Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.
The Yes Men began when founders Mike and Andy received an invitation intended for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation – via their fake WTO website – to attend a gala event. They emailed Michael Moore to take the invite up, but when a reply was not forthcoming went themselves, and thus their legendary actions began. Now they’re looking to spread the joy of their ‘Yes-tivism’ with the creation of the Yes Lab project to train others in their headline-provoking methods. Though they deplore the media, drowning us in “fake information, spun by those who follow the profit motive in order to sell us on crazy ideas that we all sort of believe even though we know better,” they believe that HEADLINES MATTER when they’re used to tell the truth. Well. Not the truth. The version of reality so completely opposite to the truth that the truth is forced to come out of hiding and wave its pale head above the parapet. Ironically, they’ve recently been accused of “devaluing information, making it hard to tell what is real from what is fake.” Because the mainstream media is the bastion of truth and objective reporting. Yeah, right.
The Yes Men defend their devious behaviour by saying that it’s needed to achieve “a condition of honesty”. When they interrupt meetings and conferences to highlight the failed logic of the free market they push their actions to the most “sinister, corrupt and disgusting” lengths to force people to confront their own twisted morals. To then have audiences simply agree has taught them just how much needs to be done. So, after twelve years of faux-press releases, bumbling around in Survivaballs and campaigning continuously against Dow on behalf of Bhopal, the Yes Men want to get the rest of the population involved and for this they’ve created the Yes Lab to help activists all over the world bring our most crazed creations to life.
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.
The Yes Lab runs in part like the current Fix the World Challenge website, where most of Andy and Mikes’ tips and tricks are given away and you can find like-minded individuals around the world to work with, but this time the Yes Men plan to work directly with the groups and organizations who come to them, providing guidance and training, linking them up with other useful people and checking in with projects until they succeed. The aim is to provide resistance so that when Obama or Cleggeron find themselves cornered by industrial lobbyists they will be able to point out of the window, where we’ll all be camped, naturally, and say “Sorry, I can’t do what you’re asking me to do – those people won’t let me.” It’s no secret that if we get in together and push in the same direction governments will eventually have to listen and changes will happen. The main focus of the Yes Lab, and the Yes Men, is to pressure elected officials, companies and corporations until they make the changes we want to see happen.
With the $50,000 they hope to raise through generous donations the Yes Lab could run for an initial period of six months, with actual staff doing the leg work involved in organising the facilitation of these projects. The Yes Men aren’t just begging for money though, oh no. If you’re not already motivated to give a little after reading about the dangers of the “policies that place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment” and the Yes Men’s plans to “kill capitalism before it kills us… before the next generations inherit a world where hunger and violence are the norm in a rapidly fraying civilization” then perhaps a few Yes Men goodies might perk your interest. For a mere $10 you can have a sincere, if mother-scaring, thank you. $25-$100 helps clear out their office, if you fancy a heap of junk alongside copies of The Yes Men Save The World (read our review here) and the Good News edition of The New York Times. $400 is a date with Survivaball model Rocco Ferrer. $1000 for a brainstorming session. $5,000 gets you a Survivaball. $30,000, really, turns into a 2-3 day retreat in the secret catacombs of Paris, checking out underground murals, chilling out with heaps of bones if you’re into that sort of thing. (Guess I’d better start saving.)
If you can’t quite jingle that out of your sofa, then even if you only have a few minutes per day the Yes Men suggest you can make a difference. Taking the time to write to elected officials, joining protests, giving money to great organisations (ahem, cough, etc) and joining social networks to spread the word of these great organisations (cough, cough, ahem, etc) all help, so head over to the Yes Lab, sign up for the newsletter and start telling all your friends to turn over their couch cushions and drop some pennies into the Yes Men’s piggy bank. You never know, you might win a Survivaball. Then who’ll be laughing when England floods, huh? Oh wait. Yeah. No-one.
Amelia met the Yes Men last year when they came to London town. You can read all about it here. And remember to check in with the Yes Lab.
You can also follow the Yes Men on twitter. Of course.
Tags:
Aniela Murphy, Bhopal, Cleggeron, Climate Activism, Direct Action, Michael Moore, Neltonmandelton, Obama, Survivaballs, The Yes Men, World Trade Organization, Yes Lab
