wietse (Netherlands), Silvia (Germany), Belit (Turkey), Johan (Belgium), Vahagn (Armenia), Cat (England), Richard (England), Hamish (England)
See below for a short informal self-introduction by them

My name is Elsa. I'm half Sicilian, half English. I've been involved with the Mischief Makers from the start. My background is in theatre arts and crafts. I do theraputic art workshops with refugee and asylum seeker children in schools throughout Nottingham. I've been involved in national and local campaigns like NAIL, (against the expansion of a waste incinerator) which directly affects Sneinton, the area i live in. In Sneinton I'm also involved in setting up a community cafe. My skills within the mischief makers are making large costumes, puppets and organising events. Going to Eastern Europe has always been someting I've wanted to do and working with the people there is an incredible oppertunity that I'm really looking forward to.

I¨m Silvia from Berlin, I`m into drums and (political) samba. I was at the G8 with the samba band. I'll be doing the rhythms of resistance section. During the last years. I had a little bus and travelled around, I squatted some places and did some political stuff. I wrote for political newspapers, built up with friends a little self-managed youth centre and joined creative street protest, as there were street theatre and of course the samba group, I worked also in a kids circus, mainly teaching juggling and basis acrobatics. Now I'm doing with my flatmate Cat, who will also join this caravan, silk screen printing and sell it at the flea market. I also play drums in the very famous all-girl band Stattmatratzen, you can see pictures of us on the homepage Stattmatratzen

I'm Ria, active in Mischief Makers Nottingham. I'm an art student. I organise Demo Project, which is a ethical charitable clubnight in Nottingham. It brings together a diversity of people to learn about social and environmental issues in a lively and vibrant atmosphere. I'm excited about working with different people on the tour and learning about new skills and cultures.

My name is Wietse. I have been involved in various campaign groups in the past. I come from Holland, but have lived in Nottingham for the last 4 years, working in the social centre The Sumac Centre. Getting involved in more creative forms of activism lately, which I find very inspiring and empowering. I do a lot of work for the independent media network Indymedia, on a local, national and global level. I have been also been involved with various film projects, mainly focusing on editing. Me and the others coming from Nottingham work as part of the creative activist collective The Mischief Makers and were very involved in the preperations for the G8 summit in Scotland, last July. I will drive a truck during the Caravan to transport all our materials, luggage and has a kitchen fitted. Previous to the G8 summit I have been on the road with the popular education collective Trapese.

Hello my name is Xanthe. I work as an artist doing lots of different things including arts and crafts workshops in the community. I do meet and mingel street performances that are often costume based. I have a background in theatre and have making skills. I took part in a creative resistance workshop in October which really inspired me and I'd like to share and develop these skills with you all.

I will be in the Caravan as Clown Rebel trainer. I think that all art is activist art on a certain level. the purpose of art is to challenge and change the viewer(s). i think that art by activists is possibly the purist and most passionate form of art as they use it to depict the struggles of the world. I have set up the Berlin clown Army, and I have used stencil graffiti art as part of campaigns. The workshops that i give involve first building trust between members of the group, and loosening people up, shedding their stiffness, through a series of short games, then explaining the concept of improv theatre/clown army and why i think it is so effective (that bit is just me speaking to be honest, but i think its quite important!) then there are all sorts of other games we play to "find the inner clown". we pracice marching, saluting, acting in formation... being completely silly (this is surprisingly hard for people at first!) i will advise on what to wear, what to take on an action and why... the worshop takes anywhere from an afernoon to 2 days, depending on how much time people give me! but the whole training does take a couple of days.

i am belit from turkey. I will join the caravan doing a video workshop. I work with video for around 3-4 years, volunteering in a video association called videa (Videa) from 2002 on. I am from a -turkey based- alternative video news group called karahaber- blacknews - (Karahaber). I am more focused on political and social issues in general; collaborating with NGOs, democratic society institutions, academy, gay-lesbian and anarchist groups, etc. I prefer to work with basic, affordable equipments, reachable by everyone. In this workshop focus will be the local issues the host organisations are actively working on and also forming a Balkans Video Newsletter Network to issue regular news reports from Balkans, mainly from countries on the route of the caravan.

Hello, I am Johan from Belgium, Antwerp. I have been a political activist for five years now. Initially I was focusing on environmental issues. Later on, after finishing my studies on ecology I got involved in the anti-nuclear weapons movement through the Bomspotting campaign of the Belgian NGO Forum Voor Vredesactie. Two years ago I contributed to the starting up of a Belgian Dissent collective, which focused primary on performing direct action against the G8.

It was during this period that got in touch with the concept of Rebel Clowning, a form of political activism that combines the ancient art of clowning with modern forms of non-violent direct action. Since then I have become increasingly active in spreading the concept of Rebel Clowning as a member of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army through Belgium and the Netherlands.

I am really excited to be part of the art and activism tour as a rebel clown trainer. It will give me great opportunities of exchanging thoughts and ideas with activists of very different backgrounds. This will include people that we'll meet on the road but also the activists travelling with the caravan

With red-nosed resistance!